The Little Beauties In A Neglected Park

The Lagenda Park is actually quite a nice place for a walk or a jog or to just enjoy a few hours of nature. 

Lots of trees, particularly the spectacular raintrees, lots of birds and squirrels and dragonflies, lots of lotus plants, and lots more!  And there's even a little stretch of beach out there that's actually quite clean.  It may come as a surprise to you but this beach is actually cleaned up in the morning!  These are some of the reasons why I think this place is great!

But the park seems to be in such a state of neglect that it is quite SHOCKING!!!  In truth, the flora and fauna at the park is thriving quite well but the man-made structures are deteriorating.

This park was officially opened in 1996.  As this is one of the 'landmarks' on the tourist map, it is quite unbelievable that it would be left like this!  Some of the gazebos, a few structures, and mostly the light fixtures and toilet facilities are broken and in disrepair.  There are broken water wheels and bits of rubbish floating in some of the ponds, filled with what looks like murky, stagnant water!  What kind of an impression does it give of the park management or of the relevant authorities?

Such a shame!

I have visited this park on many occasions over the years.  For a morning run through the park, for a walk just to enjoy the outdoors on a beautiful day, for nature photography, for 'wildlife' watch and to observe dragonflies. 

Year after year, the state of the park keeps going down, down, down, downhill.

It is not that the park is abandoned.  The park grounds is not exactly small.  Granted, the layout and features of the park requires a lot of manpower for its upkeep.  There are security guards patrolling the area regularly on their motorbikes, more so towards the evening to ensure there isn't anyone loitering around after 7pm.  And then there is the landscaping crew at work most of the time.

I have often observed the handful of staff, probably contracted "landscaping crew", rake fallen leaves and rubbish on the grounds and pack them into rubbish bags. 

Sometimes, they would just be weeding . 

A lot of weeding.....

 

And sometimes, other staff would be cutting grass and the grass cuttings packed into rubbish bags as well.  Such that there is always this huge pile of bulging rubbish bags amassing outside the side entrance.  Then, from time to time, there'd be open burning in their attempt to get rid of all these rubbish.

When I see the park abuzz with all those activities, I can't help thinking that perhaps the maintenance budget is insufficient and valuable resources are being channelled to the wrong areas.  Those leaves are going to fall every day, throughout the day and night.  Each time there is a breeze rustling through the trees, more leaves will fall.  And each time it rains.....

But fallen leaves are all part of the natural surroundings.  If the leaf litter get to decompose on the ground, the process would be recycling nutrients back into the earth.  These leaves are not rubbish!  Whenever there are local visitors to the park, especially picnickers, there would be rubbish strewn everywhere!  Plastic bags and cups, styrofoam packs and cups and other non-biodegradable stuff.  Those are the real rubbish!

Imagine the amount of time and effort put into raking those leaves each day, every day!  It must seem like such a pointless, Herculean task to the people carrying out these jobs!  And I am also thinking, they must be spending thousands of ringgits purchasing all those rubbish bags and raking those leaves!  When will they even think about trying to reduce the use of these plastic bags?  What if these grass cuttings and leaves are mulched?  And composting is practiced?  What if they spend the money on maintaining the facilities instead? 

It seems that over time, more and more and bigger landmarks keep popping up in the Langkawi landscape - Marble Square, Book Village, Eagle Square, Infinity Bridge and the upcoming, massive Tower of Langkawi.  The amount spent on building these 'monuments' are astounding!  The trouble is that a few years down the line, these very same people who approved and lauded these project will then lament on the exorbitant cost of maintaining these structures and leave it to rot. 

But these same key people would have also gotten some money in their pockets by then so why would they care?

The estimated cost for building the 135-metre Tower of Langkawi is a whopping RM10 million.  At the very least!  What all these landmarks are is more concrete structures to destroy and mar the natural beauty of Langkawi. 

If there isn't going to be a budget for ongoing maintenance and upkeep in the long term, why spend the money to build it in the first place?

Will there be an end to this?

Just imagine if a fraction of that money is channelled towards the upkeep for these parks, instead of building another white elephant!  What a huge, huge difference it would make to these places!

I see the beauty of Lagenda Park in nature's little gems........

And in just a few hours, you would be feeling sated with the positive energies of nature!

These are the jewels of Langkawi.
Will these nature's gems be conserved and protected?

Why build more concrete structures that would just end up being eyesores?

Other Than Odonata!

It's been a great morning! 

