Adventures in Malacca

I was in Malacca since Thursday and staying in Holiday Inn. Holiday Inn has a beach front and there are plenty of mudskippers at low tide. The flat ground is very deceiving. B3 and I went to explore the sandy beach and want to see if we can catch some mudskippers like back home. I was wearing my regular leather loafers and so stick to the sandy part when suddenly I sink knee deep into the ground. It was a surprise and shock. Once my feet sink in, it is hard to move. Then getting my feet out was tricky. Good thing is I have read them in books and watched movies like Indiana Jones. I lean forward to spread my weight. My shoe was stuck deep in the mud and it is easier to leave it in and get my foot out Then I have to sink my hand in about one feet into the mud to retrieve it. The feeling of putting my hand into dark gooey pure soft clay is revolting and scary.

I was happy that I managed to retrieve the shoe but it is filled with horrid smelling greying clay. B3 was gloating over misfortune saying he has no problem as he is light and continue to walk about when he is next to sink in. His shoe was stuck in there too. And I was too afraid to rescue him without getting myself into trouble. So I gather some pieces of flat stones to spread his weight but it did not work. Luckily, there as a tyre and I threw it to him and he could step on the tyre and get to feel for his shoe and retrieve it as well.

We spent the next three hours in our hotel room cleaning ourselves up and watching up our clothing. I use the hair dryer and spent 3 hour drying our shoes.

The next morning, we took a walking along the beach and we were excited to see a gigantic mudskipper. Then my wife says there is something flapping and asked if it is a mudskipper. It was a bird! I went to retrieve it. The poor thing was trying to get out but it was all wet and and impossible to move. We brought it back to the room and dry it out using the hair dryer. I am now an expert in drying out anything with a hair dryer. It look like a baby owl. B3 build a box using the Star newspaper and we put the owl into our home-made nest and line it with crumpled newspapers to make it more comfortable. The owl fell asleep and we left it in the room and go out to do some grocery shopping at Carrefour. When we returned, it was up and about but could not fly. It right leg was broken. It look at us with big yellow eyes and it is so gorgeous. We tried feeding it but it refused to eat.

Finally, we decide to bring it back to the place where we recover it and hope the parents will come and help out. It actually flew off! It was not a baby owl but an adult bird. We are very happy that it takes off and hope it can survive by itself.