A Day at UM

Yesterday there was a lot of activity in the parking lot across from my office (the parking lot for the bookstore). People set up booths to publicize campus clubs, highlight issues, and sell stuff. Here are some photos.





Shopping




Food


Drinks


One of My Favorite Places on Campus

Daily Fresh is a little stall on campus that sells little cups of corn (Malaysians appreciate "corn, the edible vegetable"). This is also where I buy my daily glass of iced lemon tea.



Notice that the girls in the foreground caught me taking the photo and flashed me the peace sign (I don't think that it is possible for amy Malaysian girl to have her picture taken without sticking her two fingers up). Obviously, I have not done a good enough job spreading "guns up" on campus.

Pulau Tenggol- the Trip Home

On the trip home from Pulau Tengoll we stopped for lunch at a roadside cafe in the coastal state of Terengganu. I was able to watch 8 freshwater otters playing in the river next to the cafe (I have only ever seen one freshwater otter in the US, so I was pretty excited). When we got into the cafe there was a large table full of pans with various dishes in them (and obviously, not a single one of them had something that I recognized like a hamburger). Because Terengganu is famous for its sea food, many of the pans contained various heads, fins, tentacles, and other body parts I wasn't too interested in trying. Fortunately, a couple of the pans contained what looked like chicken (the feet in one of the pans helped to confirm my chicken hypothesis), so I scooped couple of spoonfuls from those pans onto my rice.

As we finished eating our lunch at an outside table, a man climbed the tree next to us, chopped off several branches using a meat cleaver, and then started stripping leaves off of the stems. They told me that the man's father had just died and he was collecting the leaves so that he could boil them to make a liquid that he would use to wash his father's body before he was buried. This washing was intended to protect his father on his continuing journey.

Keropok lekor

After lunch we stopped at a road side store that specialized in making keropok lekol, a Terengganuian specialty. Keropok lekor is basically "fish sausage". It is either served boiled with hot sauce or the rolls are cut into thin slices, dried in the sun, and then deep fried to make a "fish chip". I tried some of the sausage and it was surprisingly good (although it was certainly not Earl Campbell Sausage good).

Boiling the keropok lekor


Fish sausage


Drying sliced keropok lekor in the sun


Fish chips


To learn more about keropok lekor check out
http://www.malaysiabest.net/2006/08/28/keropok-lekor-from-terengganu/


Good Times

The group of divers that I travelled with could not have been better hosts. However, they were big time jokesters so it was always difficult for me to know whether I should trust them when they wanted me to taste something new. Were they trying to share a beloved Malaysian delicacy or were they trying to get me to eat something that tasted bad, would make me sick, or would make my poop smell funny? I never really knew (and I still don't trust a single one of them).

I don't remember when I have spent time with a group of people who laughed as much as these guys did. Several times, during yet another round of laughter, someone would lean over to me and say "you have to learn to speak Malay!". Definitely a great group to spend the weekend with!

Pulau Tenggol- The Diving

The Quest for Whale Sharks!

The purpose of diving at Pulau Tenggol at this time of year is the chance to see whale sharks (the world's largest fish). Although they had seen whale sharks in the area during the previous week and we worked pretty hard to find one, we were not fortunate enough to see the big guys this trip. Luckily, there was plenty of other stuff to see underwater.

Going Diving

Gearing up.


Heading to the boat


The Diving

Coral Bleaching

Unfortnunately, the most obvious thing to me about the diving at Tenggol was the massive amount of coral bleaching that had occured. I had heard that bleaching was a problem on the east coast dive sites, but I didn't know how bad things were until I saw it for myself.

