THE FIRST TWO WEEKS

6/7 – Morning in KK, travel to Lambir

 

Today was incredible:  my first real taste of Southeast Asia, Malaysia, Borneo, the tropics – all of it.

 

I woke up and read a Malaysian newspaper.  The King was quoted saying that he was determined to balance economic needs with the importance of nobody being mistreated, “including women and the disabled.”  Already I was in culture shock!

 

Then I went to breakfast.  Shock again!  No eggs and waffles like I was hoping.  Rather, fish chile, fried noodles, rice pudding with soy sauce, and other Asian staples.  It felt like eating Chinese food for breakfast, but very strange Chinese food!  So far I’ve pretty much been sticking to carbs – rice and noodles – since everything else, especially meat, is flavored so strongly with spicy herbs!

 

Next was a trip to the market in downtown Kota Kinabalu (RANDOM NOTE TO SELF:  WHEN WE GET BACK TO KK FOR A REST DAY, BE SURE TO GO TO THE ZOO TO GUARANTEE ORANGUTAN SIGHTING – “semi-enclosed”).  HUGE culture shock.  Hundreds of people packed into streets, children making sales, the strangest fruits I had ever seen, knives for sale, poor puppies stuffed six in a cage on sale for 25 ringitts – aka $8 – each.  It was crazy.  But we tasted some cake which was really prettily patterned with laters on the inside, AND amazingly moist and yummy!  (Moist was consistent with the ridiculous humidity – surprisingly, it’s not that hot here, maybe 75 degrees, but it’s so humid that I’m constantly sweating buckets – and yummy was a pleasant surprise!)

 

Then we boarded a plane to from KK to Miri.  Then we took a bus from Miri to Lambir.  We’re in a national park.  With REAL RAINFORESTS.  We’re staying in some surprisingly nice cabins on the outskirts of the forest.  Inside the forest, it’s everything I imagined it would be.  The insects and birds are so loud you can’t hear yourself breathe.  There’s waterfalls right and left and crazy shaky bridges to cross.  My camera is amazing, I cannot stop snapping pictures.  On our completely random, unsupervised, spur-of-the-moment hike, here are a few things we saw:  a beetle the size of my palm, an ant trail at least 30 feet long with thousands of ants marching on and on and on (we passed it on our way into the forest and it was still going when we left an hour later!), a bright orange slug (we think?) on a log, at least 3 beautiful butterflies, some crazy red thing with berries coming out of it growing on a tree, hornbills (well, not really… we could hear them, but we couldn’t see them), the biggest ant I’ve ever seen in my life (supposedly a red-bellied ant, as big as a silver dollar), banana trees, durian trees (the smelly banned fruit!), all crazy kinds of mosses, lichens, and vines, and much much more!  We can’t wait to get out there with our professors and TF’s, who will actually know where to look for things and can tell us what everything is!

 

One of the coolest parts of all this has been meeting the 9 students from Southeast Asia.  It is so interesting to talk to them about their countries, and they laugh at us when we’re shocked at the odd foods!  They are all really nice; I’m looking forward to getting to know them better.

 

At the end of the day our professor handed out these adorable little goodie bags with T-shirts that say “Biodiversity of Borneo 2009,” a pair of leech socks, an emergency whistle, an electric converter, lighters for “disposing of our waste” in the woods – and the lovely knowledge that we will need to be at breakfast by 7 and lecture by 8 every day for the next two weeks.  So I’d better head to bed.  Can’t wait for the first day of learning (we’re going to talk about what is science in the rain forest, and how do we ask good questions about the things we see there) and more exciting explorations, pictures, and fun!

 

6/8 – Day 1 in Lambir

 

Our first real day.  I knew we had to be at breakfast by 7, and I thought it would be an issue, but it turns out it definitely wasn’t, because after going to bed around 8, I woke up at midnight and could not fall back asleep!  Molly and I went for a run around 5, I took a shower (freezing cold, but I LOVED it – it is SOOOO humid here!  I look forward to my cold showers every night!  The only bad thing is that seeing mosquitos in the shower with you is quite frightening… I suddenly felt very vulnerable, haha), and then we were off to breakfast.  Typical Malaysian breakfast: fried noodles, hard-boiled eggs, and some kind of rice that was SUPER spicy, like EVERYTHING here.

 

Then it was off to our first class!  A lecture by professor Cam Webb.  Just a very broad introduction to what we would be doing… the most exciting part was the safety procedures – what to do if you get bitten by a pit viper, for example.  (Contrary to popular belief, DON’T suck the poison out or tourniquet it – just wrap it in cloth and get to a hospital J). 

 

Then we had a lecture from Sylvester Tan, a guy from the Center for Tropical Forest Science.  He told us about some of the research projects that CTFS has going on here in Lambir Hills National Park.  Pretty cool.

 

Then we had a lecture from the Kamal guy who runs the visitations to Lambir Hills National Park.  He gave us some pretty cool statistics, history, and things like that.  Yup.

 

Next we were off into the forest!  We divided into three groups, one led by Cam, one led by the TF’s (Ross and Bekti – very cool!), and one led by Sylvester.  I was in the group led by Sylvester, which was very cool, because he’s a very experienced researcher, and he explained to us all the kinds of studies going on.  He could also identify pretty much any leaf, tree, insect – it was crazy.

