Jurong Eco Garden

This trip is specifically for the Jurong Eco Garden near NTU. It was newly opened recently. I had a chance to visit it while part of the park is still under construction. There was not many plant species then.

The place is currently accessible by Bus and cars. It is way too far from the MRT to walk to the park. The Bus service is 199 the only one close enough to the park. You can get the Bus Service from Boon Lay next to Boon Lay MRT.

You should drop on the second bus stop after turning into Nanyang Ave from Jalan Bahar. At the bus stop, while waiting for my equipment to get its GPS fixed, I realize I was standing in the path of swams of millipedes. It is the Armoured millipede.

The Clean Tech One Building is just besides the bus stop. There is a foot path that leads to the side of the building. Half way through the side of the building is a stair case leading up a hill. Use that stair case. The park is just behind the building at the end of the stairs.

This sign board is taken just beside the stair case.

The first thing I do is to turn left to the Summit Lookout. It is just a platform overlooking the park. However, the view is very limited as the park is slender and long. Behind the platform is a sculpture with Blue Club Moss as the ground cover. As usual, I am not touring the place thus does not bother to take a picture of the sculpture.

Looking down at the Moss, I saw a spider waiting for its prey. It is a Brown Sailor Spider. I have taken pictures of this specie before but the morning dew always make it blurred. This time it is quite clear although you still see water droplets. Its probably because the sun is already quiet high at 9am.

There is a Tree Fern planted there. It is new thus stand out clearly.

There are Begonias growing nearby. This specie is a Wavy Watermelon.

Saw a black butterfly. Took a picture of it. At home, I brighten it to the max and realize that it is just a Common Palmfly.

Looking around, I saw a small plant trying to catch the sun under a tree. It is a Redflower Ragleaf. The flower will turn fluffy white later. Unfortunately, the fluffy white flower is blurred due to wrong autofocus thus I will not show it.

The Elephant fern is a weird name. I can't see why it is called so.

This Glittering Caerulean seems to like the moist ground. It is a pretty small butterfly not more than 20mm size.

The Dwarf Crow is comparatively larger even though it is a dwarf.

The Purple Princess does not have flower.

I was disturbed by a bunch of Scaly-brested Munia Birds. Fortunately, they are not elusive. Stayed long enough for me to take zoomed picture of them. These are small birds.

The Casearia plant fruit looks like flower with my blur eye. I only realize that it is a fruit after getting home. The fruit split up revealing the nut.

Gelam flower look like a bottle brush. It is a tree that looks a bit like Acacia.

The Leea plant stood in front of a tag that says Taro. Very confusing labeling indeed.

Another funny name of a plant is here too. It is called Banana Bush. According to bloggers, it name derived from its smell. You guess it right. It is banana smell.

There were a group of butterflies gathering at a almost dried stream. One of them is the Orange Enugrant.

It stayed still and the sun is bright. Thus this picture is super clear.

Another butterfly is the Lemon Emigrant. It is beautiful with white fore wing and yellow hind wing.

The Motted Emigrant is pale compared with the former two.

There is a trail in the park. It is about one KM long. At least you see the original nature that was there before the park come into place.

The Malayan Eggfly is resting along the trail.

The uncooperative Malay Baron just don't allow me to get a nice picture of it even though it hangs around near me.

The Purple Bush Brown is more cooperative.

This Thai Pea Eggplant seems to be wild. Possibly planted there on purpose.

The trail leads to a Kiln. The only other Kiln besides Thow Kwang (Dragon Kiln) in Singapore. I walked on the road then turn in to the park again. Along the way saw this Purple-leaved Buttonweed. Its a small plant but nice.

This Lesser Dart shot out of nowhere in front of me as if it asked to be photographed. Cute and odd looking little fella.

At the entrance of the park, this Asian Koel just becons to be picture of the day star. I keep walking closer and closer but it did not even try to avoid me. Unfortunately, it is too shy to stand in the open thus I can only get a out of focus shot. It is almost impossible to auto focus on this bird like that.

Saw this Graceful Spurge growing besides the pathway. It is a small plant.

Saw some plants on the other edge of the pond. No foot path available. Undecided whether to risk it just for one plant. Then, I saw another plant further down. It is then I decided to walk at the edge of the pond to get to them.

The first plant is African Morningvine. At first I though it is a Morning Glory but could not find a match. Finally, after a few hours of searching, managed to identify this plant.

The second plant is even harder to identify. I settled for a plant that does not seems to be found in Singapore or nearby region as it matches the features quite well even though it is a temperate country plant (North America/Canada). I could be wrong.

Like many men, I also like to look at naked woman. Just can't avoid taking a picture of this ceramic sculpture in Thow Kwong Kiln.

Since there is only one way out of the park, I have to go on the same path as before. Saw this Caladium (Elephant Ear). It looked unreal especially when it is grown very near the kiln. I missed it totally on the way in.

A Dingy Bush Brown just stay still long enough for me to have a shot.