What is coral bleaching? To understand this you need to know just a little bit of biology. Corals are an amazing symbiosis of two organisms, and animal and a plant. the animals are from the Phylum Cnidaria (also contains the jelly fish). Each individual Cnidarian polyp is quite small, but thousand and thousands of individual polyps live together to form large corals. The corals secrete calcium carbonate to make the exoskeleton that over time builds up to form the coral reef. The coral polyps feed by filtering small particles and organisms out of the water. Living inside of the coral polyps are little photosynthetic algae known as zoozanthellae. The coral polyps and zoozanthellae live together in a mutualistic relationship; the coral polyps benefit because they get energy from the algae and the algae benefit because the polyp provides a safe place to live and also supplies other needed resources. Coral polyps are colorless, so corals are naturally colorless (white). It is the zoozanthellae that provide color to the corals.

When corals are stressed by pollution, high temperatures, sedimentation etc., then the mutualism between the polyps and the zooxanthellae breaks down and the algae leave the polyps. Without the zooxanthellae living inside them the corals now appear white (coral bleaching). The coral polyps are still alive, but without the energy they gained from the symbiotic algae they are not able to grow as well. In some cases, the corals will eventually regain their zooxanthellae and things pretty much return to normal. In other cases, the corals do not regain their zooxanthellae and the coral eventually dies. I hope the latter scenario does not occur in Malaysia.

If you want to learn more about corals and coral bleaching check out a presentation I made for a class I taught last fall (OK, this presentation has 123 slides in it, but it is pure Dr. McG brilliance, so I know that you will want to savor every slide). This presentation talks about corals and discusses some of the theories about the causes of coral bleaching.

http://www.slideshare.net/secret/MXAjnaF502X8PL

You can also look at an Environment in Focus presentation on coral bleaching from the Encyclopedia of Earth.

http://www.earthportal.org/?p=1019

Here is a link to an article in today's Star Newspaper about coral bleaching in Malaysia entitled "Corals on the brink"
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/7/29/nation/6746036&sec=nation

Still Lots of Cool Things to See
(all of these underwater photos were taken by Yati Ahmad)

Nudibranchs


Gorgonians


Stingray


Anemone fish


Dog-faced pufferfish


Shrimp


Enjoying The Surface Interval
This photo is taken from almost the exact spot where the sea turtle dug its second nest later on that night.



Ready to Dive Again Tomorrow


Anyone who has ever been diving with me should be able to spot my gear!

Pulau Tenggol- Sea Turtle Egg Laying

As anyone who has ever been diving knows, floating in the water watching fish and coral, eating, and napping in the sun are exhausting work, so usually divers hit the sack a little earlier than normal. I crashed around 9:00 PM on Friday night, but I must have been in a party mood on Saturday because I made it all the way to 9:30. I was just getting ready to turn in when one of my cabin mates told me there was a sea turtle laying eggs on the beach!! I have seen sea turtles lay eggs on many times on the Discovery Channel but I doubted that I would ever get to see it in person. I guess it is a pretty common sight along the east coast of Malaysia so most people had seen it before. I was a "sea turtle egg laying virgin" so I thought it was supercool!



The green sea turtle (I think) who was a bit less than one meter long, was digging her nest just a couple of meters from where we sat and relaxed between dives. She started digging a nest hole next to a boat that was stored on the beach. After at least an hour of digging she left that hole, moved about 2 meters and started digging a new hole. The front flippers of sea turtles are amazing adaptations for swimming, but are not the most efficient shovels. The female digs a nest by throwing back sand with a swimming motion of her front flippers. After working on her second hole for 45 minutes to an hour she abandoned that hole, moved a few more meters, and started digging yet another hole. I don't know whether she dug multiple holes in because she failed to find a suitable egg laying spot, or to try to make it harder for predators to discover her true nest. Finally she was satisfied and eventually she started to lay eggs.

One of the guys that worked at the resort had formerly worked at a turtle hatchery so he knew how to work with the turtle. He was able to sneak up behind the turtle, reach his hand into the ground beneath the turtle, and dig a hole to where the turtle was releasing his eggs. He had me join him on the sand and I was able to reach my hand below her body into the hole where she actually laid eggs in my hand!!! Unbelieveable!!!



