Tears On My Algae

This is what it sounds like when algae cries.

No, those are not very large crying algae. They are, as you suspected, monkeys.

Don't worry if you're mystified, all will be clear soon. However, first I must fill you in on some of the prerequisite knowledge you need to continue, given in no logical order, just as it occurs to me to list it.

• You know how some flavors are just more popular than others? Like consider ice cream. If you ask people for their favorite ice cream flavor, you will get many answers. But you are going to get a lot more people who answer chocolate than those who answer pistachio or birthday cake or (shudder) durian. Well, in some parts of the world, durian will rate higher, but you understand my meaning. Mosquitoes must have similar variation in which humans they bite for blood. Different mosquitoes like different humans, but some humans are the favorites of more mosquitoes than others. In the big picture of mosquito preference, I am a pistachio, not highly favored. My daughter is a chocolate; many, many mosquitoes love her. And while it is nice to be loved, it's less nice when what they love is sucking your blood.
• There is a musical called The Scarlet Pimpernel based on the book of the same name. In that musical, there is a song called The Creation of Man. And in that song there is a recurring line
  La, but someone has to strike a pose
  and bear the weight of well-tailored clothes.
  That is why the Lord created man.
• It is common, in Southeast Asia, to visit a public restroom and find that, once you have washed your hands, there is no paper towel nor hand dryer with which to eliminate the remaining manual dampness. This is not exclusive to Southeast Asia, either.
• Our daughter, Syarra, is visiting us in Kuala Lumpur during her winter break.
• This past Saturday was the night of the new moon.

These bullet points above are preparatory for my new discovery, a second benefit of pants. You would assume the first benefit is to keep your legs warm. That may be true, but I dismiss the obvious. Consider the third bullet point above. What would you do after you had washed your hands and there was no practical drying mechanism? I don't want to speak for you, but I will speak for me. I would dry them on my pants. And when this occurs, frequently, I sing some variation of the following to Alrica:
When you soap your hands and rinse them clean
But find no towels or blowing machine
That is why the Lord created pants.

Reference the second bullet point above if needed.

As you may have guessed, a lighthouse.

On Saturday we took a trip out of Kuala Lumpur by van to a smaller town called Kuala Selangor. It is along the Selangor River. The drive out was about 90 minutes and then we visited a few sites. First we went to Bukit Malawati or Malawati Hill. It is a high point in the region where, at one time, there was a fort and there is still a lighthouse. The historical aspects of the hill were somewhat lost for us. We did see a rock called The Bedrock. And a sign told us either it was a place the Sultan liked to sit so he could look down on the city or a place where people were beheaded. Who knows? Maybe both. There was no real explanation of what the history was. But there were monkeys, many monkeys on the hill.

More monkeys!

Our next stop was a seafood restaurant for dinner. We had fried rice, seasoned vegetables, a fish dish with a savory sauce and other vegetables, a chicken dish with a different savory sauce and different other vegetables, and fried prawns with no sauce and no vegetables. We also got Chinese tea to drink. Tea is not a particular preference of mine (not as low as durian, but not as high as pistachio.) But I'm adjusting.

Sunset over the Selangor River

After dinner, we got on a boat in the Selangor River. First, the boat took us upriver to an area full of fireflies. We slowly trolled through the water near the bank, looking into the bushes and scrub full of flickering lights. It was interesting to me, because this is not at all the way I remember fireflies (or what we called lightning bugs.) When I was a boy in Iowa, the summer nights were full of lightning bugs. They would fly around, light up, their light would stay on for several seconds as they zoomed around, and then it would go out again. Here, these fireflies just blinked on and then almost immediately off, over and over in quick succession. It was like looking at flickering Christmas lights. It was also interesting how many people have never seen fireflies before. You don't see them in the summer in Iowa anymore. I imagine our many pesticides have done a wonderful job of wiping them out.

They gave me a life vest for a man twice my size. Glad I didn't fall in.

After seeing the fireflies, we finally got to the main reason we had chosen this tour. It is called The Blue Tears. The boat took us downriver and out into the Malacca Strait. Then the boat slowed to a crawl (crawling on water so would you call it a dog paddle?) and the driver gave us all small fishing nets. We dipped our nets into the water and saw something magical. It was a blue glow being churned and caught in our nets. Since it was a new moon, there was little light in the sky, and it was very easy to see.

This is not the only place in the world you can see this phenomenon. But here in the Malacca Straight, what you are seeing is algae. It is a marine plankton algae called dinoflagellates. Within these single-celled organism is a chemical called luciferin. I'm sure it is named for Lucifer, but not so much in his aspect as a devil. I think it is because Lucifer means Light-bearer or Light-Bringer. When the algae are agitated, they come in contact with excess oxygen. This makes the luciferin in them glow blue. So when we dipped our fishing nets into the water, we were agitating the dinoflagellates and a stream of blue streaked in our nets and just behind them. If you pulled your net out of the water, the algae left in your net continued to glow for several more seconds.

It was fascinating to see. I tried to get a picture, but my cell camera was incapable of picking anything up. The pictures are just fields of black. But I have memories of it in the photo album of my mind. Along with what it sounds like when algae cry.

But wait, what does this have to do with the second benefit of pants? Understand, it was dusk or past dusk while we were on the boat. The mosquitoes were out in force. We had applied mosquito repellent and perhaps it helped. One can only wonder what would have happened had we not. Personally, I didn't have much problem. Remember, I am at best pistachio to the mosquitoes. But Syarra, well, she was much more popular with them than I. The good news is that Syarra was wearing long pants. A woman sitting across from us, another mosquito favorite, was wearing shorts. And she was being eaten alive. Syarra, unfortunately, was not wearing long sleeves, so she still had her share of unpleasant mosquito affection.

Seeing how strongly affected was the woman in shorts, this gave me a second reason to sing the praises of pants. I present it to you herewith: Or forthwith: Whichever with is the proper with:
La, when insects need to feed their eggs
Why offer a buffet of your legs?
That is why the Lord created pants.