Teluk Duyung

Towards the end of our life chapter in Teluk Bahang, we had a few trips to Teluk Duyung/Monkey Beach.
I always love it. Going there means riding in a fisherman's boat, the whole day of sand and sea and my most favourite part, korek siput.

I still remember arriving at the beach.
The clear water where I can see the seafloor. I always picture the abundant remis inside it.
We'd always settle down somewhere distant from the west end of the bay.
The monkeys there are peacebuster. The beach is not named Monkey beach for no reason.

There's something about lying there on the mat and watching the sky, the coconut trees and the eagle flying by but I was most of the time in the water, either dipping or korek siput.
However, for some reasons, I never wanted to go near the meromictic lake and the bungalows.

I worked hard at korek siput, because I really, really love remis. You can say that it's my second most favourite after laksa.
The minimum harvest is a 3L pail, full.
On my last trip there I learn how to harvest kepah (not the green ones) ~ you dance in the water.
Basically, the seafloor should be a lil muddy, and you moves your body to the right and to the left. You can feel the shell with your foot and when you feel it, you dive in and retrieve the kepah.
We had a competition on it and by the time we came out of the water, we had more than 10L of them and ugly wrinkled skin.

When the 24 December tsunami striked, we had already settled down in Bayan Lepas for 3 years.
Seeing how Teluk Bahang beach looks now, I reckon Teluk Duyung is also not the same anymore.
It's very upsetting to me but I guess I can just remember the good times I had.