Arous

e, originally uploaded by kopi_kocok.

Yesterday we went to Arous again, this time we have a guest with us who is a professional scuba diver. He also brought along his underwater camera and got this pic.

and this

and this

and this

and this

beautiful ain't it?

If you wish to come here and go snorkeling or scuba dive, check out this site for info.

Seashells 101

My earlier post was about our picnic trip to the Arous beach where we 'lonely' man managed to get our rough hands on 'oysters'. All those 30 odd seashells creature eventually ended up in our stomach. Amidst the oyster we also managed to grab 2 'snails' which was delicious.

When we returned to our camp, the Sudanese cooks and cleaners who missed us their 'saiyidi' for a whole day greeted us with a disgusted look for bringing home such weird smelly shell thingy and start cleaning it in their 'tidy' kitchen. One guy got interested but cringed when we tried to hand it to him to help us clean it. Another nicked name 'prawn' in his language almost scream when i scared him with one.

Last night, my friends and i were discussing about it and one of us suggested that what we have eaten was abalone and that made me feel like a loser for not catching some more. Even my wife thought it could be a clam, and when I suggested to the group, none could agree that its either oyster or clam or abalone. Last night I was already imagining the fortune I could make by harvesting some more of those abalone.

This morning as usual with no useful thing to do and a fine internet connection Sudan style, I started to search for the keywords and hey! Look what i found.. so this post today is just an introduction to myself and the rest who are interested about sea shells or those yummy aphrodisiac thing you would lose an inch on your right ass after leaving the fancy restaurant serving it.

First, the abalone. Abalone if u might find one only has one shell.. err ye ke? Well, thats what it says on this internet page here about abalone.
Certainly the picture above did not fit the description of what we brought home the other day here.
Next I lookup for oyster and again the picture above turned out on the internet here disappointed me as well as it does not look so much of what we got. Then I learned that there must be a slimy texture one sip with the oyster body which is part of the oyster profile. Our catch certainly did not have those slimy thing going on. So Oyster officially strike off out.

While I was browsing thru, I found a neat website here showing all the different seashells familiar on the beaches back home in Malaysia. I went thru the archive and still none match the creature that we caught but for education purpose I am posting some pictures here courtesy of the website for the different seashells likened to the one that I have brought home to the amusement of Nuaim my beloved eldest son(previous post).
The above is call tiger cowrie. One can spot a few of this along the coral where I normally go stingray spear fishing.
I have a few of this in my collection too.
These are angle wings. I remembered I found a lot of these during my honeymoon in Pulau Rebak Langkawi. I think I picked up a couple of those but I forgot where I throw them away.
The above is a Ramosus shells. I picked this up during my escapades to Tokar. They say its tasty but I never tried one yet.
This one is a spider conch. I had one of this or 'snail' mentioned earlier. It taste like squid and very the yummy one lah.
This volutano balls also taste like squid. the one i got the other day do not have those fancy patterns, but i guess they are the same family.
The above is a mussel shell. Very common. The smaller version would be called etok. Read it here to.
Makcik jual etok.
I found this quite a few in the waters also near where i go stingray hunting
Do u know what is this? Shell! Yes, but not the household name for fuel supply but its actually is a sunset scallop. Scallops are nice..Ive eaten 'em.

Finally back to the question that still linger in our brain what in gods name have we eaten? I finally found this perfect description. Its actually a clam, but from the giant clam species. Because, clam kecik looks like below..
Notice, how come the shell not same? My untrained eye also can tell that its not what we eaten. Giant clams actually can grow up to 1.2m.
The profile by NatGeo fits the description of the ones i find i.e. its stuck to the coral bed and its very the colorful that I notice that each one has different color. The one i found are either red, green, blue and orange. What a bliss to my goggly eyes that day. One fact not so music to my ears is that, it's even on the endangered list in some places. Hmmm now I have second thought of going hunting for it again. But, if we leave the baby one is not so bad kot? Hey wait a minute, the one we got are the baby one kan? Please do not report this post to the greenpeace ok.

