Mark McGinley's Fulbright in Malaysia

Final Thoughts

2011-05-22T18:09:00.000-07:00

The South Lllano River flows throught the TTU Field Station in Junction, Texas.

I started writing my first post for this blog while I was proctoring the Final Exam for the Field Ecology class that I was teaching at our field station in Junction, TX last year. It seems only fitting and symmetric for me to write my final post while this year's students are taking their exam. (Still love the nervous sweat!)

For those of you used to tropical rainforests, this is what it looks like during one of the most severe droughts in Texas in recorded history.

I have never attempted to write a blog before and I had no idea it would become such a major part of my time in Malaysia. I was surprised to learn that people were actually looking at it and were eagerly awaiting the next post (OK, "eagerly awaiting" is probably a bit strong). Once people started looking at the blog, I realized that I had to continue to post regularly and ocassionally, I had to have something interesting to tell you. Luckily, there were lots of things happening to me that I thought would be good to share with the folks back home. After a while, people from Malaysia started reading the blog as well so they could see an American's perspective of things going on in Malaysia. I am surprised to see that I have made almost 300 blog posts in the last year and that the blog received over 19,000 hits.

I was hoping that I would have lots of words of wisdom for my final post, but I think that I will leave that for another time. I know that I still need to process a lot of the information. I look forward to writing and talking about my experiences in the future. If anyone has any questions then please let me know. I am sure that I will be ready to hit the lecture circuit soon.

Thanks

There are so many people that I want to thank for making this whole thing possible. First, of all I would like to thank the Fulbright Commission for supporting me during my time in Malaysia and Texas Tech University for allowing me a Devlopmental Leave (it appears that Tech was able to muddle through in my absence).

In Malaysia I would like to thank the faculty, staff and students at University of Malaya for being such wonderful hosts. I just read that UM has moved up three spots to #39 in the Asian University rankings during the past year (there is no need to thank me- I was happy to help out).

I also want to thank everyone at MACEE and the US Embassy for all of the help and support that they provided throughout my stay. I also enjoyed meeting all of the Malaysians who were alumni of exchange programs in the US and I thank them for sharing their experiences with me and trying to make my transition to Malaysia as simple as possible. I also want to thank all of the people who helped me to live, eat, shop, move around, and generally survive in a foreign land; I appreciate how generous everyone was with their efforts to make me feel at home. Thanks, and good bye, to all of the great people I met during my travels around Malaysia. Hopefully, our paths will cross again sometime in the future.

Thanks to my fellow Fulbrighters. It was great to have others around who were sharing this experience. We never had enough time together, but the times we had were memorable. Who is in charge of planning the reunion party? I could host it in Lubbock, but somehow I doubt if anyone would show up.

All of the Malaysian Fulbrighters except for Veer and Meg.

Special thanks to the student Fulbrighters who were stationed in the Penisula (Michael, Jaki, and Meg). I appreciate it that you made me an honorary member of Team Fulbright!

I love this photo of Michael and Jaki in their "Malaysian Gothic" pose. 1Malaysia

I would also like to send my appreciation out to all of you that have ever checked out the blog. It was fun sharing my adventures with you. I hope that you gained some appreciation of what a wonderful country Malaysia is and maybe even learned a thing or two.

If anyone has any questions or comments please don't hesitate to contact me.

Signing off,

Mark

mark.mcginley@ttu.edu

:) LSF

Is There A Fulbright In Your Future?

2011-05-22T18:01:00.000-07:00

My time as a Fulbright Scholar has been a great experience. I urge anyone interested in spending some time abroad and learning about a new culture to consider applying for a Fulbright. This not only applies to US citizens interested in spending time in another country, but also to foreign citizens interested in sititing the US.

Fulbright offers programs for professionals, scholars, and students so almost anyone can give it a try. Most of the applicants for the Fulbright Scholar program that I was funded by are university professors, but professionals are also encouraged to apply. You can check these websites for mor information.

The Fulbright Program in general
http://www.iie.org/fulbright

The Fulbright Scholars Program
http://www.cies.org/

Fulbright US Student Program
http://www.iie.org/en/Programs/Fulbright-US-Student-Program

Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Program (ETA)
http://fulbright.state.gov/uploads/4c/0a/4c0ac0cbd6cd72c20372d1b28d9b9805/Fulbright-ETA-Program.pdf

All of the News That's Fit to Print

2011-05-21T07:03:00.000-07:00

One of the main purposes of the Fulbright Program is to allow scholars/students to learn more about their host country (and then share it with the folks back home). It seemed to me that one of the best ways to learn about what was going on in Malaysia was to pay attention to what was going on in the news. I was only able to understand the 30 minute newscast broadcast in English each day so most of my news came from reading newspapers and the internet.

I think I have probably said this before, but I find it interesting/strange/concerning that the major newspapers are actually owned by the different political parties. For example, the main English daily in KL was owned by the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) which is part of the ruling BN coalition. The editor of the main Malay newspaper owned by the United Malay National Organization (UMNO), the main component of the BN government, actually said that his main job was to support the party (silly me, I though that a newspaper's job was to accurately report the news. You know, "we report, you decide".) Thus, you had to be aware of the inherent bias of each of the news sources while reading them. Information on the web received less governmental control, so most of the information criticizing the government was published on on-line news site and blogs.

Originally, I was interested in going into the details of a number of stories, but now I have decided that these may not be off too much interest to outsiders and that anyone in Malaysia would have heard more about these stories than they ever wanted to. Instead I will focus on the major ongoing story in the Malaysian news.

Anwar Ibrahim

By far the most interesting (and bizzare) stories in Malaysia involve Anwar Ibrahim. For the secoind time Anwar, the leader of political coalition that is in opposition to the current Malaysian government and former Deputy Prime Minister, is on trial for sodomy (a sexual act "against the order of nature"). Anwar was convicted at the end of his first trial and was imprisoned for several year before the conviction was overturned. In 2008 he was accused of sodomizing an male aide so he is currently on trial for this offense. Anwar claimed that he was innocent of all charges and there are many people who believe that the charges have been orchestrated by government officials to remove Anwar as a threat for political power.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anwar_Ibrahim

Sodomy II

The best concise descrition of the whole episode that I can find is in the article linked below. Please do not read this if you are a kid or easily offended because the details are quite graphic.

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/sodomy-ii-evidence-testimony-and-anwars-defence/

Some highlights of the case.

The accuser, a 20-something guy named Saiful, claims that he did not go to the bathroom or change his underwear until he went to the police two days after the alleged event so the evidence was still in place

Some of the police work related to the collection, storage, and analaysis of DNA evidence reminds me of the Keystone Cops (it is clear that the Malaysian police have never watched CSI).

At the beginning of the trial, Saiful was allegedly having a romantic relationship with a female lawyer who was part of the prosecution team. She eventually was removed from the team.

Key evidence that was originally excluded because it was apparently collected illegally has now been allowed to be introduced.

The way the Malaysian legal system works is that the prosecution presents their case and if the judge is convinced that the evidence is good enough to support the charge, then he will order the accused to present their defense. Last week the judge ordered Anwar's legal team to present their defense starting in June. I will have to follow the trial via long distance.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anwar_Ibrahim_sodomy_trials

Anwar Sex Tape

But wait, this story is going to get even better. A few months back someone, known only as "Datuk T", invited a select group of journalist to meet at one of the most exclusive and expensive hotels in KL to view a video allegedly showing a leading member of the political opposition having sex with a female Chinese prostitute (I am not sure how anyone knows that she is Chinese and not Malaysian-Chinese, but she is always claimed to be Chinese. I guess that means that there must be no Malaysian prostitutes).

According to reports in the Malaysian Insider- Datuk T said the person who found the video, only identified in a statement as “The Insider,” was instructed to head back to the hotel to look for the watch after the politician had left the hotel. “Upon close inspection, I found four well-hidden CCTV cameras”.

During the screening this morning, Datuk T said he wanted the media to watch the footage showing the politician before sending the copy to him and his wife “to identify the person in the video” a week from now. If he and his wife do not resign, then we will call for an independent panel of NGOs to conduct a forensic investigation into the video,” he said after the video was screened.

Not surprisingly, the person allegedly shown in the video was claimed to be Anwar (whose wife and daughter are both invovled in politics) so he in involved in yet another scandal.

Datuk T turned out to be a trio of men who either had past ties to the UMNO political party, were involved in pro-Malay NGOs, or otherwise have interesting pasts. They claimed that they had turned over the only copy of the video to the police for further investigation.

(But wait, the story gets better).

Soon a short edited version of the tape (excluding all of the naughty parts) appeared on You Tube. The video showed the man and women dressed in towels and showed that their was a third man in the room with them. This video had a strip across the bottom with word written in Thai saying "Phaholyothin Road Bangkok, Thailand 10400, Copyright 2011"). Was the video shot in Malaysia as claimed by Datuk T or was it filmed in Thailand? Were Datuk T lying when they said that they had returned the only copy of the video to the police or were the police somehow involved in leaking the video (plot thickens).

As this was going on members of the opposition party started to claim that it was not the people photographed in the video who should be in trouble, but instead that Datuk T should be prosecuted for showing pornographic material. So far the police have not prosecuted Datuk T.

Of course it didn't take too long for the full, unedited version of the video to be released including all of the "naked details" (still noone knows who is responsible for leaking the video). Now everyone can decide for themselves- is it, or isn't it Anwar. Not surpringly, Anwar supporters are convinced that it is not him while many people sympathetic to the government have claimed that it is Anwar in the video. The man in the video celarly has man-boobs and a fat belly so Anwar claims it can not be him because he is thin and trim. It has been very sad to have to watch Anwar's wife and daughter have to address questions about whether or not they think that it is their husband/father in the video.

In order to prove that they are not lying, a couple of the Datuk T guys went to the mosque and swore an oath on the Koran. They challenged Anwar to do the same; he has declined. Apparently, there were worried that they might be at risk from Anwar's supporters they wore bullet-proof vests under their clothes when they went to the mosque. Now some Muslim religious leaders want them to be prosecutd because it was improper to wear a bullet-proof vest in a mosque.

The police, of course, have investigatged the issue fully. They now claim that they have determined the identity of the man in the video and that they will reveal his identity when it is proper to do so. And so we wait.

I look forward to the exciting conlcusion of this story.

Good Bye KL

2011-05-19T22:05:00.001-07:00

Finally it was time for me to head to KLIA (Kuala Lumpur International Airport) to head back home.

One of the things that I will not miss about KL is the traffic. You can count on finding a "jam" virtually any time that you get on the road.

My final view of the KL skyline.

There was a beautiful sunset on the way to the airport, but it turned out to be hard to photograph it from a moving car.

I left KL at about 10:30 PM for the one hour flight to Singapore. I checked into the Transit Hotel in the airport for about 5 hours and then boarded a United Airlines Flight that left at 6:30 in the morning. I stopped at Hong Kong and Chicago before arriving in Austin. The whole trip took about 33 hours.

