First of Ramadhan's outing

Today is the first day of Ramadhan and as a Muslim like the other 1.2 billion others, it means a whole month of fasting for me. Fasting does not only mean going without food and water from dawn to dusk. It is a test of one's patience.

After much contemplation on what I should do today apart from the responsibility of carrying out my religious obligations; I have decided to take two of my children(Annissa & Ali Hussain seen on the left) to show them the wonders of Allah's creation in the mangrove swamps. We did a tour of the mangrove swamps of the whole of Langkawi from the one just behind our house to Penarak beach then to Pengkalan Tempa followed by Kuala Temonyong on to Kuala Teriang then to Kuala Kubang Badak and finally Tanjung Rhu Area. See map below to find out where we went.

What did we find?

At Penarak Beach - we saw one of the mysteries of the mangroves in the presence of spike of pneumatophores. Annissa asked me what they are. Told her this is how the mangrove tree we called Api-api ludat breathes. She was puzzled.

These are the pneumatophores of Api-api ludat or Avicennia officinalis. This species is quite widely distributed in Langkawi. I had noted its presence in Sungei Ayer Hangat and also Sungei Belanga Pechah. We also noted it in the feeder rivers to Selat Bagan Nyior, the straits separating Pulau Tuba from Pulau Dayang Bunting.

And to the right is a recording of the leaves of Api-api ludat from the tree that was responsible for the pneumatophores depicted on the left.

I just had to explain to Annissa why Allah made these pneumatophores for this Api-api ludat tree. She had noted earlier that the ground we walked on was muddy and I further told her that mud is so compact that there is not much air space within them. Roots needs air to breath and since mud has not much air Allah has made the Api-api tree to grow branches of roots out of the mud so the root system can get enough air to breath. (She looked more confused - but I told her she will understand better when she goes to school and learn science).

We also saw the Bakau tree or Rhizophora stylosa. However, I did not photograph the one at Penarak since I already recorded this tree at a bay along the western coast of Pulau Dayang Bunting yesterday. The Bakau tree has a root system much different from Api-Api ludat. The roots appears like the water spider's legs. Nissa was told that this root system serves the same purpose as in the case of Api-api where it helps in the breathing process of the tree and also help fix the tree in the mud. At the same time when you see a whole forest of Bakau on a beach like the Penarak beach you will see minimum erosion of the ground. It is very well demonstrated in Penarak where she saw heavy erosion due to strong waves from the sea where man has removed the mangrove. I told her we did it out of necessity sometimes to make the beach accessible for the fishermen to go out to sea.

As the tide was coming in fast the fisherman warned us to get on to higher grounds or we may get wet. I wouldn't want to get wet, well at least not so early in the day and not with my cameras hanging on my neck. So we get into our car and drove off to our next stop.

Kuala Sungei Kuah - This river has changed totally from the time I first saw it back in 1984. The area was then a mangrove swamp with a strip of road over the bridge from Pekan Kuah to the jetty. Today the whole mangrove forest has been removed and in place of it is a new business section of Kuah. What remains of the mangroves are a few Api-api puteh trees along the banks of Kuala Sungei Kuah.

This is the Api-api puteh tree that has been by this bank since I first step foot on Pulau Langkawi in July 1984. Api-api puteh is called so because of the white discolouration of the undersurface of its leaves. When seen from a far as the wind blows you can see the leaves flowing like white flames thus Api-api puteh or simply White Flames.

At Pengkalan Tempa - This area has also been devastated by the tides of development. An Aquaculture project had swallowed a vast area of the mangrove swamp of Kuala Sungei Tempa. But luckily at the pengkalan one can still find mangroves growing here. I had been here before in 1994 or so when I was busy photographing for my website on Langkawi called Langkawi-Beaches (now been taken off because the site operator has requested web-hosting fee). The pengkalan has changed since. They have widened the river and made a more permanent jetty for the fishermen. Our find here includes the following trees:

1. Bakau Minyak - Rhizophora apiculata
2. Tengar - Ceriops tagal
3. Teruntun bunga puteh - Lumnitzera racemosa
4. Api-api ludat - Avicennia officinales
5. Langgadai - Brugueira parviflora