At the staircase near the Clean Tech One. This Glistering Caerulean wants to get on the last stage.

The whole trip is slightly more than 4KM.

The wikiLoc map is useless as you don't see the place in any map. It is currently a blank space with just the three buildings. The picture right at the beginning of this blog serves better purpose to guide any one who is interested to visit.

The picasa album is here.

Changi Coastal Broadwalk

This path is quite forgotten by Singaporeans. It is just next to Changi Beach Park. It is situated to the right side of Changi Jetty. There are no elaborate playgrounds just a walking path with occasional sand beaches in between. The facility are quite worn out. Many railings has been marked as dangerous but not repaired. The bridges are quite old with floor planks corroded too. However, due to its isolated condition, it is a nice place to walk without having to compete with others. I only found out about the place when I was looking at the Changi Beach Park using OpenStreetMap. Google map does not show the track at all.

NParks did mention about this place in its DIY guide. I must have mistaken about it being part of Changi Beach Park thus failed to notice it.

The trip starts from the Bus stop at Telok Paku Rd near Changi Village. I took bus service no. 9 to get to Changi from Tanah Merah MRT.

Just next to the carpark behind the Bus stop is a community garden with a large number of white Butterflies flying about. It is almost impossible to take picture of them as they hardly stop long enough for me to focus on them. After several failed attempts, I finally gave up and walked away. I didn't have the right equipment to take fast shots of small flying objects. I don't intend to upgrade as my main aim is to take plant pictures. It is nice to have but not a necessity.

The Broad walk greets me with a shed that indicates its name.

There were workers that are doing tree trimming just behind the shed. It gave me the perfect opportunity to take a close up picture of a Sea Almond Tree fruit after it has been trimmed.

Further down, I notice some white flower that resembles Love Vine but is white. It turned out that this is the white version of the Love Vine.

Saw a False Lime Tree but its flowers have withered.

The whitish yellow color Ganges Primrose is quite nice looking from afar. On close up shot. It looks like it is about to wither too.

I have been trying to take a picture of this Parasitic Carpenter Bee. It is a large bee that hovers around. Could not take a picture of it resting. A smallish picture is all that I could do to capture its image. The flower in the picture is a Gold Shower shrub. In case you fail to find the bee, it is near the top left hand corner of the picture.

This flower looks like a Sea Hibiscus but the background leaves belongs to a shrub. I had a hard time trying to figure out till I finally decided that they are two separate plants. The flower just happened to drop on top of the shrub.

It is nice to see Weaver Ants at work making their home.

Almost at the end of the route, I saw a large number of dark color flying insects hovering over a patch of sand beach. At first I though they were dragon flies. Could not find out further as they never stop flying. Then my opportunity strikes. One of them goes down to the beach and stopped at a sand burrow. It is then I can see that they are actually wasps.

It is hard work trying to focus on the insect as the sun shines right onto my camera's LCD. I could hardly see the picture. Finally, I improvise by putting one hand over the LCD and use my head as sun shield. Managed to take a few pictures of wasps fighting with each other. Later I found out that they are Digger Wasps although I could not pinpoint the exact specie. They were constantly moving and I am already at maximum zoom although they are huge wasps.

I had to turn back as the track ends near some big rocks. On the way back,  I noticed something blue in the tree. It is a Delek Air. The first picture of all blue flower is blurred probably due to the strong wind.

As usual, I hate to walk back the same path. Thus I tried to look for the exit near the end. A good park design never have just one entrance. After looking around, I saw a path that does not end up with a resort. I decided to try it. It is a long one and at the end I saw the road. Turning back to look at the shed just before the road, The is a name on the shed too. It is funny that this name and the previous one does not match. Anyhow, it is not important.

From my map, I can see that the road leads to Loyang Ave and is joined with Netheravon Rd and its has a PCN (Loyang PC) that goes all the way to Changi Village again. I decided to take this route.

There is nothing much to see along the way. Turnhouse Park is just beside the PCN but it looks very barren. I decided not to enter the park. I can see another entrance to the Broadwalk a little bit further down from the park but decided that it is not a good choice to walk the 150 Meters to it.

There were a number of heritage trees along the PC. I managed to take picture on one of it only as that one is very near the PC and will look nice. This is a sepetir tree. It is very tall and huge.

I am not sure if this one is really a Fragant Thunbergia (White Lady). Its flower and leaves don't quite look like one. However, I could not find any match in all the four online web site. It is just an educated guess.

Well, At least  I recognize this Red Bean Tree although its seed pods are still green.

There after this tree, there is nothing much to take picture of. The trip ended in Telok Paku Rd again and I took back the same bus service number. Service no. 9 seems to be quite frequent. I missed the first one and the next just came less than a minute.

The wikiloc route map is here.

I will omit the Picasa album as most of the pictures are here already.

P/S. This is the first time I included fauna (animal) pictures. I guess I have evolved from a plant lover to a Naturalist. However, the emphasis is still on plants (Flora). I really have not much interest in Fauna.