Along the way, WY also picked up a long, slender 'cone'-like fruit of a tree. We have no idea what this is called, but anyway, he kept that little souvenir in his pocket after we had examined it to make sure there was no worm or bug on it. (Has anyone noticed? WY is always asking to collect this kind of 'souvenir' - he did the same thing and picked several odd-looking cones from some trees along our way to Ballenburg last time, too. The cones are still sitting in a ziploc of stones and pebbles which he had picked up elsewhere.)
After we crossed the Esplanade, we ventured onto the sandy part of the beach. It was a challenge trying to walk on this part of the beach - we kept 'sinking' into the loose and very fine grains. It was difficult to keep our balance, too.
Once we crossed to the wetter part of the shore, we looked up and saw for the first time, the wide-spanning, clean and clear coastline....... it was so beautiful!
The sand was so amazingly clear - no pebbles, no twigs, no seaweeds, no garbage...... And as the waves came in lapping against the shore, the sand was wondrously erased of all footprints and marks...... That blueness of the waters and the whiteness of the waves against the cool beige-brown sand - no wonder they call it the Gold Coast.... Really picturesque, like a printed postcard, except that this is for real! :)
After a few minutes of standing around marvelling at the beauty and 'unspoiltness' of the beach, and R's clicking away with the camera, I suddenly told the boys, "WY, WF, both of you can take off your sandals, lah! I will hold your sandals for you."
The boys paused for a brief moment (as if they couldn't believe that I would actually 'allow' them to go barefoot on the beach!)... and then quickly set about taking off their sandals. WF handed me his instantly as he gingerly stepped on the wet and cold sand, obviously delighted at this new sensation....WY offered to hold his sandals at first but soon transferred them to me as he joined WF on the beach..... He also had had to tuck his notepad and pen in his pocket - yah, he actually brought his notepad along!
R kept his shoes on - yah, he actually put on his socks and shoes to go to the beach! Hahahhaa... other people must have thought that he was a little weird, hor?! He was dressed more like he was going on a trek in the forest than for a walk on the beach! Hohohohooo......
I was a little better, I think - I was in slip-ons, mah! Sand and water soon got in-between my toes..... erm, but I didn't look like I was going trekking on the mountains, right?! :)To be frank, I was quite overwhelmed by the vastness and cleanliness of the beach. It really made our ECP look so puny and feel like a backyard/junkyard coast. Sigh, it's really such a shame that our most popular beach (not that we have many although like Australia, we are an island country) had all kinds of rubbish, both natural and man-caused, on it all the time.
It's really so bad that when we occasionally bring the boys to ECP, we always had to get them to put on their boots - don't laugh, it's really not safe at all to go barefoot on ECP, what with metal cans and glass shards, sometimes even broken chicken-wing bones, sticking out of the sand. So you can imagine the boys' "disbelief" when I 1st announced that they could take off their sandals to walk on the beach barefoot.
Needless to say, WY and WF had a great time 'playing' on the beach, 'chasing' and yet running away from the waves which sometimes came in big splashes and sometimes in gentle laps. While watching them, I made some interesting observations of the boys' responses to the waves.
WY seemed a little more cautious. Maybe he's a little older, so he's a little wiser? To ensure that he was not 'washed away' or 'knocked off balance' by the currents, WY's strategy would be to move further out to sea in-between the waves and quickly digging-in his feet in the sand to steady himself before the next waves came in. When the water came splashing in, he would stand still till the waters ebbed away again!
WF, on the other hand, would not be so concerned about 'stablizing' himself in the sand. Instead, he would happily hop-skip to follow the ebbing waters out towards the sea until he sees the next waves coming in again. Then he would immediately turn and make a quick 'escape' by 'running away' from the waters yet again, shrieking all the way in unmistakeable delight!
Both WY and WF would chuckle non-stop..... It was fun just to stand and watch them play.....
All the while, R and I had to keep a close watch on both of them. There were times when I suddenly panicked (because I saw WF running after the ebbing waters which had gone out quite far) and called out loudly to WF not to walk too far off from us towards the ocean! R and I were telling each other, "Aiyoh, if Mother sees this, she is sure to keep screaming at WY and WF and scold us non-stop left, right, centre, top and bottom for letting them frolic in the waters!"
We stayed on the beach for close to an hour and moved along the shore towards the Surfers' Paradise central beachfront. We passed many surfers and surfers wannabes (who were supposed to remain within the areas each marked by a pair of red-yellow flags because these areas were constantly patrolled by lifeguards), sunbathers, sandcastlers and frisbeers.... Everyone was just having such a great time in the Sun, Sand & Sea.....
As we made our way towards the dry sand, I suddenly realised, to my shock, that we had forgotten all about the all-important Sunblock!!! Oh, man! Chum liao!
By the time we got back onto the Esplanade, the boys' hands and feet were so covered with sand that they had to be washed thoroughly. After we were done, we moved off to the malls and visited briefly some souvenir shops along the way.
Shopping was minimal by our SG standard. Most ang-moh's did not seem interested at all in the shops - almost all were headed for the beach, some especially the rather rowdy 'schoolies'* crowds even went about everywhere without any footwear! Only non-beach-going tourists could be seen at the shops, checking out the t-shirts and other touristy gifts.
As we moved along, we tried some Aussie donuts (the dough tasted ok but I hated the icing) and picked up more drinking water. Then we made our way back to the hotel for a quick shower and change of clothes before moving on to our afternoon programme - Infinity and further 'shopping'.....
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* The 'schoolies', as we were told, are the college students who had just finished their college examinations. They are given a week's college vacation and during this week, it is common for them to throng to Surfers' Paradise for their fun on the beach.
In the evenings when we were there, we saw countless groups of these 'schoolies'. Many were so loud and rowdy, it felt quite 'scary' to be near them especially since we were also told that fights would commonly break out amongst the wilder mobs. It was interesting, though, when some of these 'schoolies' actually high-fived us as they marched past us in their groups, singing and cheering at the top of their voices!
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