More Wildlife

As you all know the subject of wildlife is one that occupies much of my time here – most notably praying I never come across another cockroach (yes there really has been only one) and chasing geckos around the house trying to catch them. However there is a lot of wildlife here that we see which some of you may not be aware off.
Monkeys are abundant in Singapore – not around our condominum thankfully but there are plenty in wooded areas such as around the Dutch school, and the route Holger takes to work goes through an area bordering a nature reserve which is full of them. Now I know that monkeys are quite cute and clever etc etc but to be honest I’ve never really liked them. OK from a distance, but if I never have to get closer than 10 metres to one for the rest of my life then I’d be quite happy with that. For a start, they bite, are territorial, make an awful noise and I suspect they quite calculatingly combine their toilet routines with warfare. Any animal that considers poo to be a valid weapon of deterrence is low on the list of creatures to be loved in my books.
Another interesting local creature which I also plan to keep a healthy distance from is the crocodile. Now until last week I didn’t even know we had crocs here. Before you get worried, no we didn’t find out the hard way while swimming at Sentosa. Hubby came home from work one night and said “guess what I saw at work today!” Apparently he looked over the side of the ship and saw a 3-4 metre crocodile swimming past! Still, I wasn’t entirely convinced he wasn’t kidding until last weekend when we took the kids to Sungei Buloh wetland reserve for a walk. The photo on the left was taken from oneof the 'hides' which you can climb up to enjoy the view. In the foreground are some of the park's mudflats, in the background you can see the city of Johor in Malaysia, just over the Johor Strait. (This photo illustrates well how close Singapore and Malaysia are, you can almost wave to people over the border!) The reserve is full of mangroves and mudflats and…signs to watch out for the crocodiles. Also handy tips on what to do if you encounter one lying on the path (“don’t step over it”….duh!). Unfortunately despite an hour of intensive croc hunting we didn’t spot a single one. Better luck next time I guess. Mind you we did keep a close eye on the kids - can't you just imagine a croc leaping out of the mangroves to grab Niels as he posed for this photo!