The eggs are leathery and about the size of golf balls. I didn't get an exact final count of the number of eggs that she laid, but it must have been somewhere between 75and 100 eggs. The people from the resort collected the eggs and will rebury them on a part of the beach that they protect from visitors and potential predators. I think they said that these eggs would hatch in about 80 days. Maybe I will be able to see the little turtles make a mad dash to the sea before I leave Malaysia.





We had to be careful not to scare the turtle while she was digging the nest. Fortunately, there was enough light filtering down from the resort that you could see everthing very clearly. But once she was busy laying eggs it appears that nothing could distract her! She obviously attracted a big crowd and she didn't seem to care when people petted her or took her picture.



Eventually, she finished laying eggs and began the slow process of covering up the eggs by throwing sand on them, just as she did to dig the nest. We were able to stand close enough to her during this process that she would throw sand on us as well (one guy got sand in his camera). The burial process was quite slow and by then it had started to rain and I was tired so I left her to finish her night on the beach all alone.



In the morning you could see the tracks she made as she returned to the sea.

Dive Trip to Pulau Tenggol

I spent a three day weekend on a scuba trip to Tenggol Island off of the east coast of the Malaysian peninsula. Because I am such a scuba fanatic, one of the requirements (OK, the key requirement) for countries that I was interested in visiting during my development leave was that they have good diving. I finally got the chance to see a bit of Malaysia underwater.



The Trip There

I was invited to go on the trip by Yati Ahmad, a professor from UKM (the National University of Malaysia). Julie Sewani, one of the Malaysian grad students at Tech, introduced me to Yati because she thought that Yati would be a potential collaborator of the work I want to do here and because she is a diving nut as well. When Yati invited me to come along on a weekend trip I was happy to join in. We had a group of about 14 divers, most of whom had been diving together many times before (as the non-stop laughter from the back of the bus on the trip down showed).

We met on UKM campus late Thursday night and hopped on the bus about midnight. I was picturing us travelling in the classic yellow school bus (yes the school busses are yellow here as well), but we had a very nice "coach". Because I had stayed up a bit late the night before at a birthday celebration, I had no trouble sleeping most of the way there. In the morning we made a rest stop at a gas station. When I returned to the bus no one was there; they had all gone across the street for their morning prayers (just like when Andy, Terry, and I drive to Balmorhea). I later woke up to the sounds of "gobbling" and was surprised to see a bunch of turkeys wandering through the parking lot of the restaraunt where everyone else was having breakfast in the coastal town of Dungun.



The trip across the penisula took about 7 hours. We eventually jumped on a boat in Dungan for the half hour trip to Tenggol Island. Most of the island is surrounded by rocky shoreline, so the resorts are located on the same protected bay with a long sandy beach.

Tenggol Resort


Tenggol Resort (not to be confused on with the Tenggol Island Beach Resort and the Tenggol Island Resort- they are quite clever with their names there) is located at the extreme southern end of the sandy beach. Accomodations were basic and rustic. I shared a room in a small cabin with three other guys; the food was family style and quite good. Most importantly, the scuba facilities and the dive guides were great. Here is a view of where I spent my weekend (the sacrifices I make to spread good relations between the US and Malaysia!).

The cabin where I stayed.


The view from my cabin.


The dining area


The view from the beach.


The beach.



I will post more reports about my adventures over the weekend. I will wait until everyone posts their UW photos on Facebook before I show you about the diving.

I Fought Bureaucracy and Maybe It Was a Draw

I have been waiting for several weeks for my visa to be finalized. Without a finalized visa I can not get a bank account, formally sign a lease for my apartment, etc. Therefore, many people are concerned about my vias. The folks from MACEE called and learned that visa had been approved, so hopefully all I had to do today was to pick up the visa from UM and then head down town to open up a bank account. If only things were so easy.