So Long Amcorp Mall

2011-05-19T21:52:00.000-07:00

Becasue my apartment building was connected to to the mall the mall was my immediate neighborhood. This is what I saw everyday when I entered the mall.

"Popular" was a combo stationary store/bookstore. Whenever I needed office supplies they always came through.

The Post Office (POS). In addition to sending mail you could pay your utility bills at the post office which made things very convenient.

I will the kids that work at the Golden Arches. Because I spent so much time working at home, my major "coffe break" spot was McDonalds. Each day I would order a "Coke Light Large". Eventually, everyone got to know me so that when I walked in they would just get my coke and take my money even before I got to the front of the line.

I was able to find some very cheap books at this book store so I always had something to read.

The "Too Little Shoppe" was the signal that I had reached the hallway that would take me to my apartment.

This was the view as I rode down the escalator to the main floor of the mall.

This bakery was the only place where I could find good bread.

Secret Recipe is a chain that serves pretty good food. I went to Secret Recipe when I felt like splurging because a dinner there cost $5 rather than the $3 I usually spent for a meal.

I picked up my newspaper here every day.

When I couldn't go diving at least I could check out this small aquarium.

PJ- Last Look

2011-05-19T21:28:00.001-07:00

View From My Apartment Window

What a beautiful morning!

On my last day I took a final walk around my old neighborhood in Petaling Jaya. I was able to conveniently walk to two different parts of PJ, New Town and what I call PJ Hilton area (I don't know if this has a real name.

PJ- New Town

Looking back at the my apartment building (the tall one in the middle) and A&W Rootbeer.

This is where I got my hair cut.

This food court was located in the bottom of a parking garage.

The tall building is MBPJ which I think houses some of the city government offices. The orange building is the headquarters of Poh Kong, a large jewelry store.

Lunch wagon.

There were lots of cobblers setting up shop on the street.

If one policeman sitting around doing nothing is good, then surely two is better.

A Malaysian cowboy?!?

Some of my favorite places to eat.

When I just needed to eat something familiar Pizza Hut hit the spot.

Towards the PJ Hilton

Premier Toilet

2011-05-19T21:12:00.000-07:00

Pay toilets are a fact of life in KL. They typical public toilet in KL costs about 20 or 30 sens (about 7 - 10 cents). I don't think that this is a bad deal at all because most of the restrooms have an attendant that keeps things clean. Ocassionally, I would read complaints about the condition of toilets in Malaysia but I have to say that I was impressed about how clean they usually were.

Not long after I arrived in KL, I was at the Suria Mall in KLCC (where toilets are free). When the need arose I headed toward the closest facilities that I could find. I was surprise and shocked when the woman tried to charge me 2 ringgit to go to the bathroom. She explained that this was the "Premier Toilet" so it cost extra.

Obviously, there was not way that I was going to pay two ringgit to take a leak, so I quickly headed upstairs where the common folk are allowed to pee for free. Everytime that I returned to the mall I watch the people coming out of the Executive Toilet and I had to wonder what magic is happening in there to be worth so much cash. Because I thought that it was important for me to gain as many experiences as I could so that I could report back to my loyal blog readers, I decided that I should pay the price and see what a 2 ringgit toilet experience was like.

When I paid my money lady gave me a ticket (which of course has become my most treasured souvenier of my time in Malaysia) and a KLCC Suria Mall moist towlette. So far so good. Maybe this was going to be a worthwhile experience.

When I got inside I was greeted by the attendent. He seemed to be of middle eastern descent and was sharply dressed (with a bow tie). After taking care of my business I thought that I should collect some photographic evidence of my new experience. When I tried to take a picture of the bathroom, he insisted that he take my picture. He suggested that I pose with the flowers (that probably would not have been my choice, but you have to let the photographer work his magic).

As a special bonus, I got to share my Premier Toilet experience with Cedric Nome. Cedric is currently touring Malaysia with his present owner, Huey Lee. Huey is one of my scuba friends from Lubbock who had returned to Malaysia to attend her brother's wedding. Huey arrived in KL just a couple of days before I returned to Texas so I was glad that we were able to get together (it was fun to be the "tour guide" for a Malaysian). You might try to become one of Cedric's Facebook friends if you want to see other photos of his travels around the world.

Happy Birthday to Me!

2011-05-19T21:02:00.000-07:00

I celebrated my birthday last month in KL. Thanks to everyone that sent their good wishes on Facebook and otherwise.

On my big day I went to dinner in the rotating restaurant on top of the KL Tower.

It took about one and a half hours to make one complete rotation. Here you can see the Petronas Towers.

The happy b-day boy.

The red light in the top right corner is my apartment building. I can see my house from here!

How is this for an artsy fartsy shot?

Bako National Park

2011-05-19T20:28:00.000-07:00

Bako National Park is located near to Kuching so it is easy to visit in a day trip. We caught a taxi to Kampung Bako where we hopped on a boat to take us to the park.

I guess this guy is fishing for something.

Do you think that this rock sort of looks like the profile of a gorilla?

Tourists arriving at the park.

I was very excited the first time that we saw a bearded pig....

little did I know that we would see them everywhere. This one was taking a sroll on the beach.

These guys are unloading supplies for the small cafeteria at the park. They had to carry them a long way when the tide was low.

Nothing is more fun than a bathroom full of monkeys!!

This guy wanted to take my backpack!

We took a couple of hikes while we were there. This photo is for all of my ex-biology students (and other closet bio nerds). Many tropical trees place most of their roots near the surface so that they are able to pick up nutrients as soon as they are released from decomposing leaves.

The first hike ended at this beach.

A green snake.

The second hike took us through some interesting vegetation that was much different than the typical tropical rainforest.

We eventually reached another nice beach.

A mom and her baby.

It was definitely low tide when we arrived back in Kampung Bako.

Heading Back to Kuching

2011-05-19T20:12:00.000-07:00

The next morning it was time to leave Nanga Sumpa and head back to Kuching.

Because the river had fallen quite a bit since the day that we travelled upstream, some of the rapids were a bit tricky.

They tried backing down through this spot ...

but that didn't work too well so we had to hop out while they fiture it out. These guys spend their life on the river so I knew that we were in good hands.

Some passing locals.

This place looks like a "fixer upper".

As if the water and forest were not scenic enough, the clouds decided to put on a display.

Back to the dam.

I didn't know Air Asia sold burgers!

Nanga Sumpa- Picnic at Waterfall

2011-05-19T19:57:00.000-07:00

When we arrived at the waterfall I had to admit that it was spectacular as advertised.

The boatmen went to the gravel bar to start making lunch.

Tarzan would have loved all of the vines.

They fried up the freshly caught fish whole.

They cooked some of the chicken by placing it inside of bamboo and throwing it on the fire.

After a great day it was time to head back downstream to the lodge.

Numga Sumpa- Fishing

2011-05-19T19:51:00.000-07:00

Along the way they would stop to fish. The man who is throwing the net is the longhouses "Shaman" or "medicine man". He seemed like a very interesting guy and I wished that I was able to communicate better (or any) with him.

When he spotted a good spot, or could actually see fish under the water (it was pretty clear) he would throw a rock to attract the fish. Then he would toss out the net.

As he starts pulling the net in we start to wonder ...

what did he catch?

Another toss.

Here is the result of a morning of fishing.

Nunga Sumpa- Boat Trip to the Waterfall

2011-05-19T19:43:00.001-07:00

Our hike ended back at the river. I case you were wondering, I thought that tropical rivers were beautiful!!

We hopped on the boats which were ready to take us up stream to the waterfall and prepare us a picnic/barbeque lunch.

Although the boats were motorized, sometimes the water became so shallow that the boatmen needed to get out and push.

Sometimes it is nice to be the "guest" and let the experts take care of difficult issues.

Did I mention that tropical rivers are beautiful??

Nanga Sumpa- Rainforest Hike

2011-05-19T18:31:00.000-07:00

We started our first full day at Nanga Sumpa by taking a hike through the surrounding country side. After the hike we would meet up with some of the locals who would take us upstream, by boat, to enjoy a picnic lunch at a tropical waterfall.

Rubber Tapping

Rubber tapping is an important source of income for many people in Malaysia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_tapping

After peeling some of the bark off of the tree they make a shallow incision which causes the rubber to flow.

The sap flows into a little spout that directs the sap into ....

a high tech collection device.

They take the cups of sap and pour them into a contraption that I will call the rubbber storage device. Basicall this was a retangle that was about 2 feet wide, 5 feet long, and two inches deep.

After the rubber had hardened, they picked up the "rubber mat" so they could sell it.

Our guide Zach told us a lot about how the Iban use native plants. It seems like they have a use (food, building, medicine, etc) for virtually everthing that they find in the forest.

These butterflies were a lot cooler when they were flying, but I was only coordinated enough to take their picture when they were sitting still.

Looking down on the river fron the top of the hill.

Because eating orangutans was taboo it is sometimes possible to see orangs feeding in the forest near the longhouse. Sadly, we didn't see any.

Preparing the fields for planting.

Nanga Sumpa Longhouse

2011-05-19T18:08:00.001-07:00

The Nanga Sumpa longhouse was located across the river from the Borneo Adventure Lodge. It was easy to get from one side to the other by walking across the bridge. Nanga Sumpa gets a lot more visitors than Menyang Tais so there was quite a different feel when visiting the longhouse.

Nanga Sumpa longhouse contained about 30 interconnected dwellings so it was much larger than Manyang Tais.

Big sis wasn't too interested in having her photo taken.

This woman was weaving a mat in her living room. She said that it would take her about three days to complete this mat.

Looking down the porch.

After I took this photo I tried to get the kids to show the Texas Tech "guns up" hand sign. Unfortunately, the little boy in green had no idea what I was talking about so instead he presented both of his middle fingers. I am not sure I should post that photo.

This longhouse also had houses for families to live nearby.

Because the Sarawak state elections took place the week before, Prime Minister Najib's face was everywhere. Although the Barisan National (the current ruling coalition) remained popular in the rural areas, the opposition party made inroads in the cities.

Laundry day.

Trip to Nanga Sumpa Longhouse

2011-05-19T17:32:00.000-07:00

We were picked up from the Menang Tais longhouse by two residents of the Nanga Sumpa longhouse to took us on our boat journey up the river to their longhouse.

Along the way we passed a number of small house including this "floating house" that was able to rise and fall with the water level (maybe not a bad strategy in a rainforest).

I took about a million pictures of the rainforest along side of the reservoir/river which is not too surprising considering I live in Lubbock where we lack both rivers and trees.

A family in a traditional longhouse-style boat.

Passing another longhouse.

The local clinic. There used to be a helipad across the river from Nanga Sumpa longhouse to allow medical personell to visit. Now longhouse residents are able to travel to the clinic by boat.