Luk-luk wal marjan

The much hyped Arous coined the jewel of the red sea 50km north of Port Sudan did not disappoint 14 odd Malaysian last Friday. Some of us woke up early to organise for the day including preparation of food. I volunteered to menebar roti canai. The dalca gravy was prepared earlier and our Macha prepared mihun mamak to have for picnic. Kendi kerajaan Langit Ayah Pin found here in Port Sudan. No wonder the police are baffled by his "disappearance". Or are the police too busy catching innocence civilian campaigning for free and fair election?

The road
The journey took almost 2 hours thru back alleys and winding roads as our guide only remembered the route he took several months ago. Since the rest of the groups never set foot there, we have to oblige with the guide’s antics. Few fuss and complaints were heard but our irritation simply vanishes once we reach our blue coral sea destination. I forgot if I did ever thank my guide for bringing me to the place. Thanks Mad B!

Blue wonder scenary An eagle disturbed by our presence

The beach
The sight of the white sandy beach and azure blue sea was just remarkable. The guys who brought their camera were already snapping away and few were seen picking up seashells strewn about the sea side. Unfortunately, the first spot we arrived did not have a suitable shelter for a comfortable picnic. After a few inquiries with the locals, we decided to drive a little further to the private beach dotted with colorful painted chalet. However, to access the place, we had to pay 20 Sudanese Guinea (USD10) as entrance fee. Rather exorbitant for a small hut and toilet services minus the water. But we all happily paid.

The Arous Resort. White sandy beaches

The sea
Once we reach the hut, while some were busy unpacking the food stuff, I already hit the water and went for snorkeling. I hated myself for not having an underwater camera with me as the corals and the “Toshiba” fishes that greeted me were simply beautiful.

After a short break and grabbing a bite, I joined some of my friend exploring the sea. We found a spot that had a wonderful coral at the edge of the reef that bordered into an abyss of dark blue water where fishes were big and colorful. The underwater scenery was so beautiful, words fail me.

God is great! From the sea he brought forth Luk-Luk wal Marjan. Which word can we deny? (Ar-Rahman)

Above, the rolling waves were quite strong trashing the unskilled swimmer me about causing panic that I had to abandon my adventure when I found myself left alone. Hehehe… penakut! Anyway, I think I saw almost all the fishes featured in Nemo including a few stingrays.

The oyster
Our fisherman club were already waist deep in the water trying their luck by the time I returned to the beach for some more munchies. Not satisfied snorkeling, myself and a the other few who didn’t bring their fishing rods along decided to look for oysters spotted on the coral reefs. The colors and sizes of the oysters caught our fancy that between us we harvested almost 30 of them big ones . That night after diner we had oyster and so was the next day maggi oyster and again more oysters for supper the following night. Too bad none of the Bapaks could put to any good use the extravagant treat of aphrodisiac! Hehehe..

The catchs Some more catchs Harvested from the sea. I felt bad for removing such colorful creature from their coral home, but still, Oysters are yummy!Aphrodisiac anyone?

All in all it was the most exciting day for me. The coral and sea off the beaches near the place I stayed could not rival Arous and nowhere even near it. Although for the next 40 days or so I had to settle for it but that’s just fine with me. InsyaAllah, maybe next time we would plan again for another trip there, but that time I hope I am prepared with snorkeling gears and most importantly a waterproof camera!

Adoiii!!

I had a painful encounter with the red sea creatures this morning at sunrise. I was stung by the jelly fish. Lucky I was not so far ashore and the water was a bit "tohor" by Mizang standard, so even though I panic I still could touch the sea bed and gasp for precious air.

This is the first sighting of them pink jellyfish close to shore and unfortunately I was in their way. I was stung twice, being the first on the neck that I panic and swam away calling for Denis the Menace who was also in the water nearby. With his jellyfish scanner goggle, he scan the water around but did not find any nearby so I grab on to him to swim back to shore, alas, again I went the wrong way and got entangled in another groupies of them jellyfish that lacerated my torso.

The first sting on the neck

The second sting all over the torso and my right arms.

When it stung first I felt very itchy and scratch them a bit that worsen the effect. After 5 minutes out of the water, the whole skin felt very hot. Many advise was given by my concern friend on how to make the pain go away including peeing on it (not an option), take pain killer or rub it with a mixture of asam keping, water and salt. Of all the advise, I heeded Ripin the sting ray slayer to rub it with asam keping and salt.