It took two trips to campus before I had the right paperwork. Then, they took my passport and said I will get it and my visa sometime next week. I still had to go into town so that I could pick up my check (which can not be direct deposited into my non-existent bank account). I of course arrived down town while MACEE was closed for lunch so I had lunch in the Food Court of the Pavillion Mall (claypot chicken rice with vegetables). I was glad to spend some time in the AC to dry off the sweat I had worked up on the way down there. What should have been a nice 10 minute walk from the mall to MACEE just happened to conicide with today's monsoon. My sweat stains were quckly washed off by the pouring rain.

After MACEE it was a 25 minute walk to the Citibank in Ampang Park, the only place where I can cash my check. By now it was just drizzling; I would like to say a cooling drizzle, but the thermometer on the bank said 36 degrees C (which is a lovely 97 F). When I got to the bank, of course I needed my passport to cash my check (which I had given to people at UM earlier in the day). I had a copy of my passport and my Texas drivers liscence. After much thought they decided that I had sufficient ID to cash the check. I think they thought that just giving me my money was their best way of getting the wet, sweatty man out of their bank.

Learning Time- Week 2

Even a near-sighted poorly-educated chimp flying overhead would recognize the extreme differences between the ecosystems of West Texas and those of Malaysia. Here I will try to figure out what causes these differences and why the ecosystems have the exact characteristics that they do.

We often define ecosystems and biomes based on the characteristics of the dominant plants in that region (i.e., forests are dominated by trees and prairies are dominated by grasslands). Thus, if we want to understand the causes of the differences between different ecosystems, it might be helpful to start by studying how the abiotic (non-living) environment affects the types of plants that grow in a region.

Primary Productivity- Plants use the process of photosynthesis to convert electromagnetic energy in sunlight in to chemical energy (potential energy) stored in the chemical bonds of the sugar glucose. It is the energy in glucose that provides the energy for virtually all organisms on the planet. The rate at which sunlight is converted into sugar is known as primary productivity (usually measured as the mass of carbon produced/per area/per time).

The rate of photosynthesis is influenced by a number of factors including moisture availability and temperature. Not surprisingly, areas that are warmer and wetter (e.g., tropical rainforests) tend to have higher rates of primary productivity than areas that are cold and dry (e.g, arctic tundra). Interestingly, the types of plants that grow in a region depend on the amount of precipitation and the temperature as well.

What is going on in Texas? As you move from west to east across Texas, there is an increase in precipitation. Here is the pattern of vegetation that you would see-

- In southwestern Texas where precipitation is very low, you would find the Chihuahuan Desert. The dominant plants in desert ecosystem are "woody" plants like cacti and desert shrubs (e.g., mesquite and creosote).


- As you move further east, the precipitation increases. Deserts are replaced by prairies in which the dominant plant type are grasses. Grasses have a unique growth form that allows them to deal with abiotic factors (fire) and biotic factors (large grazers such as bison) that are characteristic of prairie ecosystems.

- In east Texas, where precipitation is much greater the prairies are replaced by forests, so of course the dominant plant growth form is trees.

What is going on in Malaysia? The precipitation in most of Malaysia is much greater than in any part of Texas. Not surprisingly, plant growth in Malaysia is not limited by the plants ability to take up water, but instead by their ability to get light. Because light always shines down, the tallest plant always wins when competing for light. Thus, tropical rainforests have very tall trees and epiphytes, small plants that grow on top of other plants.


The presentation "Deserts, Prairies, and Forests" attempt to explain why we see these patterns. http://www.slideshare.net/secret/aVrFdv9S7038HJ Enjoy!!

VIPs From the State Department

The Fulbright Proram that is supporting my visit to Malaysia is funded by the US Department of State. The Fulbright is only one of many education programs funded by the State Department.