The boarding school. Children from the surrounding longhouses attend school during the week but are able to return home during the weekends. Because we were at Nanga Sumpa on Good Friday the children were home from school.

The longhouse residents chop down trees and put then in the river. They flow down the rive and are trapped in these "log jams" where they are able to pull them out of the river and harvest them for lumber and firewood. The boatman was good at avoiding the floating logs along the way.

Finally, we moved from the reservoir into the river itself.

We stayed at the Borneo Adventure Lodge that was located across the river from the Nanga Sumpa longhouse.

The "bedroom".

The washroom.

The dining room.

Dinner time.

The view of the river from the "dining room".

More at Menyang Tais Longhouse

2011-05-19T14:24:00.000-07:00

The Garden

The people of Menyang Tais longhouse are almost completely self sufficient for food. In addition to collection food from the forest they had lots of gardens.

I think that this is tapioca.

Pineapple.

Pepper.

Some sad looking eggplant.

Papaya

Bitter gourd.

Fighting Cocks

In the evening one of the men from the longhouse tied up all of the roosters to posts in front of the longhouse. I wasn't sure whether they were tethering them close to the house so that they couldn't escape or to act as "guard roosters". It turns out they tie the cocks that are in training for cock fighting to the posts because they think that pulling on the chords strengthens their legs and gets them in a bad mood so that they are better fighters. Cock fighting is really the sweet science.

Breakfast in the longhouse

All of the rooms in the longhouses have internal connections to their neighbor's house that be either opened or closed.

The next morning it started to rain....

and rain...

and rain. Eventually, I understood why they built the longhouses on stilts.

All of the members of the Menyang Tais Longhouse were Christians. However, spirits still play a large role in the lives of the Ibans. The rainforest is full of spririts that have to be appeased in a variety of ways. Above the door of this house you can see a cross and symbol for the spirits

This door had both a photo of Jesus and a piup poster. I thought this was a pretty interesting combo!

Eventually the rain stopped and we were able to get out and explore the surrounding countryside.

I thought that this was a cool tree.

They placed offerings for the jungle spirits here.

Rice fields. Rice is the staple food of the Iban and the Menyang Tais longhouse grew enough rice to meet their needs. They grew dryland mountain rice, not irrigated rice.

Because it could take half an hour to an hour to walk to the rice fields, they built farm houses so that they could stay overnight if they needed to.

You can see Indonesia in the distance.

Rain barrel.

Our guide, Zach, and one of the Menyang Taisians leading us back to the longhouse

This little guy's parents were working in Kuching so he was staying at the longhouse with his grandparents. I think more and more of the young people are leaving the longhouse to work in the towns and cities, but it seems that they keep pretty close ties to their home. He didn't really know what to make of me at first, but he thought that it was pretty funny when I played "crash his cars" with him. It is funny how a kid who travels most places by foot and boat would have so much fun with toy cars!

This family had a young baby. The only taboo in the longhouse was to take a photo of a baby that was too young (something to do with the spirits). This little girl was old enough that she could be included in the family photo. The people that joined us in the evening were the older members of the community. The younger people were very shy and kept hidden in their houses. I feld lucky to be able to take this photo.

When we got back from our walk my two new friends were waiting for me. They yelled out "bye, bye, bye" which I have to admit is closer than anything that I could say to them in Iban.

Two good buddies.

After lunch it was time to move on to another longhouse.

Visit to an Iban Longhouse

2011-05-19T13:26:00.000-07:00

The Iban are a group of people indigenous to Borneo. We were lucky to be able to visit two of the traditional "longhouses" where Iban live.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iban_people

Batang Ai Reservoir

We drove until we reached the Batang Ai Reservoir. This reservoir was constructed to provide hydorelectric power for Kuching.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batang_Ai_Dam

When we reached the reservoir we were picked up by people from the Menyang Tais longhouse, the first of the two longhouses we were going to visit. Here I am enjoying the slightly longer than 1 hour trip to Menyang Tais. I am sorry for the unladylike pose.

Along the shore you can see the Batang Ai Hilton Hotel.

These clouds looked pretty ominous, but luckily we took the right fork in the river so we avoided the big storm.

It took about a 15 minute hike to reach the longhouse.

Menyang Tais Longhouse

Welcome to Menyang Tais Longhouse.

The longhouses had an interesting design. Menyang Tais longhouse contained interconnected 16 dwellings. They all shared a long external porch. The colorful tarps are covering the recently harvested rice that they are preparing for storage.

Inside of the longhouse was a long, shared open area. The sacks contain rice. the front doors of the 16 individual houses opened onto this common area.

Our lodgings at Menyang Tais longhouse was a home stay in the home of the longhouse's headman. The headman's wife and other relatives cooked our dinner.

Our dinner was served on the floor of the common area. As you can see it was quite a spread.

Originally, only the men joined us for dinner ...

while the women ate on the floor in the kitchen.

Going into the kitchen to take the women's photo appeared to break the ice because soon after the women joined the men in the common area and the party began.

They encouraged us to try their rice wine and rice whiskey which were both pretty tasty and could probably do some serious damage if you were not careful. With one of my friends and our guide acting as interpreters we were all able to communicate a bit. They were very interested to learn what I did, how old I was, how many kids I had, etc. It was a very enjoyable evening!!

Inside the headman's home.

We slept on a mattress inside of the headman's living room.

Because Menyang Tais longhouse is used for home stays they had built a little shower room with a toilet, sink, and shower for the guests to use. It was quite a comfortable place to stay (considering that you were in the middle of the rainforest).

Pepper Farm

2011-05-19T13:01:00.000-07:00

We stopped at a pepper farm owned by a Chinese family. As an American, I have grown up used to having a salt and pepper shaker on the table for every meal. However, I have never really give much thought to where pepper comes from. It was unusual to have pepper on the table in Malaysia and if there was pepper it was usually white pepper not black pepper.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_pepper

There were other things growing besides pepper. This is cocoa.

I think that this is ginger.

Green oranges?!?

Pepper plants grow as a vine. Initially, they used sticks to give the peppers something to grow on. Eventually they learned that it was cheaper to use straight-growing plants as support.

Pepper on the vine.

After the pepper is dried the sort it into different sizes using this contraption.

The final product.

We ate lunch here.

Pitcher Plants and Wild Orchids

2011-05-19T12:50:00.001-07:00

Farther down the road we stopped an an abandomed field by the side of the road. The field appeared to have poor soil so the plant growth was not the luxurious tropical rainforests we were used to.

At first I wasn't too sure while we stopped, but soon we saw....

..pitcher plants.

Pitcher plants are carnivorous plants that trap and digest insects to increase their uptake of nutrients.

You can learn more about these cool plants at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitcher_plant

These little guys were growing near the ground and were only a few inches long.

We also saw some pretty wild orchids.

Sarawak Trip Continued

2011-05-19T12:36:00.001-07:00

In the last couple of weeks I have returned to Texas and started teaching a Field Ecology course at our Field Station in Junction, Texas. Finally, I have some time to make my last posts before bringing this blog to an end.

Stop at the Market

We started out tour by stopping at a local market in a town outside of Kuching.

Fern fiddle heads. Ferns taste surprisingly good!

Because there is a much larger population of Christians in Sarawak than in the pennisula, you are much more likely to see Christian symbols in Sarawak.

The ubiquitous motor skooters.

This shop sells a bit of everything.

Prawns

This boy was fascinated by a tub full of squirmy catfish.

Yum, chicken with their feet on.

The ladies.

Back to Texas

2011-05-02T20:55:00.000-07:00

I can't beliveve it, but it is time for my adventure in Malaysia to end. I head back to Texas tonight and I will arrive there sometime in the evening on Wednesday.

I have been having trouble uploading photos from my trip to Sarawak and I will be sure to do that when I get back to the States. I have a lot more to say about my time in Malaysia, so if you have been following along, I hope that you check back now and then to catch all of my updates!

Good bye Malaysia and I'll see you USA!

Sarawak

2011-04-27T04:33:00.000-07:00

Sarawak is one of the two Malaysian states located on the island of Borneo. Sarawak is quite different from Peninsular Malaysia. The ethnic and religious make up in Sarawak is much different from that found on the peninsula. Over 40 different ethnic groups, each with their own language or dialects, are found there. There are many indigenous tribes that make up a sizeable portion of the population (unlike the Orang Asli who make up only a very small portion of the population in penisular Malaysia). Sarawak has the highest proportion of Christians found in Malaysia.

Sarawak has a fascinating history. An Englishman, James Brookes, was appointed as Raja by the Sultan of Brunei in 1842. The Brookes family, including the "White Raja" Charles Brookes, ruled over Sarawak for almost 100 years until the Japanese occupation in WW2. Following the war the Brookes family ceeded Sarawak to the British government and Sarawak became part of Malaysia in 1963.

To learn more about the people, culture, history, and environment of Sarawak check out-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarawak

Kuching

A one hour and forty five minute flight took me from KL to Kuching, the largest city in Sarawak. I spent most of my time in Kuching eating, shopping for handicrafts, and walking along the waterfront.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuching

Along the waterfront.

There were lots of women on the street selling these colorful and tasty cakes.

Tune Hotel

If you are planning to travel in South East Asia then you might want to look into staying in a Tune Hotel. Tune Hotels are owned by Air Asia, Malaysia's low cost airline (like Malaysia's Southwest Airlines). Tune Hotel is the first attempt to develop a low cost, basic hotel chain in the region. They claim to provide a 5 star bed for a 1 star price and I thought that the room provided a good night's sleep for a good value.

http://www.tunehotels.com/

Don't worry that Tune doesn't seem very good at directions.

Back to Borneo

2011-04-18T16:52:00.000-07:00

I am headed to the East Malaysian state of Sarawak. A few days touring the rainforest and visiting Iban (inigenous tribe) longhouses and a couple of days in Kuching. A full report when I return.

Corny Bean Desert!?!

2011-04-18T08:16:00.000-07:00

Although I have enjoyed eating Malaysian food, there are times when I miss familiar foods from home. Living in Texas I eat a lot of Tex-Mex and barbeque, so I eat a lot of beans. I am also not a big fan of green vegetables, so I eat a lot of corn (corn of course, is "the edible vegetable". Beans and corn are not a major part of the Malaysian diet. It is possible to buy little cups of corn at roadside stalls, but neither corn nor beans are ever served as part of a main Malaysian meal.

Instead, beans and corn are found in a popular Malaysian desert!?!

Ice Kachung

Ice kachung (also known as ABC) is a dessert made out of shaved ice. It is sort of like a snow cone. In addition to several types of very sweet syrup, ice kachung contains beans, corn, and some wierd jelly-like gummy worms.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ais_kacang

This is not a good example of a normal ice kachung because it has more liquid than normal. The beans and the corn are hidden beneath all of that inpenetrable liquid.

I don't think that red beans or corn should ever be anywhere near to a desert so ice kachungs are not my favorite, but clearly people here love them. Even KFC has gotten on the bandwagon. Are they serving this dessert in Lubbbock yet?

