Friday, July 11, 2008

A Merlion (5-09-2002)

The legend of Singapore and how it got its name was that Sir Stamford Raffles spotted a strange lionlike creature at the mouth of the Singapore River in 1819.

My experience happened at an island northeast off mainland Singapore. The name of this island is Pulau Ubin.It happened when I was crabbing during the morning at the mouth of a swamp on that island at a place called Chek Jawa when i noticed some rippling on the water surface. It was then that a face that looked like a big alsation dog with a scraggly mane and a pug nose surfaced to breath.It then turned over and submerged again exposing a flipper tail of sort like a dolphin's. Then creature is orangey brown in colour.

Till this day, I'm still puzzled at what I have seen....maybe it was a sea cow but an orangy brown sea cow with a mane?? The local villagers claimed that such a creature I saw was known to them as a "beruang ayer" which meant water bear.-----

Other sightings of the Merlion (5-20-2002)

Reference my earlier sighting of the "Merlion", I have enquired around the shy simple islanders. Two humble gentlemen are kind enough to share their memorable experiences to this strange creature found in the undeveloped island of Pulau Ubin, northeast of Singapore.As accounted by a local fisherman, Mr Ismail bin Yaacob: " It happened during a routine collection of my nets which had been set up the night before at the mouth of the river near Kampong Noordin. I usually try to collect the fishes caught before sunup to make it to the morning market. On that unforgetful day, as I was hauling in my net, I hear a big splash to the right of my net.

I shone my hurricane lamp towards that direction and in return, I saw these big sad looking eyes staring at me. The creature look like one of those I see on TV with flippers (Seals), but unlike those animals, this one is as big as my sampan which measures about 7-8 metres long. I cannot recall seeing the colour of the beast as it was still quite dark. But i can clearly see the long hairs like seaweeds on its head. The creature gave a loud snort expelling water from its flat nose before submerging into the murky waters. Needless to say, I abandoned my nets for fear that what I have seen was a water spirit. It was later in the day,when it is bright and sunny, that I came back to collect my nets"

Another withness was a gentleman who use to ferry his farm produce early in the morning to the mainland. Mr Othman Samsudin, another islander recalls:"I was transfering my freshly harvested tapioca, some fishes and prawns caught from my pond and kangkong (a local vegetable similiar to spinach) from the small make-shift jetty near my hut to my boat when I heard a "whoosh" sound like air being blown out of the water.

Turning to the direction of the sound, I clearly saw the water making bow waves. There was clearly something swimming away. It look huge from the waves it made. The tail of the creature could be seen splashing up and down as it swims. It look like a huge fish but the colour of it was not a fish...it was reddish brown almost like the orange brown colour of an over-riped mango. I only know that what I have seen was something my grandfather told me when I was a young boy (Mr Othman is in his late sixties). It was a beruang ayer (water bear)"

http://www.cryptozoology.com/sightings/sightings_show.php?id=148

GOSH! Merlion maybe REAL AFTER ALL!