Alina Romanowski, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Academic Programs, and Matthew McMahon, the Chief of the East Asia and Pacific Fulbright program spent several days visiting Malaysia. They met with officials from the Ministry of Education, visited the Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Program in Teregganu, a stat on the east coast of the Malaysian peninsula, and promoted opportunities for Malaysians to spend time in the US. If I have my figures correct, about 6000 Malaysians have participated in exhange programs with the US and the goal of the State Department is to greatly increase that number.

Press Interview. Yesterday, they were scheduled to have an interview with the local press to discuss the Fulbright Program in Malaysia. They wanted to have a Malaysian Fulbrighter who had studied in the US and an American Fulbrighter who was currently in Malaysia join in the interview as well. Dr. Chien-Sing Lee, an Associate Professor from Multimedia University in Selangor, Malaysia, divided her time in the US between Lehigh University in Pennsylvania and Georgia Tech. Because I am currently the only US Fulbrighter in KL, the other is in Borneo, I was elected.

I enjoyed chatting with Alina and Mathew a bit before the interview started. They asked many good questions, but unfortunately I have not been here long enough to be able to give them very good answsers. Nicholas Papp, the U.S. Embassy Cultural Affairs Officer orchestrated the interview making sure that all of the photo ops were perfect and keeping everything running on schedule. It was fun to watch a professional at work.

Alumni Reception. In the afternoon I was invited to attend a round table reception for Malaysian Alumni of State Department supported programs. Because there are programs aimed at high school students, college undergraduates, graduate students, and professionals and scholars there was a wide range of particiants at the reception. It was very interesting for me to hear a little bit about their experiences while they were in the States. It was especially for me to meet college students who had spent a year at Montana State University and Mankato State University in Minnesota to hear how they coped with their first exposure to winter and one who spent her year at Jackson State University, in Mississippi, a predominately black university.

I am sorry that I still haven't figured out all of the exchange programs sponsored by the US government, but here are brief descriptions of some of the programs whose alumni I met yesterday.

Humphrey Program- The Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program is a Fulbright program that brings accomplished mid-level professionals to the United States for a year of academic and professional work. By providing future leaders and policy makers with experience in U.S. society, culture, and professional fields, the program provides a basis for lasting, productive ties between Americans and their professional counterparts overseas.

Kennedy-Lugar Youth and Study Program (YES)- The YES Program support exchanges and relationship building between high school students from countries with significant Muslim populations and the people of the United States. Malaysian students with insufficient English skills to partitipate in the program are enrolled in an intensive English learning program.

Study of US Institutions- Study of the US Institutes is an exchange programs for University Students. Students spend about 5 weeks in the US. Recent programs have focused on issues related to the Environment and New Media.

Tourists!!!

After living in Malaysia for a little over six weeks now and learning at least three phrases in Malay (although I must admit I haven't had the guts to try them out in public, because I don't think that my Texas accent leads me to speak like a native- any time I try saying Malay words people start giggling uncontrollably), I am starting to feel like a true resident of Malaysia. UM, where I work, and PJ, where I live, are normal cross sections of Malaysian society, so I don't see too many white folks on a regular basis.

This weekend I spent two evenings back in Bukit Bintang, one of the main tourist hang outs in KL. The main drag of BB is known as the "Bintang Walk" where you can sit and literally watch the world pass by; there are visitors from all over the globe. It was surprising to me that after only 6 weeks here, I found it wierd to see white people (and because most of them were from Europe, they are really really white- apparently the sun never shines in Europe... or is the black socks they wear with their sandals that make them seem so pale). Not only was I surrounded by "foreigners" but they were "tourists!!!" (Poor lost confused tourists, I am so glad that I have moved past that stage).

The number of tourists from the Middle-East was much higher than it was when I stayed in BB when I first arrived six weeks ago (summer vacation in Saudi Arabia??). I still find it a bit odd to see a man in shorts and a t shirt walking down the street with his wife covered in the full black bhurka. I have not done the appropriate scientific survey, but I am pretty sure that the favorite place to eat of the visitors from the Middle East is the Golden Arches of McDonalds.