Putrajaya

2011-04-18T06:12:00.000-07:00

Putrajaya, created to serve as the Federal Capital during the 1990s, is located in the suburbs abouot 25 km from KL, Putrajaya is a planned city that contains a large central lake and lots of gardens. To learn more check out these websites.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Putrajaya

http://www.kuala-lumpur.ws/attractions/putrajaya.htm

Tne Prime Minister's Office.

I think that this building is also part of the Prime Minister's Department ...

and it's great to see that they are using the most modern of communication technologies.

Looking out over the lake.

Putra Mosque

I don't think that there is any truth to the rumor that this is where the members of the government do their best work.

All of the buildings housing the different government Ministries are lined up along this street.

Malahysians love to ride their scooters, but I don't see to many people riding bikes. Thus, I was surprised to see so many bike racks lined up around the main park at Putrajaya. Maybe all of the government workers ride bikes.

No, they weren't bike racks, just really uncomfortable benches.

What The Heck!!!

2011-04-11T07:08:00.000-07:00

Tonight, about 6:30 PM, I was eating dinner on the sidewalk in front of a local cafe. I heard a sound behind me and turned to see that they were fogging for insects around a tall office building. This building sits in the center of a courtyard surrounded on all four sides by outdoor eating places. What the heck!! I don't think that this would pass muster with OSHA.

Luckily, the wind blew most of it past me and I was able to finish most of my food before getting smoked out. I imagine that tonight there is a huge exodus of rats and roaches from the office building into the surrounding buildings. Maybe I won't eat over that way again for a while.

Mamak Stalls

2011-04-11T06:27:00.000-07:00

Mamak stalls are popular eating places in Malaysia. Mamak stalls are usually run by Muslims from India. In many ways mamak stalls serve the same function as the corner pub because they are a gathering place for people to eat, drink (not beer), bs, and watch TV. Many mammak stalls are opened 24 hours! You can learn a lot more about mamak stalls by checking out the Wikipedia article.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mamak_stall

Many mamak stalls are small mom and pop affairs, but I visited a large mamak place deep in the burbs of PJ.

Roti Canai
Roti canai (pronounded "chenai") are a mainstay mamak food. Roti canai is a type of flat bread that you eat dip into an Indian-type sauce.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roti_canai

Spreading the dough on the counter.

Stick them on the griddle and let them bubble.

Fold the dough up in the correct shape.

After a bit more cooking you have yummy goodness!

Tandoori Chicken

Tandoori chicken is another popular dish.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tandoori_chicken

They stick the chicken on long metal skewers and then cook it in these big clay pots.

Finger lickin' good.

Roti Tissue

If you still have room for desert then you can try roti tissue.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roti_tissue

Making roti tissue requires a skilled roti artist. Start by spreading out a very thin layer of dough.

Next coat the dough with a handful of butter.

When it is cooked just right you roll it up into the shape of cone. Cover with condensed milk and syrup.

After they bring this over 1 meter long masterpiece to your table you can start getting a months worth of calories! Maybe we need McRotis.

Do I Need To Use This?

2011-04-11T04:57:00.000-07:00

Here is a photo from Thailand that I forgot to post.

I think I took this in the public restroom at the Bangkok Airport. Do you think that I should be using this stall ?

Mabul Scuba

2011-04-11T03:48:00.000-07:00

As beautiful as Mabul is above water, it is the goodies underwater that I came to see. Mabul is located about a 30 minute boat ride from Semporna and a 30 minute boat ride from Sipadan Island. Now that they have removed all of the resorts from Sipadan, Mabul is of the nearest places to Sipadan where people can stay. Most people come to Mabul for a mixture of diving at Sipadan and around Mabul. The diving in Sipadan is famous for its steep walls and large critters (e.g., sharks, baracudas, and sea turtles). Mabul is famous for muck diving, which is searching in rubble for small and interesting creatures.

Because I dove at Sipadan for several days in December and I felt like I had experienced a "perfect" Sipadan dive, I decided to do all of my diving this trip at at Mabul and other nearby islands. So what did I see? Remember I don't take photos underwater, so here are some shots of Mabul critters taken from the internet.

Leaf Scorpionfish

photo by Scubster. http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=1440175406821468415

Ornate Ghost Pipefish. Usually these are a beautiful red color. I saw two while diving at Kapalai and both of them were black and were living near black crinoids. One of them was a pregnant female and it was easy to see her big belly.

Photo by optix the gaul. http://www.flickr.com/photos/30173633@N
05/5433859336/

There was a large grouper (about 4 feet long) swimming around the artificial reef at Kapalai. This was the second largest grouper I have ever seen. Lucky alums of Odyssey Expedition's BVI voyage may have been able to see the 600 pound monster living in the Chikuzen wreck.

photo by imagine.asia. http://www.panoramio.com/photo/6609184

I saw several very large moral eels. I saw a couple of unusual eel behaviors on this trip. Once I saw two small eels sharing the same hole which I had never seen before. I also saw an example of cooperative hunting between an eel and some sort of a sea bass. The eel swims in the holes in the reef while the other fish cuts off the poor potential prey's opportunity to escape. It hardly seems fair!

photo from http://www.dive-the-world.com/diving-sites-malaysia-mabul-island-seaventure-platform.php

There were lots of cool nudibranchs. This is the most interesting, and beautiful, nudi that I have ever seen. (I can't download this photo, so you have to click on the link if you want to see it).
http://www.flickr.com/photos/symbion/2954567903/

Crocodile Fish. These guys are about a foot and a half to two feet long. You can find them chilling on the bottom. I really like the way that they have tried to hide their eyes. They are ambush feeders that wait until an unsuspecting fish gets too close before they strick.
http://www.superstock.co.uk/stock-photos-images/1566-352137

photo from http://www.scubadiving-malaysia.com/mabul.htm

Overall Review of Sipadan and Mabul Diving

Overall I think that the combination of the "big critter" diving at Sipadan and the muck diving at Mabul makes for a very interesting combination. Alone the muck diving at Mabul did not seem to be as good as at Lembeh Straits in Sulawesi, Indonesia and the big animal action was not as exciting as Palau in Micronesia. Together they make a worthwhile trip. If you add on a few days viewing wildife in the rainforest then I think that a trip to Borneo should be on every divers schedule.

Mabul Sea Gypsys

2011-04-11T02:00:00.000-07:00

If you have been following along on this blog then you probably realize that one of the most intersting things that I have seen while I have been in Malaysia are the Sea Gypsys (Bajau Laut). Maybe I should go back to school and get another Ph.D. in Sea Gypsy anthropology. If the Peace Corps is looking for someone to stay on Mabul Island to work with the Sea Gypsys they should give me a call.

A group of about a dozen boats was achored off the shore of our resort for the entire time that we were there. People are living on these boats. At least they have a great view of the sunset.

It seems that each of these boats is home to one family. I was able to count two parents and six kids living on one boat.

With so little privacy, I am not sure how the parents have time to make more kids!

When I saw the Sea Gypsys at Sibuan Island during my last visit to Sabah I noticed that many of the women had green stuff on their faces (you can see it on the woman wearing black). At first I wandered if it was some sort of religious ritual, but someone told me that that was some sort of beauty treatment. It apparently works because some of the young women were strikingly attractive. Of course it is possible that some of the "old ladies" are really 20 years younger than I am.

Kayaking.

During low tide, they foraged on the reef. I am not sure exactly what they were collecting. These guys poled (like a gondola) their canoe in search of goodies.

Some of the women collected along the shore. It appears that the "Donald Duck" look is popular with some of the kids.

Many of the women and children waded through the water. There were signs along the beach saying that guests should be careful because the sandy area near the shore were full of stingrays and poisonous scorpionfish. I wonder how often they get stung?

At least they had a short communte from home.

I wish that this picture had turned out better. I was trying to get the Sea Gypsies collecting from the sea in the same photo as the Malaysian flag. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib frequently states that "Malaysia will be a high income nation by 2020". It looks to me like they still have a long way to go. Of course, it is possible that these Sea Gypsys are people without a country who are not actually citizens anywhere. It is not surprising that they are often ignored.

There do not appear to be any child labor laws.

You can see the flames from the fire that is cooking up today's dinner.

Mabul Sunsets

2011-04-11T01:47:00.000-07:00

Sunset is one of my favorite times of the day when I am travelling. The sunsets at Mabul did not disappoint. There was a bar located at the end of the pier with a great western facing view. I made sure to be sitting there with a frosty drink in hand in time for the sunset. Everytime that I get back from a trip I think that we should pass a law that makes everyone stop and watch the sunset every day!

I thought that the best sunset occured on the first night we were there.

The boats in front of the sunset belong to sea gypsys who have anchored near the island.

The last night we were there had the second best sunset.

Mabul Kids

2011-04-11T01:14:00.000-07:00

I think that I may have mentioned this before, but one thing I have learned is that if you take an interest in people's kids then their parents are much more accepting of you wandering around sticking your nose into their lives and taking pictures of them. The kids on Mabul were all happy to have their photos taken. They were all so cute that they even make me look like a good photographer.

A day at the beach.

"Peace ya"ll".

When I came upon these kids they were trying to stand up on a big log that was floating near the shore. I wanted to get photos of them "log rolling" but anytime that I pulled out my camera they just started to pose.

This girl was working in a shop selling sea shells, corals, and dried fish. Because I am sure that almost everything she was selling was gathered illegally I couldn't spend any money in her store.

Three cool dudes!

This girl was working in a little stall selling bake goods that her mother cooked up. I bought a bag of cakes from her. They weren't really very good, but I was glad that I got to add a little to the local economy.

This little girls was sitting on her grandma's lap on the front porch of her house when I walked by. At first she was shy but then, with Grannie's encouragement, she was willing to have me take her photo.

These guys are the sibs of the little girl in the previous photo. They were not as photogenic as their little sister.

Playing with bubbles.

These girls are pumping water from the well.

Kampung Kids- Playing Outside?

2011-04-11T00:50:00.000-07:00

As a kid I loved being able to play outdoors all of the time. I was always lucky to live in neighborhoods with lots of kids so there was always something going on. I am sure that my Mom worried about what I was up too (of course there were no cell phones to check up on me), but she knew that because she controlled access to food that I wouldn't stay gone for too long. One of the sad realities of today's world in the US is that I no longer see kids outside just playing and having fun.

Things were very different on Mabul because there were kids playing everywhere. As a scientist I tried to come up with some hypotheses about why I see kids outside playing on Mabul but not in Lubbock, or KL for that matter. Perhaps because Mabul is an island there is no way for the evil child-snatchers that seem to be lurking around the neighborhoods back home to escape with a kid. Much more likely kids are playing outside because they don't have TVs, Game Boys, and cell phones (I am really dating myself because I have no idea what the cool games that kids are playing with now). I thought it was great to see kids outside entertaining themselves!!

