shockingly nice museum
pretty nice looking bird blind
Our dinner slowly getting away

heavy rain at the museum

Look But Don’t Touch (or It’s Getting Wet Down There!)

While driving around completely lost in the outlying district of Yuen Long, I stumbled upon the neighboring area of Tin Shui Wai and a big white official looking road sign that said “Wetland Park.” My curiosity peaked, I asked a few coworkers about it but no one had actually gone there as it was a relatively new and in the middle of nowhere. It’s been a few weeks but I finally had time over the weekend so I drove my car out there to hopefully have a relaxing day in nature.

I was ecstatic to find that the visitors’ center was beautiful - huge and airy with lots of glass - it’s exactly the type of structure you don’t see enough of in Hong Kong. It had been raining on and off all morning so the place wasn’t as busy as it usually is. I was really impressed by the quality of the exhibits both in substance and esthetics. They even had a small aquarium and terrarium area with wetland creatures from around the world including the world’s smallest species of deer.

Whenever I mentioned the Wetlands Park, people would ask me if I was planning on seeing Pui Pui. After some research I learned that this was the small estuarine crocodile that had eluded authorities for years in the Shan Pui River. They even brought in the late Steve Irwin to trap it but to no avail. By the time they did finally capture the elusive reptile, it had become a bit of a local celebrity and so a special habitat was created for it at the reserve even though the species is not native to the region.

Once the rain had stopped and I was able to trample my way through the school children to catch a glimpse of Pui Pui, I moved on to the marshes and the boardwalk paths to see the park properly. I had been looking forward to the mangrove forest section as I was keen on seeing the Fiddler crabs and Mudskippers. They were here in abundance along with a wide species of birds and fish. The blinds were especially nice as it afforded you the ability to see the birds from a relatively close distance and were beautifully designed structures.

There was an impressive range of fish swimming in the water and my mom and I got into the discussion of “what would taste good” with all the wildlife we saw. I think this has something to do with always seeing fish tanks in Chinese restaurants. I still say that dwarf deer would have been delicious if it was slowly roasted with a simple dry rub. We were going over the finer points of cooking perch when we heard some rustling in the reeds. What comes crawling out but a number of snakehead fishes heading from one marshy body of water to another. It’s exactly this talent which has made them such a menace to lakes in North America as an invasive species. Without saying a word, I pulled out a plastic bag from my messenger bag while my mother looked for a heavy stick. Our plans were thwarted by an ambling park ranger who proceeded to educate us on the habits of the snakehead fish. By the time he finished, the fish had already slipped into the pond and a gaggle of gawking mainland tourists had shown up. I guess the rule at this nature conservatory is to look but not touch.