And such a beautiful day for the outdoors!

I couldn't help myself and kept looking up to gaze at the beautiful blue sky!

I had wanted to look for dragonflies but apart from the Orthetrum sabina and two other species of damselflies, there weren't too many others about.  Instead of hanging out at the ponds, I took a stroll through the park to enjoy a bit of nature.

Getting to the park early in the morning had been a bonus. 
Not that I was so early and I caught the sunrise but early enough to be listening to a lot of bird songs.  A myriad of tunes from the Bulbuls, Orioles, Kingfishers and, of course, the Common Mynas.  The Starlings started their choruses a bit later.

This Collared Kingfisher has its hunting grounds in the ponds at the park.

 It took a while to finally get this photo of the Kingfisher.
Quite an elusive little bird!

As I walked along, a few Tree Squirrels were scrambling around on the branches overhead and stopping here and there to feed.  Then a pair of Tree Squirrels were playing peek-a-boo as they chased each other round and round and up and down a tree.
Playful and cheeky!

That was when I caught the movement of an insect flying smack into a tree.
I had to look quite hard to find it, but that was how I spotted this Cicada!

This large, brownish Cicada is quite well camouflaged against the tree bark!

It is usually difficult to find the Cicada inspite of their loud, high-pitched songs. 

Looking at the above photo, you can understand why.

This is not the sharpest shot, but it's the best photo of the two that I managed to take before it flew away!

Heading towards the shoreline, here's a view of Kuah Bay.

I was not alone on the beach though.

These crabs were busily feeding away!

The longer I sat there, the more crabs came out to feed once they realise I am not a threat.

A lot of these crabs faced away from me as they moved along to feed nearby.

Their mottled brown, algae coated carapace giving them a good camouflage on the rocky, muddy shores and making it difficult to see them.

After a while, some of the crabs turned around to look at me too!

The ones feeding a few meters away were not too bothered.

Even then, any sudden, abrupt movement will send all the crabs scurrying into their burrows and hiding under rocks.

Almost as if a predator was swooping down at them.

These crabs were not the only creatures feeding here at low tide.

A Little Heron was perched on the rocks at the edge of the water, standing still and motionless, while it stared intently into the turquoise blue water and waited for a catch.

The Great Egret was also out here catching fish.

It waded to and fro in the shallow waters, stepping carefully, stretching out its long neck to look into the surf.  From time to time, this Great Egret would retract its neck, then striking out into the water to catch a fish!

I sat there, enjoying the sun and sea breeze as I watched.

I watched the birds wading about and I watched the boats bobbing in the water.

Time stood still.

Eventually, hunger calls signalled lunch hour.

As I was walking back, I spotted this little brown bird perched on one of the branches.

The Asian Brown Flycatcher!

I think!

I hope I've got the id correct for this little birdie.

An awesome morning indeed!

At The Beach

It looked like a nice morning for a walk on the beach... so that was where I went.  After all, Cenang Beach is barely 5 minutes away from home.

And as I had thought, it was perfect!  At this early hour, apart from a few joggers, I had almost the whole beach all to myself. 

Nice!

 

 

The view looking out to sea was great too!

 

 

The sea was quite flat and calm.  With a mild breeze blowing, the marker line and flag put out by the various watersports centres bobbed and swayed lightly on the water...

 

 

...while the outgoing tide had left streaks of its whispers on the beach.

 

 

As the run rose higher, its rays were reflected off the Mat Chinchang range in the background towards the north, giving an almost idyllic feel to the whole place.

 

 

The low tide was perfect for observing shore creatures and the shore came to live when the crabs and snails came out to feed.

If you stay still enough and long enough, you will see these sand crabs venturing out from their burrows.

 

 

Meantime, these tiny Sand Bubbler Crabs (Scopira sp.) feed on detritus from the sand and in the process form tiny sand balls that they leave in trails around their burrows.

 

 

The snails also make their own patterned trails as they glide along on the shore's glassy surface.

 

 

Several dead jellyfishes had also been washed up onto the beach.  Here's one of them.

 

 

Apart from all that, I had an unexpected visit from both a dragonfly and a damselfly.  Here's the Ischnura senegalensis perched on a seashell.

 

 

And this Brachythemis contaminata that kept flying around me in circles and then stopping occasionally to perch and bask in the sun.

 

 

But, within the hour, the skies had become overcast, engulfing the peaks of Mat Chinchang as the rain moved in...