Pulau Semakau

Visited Pulau Semakau with Geog Soc and fellow like-minded Geog majors on Saturday.
Technically, we visited Semakau Landfill. That's what the manager said.

We were briefed by the manager of Semakau Landfill that people used to live on this island before it became a landfill. No organic wastes are used to fill up the land and thus, no houseflies, rats and whatnots. Everything is burnt into ashes before filling the land. By year 2045, this piece of land would be completely filled and ready to be used!

But I was thinking. If every country were to do this, won't the earth be completely filled in future? No waters, just land.

After all the questions and answers, we were brought around the island by the manager in a bus.
We were so close to nature! Man-made of course.

Mangroves!

Not natural though. The natural ones have been destroyed because of this landfill projects and to pay back to nature, the government got these mangroves replanted. So instead of the sparse mangrove wetlands, we see an overcrowded mangrove wetland with trees aligned side by side.

It was low tide, so I got to see those stilt roots!
I was super excited then. Hahaha. Truly a geog major.

I got to see sea beds too! Because it was low tide.

This part of the sea is shallower because it was near Pulau Semakau. You know how waters are always shallower nearer the coast.

This is the cell that they're filling up now.

Semakau Landfill is split into 9 cells (I think) and the cells are filled up one after another. I think about 3 has been filled up already. This is the current cell they're filling up now.

And this is one of the cells that has been filled up.
This greenery is so lush solely because of animals, mainly birds. The Semakau people didn't plant these grass/trees at all. Amazing right!

The water there's so clear it doesn't feel like Singapore at all.

Look, you can see the bedrocks.

Across Pulau Semakau's Pulau Bukom. Shell company produces fuel for us on that island.
So can you imagine how clean they are? The water's clear and they said they spot dolphins in the waters sometimes!

Barnacles and water snails living on the rocks!

The scenery there is so much better than East Coast Park. And a lot cooler too.

This is the start of the intertidal walk starts.
I want to go back there for this! It's a 3-hour walk along the shoreline of Pulau Semakau during low tides. So it's close contact with mangroves, seagrass, coral reefs, CRABS, STARFISHES, and shrimps. And the area there's so much bigger than Chek Jawa!

There's actually a lot to do at Semakau Landfill. Bird watching, sport fishing and stargazing. But it all sounds boring to me.

Everyone thinks that Semakau Landfill's some rubbish dump and that it is smelly, with rats and cockroaches crawling everywhere. Totally not the case. The air there is so much fresher than air on mainland Singapore. I want to go camping there.

Ok la, this whole thing seems like some nerdy nature outing. But I like. None of my friends would ever visit this kind of places with me. All of us were chatting while we were there and we realized most of our conversations with our parents were the same.

Parent: Where you going tomorrow?
Student: Pulau Semakau.
Parent: What's that?
Student: Landfill.
Parent: WHAT?! For what. So smelly.

My conversation with my dad the night before I went was as above. When he came to pick me up, the first thing he said was "Should I wind down the windows? You stink or not?" TSK. My own dad wants to make me feel insecure because of the way I smell.

I really like visiting such places with the other geog majors.
Everyone stares at rocks, walk around in search for creatures living amongst those rocks and no one thinks it's weird. I won't be the only one staring out at the sea, or squatting somewhere peeping through those creeks. I can't wait for the trip to Chek Jawa! Have been wanting to visit that place since forever.