If I lived right next to the world's most beautiful swimming pool then I would go swimming every day as well.

I can't remember the last time that I saw kids playing with marbles!

Playing football (soccer) in the street.

These girls were playing some kind of hop scotch type game.

The men were often busy playing games as well. They played volleyball pretty well. They added one interesting rule twist. After a passer bumped the ball to the setter the setter could set the ball into the net and then set it to one of his hitters after it bounced off of the net. I bet that screws up the timing for the blockers!

Playing football in the big field in the center of the island.

This girl was totally happy playing with a plastic bottle tied to the end of a rope. Imagine if any kid in the US got a toy like that in their Christmas stocking next year!!!!

o

Kampung Pulau Mabul

2011-04-11T00:20:00.000-07:00

With diving three times a day and all of the eating and napping that goes on in between dives, there was not a lot of free time to fill at Mabul. Any free time I had I spent wandering around the Kampung (village). Becuase they get a lot of visitors to the island people were friendly, especially the kids (see the next post). Some of the men invited my to join them in their basketball game, but I didn't want to be a bad guest by throwing down my world famous in-your-face dunks dressed only in my flip flops, I declined.

Drying out seaweed.

Cock fighting seems like a popular "sport" in the Kampung.

Malaysians take their shoes off before entering their houses.

Building his own boat.

I hate getting caught when I take pictures of people. Either I am not very good at lurking in the bushes or else my lense isn't long enough.

Sipadan Mabul Resort

2011-04-07T20:26:00.003-07:00

On Mabul Island I stayed at the Sipadan Mabul Resort and dove with SMART Divers. The cabins were comfortable, the food was good, and most importantly, the diving operation was well run and the dive guids were good.

Other Places to Stay on Mabul

There are four large resorts and a few smaller back-packer style places to stay on Mabul.

The Mabul Water Bungalows are built entirely over the water.

Seaventures is an old oil platform that has been converted into a dive hotel. I bet that people on the island were pretty ticked off when they brought that monstrosity in.

Sandakan to Mabul Island

2011-04-07T19:22:00.002-07:00

Time to move from the jungle to the island.

The flight from Sandakan to Tawau took less than 40 minutes.

Looking out over Sandakan Bay.

Looks like most of the forest has been replaced by oil palm plantations.

We also passed through oil palm plantations during most of the hour-long van ride between Tawau and Semporna.

In Semporna we boarded a boat to take us out to Mabul Island. Here is a view of houses built on stilts along the shore in Semporna.

Where is Giligan?

Mabul Island.

Sandakan- Again

2011-04-07T18:05:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Sandakan in time for lunch at and English Tea House (I promise that I kept my pinky finger extended the entire time I drank my tea).

The view of Sandakan and Sandakan Bay from the Tea House.

Agnes Keith's House

Agnes Keith was an American author, married to an English forestry official, who wrote about her experiences living in Borneo. Her original house was destroyed in WWII, but the house was rebuilt and now serves as a very interesting museum.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnes_Newton_Keith
http://www.sabah.org.my/bi/know_sabah/agnes_keith.asp

Sandakan Memorial Park

Sandakan and the rest of what is now Sabah was captured by the Japanese during World War II. The Japanese built a POW camp for, mostly Australian, captured allied troops. The prisoners suffered very difficult conditions during their time in Sandakan.

The park contained a small museum. The museum detailed the story of the "death march" of prisoners from this spot in Sandakan to a different camp not too far from Kota Kinabalu. Of course, I have heard of the Bataan Death March, but this was the first time that I have ever learned about this death march. Out of all of the Australian POWs originally housed in the camp only six soldiers, who were fortunate enough to escape, survived this ordeal!

These two links contain the details of this interesting, yet horrifying, story. Lest we forget!

http://sandakan-deathmarch.com/

http://www.sandakan-deathmarch.com/pic/070708/

I was a little disappointed that I couldn't use my explosives in the park.

After the tour I still had a bit more time to explore Sandakan on my own. Here is a street tailor working with an old-time foot-powered sewing machine.

These guys worked at the store across the street from my hotel. It took them quite a while to guess where I was from.

Back Down the River to Sandakan

2011-04-07T09:37:00.000-07:00

The next day we had to head back down the Kinabatangan to Sandakan.

This cool lizard with a long tail was sitting along the rail.

Saying "good bye" to the Sukau Rainforest Lodge.

Sukau village.

Bath time.

A small croc.

This poor guy put a "slow" sign on his outhouse in hopes that people would slow their boats down so that their wake didn't flood his toilet.

A big croc.

Interesting palms growing along side the mangroves.

Back to Sandakan.

Night Cruise

2011-04-07T09:18:00.000-07:00

After dinner we took a cruise at night. The guide shown a powerful searchlight into the vegetation besides the river. We found many birds who had settled down for the night. The darkness definitely didn't help my picture taking, but here are a few shots. I am sorry that it was cloudy that night, because on a clear night I bet that you can see almost as many stars in Borneo as you can in West Texas.

We found a group of Long-tailed Macaques sleeping in the branches above the river. the guide said that they always sleep facing the shore so that they can detect potential predators. If they see a predator then they will drop into the river and swim to the other side.

A couple of kingfishers.

A night heron.

Wildlife Viewing- Afternoon Cruise

2011-04-07T08:40:00.001-07:00

It rained pretty hard for most of the afternoon, but luckily nothing was scheduled except for nap time.

I took this picture of a hornbill from outside of my room. The bugger spent most of his time with his back to me which made it hard to show its bill!

Luckily, the rain stopped in time for us to take our late-afternoon wildlife-viewing cruise. We saw this eagle trying to dry out.

During the morning cruise, we spotted a blur quickly moving back into the forest that the guide said was an orangutan. We were hoping to see it, or one of its friends, during the afternoon cruise. It looks like we got lucky!

I don't know why these stupid animals want to make it so hard for me to take their picture!

OK, so it is not centered, but it is clearly an orangutan! We were able to watch this one for several minutes.

Our orang viewing was interupted several times by hornbills flying across the river.

When we were spending so much time looking for animals it was easy to forget how beautiful the forest was.

Large crocodile resting on the mud bar.

What big teeth you have!

Finally, he swam away.

Another croc? Oh no, just a monitor lizard.

My old friends the Long-tailed Macaques.

Some interesting epiphytes.

Back to the lodge. Time to get ready for dinner.

Walking the Boardwalk

2011-04-07T08:02:00.003-07:00

After working up an appetite watching monkeys and walking around in the mud we had a nice big breakfast when we got back from the morning river cruise. After a short break it was time to go for a walk around the "Hornbill Boardwalk" before lunch. The boardwalk formed a loop from the lodge into the forest and allowed us to look for birds and forest plants without getting all muddy.

As an ex plant ecologist I am a little embarassed to admit that I don't know the names of any of the rainforest plants. These species are so different from the ones that I used to work with in Kansas, Utah, Arizona, Minnesota, and Texas, and there are so darn many of them that I have just decided that it is OK for me to be ignorant. Our guide told us that this is the plant that the natives used to make poison for the poison darts.

There were lots of pretty flowers.

Another flying lizard!

Wildlife Viewing- Early Morning Cruise

2011-04-07T06:32:00.000-07:00

Because the forest is so thick, the best way to see wildlife near Sukau is from the river. We woke for our first trip at 5:30 AM and were on the water by 6:00.

Our group divided up into two boats.

"This is awfully early to be awake. I hope we see something"!

It didn't take to long for us to find a group of Proboscis Monkeys!

One of the main reasons that I wanted to visit Sukau was to see Proboscis Monkeys. It didn't take long!

Proboscis Monkeys are only found on Borneo. They are named for their unusually prominant noses (old timers may think of Jimmy Durante). Here is a photo from the internet to show you what they really look like.
photo from scienceblogs.com

To learn more about these guys check out-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proboscis_Monkey

http://www.proboscismonkey.org/

After the monkeys we came upon four Storm Storks. Our guide told us that this was a highly endangered species with an estimated population size of only 200 individuals.

http://www.forestry.sarawak.gov.my/forweb/wildlife/mgmt/tpa/stork.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storm's_Stork

Continuing up the river. At some points I estimated that the river was almost 150 meters wide (just like the piece of the Brazos River that "flows" through Lubbock).

We left the main river and travelled up a side stream.

Another Proboscis Monkey (see the long tail?)

The small stream led into a large oxbow lake.

The white blob in the center of the photo is a hornbill flying past.

We got out of the boat for a hike through the forest. The first thing that we saw were some of Malaysia's world famous leeches. We were lucky that noone from our group picked up a leech during the short time that we were on shore.

Forest view.

This worm was almost one foot long!

Everyone was prepared with rubber boots and leech socks. The boots definitely came in handy as we slogged through the mud.

Cool millipede.

If you look carefully in the water you can see a freshwater eel. He stuck his head out of the water several times, but I was never fast enough to get that photo.

The vines in the forest are really cool.

Sukau Rainforest Lodge

2011-04-06T02:00:00.001-07:00

I stayed at the Sukau Rainforest Lodge near the village of Sukau on the Kinabatangan River. This award-winning eco-lodge provided food, a place to sleep, and organized wildlife viewing opportunities. It was a great place to stay!!

http://www.sukau.com/

The riverside restaurant.

This boardwalk joined the riverside verandah with the rest of the lodge.

Even though it was supposed to be the dry season there had been a lot of rain. Thus, the river was at an unusually high level. It looks like I won't get to play any volleyball this trip.

The lodge's 20 rooms were organized around this "green courtyard".

We had our meals along the river. Here are the views. Sometimes eating was interupted when a hornbill flew across the river.

I loved the hornbill wood carvings. I just couldn't figure out how to fit them into my suitcase.

Travelling to Sukau Rainforest Lodge

2011-04-05T23:53:00.000-07:00

After visiting the orangutan rehabilitation center in Sepilok, we returned to Sandakan for lunch before heading up the Kinabatangan River to the Sukay Rainforest Resort for a couple of days of wildlife viewing.

Although it is possible to drive from Sandakan to Sakau, we travelled by boat instead. We crossed the Sandakan Bay and then travelled through a channel though the mangrove forests until we reached the Kinabatangan River. We then travelled up the river until we reached Sukau.

The boat.

Travelling through the mangroves.

Fishing village in the mangroves.

Headed up the Kinabatangan River. The Kinabatangan River is the second longest river in Malaysia. Most of the forest along the river is secondary forest, meaning that it has been cut sometime in the past.

Wait, what's that along the shore??!!??

Holy cow!! It's a Borneo Pygmy Elephant!! By this time I was so excited I could barely work my camera. Luckily, the elephant was quite happy to feed along the river bank which gave me lots of chances to try to take its picture.

Borneo Pygmy Elephants are now thought to be a sub-species of the Asian Elephant. You can learn more about them by looking at the website from WWF at the bottom of the page.

Heading back into the forest. Silly elephant! Doesn't he know that elephants belong in the savannah?!?

