Exploring Kranji I

Today is a public holiday!! Happy Deepavali everyone!!

It is a rare occasion where my in-laws are off too today because my mother in law works on shifts throughout the month, she usually has to work over the weekend and public holidays too.

Today we decided to go out with the 2 girls. Started off with a brunch at Victory Restaurant at North Bridge Road. Famous for their Briyani and Murtabak. Beware, their portion is HUGE ... No, I am not kidding! It is really huge! I had a hard time finishing it .... luckily my dear husband helped out despite that Briyani is not in his favourite food list (he said it reminded him of his NS days, where they always had Briyani).

So, after the 'heavy' meal, we decided to do Longkang Fishing, have you heard of that before? There are quite a few places that you can go for Longkang Fishing, e.g. Pasir Ris Kids Kampong,  Bottle Tree Park, Haussman Marketing Aquarium, etc. However, today I chose to go to Haussman Marketing Aquarium at Kranji. I chose Kranji Countryside area because I know other than the aquarium, I can still explore the area for other stuff... like plant nurseries, or vegetable gardens etc.

Off we go to Kranji!! It was a long journey ... but the girls were excited! The area is really out of Singapore I would say. You don't see tall buildings or many cars, but all you can see around the area are green grasses and trees! Finally we arrived at our destination ... the skies were kind of dark when we arrived, but luckily the Longkang Fishing" area is covered. I scout the area for fishes... there was not much ... the area is quite small, but I guess it is enough for children.

Trying to catch some fishes!

The "Longkang Fishing" packages at Haussman are S$4 for Catch & Release (for 30 mins), and S$7 for Goldfish package. The uncle was kind enough to explain to me that the children are given a net and a bucket each and they can try to catch the fishes at the 'longkang'. If they really like fishes and would like to 'bring' back home, you can top up another S$3 and you will get a 180mm plastic tank, a packet of fish food, and 2 goldfishes back. You won't get the fishes that you catch at the 'longkang' itself. Reason being, he said, these fishes that are being caught at the 'longkang' are 'scared' after being chased around, so they will shed their skin and in summary, would not last long if you bring them home. So, they will give you few fishes from the aquarium to bring back if you buy the "Goldfish Package".

After hearing the explanation, I feel kind of sad for these fish and as I helped my daughter to catch them, I saw quite a number of those little fish that are already dead ...

Now when I think about it again, I think I would rather not do Longkang Fishing anymore if it is hurting these little fish. I saw on someone's blog about the Bottle Tree Longkang fishing, which they actually bring back the fish that they caught. Maybe that is better, rather than being caught and released again just to be caught again by other kids. The fish must be very scared and stressed!!

We did caught quite a number of fishes which then released back to the longkang. I opted to top-up S$3 so that we can bring back some fish for the girls. It was written that you will get 2 goldfish in the brochure, but we got 3 goldfish! My daughter is very happy and she can't wait to feed them!

Our goldfish!

An instruction was attached to the tank and it said that you should fill the tank up to 80% of the capacity. Leave it for 2 hours before transferring the fish; and only to feed them 4 pellets of fish food after 2 days. My daughter, of course, could not wait that long! I was very upset because we have not left the tap water for 2 hours yet (only about 1 hr) and my daughter asked my maid to put the fish into the tank! Then, she fed them not 4 but maybe 15 pellets at one time! My maid had to hide the fish food just in case she will take it and feed them again! I tried to explain to her that the fishes should not overeat or they might die... she got scared and now said that she didn't want the fish anymore and asked me to throw them away!

Poor fish! I think I am going to use this opportunity tomorrow to teach her about not to abandon pets and teach her how to take care of pets. If she still does not want to take care of the fish, I would  give it away to someone who would appreciate them more or I would release the fish to the canal near our house.