Friday night I shopped a bit and then ate outdoors at a Chinese restaruant on the corner just a black off of the Bintang Walk (Tigga might remember the place) where I had Chinese ribs cooked in a clay pot. Saturday night was steak at a Chinese steak house (The Ship) followed by the "Sexy Diva Show" performed by "lady boys". You don't see that too often in Lubbock!!! You can imagine my joy when I was the embarassed white guy pulled up on stage to be fought over by the transvestites as part of the show. I hope that the Fulbright Commission recognizes the sacrifices I make to maintain good US-Malaysian relations!

Make sure to join the "Sexy Divas" Facebook group.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=149148&id=311388494726#!/pages/The-Sexy-Divas/311388494726

Interesting Conversations

As I mentioned earlier, I now live in a apartment complex that is attached to a mall. Because I do almost all of my shopping and much of my eating there, I spend a lot of time passing through the mall. Although I see the same salespeople working in the same shops and stalls everyday, I really haven't had any meaningful interaction with any of them, except for Ricky.

Ricky works in a dress shop, and I have to admit that I do not believe that I have ever seen a potential customer in that shop the entire time that I have been here. Thus, extreme boredom might explain Ricky's enthusiasm for talking with me. When I walked past his shop for the first time on the first day I arrived at the mall he stood up, started waving like mad, and yell "Heeeyyyy Heeeyyyy Heeeyyyy". Naturally, like I usually do when strange men are madly waving at me and trying to attract attention, I avoided eye contact and went on my way. He greeted me with similar enthusiasm each time I passed by so I finally decided that I should stop by and say "hello". Ricky has kind of a mod-style haircut, so from a distance he looks quite young. In reality, my guess is that he is in his latethirties. He is an Iban (the largest indigenous group in East Malaysia) from Borneo who has lived in KL for almost 20 years now. He is an interesting dude to talk to.

It seems that I run into Ricky almost everywhere I go around town. Last week I was walking through PJ when a waiter started running down the street yelling "Mark, Mark". I couldn't figure out how in the world a local waiter in a cafe I had never visited could possibly know my name, but then I realized that Ricky was inside and had him call me over. For someone who I am guessing is only minimally educated, Ricky has a wide range and eclectic set of knowledge. I was completely surprised when he could name more members of the US Men's Volleyball team from the 1980s than I could.

I ran into him the other night at a cafe in the mall. He asked me exactly where I was from in the US and whether that was in the country or the city. He then asked me to tell him about the Amish. There are many tibits of knowledge about the US that I was prepared to share with people I met in Malaysia, but a detailed explanation of the Amish was not one of them. I am sure that it was interesting to hear a Texas guy explaining about the Pennsylvania Amish to a Muslim guy from Borneo. I guess that I should look up "Amish" in Wikipedia to see exactly how much misinformation I passed along.

First Day of Class

I had the first meeting with my class today. I am usually pretty apprehensive before the first day of any class, and given the possible difficulties with language and culture I was even more nervous today.

There were ten students in the class, nine from various parts of Malaysia and one from Iran: six males and four females. I had fun and I hope that they did as well. It appeared to me that they followed most of what I said; they nodded their heads at the correct time and they at least appeared to recognize when I was trying to be funny (and believe me, as usual, I was very funny).

Because of the way that Malay and Chinese family names and given names are ordered, I will be known as "Dr. Mark" while I am here. I was Dr. Mark for 6 summers working with Odyssey Expeditions on the sailboat in the Caribbean so I should respond if anyone ever calls me that.