Not too long after we saw the elephant it started to rain so hard that they had to lower the "blinds" on the side of the boat so that we could no longer see too much. It really didn't matter to me becuase I was still happy thinking about the elephant!

http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/endangered_species/elephants/asian_elephants/borneo_pygmy_elephant/

Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Center

2011-04-05T20:37:00.000-07:00

Borneo is known for its wildlife. One of the main attractions are orangutans. I must admit that one of the bonuses of spending some time in Malaysia was the opportunity to see these fascinating creatures. You can learn more about them by taking at look at this article in the Encyclopedia of Earth (by one of my ex-students, Cynthia Turnage)http://www.eoearth.org/article/Orangutan?topic=49480

Although it is possible to see orangutans in the wild, it is definitely not a certainty that you will be able to find them (to end your suspense, I will tell you that I was lucky enough to see two wild orangs!!! details to follow). Thus, if you want to be sure of geting an up close and personal look at an orangutan in relatively "natural conditions" then you can go to one of the orangutan rehabilitation centers.

I visited the Sepilok Orantutan Rehabilitation Center located near Sandakan. The purpose of the center is to prepare orphaned orangs to be returned to the wild. I think that they said that there were currently 16 orangs undergoing the rehabilitation process and hopefully one day they will all be successfully returned to the wild. The process of rehabilitating these apes is described in these websites.

http://www.sabah.edu.my/srm012.wcdd/BM/menu1.html

http://www.orangutan-appeal.org.uk/sepilok-rehabilitation-centre/

The best time to see the orangutans is during feeding time. It was raining, but that didn't stop three orangs, including two mom's with babies, from coming down to feed.

This boardwalk through the forest led to the feeding area.

When we arrived at the feeding area there was an orangutan hiding from the rain under the bushes.

People, of course, were not smart enough to come in out of the rain.

The feeding platform.

Here she comes!

Mom and baby

2 moms, 2 babies, and 1 keeper. One of the babies was three months old and the other was four months old.

Here comes the male.

Female (left) and male (right). They provide a bucket of milk and bananas every day (you can see the male using his hand to scoop up some milk). They keep the additional diet intentionally monotonous to encourage the orangs to learn to go out and feed on their own.

A face only a mother could love?

Sandakan

2011-04-05T18:04:00.000-07:00

East Malaysia is an interesting, and quite unique part of Malaysia. The two East Malaysian state, Sabah and Sarawak, joined with the states from the Malayan Peninsula to form Malaysia in 1964. Borneo, the third largest island in the world, now contains parts of three countries- Malaysia, Indonesia, and Brunei. Because of differences in history and racial/ethnic make-up East Malaysia is quite different from the penisula in many ways.

I flew from KL to Sandakan in Sabah (about a 2 hour and 45 minute flight) to start my trip. Sandakan was an interesting small city of about 300 thousand people. Because I arrived at my hotel about noon, I had the whole afternoon to check out the town. I thought that the people in Sandakan were the friendliest that I have met anywhere in Malaysia. Everyone smiled and waved and many of them wanted to talk about where I was from and what I was doing there (very different from KL where noone ever talks to me- I know "boo hoo").

The view from my hotel window (Nak Hotel). Laundry day in some of the flats. Clothes driers are not very common in Malaysia so people dry their clothes by hanging them out to dry. I am not sure how they ever get dry in this humid climate! Fishing boat and mosque. I enjoyed visiting the Central Market. The market was filled with small stalls selling different types of fruits and veggies. Because Sandakan is a coastal town, it is not surprising that there is lots of fish at the market. You can get fresh fish..... or dried fish. Yummy, dried stingrays! Two girls working in their stall. Luckily, my hotel was located right across the street from the mall so that I could shop until I dropped.

Headed to Borneo

2011-03-25T09:20:00.000-07:00

I have to get up at 4 in the morning to catch an early flight to Borneo. A little ecotourism along the Kinabatangan River in Sabah and some diving on Mabul Island. I should have lots to post when I return (as well as catching up on Tioman and Thailand- sometimes the Malaysian internet is so slow that uploading photos takes way longer than it should). I will be back in a week or so.

A Visit to Thai Mangroves

2011-03-25T06:44:00.001-07:00

On the final day of our conference in Bangkok they organized a choice of two study tours. The first visited a center where they practice traditional Thai medicine. Participants on this trip received a traditional Thai massage. Sounds pretty good doesn't it. Of course, bio-nerds like me are easily distracted, so rather than going to get a Thai massage I went along on the trip that examined "Local efforts to preserve natural resources and the environment". This trip took us to coastal Thailand to observe the mangrove habitat and help plant mangrove seedlings.

It turns out there were plenty of other bio-nerds ready to see the mangroves so we had to load up on a big bus.

After about an hour and a half drive we arrive at the coastal village of Klong Khone. Obviously, marine products are the main source of income in a coastal town like Klong Khone. More dried seafood (don't see too much of this in Lubbock).

This (out of focus) photo shows one of the main products raised in the coastal estuaries and bays- cockles (a type of mussel).

Most of the houses were built along the river on stilts.

A forestry professor from one of the Thai universities told us a little bit about the mangroves.

The Head Man from Klong Khone told us about attempts to add tourism as another source of income for the village.

While we were waiting to be able to board the boats that would take us through the mangroves I wandered down the street a bit. Here is a family heading home from the local store. It is possible to put at least six people on one of those scooters.

Team Malaysia is ready to safely ride down the river.

Heading down the river we passed more houses on slilts.

The boat.

Headed down the river.

Entering into the bay.

Once we got into the mangroves we saw the long-tailed macaques again. This time they fed them bananas. Because the water was shallow most of the monkeys got the food by wading. Maybe because she was weighed down by her baby this female was having trouble getting any food so she decided to go for a swim. While she was swimming the baby was completely submerged underwater.

If you have ever wandered what a soaked baby monkey looks like then just take a look.

Restoring the Mangroves

Over 20 - 30 years ago people removed about 90% of the mangroves in this area to set up shrimp farms. In 1988 a disease outbreak basically whiped out shrimp farming. Because the mangroves were already damaged people were not able to return to their traditional ways of making a living because the animals they depended on needed the mangroves. Recently, there have been efforts to restore the mangroves. We were able to help with the restoration. As you will see- it is a dirty job, but someone has to do it.

Each boat carried some mangrove seedlings for us to plant.

Because mangrove seedlings establish in the intertidal region, we had to get muddy. TUSEF provided each of us with a pair of black knee socks to try to make the clean up a little easier. Quite a fashion statement!

Working in the mangroves provided sort of a Catch 22. It was difficult to move in the thick mud, but if you stayed too long in one place then you sank deeper and deeper into the muck. We all persevered to make sure that our babies were safely planted.

Post-planting clean up took a while.

Here are the seedlings we planted. Hopefully, this will add to the nearly 10,000 acres of mangroves that have been restored.

Luch Time

We had lunch at a Krateng (an offshore shelter used by local fishermen and cockle farmers). Today kratengs are also used by tourists.

They prepared a great spread for us...

so everyone was happy to dig in.

Looking out from the Krateng towards the sea.

Visit to a Charcoal Factory

On the way to the charcoal factory we passed by some of the remaining shrimp farms.

People have starting planting mangrove plantations to make charcoal.

The main shed at the charcoal factory.

Mangrove wood makes especially good charcoal.

A "no smoking" sign seems a little out of place at a charcoal factory.

The manager of the factory explained how charcoal was made.

The mangrove wood is carried to the factory in small boats.

Almost everyone was interested in what the manager had to say...

but I have to admit that I was distracted by the mudskippers.

There were a number of kilns inside of the charcoal shed.

The final product. From wood to charcoal takes about 45 days.

Bagged up and shipped off for sale.

National Attire

2011-03-23T00:33:00.000-07:00

The invitations to the final banquet said that we should wear either clothes from either our home country or our host country. I am always a little confused when someone mentions clothes from my home country. I was born and now live in Texas; does that mean I should wear a cowboy hat and boots (which I certainly don't have)? But I am psychologically much more like a Southern Californian; does that mean I should wear flip flops, shorts and a Hawaiian shirt (which I certainly do have). It was interesting seeing what some of the people wore.

Thailand

Thailand

Thailand?!? They wanted her to dress like a cowboy. I guess this is how you dress to wrangle water buffalo.

Vietnam

Team Malaysia

I decided that I wasn't ready to go full-on-Malaysian. Luckily, I saw a 1Malaysia shirt at the Craft Market. Sometimes you see some of the government ministers wearing this shirt. Do I look ministerial? (I have posed for lots of photos for people who want to have their pictures taken with a tall guy since I have been over here).

The Malaysia Fulbright students. 1Malaysia!!!

The Malaysia Fulbright professors (and wives and friends)

I love this photo. This kid got to take his picture with the pretty Thai dancers. He just kept getting redder and redder! But now he has the coolest Facebook profile picture of all of his friends!

US- Southeast Asia Cultural Night- Thai Dancing

2011-03-22T23:09:00.000-07:00

We were entertained by groups of dancers from several different high schools.

US- Southeast Asia Cultural Night- Food

2011-03-22T21:35:00.000-07:00

Often when I look at other people's blogs I see that they give lots of attention to food. It is certainly not that I haven't appreciated the food over here, but usually I am just too busy eating to worry about taking a photo. Here are some photos of some of my favorite SE Asian foods.

Cooking Phad Thai.

Serving a plate of red curry.

Doesn't that look good?

I really like the green curry. I had some in KL for lunch yesterday.

I can't believe that I didn't take any pictures of satay (barbeque on a stick served with peanut sauce).

US - Southeast Asian Cultural Night

2011-03-21T21:05:00.000-07:00

We finished the formal portion of the conference with the US - Southeast Asian Cultural Night held at the grounds of the National Museum in Bangkok. They set up a series of booths to allow us to experience a little bit more about Thai art and food. Most of the booths were manned by high school-aged students so it was great to see the next generation keeping some of their cool traditions going.

This band kept us entertained throughout the evening.

Flower Art
These guys showed us how to make elaborate flower arrangements (see below)

Thai Candy
These girls are showing how to make some type of Thai candy. They start by rolling a dough/paste into the desired shape.

Then they paint them with a variety of different colors.

The final product. Almost look too good to eat!

Art From Fruits and Veggies

Fulbright Conference in Thailand

2011-03-21T18:06:00.000-07:00

When I got back to KL I noticed that most of my photos were taken during the free time or fun time that we had during the conference. I assure you that we also put in our work time as well.

We had a "Welcome Reception" on the first evening. We were welcomed to Thailand by a number of VIPs including the U.S. Ambassador to Thailand Kristie Kenny (in the green dress).

