October….

was a busy month which left little time to update our blog until now. In the first week of October we were out early in the mornings helping with a bird count along the Southern Ridges and learned a bit more on bird calls and managed to capture a few images of some of these flitting birds that are commonly heard but hard to see.

We made a trip to other bird spots in Tuas West and were thrilled to see a pair of Sunda Pygmy Woodpeckers and some migratory birds.

On a morning walk in SBG, a Crimson Sunbird was confronting its reflection.

Earlier this year we had visited the temples in Borobodur and Prambana that were built in the 9th century AD.  As we were keen to follow up with a visit to the ancient temples of Angkor we took a trip on 12th to 16th October to Siem Reap and Phnom Penh to visit the Angkor temples that were built in the 12th century AD.  While the Borobdur and Prambana temples were older, we found similarities at Angkor an example being the Ramayana stories carved into the stone blocks.   While Borobodur was built as a Buddhist temple and Prambana a Hindu temple, the Angkor temples had both Hindu and Buddhist influences as the times changed.  Of the Angkor temples uncovered, the most intact is Angkor Wat which is  the most well known.  We spent one day visiting the Angkor Thom temple complex and the Royal Enclosures where what remain are the Terrace of Elephants and the cut-off limbs of the statue that gave it the name of the Leper King. The next day we explored the famed Angkor Wat complex and also visited the Ta Prohm Temple and spent the late afternoon on the Bakheng Hill enjoying a sunset view of the Angkor Wat.  Apart from visiting the Angkor temples we also took a cruise on the lake, Tonle Sap, the largest fresh water lake in South East Asia and finished our trip with a visit to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia.

Back home we took part in the NSS Bird Race on Ubin where we were able to sight 25 species while others found more than 50 species in the 7-hour race.  It was tiring in the hot sun but an interesting new experience.

At the end of October we drove across to Tanjong Piai with Alyce to checkout the most southern tip of mainland Asia. We found Tg Piai’s mangrove boardwalk a worthwhile location for a future trip.