I asked them some questions about themselves and here are some of the things that I learned. (1) The average number of languages spoken is well above three which has me beat by at least two (and some might argue even more). (2) Their career goals included being a member of Korean boy band, make-up artist, language interpreter and translator, ecologist, marine biolgist, and conservation biologist. (3) Their favorite US TV shows included Malcom in the Middle, Everyody Loves Raymond, Heroes, Gray's Anatomy, Desperate Housewifes, and America's Next Top Model. About a third of them said that they didn't watch American TV at all. (4) When I asked them to tell me "one interesting thing" about themselves they told me they liked Korean music (the boyband guy), loved cats, liked to dance, could bend his fingers back util they touched his arm (I've got to check that out next time), they liked video games, liked martial arts, played the guitar, and liked to watch animals- all pretty similar to what I hear when I ask the same questions at Tech.

My class only meets once a week (you can imagine how all of this lecturing is going to wear me out) so I won't see them again for a while. I was one of those "jerk" professors that gave homework on the first day.

I have a teaching blog for the class and you are welcome to follow along.
http://umspecialtopics.blogspot.com/
It doesn't seem fair for you to get all of this "learning" for free, but when I checked with UM about how you could pay tuition it seemed too complicated. Thus, I suggest a sizeable donation to the Dr. McGinley Travel Fund instead. I promise these funds will be spread around at various dive resorts in Malaysia.

Last Day of My "Summer Vacation"

Everyone know that the only reason that anyone ever chooses to be a professor is that we get three months off every summer. As most of you know, I generally make pretty good use of my summer vacations. In a tropcial country like Malaysia (KL is located about 8 degress north of the equator), there is no "summer" or "winter" (instead I think that they have dry and wet seasons), so things run on a different schedule. The new school term at universities in Malaysia starts today, which means my summer vacation is over (what a rip off)! So I decided to make the most of my last day of summer vacation by playing tourist in KL; I visited Batu Caves and the National Zoo.

Batu Caves

Batu Caves is a series of very large caves located in a limestome outcrop about 8 miles north of KL. The largest cave, Cathedral Cave, is 100 meters high with openings in the ceiling that let natural light into the cave (even with my calustophic dislike of caves I had no trouble here). Batu Caves is the location of an important Hindu shrine.

You are greeted by a 140 foot tall staue of the Hindu deity Murugan. (according to Wikipedia, this statue contains 1550 cubic metres of concrete, 250 tons of steel bars and 300 litres of gold paint and took three years to build). You have to climb 272 steps to reach the cave (I counted until about 20 steps, but then I got bored so I will take Wikipedia's word- it was a lot of steps).

Looking Down


Looking Up


Once you get inside of the cave (which is magnificent, and as usual, none of the photos I took could do it justice) there is a temple and in every nook and cranny there are little statues that tell the stories such as Murugan's victory over the demon Soorapadam.



Along the stairway and inside the cave their are a large number of macaques(monkeys) that people feed coconuts, peanuts, bananas, etc. I am such a Texas boy that seeing these obviously overly-familiar-with-human monkeys was still exciting to me.





Each year Thaipusam, a Hindu holiday, attracts large numbers of visitors to Batu Caves (up to 800,000!!). Because Thaipusam occurs in January or February, I will give a full report on this holiday then (it looks pretty wild). I am pretty sure that even in Catherdral Cave I would feel claustrophic sharing the cave with 800,000 of my closest friends!

For more info about Batu Caves you can check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batu_Caves.

National Zoo (Zoo Negara)

Because I am here to learn more about the flora, fauna, and ecology of Malaysia, I was excited to get a change to visit the National Zoo. It was quite a nice zoo and I was able to see several of the Malaysian species that I have only been able to read about so far.

By the time we got to the zoo it was warming up in the middle of the afternoon. Most of the Malaysian animals were smart enough to be just chillin' out in the shade. Surprisingly, the animals from North America, in particular the mountain lions, were the most active animals at the zoo. I think they feel like I do- "I am not going to feel cool here even while resting in the shade, so I may as well be active and enjoy life".

Here are some shots of my favorites.

Asian Elephant


Guar


Orangutan



You can find more information about the National Zoo at http://www.zoonegara.org.my/index.htm