The first session on Thursday morning focused on "developing stronger US-Southeast Asia ties". The morning's speakers included Portnip Kanananiypt, the Executive Director of Fulbright Thailand and hostess extrordinaire (far left), as well as people from the U.S. Embassy, Thai Universities, and the Thai Govvernment. Note that the seat on the far right is still empty. This speaker was late in arriving because he was caught in Bangkok traffic- a common occurance.

Jaki Bradley, one of the student Fulbrighters in KL giving her presentation.

My talk entitled "Formal and Informal Environmental Education in Malaysia" was scheduled in a session called "Environment and Education" (aren't you sorry you missed that ?!?). Also speaking in my section was Samir, from Singapore, who talked about electic cars, and Elena, from Malaysia, who talked about pitcher plants in Sabah.

The formal part of the conference ended with a lunch. The main speaker for the lunch was a Thai professor who studied in U.S. who shared some of her (mostly hilarious) experiences living in the U.S to try to illustrate the differences between the way that Thais and Americans view the world.

Fulbright Conference in Bangkok, Thailand

2011-03-20T22:07:00.000-07:00

Sorry that I have been absent from posting for several days, but I have been attending a conference in Bangkok, Thailand. I will try to post info about the conferences and beautiful Bangkok and Thailand as soon as I can. I still have some things that I would like to post about Tioman as well and I probably need to catch you up on some of the "exciting" Malaysian news.

3rd Mid-Year Enrichment Conference for U.S. Scholars and Students in Southeast Asia

This conference allowed Filbrighters from across South East Asia to meet to share our experiences. The fact that the conference was organized by the Thailand-United States Educational Foundation (TUSEF) and was held in Bangkok made this experience a special treat. Thanks to everyone who helped to make this event such a great success!

The theme of the conference was "America's engagement in Southeast Asia: the role of people-to-people ties in strengthening connections". I may not have my numbers exactly right, but I think that there were 57 conference participants who are currently living in 8 countries (Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philipines, and Laos). Attending this conference was a unique experience for me because of the broad range of interests in Fulbrighters. I listened to presentations by artists, political scientists, journalists, economists, and anthropologists in addition to "normal talks", meaning of course, those presented by biologists.

On Wednesday morning I met Michael and Jaki, two of the student Fulbrighters in KL, at KL Sentral station where we caught the Express Train to the Kuala Lumpur International Airport. We arrived in Bangkok a little bit after lunch time so we had some time to look around for a while before the conference started on Wednesday evening.

View from my hotel room.

We stayed at the Dusit Thani Hotel in Bangkok which was a beautiful hotel. They had a woman in the lobby playing music on a Thai xylophone/harp. I don't think you will find her at the Motel 6 in Lubbock.

We wandered around the city searching for lunch. When we saw what was on the menu, then we knew we had found the right place. You can't get fried rice with crap and rots pork just anywhere. Actually, lunch was great and cost about two bucks.

There was a large park just across the street from our hotel. Jaki, Michael, and Michael (three of the student Fulbrighters in Malaysia) are holding up the cool tote bags they gave us at the conference.

I was surprised to hear a marching band practicing. These kids looked to be Junior High age. Maybe I should start recruiting for the Goin' Band From Raiderland.

Giant swan.

Muscle Beach Bangkok.

We saw a lot more locals exercising in Bangkok than we do in KL. Maybe that's because they know that Thai food is so good and they need to work it off.

Tioman Diving

2011-03-10T05:13:00.000-08:00

Many people claim that the diving at Tioman is the best in Peninsular Malaysia so I was happy to be able to check it out for myself. I dove with Tioman Dive Center located in Tekek (http://www.tioman-dive-centre.com/). I did 13 dives with TDC and I enjoyed them all. The three dive guides Nina, Rosie, and Katie (all from England) did a great job making sure that everyone had a good time while protecting the reef.

We would gear up at the dive center and then head out to the boat.

Getting everyone situated on the boat.

Off we go. The boat rides varied between 5 and 20 minutes.

After we returned to shore we carried our gear back to the dive shop.

Katie (right), the owner of TDC, Nina (center), a dive guide, and Angus (left) from Belfast head to the beach.

So What Did I See?
The dive sites around Tioman were diverse with a combination of large stands of hard coral, boulders, swim throughs, rubble, and wrecks. As usual, I an not able to take any underwater photos so I borrowed a few photos of Tioman from the internet.

Sting ray.

Sawadee wreck. The Sawadee was a fishing boat that sunk in about 100 feet of water. The Sawadee was an interesting dive because there were huge schools of snappers aggregating on the wreck. We dove the Sawadee twice to look for a large stonefish. Stonefish are camoflage experts so I was never able to find it.
photo from http://www.flickr.com/photos/gs9826/page32/

There were lots of "big animals" to be found including sea turtles, large groupers, and black tipped reef sharks. One of the most interesting things that I saw was when a very large grouper (about three feet long) swallowed a pufferfish. When the pufferfish found itself inside of the grouper's mouth it "puffed" itself up to such a large size that it was impossible for the grouper to swallow it. The grouper had no choice but to spit the pufferfish out- and the puffer escaped unharmed!
photo from http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/9S6Cm50DkHL9RNp1cPLDYA

Lots of cool nudibranchs!
photo from sergeyphoto.com

My favorite undersea moment came during an interaction that I had with a cuttlefish. One particularly curious cuttlefish swam up to us and finally ended up about a foot and a half from my face. Cuttlefish are known to be very intelligent animals so it is only natural that they would find me to be so interesting.

photo by Lillian Daniel

Tioman Beaches

2011-03-10T04:06:00.000-08:00

Tekek- River Walk

2011-03-10T03:12:00.000-08:00

They are clearly doing some work to try to develop Tekek a little more for tourism. The river walk and the walkway along the shore were very nice and should be even better when they are completed. I hope that they don't develop things so much that Tioman loses its charm.

The chanelized river reaches the sea near the Yacht Club and the Ferry Terminal.

The Yacht Club.

The Ferry Terminal. You can see one of the ferries waiting at the dock.

I think that San Antonio ripped off the whole "river walk" idea from Tekek.

Most of the tour and dive boats are stored here.

Farther inland the river has its natural banks.

Eventually, the river heads into the hills.

Langkawi has its eagle so I guess Tioman thought that they needed a bird statue as well. I thought that the myna was an interesting choice.

Tekek, Tioman Island

2011-03-09T19:38:00.000-08:00

Pulau Tioman is a relatively undeveloped island that is home to about 3000 people. Most of the people in Tioman live in the village of Tekek. Most of the population of Tekek is employed at a large resort that was located about a 10 minute walk away from where I stayed. Because Tioman is very hilly, most of the buildings were located along the coast. Thus, most of the "action" in Tekek was located along the one main road.

Looking down the street from near the hotel you can see apartments for the locals on the right.

Crossing a bridge.

Main Street continues.

This shop, Cheers, sold souveniers and snacks as well as.....

serving as the local gas station.

This little guy had the important job of keeping the flies off of the fried chicken using a branch.

The police were playing sepak takraw outside of their baracks. They were pretty good. They guy on this side of the net with red shorts and a blue shirt is getting ready to hit the ball with his head.

The two guys in blue on the far side of the net are trying to "dig a spike" with their feet.

The new school under construction. Currently, there are only primary schools on Tioman so any secondary school students need to go to the mainland. When the school is completed the secondary students from Tekek will be able to stay at home.

The road continues past the airport. You can see one of the flights getting ready to land.

Tioman Island

2011-03-02T05:41:00.000-08:00

Tioman Island is located 32 km off of the east coast of Malaysia. It can be reached by air or by ferry. The island is 39 km long and 12 km wide. Most of the inland portion of the island are covered by forests so most of the permanent residents live near the coast.

Tioman is famous because it was depicted in the 1958 movie South Pacific as the tropical island Bali Hai so the old-timers and fans of musicals might have already gotten to know Tioman's beauty.

Here is the legend of Tioman according to Wikipedia- "According to legend, Tioman Island is the resting place of a beautiful dragon princess. Whilst flying from China to visit her prince in Singapore, this beautiful maiden stopped to seek solace in the crystal-clear waters of the South China Sea. Enraptured by the charms of the place, she decided to discontinue her journey. By taking the form of an island, she pledged to offer shelter and comfort to passing travelers." I have to say that I have felt shetered and comforted so far.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tioman_Island

http://www.tioman.com.my/

Pulau Tioman

2011-03-02T02:58:00.000-08:00

This is the 249th post that I have made on this blog. Without a doubt this is the best location that I have ever blogged from. I am sitting on the porch of my cabin (they call it a chalet) that is separated by the sea by only about 15 yards of perefect white sand. I am drinking a frosty beverage (which is cheaper because things are duty free here). Earlier, the only people on the beach were three Scandinavian women in bikinis, but now the beach is becoming more crowed as people gather to watch the sunset.

The sun has just hit a wall of clouds about one and a half fingers above the horizon. It looks like this might be as good as the sunset gets tonight, but if so, that's OK because there will be many more sunsets to come.

This morning I took the one hour long flight from KL to Pulau Tioman. Tioman Island is located off of the south east coast of peninsular Malaysia in the state of Pahang (not Johor as I originally thought). It took me about ten minutes to walk down the only road in town to my hotel. About an hour and a half after that I was getting geared up for diving. Good day.

I will be here for several more days, so I will post more about this beautiful island.

This plane held about 50 people.

Sophisticated baggage handling system.

View from my porch.

Why did the monitor lizard cross the road? (I have no idea, this is a rhetorical question).

Update added dat 10 PM. I am in my cabin getting ready for bed (diving really tires me out). I can hear the sound of the waves gently breaking on the shore. I probably will never make it back to Lubbock!!!!

Interview With US Ambassador to Malaysia Paul Jones

2011-02-27T00:35:00.000-08:00

Ambassador Jones meets with a group of Malaysian students heading off to study in the US. photo from the Star.

Paul Jones is in his first year as US Ambassador to Malaysia. I have meet him several times (including Thanksgiving Dinner at his home) and he seems like a very accomplished and nice man. Because of the US's increasing involvement in SE Asia, this is an interesting and important time in the relationship between the US and Malaysia. Here is a link to an article that contains a link to an interview with Ambassador Jones that appeared in the Star newspaper today (February 27, 2011)

Jones up to the task of driving US-Malaysian relations

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/2/27/nation/8148709&sec=nation

An Interesting Story From the Newspaper About Elephants

2011-02-26T19:56:00.000-08:00

Here is an interesting story from Friday, February 25th's Star newspaper. I still think it is pretty cool to be living in a country that still has wild elephants running around.

Captured jumbo ‘persuaded’ to leave forest
By SARBAN SINGH

SEREMBAN: It needed the “persuasive” skills of three female elephants and the experience of their mahouts to get a four-tonne wild male pachyderm out of the Gapau forest reserve here.

The male elephant, nicknamed Buyong by villagers and believed to be in his 40s, had initially refused to budge despite being shot with a tranquilliser by National Wildlife and Parks Department (Perhilitan) officers yesterday.

