ONCE UPON A KUALA

View of the 'Kuala" or river mouth of the Kemena river
At left is the Melanau fishing village and at right (partially seen) is the original town of Bintulu
Picture shows Bintulu in the early 1960's
Picture credit : Ho Ah Choon, "Sarawak in Pictures 1940's - 1970's

It is interesting to note how a river mouth ("Kuala" in Malay) can assume such great significance in a town's history.  For me it is always etched in my memory.  Checkout a little story about the Kuala Kemena here ...>>>>http://mybintuluhistory3.blogspot.com/2013/08/once-upon-kuala-river-mouth.html

ONCE UPON A TREE

Pic taken on 14 July 2012

When I wrote about this tree in 2013, it was still there and alive.  Now at the point of writing (31 August 2014), it is still standing tall.  Checkout a little bit of history about this Mango tree here ...>>>http://mybintuluhistory3.blogspot.com/2013/08/once-upon-tree.html

ONCE UPON A PAINTING

Spray of Flowers
Watercolour on paper, 71cm x 95 cm, 18 April 1974.
Artist collection

Here's a little bit of history about a painting I did in 1974..... Once upon a painting

Pandan Beach at Lundu

Fishing boats at Pandan Beach, Lundu.

 On a recent trip to Lundu, about one and a half hours journey west of Kuching, I met one of the most beautiful beaches in Sarawak.  The Pandan beach has one of the most amazing coastal beach scenery.  The fissured rocks that form part of the beach features are awesome.  The beaches are long and wide and very gradually sloping into the South China Sea, making it very safe for swimming.  There is a small Malay fishing community that is resident to the place.  The coastline is very tropical with swaying tall coconut palms, breezy air, soft and fine sand and no pollution from nearby rivers or streams.  The calls of the Collared Kingfisher intermittently broke the peaceful beach atmosphere. The beach is an ideal place for a picnic spot because it is freely accessible to the public or visitors. 

Wide and long beaches slopes gently into the South China Sea

Coastal greenery and tall coconut trees

Fresh coconuts are available on sale at the beach stalls

Collared Kingisher (Pekaka Sungai - Malay)
Note : All images above taken on 5th August 2014.

Large birds of the lowland dipterocarp rainforest

Hill Myna - Tiong Mas (Malay)
Gracula religiosa

 As part of the agro-forestry practices at the Kambatik Park, oil palm trees and many other fruit trees as well as landscaping ornamental trees are mixed in a new landscape to encourage maximum ecological diversity.  The idea is to preserve and enhance the rainforest ecology from 0-50 meters above sea level as  represented by the original forest formation at the park.  The idea of developing the nature park is to conserve the birds habitat and other wildlife.  Many very tiny, small to medium-sized birds (8-20 cm) and large birds will come out of the forest and forage the forest edges, plantation and cultivated gardens to look for insects, nectar etc. The park provides shelter, food, water, and nesting sites for these birds. Over a space of about a year and a half, I have noticed many large birds that come perching on tall dead trees, and leafy branches of jungle trees in the botanic islands and mixed planting areas.  Here's a few of these large birds for study purposes and a quick reference that were observed at the park.

Lesser Coucal - But-But Kecil (Malay)
Centropus bengalensis

Oriental Pied Hornbill - Enggang Betulang (Malay)
Antracocerous albirostris

Chestnut- breasted Malkoha - Cenok Birah (Malay)
Phaenicophaeus diardi

Jungle Crow in silhouhette
Corvus macrorhynchos