wetlands
a publication of Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve
Vol 9 No 1
Apr 2002

a new beginning
for sungei buloh wetland reserve!

young naturalists of sungei buloh

a new take on art
bird ringing in 2001

the journey of
a volunteer guide

shorebird monitoring 2001

the day a hornbill flew over 		 
the journey of
a volunteer guide
eddie lim
park volunteer
It was the year 1996. I had a frustrating and stressful morning in the office. As a marketing and salesperson, I had the privilege of "skivinq" every new and again to de-sress. So I decided that Sungei Buloh would be a good relaxing venue. The afternoon spent there was rather enjoyable ... until my pager went beep beep. Well, this was a nice place and my intuition told me that this would not be my last visit.

I was just surfing the Internet when I came upon the Sungel Buloh Website. After my virtual visit, I thought, why not send a nice note to those wonderful blokes to thank them for their informative website? Since I was going to email them, why not find out a little more about their volunteer programme too? The email was promptly despatched and I thought nothing further about my correspondence.

"Ladies & Gentlemen, Boys & Girls, my name is Edie and I am your guide ..." In the year 2000, I became a Volunteer Guide with Sungei Buloh.

Guiding is fun, but it can sometimes be a challenge. Visitors to the reserve come from various backgrounds and they include locals and foreigners. The foreigners - Japanese, Americans, Europeans etc. - are usually attentive and easy to please, as they come for a specific purpose. The challenge comes with locals of various age groups. The younger ones are extremely active and have very short attention spans. I try to inspire them by getting them to spot moving objects.

What about our "highly-urbanised folks who don't seem to have time to appreciate nature?" (This phrase is a quote from one of my urbanised visitors.) I usually bring up Singapore's favourite past time, i.e. eating, to catch their attention. Attap chee, gula melaka, noni juice, chut chut or mangrove mud creepers, chilly-crabs and many more - they are all found in mangroves. The response is always positive.

Although guiding is the most common activity contributed by the volunteers, some of them also assist in other areas like photography, website maintenance, assisting the staff in simple chores like ushering and manning booths on special occasions.

Volunteers are also involved in many other events in the reserve. Every year, Sungei Buloh participates in important world and local events like the International Coastal Cleanup, Earth Day, Nature Day, Clean & Green Week, just to name a few.

Every so often, when I have time on my hands, I head for Sungei Buloh. My favourite location is Platform 1 that overlooks Johore Bahru. Here, when the tide is low, the water is clear and one might just catch a glimpse of Horseshoe Crabs mating.

Finally, you might be wondering why I bother to volunteer. Well, I enjoy the "work" and the biggest satisfaction is when my guests tell me how much they enjoyed themselves and how their attitudes towards nature have been enhanced. I have also reaped some benefits including making new friends and of course I get to visit the reserve for free! It is also heartening to know that we volunteers have in our own little way contributed to Sungei Buloh being gazetted as a Nature Reserve last year.

To those of you who are reading this article and are still contemplating whether or not to visit Sungei Buloh, I urge you to make the effort. I promise you that you will never regret that decision. Who knows, you might end up enjoying yourself in the reserve as a Volunteer Guide!
   
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