Lucky, I manage to get some asam keping from Pak Ya (god bless him for the thought of bringing some all the way from Malaysia) to mixed it with the stale salt on the dining table and rub feverishly on the affected area. After 2 hours, the pain and scar went away. Thanks to Ripin, now his title have to be change to Tok Bomoh Jawa for handing me down the old remedy that he probably inherited from many generations.

Walla..like magic. Who would have thought an ancient concoction could do such wonder..In the morning I thought that will be my last swim, but now at 4 pm, I think I probably will go back and swim some more. hahaha

The bounty of the Red Sea

Today the red sea reveals all its glory. The 630am morning sun was cool with very light breeze blowing in my face. The sea was dead calm and the water was so clear a sight I rarely see.
We were there early with one purpose. To catch some "pari". And it was an excellent mission, for we managed to spear 3 "pari". Two of them I caught myself. The sea was so calm and clear that we can easily spot the "pari" relaxing at their spot unsuspecting that their hunter was close by. I could easily sneak up on them and manage to get as close as 2m away before throwing the spear. It was an easy target.
While we were busy looking for the "pari" we manage to spot 2 turtles crawling on the coral at the shallow end of the water.
There were also a shoal of flying fish busy trying to out-jump each other, probably excited about the calm sea as we are. We spot a few octopus about, which leads us to more "pari" who were also interested in the mollusk.
Since I could not get some nice pictures of the coral, maybe you can follow this link to my colleague's blog Mr Max for a few picture of them.
Around the beautiful coral, there were inhabited of course by the rest of the coral fishes which some of them was as big as my tigh. I really wanted to take a dip myself, but the sea was so eariely calm, that made me lost my confidence to even float in it. Besides, I have an excuse as I did not bring my goggle.
So after spending two hours we return to our camp satisfied with our catch although we were so tired. The reward was "pari masak Asam Pedas" for lunch which was so delicious that I had to have a second round. A round of applause to our friend Cik Mad the chef all the way from Melaka, the home of masakan asam pedas.

Animalz

When I thought of wildlife of Africa I always thought of Elephant, Lion, Cheetah and Hyena. Well I'm in Africa and sadly to say I've never came across any of those after more than a year here. Geographically I am in the wrong place. Port Sudan lies by the Red Sea and is bordered to the west by the arid Red Sea mountain, therefore, chances of any of those animals crossing a 1500km of swamp, desert and mountains just to post themselves for my camera is zero.
So, my best collection of animal photos so far are those of urban type animals like camels and donkeys. Mind you, these are only taken by my Dopod and my old E-ten M500, which means, I'm handicapped to capture the real McCoy of the Red Sea, i.e. the coral wild life.
Since my son Nuaim is always demanding his mom to search for animals pics on the internet every time she came home from office, I hope these few pictures will serve as a one stop center for her search.
This is an old picture i took of a donkey wandering away from it's herd..There use to be plenty of them but ever since they gated the plant area, they are never to be seen again..
Same goes to this flock of camel..hmm I think I badly need help with my English..I suck at animal groupies.. how and when to use flock, brood, family, etc etc. I'm just confused..
This is a picture of a sick camel. It died a few days later.. Maybe it ate a lot of garbage..or maybe its overdosed by X-ray radiation when they were filming the piping works.
Nyumm.. cholestrol kills!!
Since I don't have a waterproof camera, I got this kid to catch a fish and took photograph of him holding this Ikan Bayan? I have to admit, he got it from his dad ice box jer..
Needless to say, so is this big fish..hehe
Lobsters!! hehe. Never caught any of them yet, but they're sure good especially if you wash them down with Karkadeh
They're not albatross but they sure shit a lot. The offshore operators needed to regularly clean the SPM deck especially the solar panel. They were caught in the act by the CCTV installed on board the SPM.
Close up view..the leader of the "shit" gang.. nasty 'lil guy
This is another species of them birds that made the SPM their home.. but this one kind of camera friendly..
A skull belonging to a very dead animal.. your guess is as good as mine.. maybe I'll ask Dr. Temperance Brennan of Bones on MBC4 tonight..A dead snake..maybe a viper or some sort.. but this one only a baby.. Tips: wear shoes, especially summer nights like this time around..