As a proud member of the Malaysian Nature Society, my uncle Richard is constantly a part of their many activities held throughout the year. This year, i (together with a few hiker friends) decided to participate in their annual Raptor Watch held in Port Dickson every March. Basically, it's an event where flocks of nature lovers gather in one area to watch flocks of raptors (birds of prey) fly back to the northen hemisphere. Sounds lame?
Wait till you find out how many raptors actually make their way past our skies every season - 73,152 of them in a total of 43 days recorded last year! Apparently this year, Raptor Watch was held on the 12th and 13th of March, so i had hoped that was the best time to view the birds.
But first, on our way to Port Dickson, we stopped by the huge wet market in Seremban to have breakfast.
3 local dishes that come to mind when it comes to this famous spot - Beef Noodle, Hakka Noodles and Mee Hoon Sotong (as seen below)
Who poses right in the middle of a bustling market?
Waiting for the arrival of our food with Shie Meng and Ah Luen.
My Mee Hoon Sotong, found only in Seremban. I like that it's one-of-a-kind, simple and subtle in taste yet makes eating it kinda addictive.
Their Hakka Noodles was also rather good with a different twist compared to the one i eat in Pandan Indah.
Clearly, our topic that early morning was about the birds that we were gonna be checking out later.
As we continued on our journey to PD, i stumbled upon this signage and thought of my fave carrot milk. Wonder if they sell any up ahead...
It was another 43 km before we arrived at this beachfront called Tanjung Biru.
Our cars were parked in a real smoky place, it almost looked spook!
Actually the smoke came from a nearby barbeque.
what a mouthful 15-syllable phrase in BM as compared to just a 3-syllable translation in English.
We have reached our destination, Ilham Resort located in Tanjung Tuan (known as the Blue Lagoon) which is a piece of land extending out farthest into the ocean, closest to Sumatra Island.
The resort turned out to be pleasantly beautiful!
From the many booths and stalls on the resort ground, we bumped into my HR colleague Pei Pei who was helping to sell camera cleaning equipment.
I saw this huge Raptor Watch poster from afar and wanted to gather the gang for a nice group photo, until the organisers stopped us and told us it would cost RM 5 for a shot. Cheh, no way we were gonna pay that kind of money to them!
Here we see how the raptors travel around the world during their migrating season.
Apparently, the best time to watch the raptors was said to be between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. The reason why raptors choose to fly during the hottest period of the day is because they need thermals. Thermals are hot air columns produced by the land due to the heat from the sun. As raptors are very large creatures they require these thermals to help them glide on the sky with minimal energy to flap their wings.
The huge turnout on Saturday morning.
Funny looking clouds but it was still a hot hot day...
Bumped into Robert, Uncle Richard's friend from the States.
We went through the Hutan Rekreasi to head to the lighthouse, which was said to be the best place to watch the raptors. Someone even said you can see the raptors flying right at you up on the cliffs.
Here we were taking a long stroll uphill.
Greeted a monkey we saw along the way...
Finally, here we were at the lighthouse - the shortest lighthouse ever!
This was about the closest we got to the lighthouse. No, we weren't allowed to go into the house.
We were circling round and round the lighthouse till we found this perfect spot with an unblocked view of the clear blue skies.
The weather was superb!
The sky so clear that there wasn't a bird in sight! huh? How come?
This place was packed with other bird enthusiasts, both local and foreign, all standing precariously on top of a cliff. Without all those bushes and trees, i bet none of us would have stood there for long once we could see the bottom of the cliff.
I thought this uncle brought along his telescope...
But darn, still no raptors in sight, cept for one or two swallows or crows.
Patiently we waited......until it was 11.30am.....then 12pm....then 12.30pm.....
Poor Edward's eyes could hardly open coz the sun was shining pretty brightly.
Moon started singing a little bird song in his head...
Dear trying to spot any Identified Flying Object using his bionic vision...
We waited till we were drenched with sweat and sun burned, and yet all we saw was a single raptor. (sad)
At one point, this
gwai lou (one of the organisers) took pity on us and started telling us stories about his raptor watching experience. According to him, it wasn't normally like that every year and somehow due to the sudden change of wind direction, the raptors were all flying in a different part of the area at that time. Shucks! Just our luck.
If you think Shie Meng was finally having some luck with the raptors, na-ah.
She was using binoculars to watch some turtles bobbing up and down in the ocean. Well i guess if you can't see a creature of the sky, then a sea creature will do.
For the rest of us, another type of creature we saw up at the lighthouse was a four-legged chihuahua named Yoyo. Yoyo belonged to these 2 Japanese girls who we bumped into on our way down from the lighthouse.
We were super hungry by the time we reached Seremban town (again), this time for lunch.
A friend's recommendation brought us all to this place famous for their
lou shue fun.
Before ...
and after!
Add in this
sambal and it actually tasted great! Though the thing about
loh see fun is you can only find the long kind in Seremban.
A drop by this Siew Pau shop to grab some tid bits home.
Not much to shout about .... i still prefer the
siew pao from Imbi.
It was a really enjoyable trip for me though i wish i'd seen more than just a couple of honey buzzards.
Oh well, so what if it was a bummer...
We shall be back next year...bolder, wiser and luckier!!
caw caw....
Behold, this humble looking stall sells my new-found favourite tandoori chicken. Yet another Derek Lim recommendation, not many would notice this stall by the main road directly opposite Ampang Point, beside Galeri Gitar. Oh, and don't ask me the official name of this place as i couldn't find any signboard. But i do believe people unofficially calls it Arumugam's.
The mess we created afterwards...