The three female elephants – Chek Mek in her 50s, Timor and Kala (both in their mid-30s) – had been brought in from the National Elephant Conservation Centre in Kuala Gandah, Pahang, and were taken to the place where Buyong had been tied since his capture on Sunday.

They were then brought together to allow the rangers to secure them with chains.

Animal help: Chek Mek and Kala and their mahouts trying to get Buyong (middle) to get into the truck at the Gapau forest reserve, Seremban. — LOW BOON TAT/The Star

The Asian elephant (elephas maximus), which has an estimated population of 1,200 in Peninsular Malaysia, is usually found in the jungles of Johor, Pahang, Kelantan, Terengganu, Perak and Kedah.

Perhilitan’s elephant management unit head Nasharuddin Othman said despite having lived in the wild, Buyong was not as aggressive as initially thought.

“We had to bring in the experienced Chek Mek, who has been helping us relocate wild elephants since 1979.

“She does not need to be ‘told’ much,” he said, adding that she had been used to relocate some 500 wild elephants.

He said Timor and Kala had been trained for similar rescue efforts over the past year and seemed to be frightened of Buyong initially.

“But Chek Mek was around to calm them down,” he said.

Nasharuddin said Buyong, which was bigger than the three female elephants, would be relocated to the Tasik Kenyir section of Taman Negara in Terengganu.

State Perhilitan director Mohd Zaide Mohd Zain said the last time a wild elephant was caught in the state was in the early 1990s.

He said 25 officers were involved in yesterday’s relocation exercise.

Villagers in Kampung Gagu contacted his officers on Feb 15 after spotting Buyong in the area.

****************************************

If you want to learn more about Asian Elephants then you should check out this article written by one of my ex-students, Cynthia Turnage, and me (mostly by Cynthia). http://www.eoearth.org/article/Asian_elephant

Amcorp Mall Flea Market- Toys For Big Kids

2011-02-26T18:39:00.000-08:00

One of the most popular sections of the flea market sells "toys for adults". Not the dirty kind of adult toys, but toys for geeky sci-fi types.

This would be so much cooler if it was a Cylon hat from Battlestar Galactica! Who doesn't want to talk like a Cylon?

More Star IWars.

Look at all of the dolls, I mean action figures.

I don't recognize this dude...

or these superheroines. I guess that I am not a big enough nerd to be cool.

Amcorp Mall Flea Market- The Treasures

2011-02-26T17:33:00.000-08:00

With 200 stalls selling everything under the sun, you never know what treasures you might be able to pick up. I have seen some pretty wierd stuff at the flea market. My two favorites are a Milli Vanilli 8-track tape and a Shawn Bradley rookie card (remember the tall skinny basketball kid from BYU that played for the Dallas Mavericks?). Here are some of the goodies that were for sale last weekend.

I think that these are some kind of new Malaysian digital cameras.

Lots of LP records. Here I see Fleetwood Mac, Michael Jackson, and Tracy Chapman.

Bruce and Bary Manilow.

I used to have a rocking horse like this when I was a kid. Yes, I was cute in my cowboy hat (the only one I have ever owned).

Watches.

For the collectors there are stamps ....

and coins.

I hope this word means something different in Malay!

My sister used to have lots of Barbies. She could retire today if only she knew that she should never take them out of the box!

Do you remember where you were when this issue came out? I was in grad school in Utah.

Bob's Big Boy, the Stay Puffed Marshmallow Man, and ...

Popeye!!!

Box full of Match Box cars.

Amcorp Mall Flea Market- The Stalls

2011-02-25T01:47:00.000-08:00

I have never actually counted, but I guess that there are a couple of hundred stalls set up each weekend in the flea market. Here is a look at some of them.

Need some shoes?

Or a vacuum cleaner?

Or any of this stuff?

Many of the stalls stay in the same location week to week. I don't know if they reserve that spot or whether things are first come, first served. This stall sells childrens books and videos. This stall is always playing a video of what I think is adults pretending to sing like children singing children songs. If I had to work near that stall for very long I would get tired of "knick knack paddy whack, give a dog a bone" pretty quickly.

I'm leaving on a jet plane.

This stall specializes in refridgerator magnets so it is obviously one of my favorites.

A Malaysian army surpus store?

How about a plant?

Ring my bell.

No need for empty wall space- plenty to choose from here.

Amcorp Mall Flea Market

2011-02-25T01:18:00.000-08:00

The Amcorp Mall is not one of the large malls that attracts lots of international visitors. It is, however, famous for it's weekly flea market which is the largest flea market in Malaysia. Every Friday night vendors set up their tables so that they will be ready to sell their goodies the next morning. You really need to see, hear, and otherwise experience the flea market yourself to get a true feeling for what it is like. Here are some photos.

Amcorp Mall has five levels. The stores are arranged around a central open courtyard. Vendors set up stalls for the flea market in the hallway that runs around the top three floors.

The view along one of the upper floors.

The main area of the flea market is on the main floor at the lower level. You can see the excited shoppers headed down the elevators just wondering what treasures they will find!

The main floor.

Update #2- Malaysian Toilets

2011-02-24T22:03:00.000-08:00

Back in September (http://markinmalaysia.blogspot.com/2010/09/malaysian-toilets.html) I made a couple of posts about the differences between "sit" and "squat" toilets. I have scoped out the region so that I know where all of the sit toilets are (but that doesn't mean that there will be any tp, so it is always good to be prepared).

In the men's room at the Ampang Park LRT station there are two broken urinals, one squat toilet, and one sit toilet. I noticed that the sit toilet has this handy book rack attached to the wall (no rack in the stall with the squat toilet). At first look, this rack appears to be pretty handy, especially when taking care of business standing up. However .....

when you look at the location of the rack from above you can see that the rack just gets in the way of the using the sit toilet as designed. Another day in Malaysia, another chuckle!!

Update #1- TTU and 7-11

2011-02-24T21:31:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple of updates related to some of my favorite posts of the past.

In August (http://markinmalaysia.blogspot.com/2010/08/how-did-this-happen-double-t-in.html) I describe how every 7-11 in Malaysia has a photo of a Texas Tech baseball cap on a sign located in the front door. To this day I still do not know how, or why it got there.

When I visited the 7-11 near the LRT station (next door to Burger King and across the street from McDonalds- do you see how I still give directions based on familiar reference points?) had the same sign, only the red Double-T on the ball cap had been blacked out! Again, no idea who or why!!

Petronas Towers at Night

2011-02-20T20:10:00.000-08:00

Here's a couple of photos of the Petronas Towers taken last night.

Reflection of the twin towers in another skyscraper across the street.

Where did the third tower come from?

Pulau Payar

2011-02-20T01:25:00.000-08:00

Although the best scuba diving in Malaysia is off of the east coast of the peninsula and in Borneo, there is diving near Langkawi. Pulau Payar, a small island located about an hour boat ride from Langkawi is rated as the 7th best place to dive in Malaysia (I have already been to #1 and #5 and hope to visit #s 2 and 3 in the next couple of months).

I started out my day trip to Pulau Payar with another cramped mini-bus ride across the island to East Marine Diver's shop.

Here is the view of the ferry terminal from the dive shop.

The dive shop was located at the Royal Langkawi Yacht Club.

East Marine Divers runs daily snorkelling-scuba trips to Pulau Payar. The day I went there were many more snorkellers than divers. We made the crossing in a nice big boat. When we arrived at Pulau Payar they moored the boat in a beautiful cove. The snorkellers were all transported to the snorkelling beach while the divers took their first dive of the day.

Getting ready to dive. I am second from the left.

Brief dive report- I must admit that that I started the day with minimal expectations of the diving, so I would have been happy just getting wet. However, I was quite surprised by how much I enjoyed my two dives. Although the visibility was not great, it was certainly good enough to be able to see lots of interesting marine life. I dove in a group with only one other driver and our dive guide Othman worked hard to show us lots of interesting critters. Because Pulau Payar is a protected marine park there is no fishing in the area. Thus, we saw lots of fishes and many of them (e.g., groupers) were quite large. The most interesting things that I saw were several pipefish, two sea horses, and some very strange crabs (I have never seen crabs like this before- I am still trying to identify them) living underneath sea anemones. I had a great day of diving!

After our morning dive we joined everyone else at the snorkelling beach.

We had lunch in very nice shelters on the beach.

I think that the snorkellers enjoyed their visit to Pulau Payar. Because snorkellers commonly feed the fishes, the snorkellers were able to get quite close to the action (including nurse sharks). It was common to hear a kid shrieking when a nurse sharke ventured a little too close. This photo, taken from the dock, shows a small nurse shark.

Heading back to Langkawi.

My BCD enjoying the view.

More of the beautiful Langkawi islands.

Langkawi Boat Tour- More Interesting Stuff

2011-02-18T22:49:00.001-08:00

Life on the Mudflats

The mangroves live in the intertidal region which means that sometimes the area is covered by water and other times it is covered by water. The mudflats are important habitat for animals when they are exposed to the air.

This shot of the mudflat shows two interesting mudflat inhabitants- crabs and mudskippers. Mudspkippers are fishes that are adapated to living at the land-sea interface. They use their pectoral fins to walk around in the mud. I can mangify this photo on my computer so that it is easy to see the critters, but I don't know how to save and post the magnified photo. If you double click the photo then you can see a larger version and get a better view of these really interesting fish. This is the first time I have ever seen a live mudskipper.

Our guide thought that these footprints were probably made by an otter. I would have liked to see that.

Fish Farm

One stop on the boat tour was at a "fish farm". It didn't look like an place where they were actively raising fish for profit, but rather a place where they had some marine live for tourists to look at. These small enclosures held fishes such as jacks, groupers, and stingrays among others.

These are Archer Fish. I have seen Archer Fish several times during other trips through the mangroves in the Indo-Pacific region. However, I had never seen their famous behavior until the visit to the fish farm.

Archer fish are able to hunt for insects that live on the mangrove roots by spitting a stream of water that knocks the insects off of their perch into the water. Here you can see the stream of water heading towards a piece of squid (the white blotch)stuck to the pole. It was a direct hit every time! They said that they were able to hit targets up to three meters away. I think that seeing the Archer Fish hit its target was my favorite part of the whole trip!

The guide is showing us a horeshoe crab. This was the first time that I had seen a live one.

Charcoal Kiln

The brick structure on shore is a kiln that was formerly used to make charcoal. The mangroves are now protected so they can no longer make charcoal out of the mangrove wood.

The Crocodile Cave

The boat passed through a small cave known as Crocodile Cave. This cave got its name because some of the local people thought that some of the rocks looked like a crocodile. No fear of giant reptiles in this cave.

Looking through the cave to the other side.

Some of the formations inside of the cave.

Another tour boat following us through the cave.

Rivers passing through the mangroves can be important means of navigation for many inland and island areas. Here they joined two river systems together by blasting a passage through a small rock mountain. Now they can travel from one part of the island to another without having to enter the open sea.