Twinkle, Twinkle Little Fireflies

What fun we had Friday night!   D. and I found a very interesting operation called "Spiral Synergy".  It's run by a lady who organizes events and outings in the Penang area.  One such outing was called "Fireflies by Night."  A total of nineteen folks signed up and we all met at 5:30 the G Hotel, which was our home-away-from-home every summer for four years.  It felt odd to be at the hotel and not be staying in Room 505, but we have our own "unit" to stay in now.  Anyway, the place was teeming with nametag-wearing Chinese businessmen who were having a major convention there. 

     Once our highly multi-national group assembled, we boarded our "air-conditioned coach" and pulled away, over the bridge to the mainland Penang State, a journey that took a bit over an hour due to Friday evening "rushing-hour" traffic, according to Baxter, our friendly and professional bus guide. We were bound for a sleepy little fishing village called Nibong Tebal, which has "seen the light," (so to speak) and decided to make firefly viewing their local tourist attraction.  In fact, a few years ago, they planted thousands of the special kind of mangrove tree that fireflies prefer all along the river leading out to the sea.  

    It wasn't nearly dark enough yet, so we stopped at a famous, though decidedly undramatic, semi-outdoor eatery where the specialty of the house is crab rice porridge and boiled baby octopus. Well, actually, it wasn't QUITE as outdoor as this picture would imply--there were plenty of seats under the roof, and all of them populated with extended Malaysian families.  So, we all ate our fill and off we went to a very rural driveway that was the start of the firefly viewing adventure.  We all donned life vests and traipsed a few yards down to the pier, where we hopped into a biggish tour boat and off we went.  It was pretty dark by then, and the boat hugged the riverbanks so we could see the fireflies clustered in the mangrove trees that overhang the river.  

     Now, I remember the occasional, lazy fireflies of my youth in Illinois, flitting here and there, moving across our front yard.  Well, these fireflies were a whole different story!  They were like Japanese salarymen, all hopped up on energy drinks.  For one thing, they weren't in all the trees--only in the kind they prefer.  So, there would be several dark trees in a row and then--bam!--suddenly there would be a firefly-laden tree, with so many of them they looked like strings of Christmas tree lights, though not as bright.  I understand that these Malaysian fireflies are a small species, so small that 2-3 of them could be lined up on your thumb.  Mostly they stayed low, near the water, though occasionally there were a few up high.  In some trees, the colony had gotten its act together, so to speak, and they were almost all twinkling in unison.  That looked like a pale version of those chasing Xmas tree lights.  It looked as though they were all stationary, but when I looked them up, it said the females are actually sitting still, flashing merrily, while the males move around in front of them, looking for an invitation to. . . .well, you know.   What fun and how mysterious it was to move along that dark river at night and see those sudden clumps of sparkling lights along the way!  It was the most fun I've had in quite a while, and best of all, I didn't have to organize it, drive, park or any of the other things that make an outing more of a chore when you're in charge of it.  Many thanks to Spiral Synergy!