 

When our forest exploration was over, we went swimming in a waterfall!!!! Amazing.  No other words.  Amazing.

 

Then came a quick rest, followed by a discussion on how to ask good scientific questions.  Then came dinner, followed by a lecture about the biodiversity of Borneo:  past, present, and future.  And by then it was 8:30 and all the Southeast Asian students were totally energetic, while all the Americans were ready to pass out!

 

Some of the things we discussed today included the projects we will be creating.  We will have three projects – one here at Lambir, one on the beach, and one in the rainforests at Maliau Basin – but we will also be keeping records of a chosen taxon, trying to draw relations between all the different species in the group.  What I’m thinking of looking at:

 

Rattan

 

Arroids, Arracae family, “climbing arracae”, non-woody climbers (true vines), most heads look like arrows

 

Lianas – woody climbers

 

Phasmids – stick insects

 

We’ll see!

 

6/9 – Day 2 in Lambir

 

Today was plant day!  After my first full night’s sleep here (fell asleep around 10, didn’t wake up until 7!), we went to breakfast (awesome today – even included some American food!  Buttered toast and fried eggs!), then off to our first class.  A lecture on forest dynamics by Shawn, a super-cool, super-smart guy from Hawaii who knows everything about everything (he’s from the NIE, I’m not sure what that stands for, but he’s very experienced).  Then Cam gave a lecture on plant phylogeny and taxonomy, and then we learned about how to define different families of plants!  We learned 4 defining characteristics of 10 different families, and then it was out to the forest to go ID them!  Shawn, Cam, Ross, Bekti, and Sylvester (from yesterday) were all there, and they were all experts and great helps as we struggled to identify tree species.  Then we got to participate in some real research.  Sylvester took us to a 20m x 20m research plot, where every tree was tagged, and told us that each tree’s diameter in the plot needed to be re-measured.  So we divided into groups and got to work!

 

Back at camp, we showered and studied up for our quiz.  We had dinner (our first truly delicious one:  rice (of course), chicken, pickled cucumbers with pineapple, some other cucumber salad, dragonfruit (pink and delicious!), pineapple, and some delicious egg-drop vegetable soup.  All great!

           

Then was the quiz!  We think the professors went easy on us, because most of us got 100s – who knew we could learn 10 different plant families and even identify them on the spot, all in one day?!  But the more exciting part was when a giant moth flew in and landed on my leg right in the middle of the quiz.  That was pretty cool.

 

Then came a lecture on phylogenetics by Rod Eastwood, from Harvard’s OEB department.  Then it should have been off to bed, but instead I did some crazy things like hold a cicaeda and burn a dead bat.  Yeah.  It was a crazy night.  So much fun.  J

6/10 – Day 3 in Lambir

Inset Day!  Woke up, ate breakfast, got a nice lecture from Dave on insects.  They are so diverse!  The most diverse taxon on the planet!  Then it was off into the forest to catch some of our own insects.  We went out with butterfly nets, pooters (creepy bug-suckers), test tubes, and other catching tools.  My favorite things that I caught were a stalk-eyed fly and a scale-insect, this really cool white fuzzy-looking thing that produces wax on the outside of its body to get the sucrose to drip off, and to look like a fungus so it doesn’t get eaten.  Then we set up a Meleise trap (looks like a tent, because insects tend to fly up when they hit something, so it’ll fly up until it gets caught in a poison insect-killer thing) and a butterfly trap (just a butterfly net over some rotting fruit).  We’ll go see what we caught in two days!

 

Then it was back for lunch.  Then we went back into the forest to do some experiments with Dave and Rod!  We set up three pairs of pit-fall traps (little cups in the ground filled with a detergent/water mixture), one in a gap and one in the forest.  We also took leaf-litter samples from both gaps and the forest.  We’ll check out what we found in two days.

 

Then it was back to camp, shower, a nice talk with Jess about growing up (she’s 27) and still having adventures.  Dinner.  A lecture from Shawn on Seed Dispersal (SO COOL!).  I tasted jackfruit for the first time. J  Back to the room.  A nice talk with Molly and Jess about questions, motives for taking the course, etc.  Some pleasure reading and off to sleep.  J

 

6/11 – Day 4 in Lambir

 

Computer Day!  So complicated!  We worked on computer stuff ALL day, from 10AM till around 4.  Then I talked to Dave and Rod about my butterfly project proposal.  Then I went for a run with Molly and Shana, and then we went swimming in the waterfall.  Came back, ate dinner, had a lecture from Dave on bird and butterfly phylogeography.  NIGHT HIKE!  I was in Ross’s group, and didn’t see anything except a tree frog and a huge spider.  I really should have gone to meet up with Dave’s group, but I was tired and feeling gross.  Turns out Dave’s group saw tons of crazy stuff like a snake, a crab, a ton of stick insects, two frogs, and more.  Oh well.  Got a good night’s sleep.  J

 

6/12 – Day 5 in Lambir

 

Insect Day, take two!  Woke up, went to breakfast, then we all had a discussion about our taxons.  (I think I am going to switch from aroids to stick insects, or Phasmids!)  Then we got a lecture from Rod on associative relationships between butterflies and ants.  Next we split up:  some people sifted through leaf litter, and others – including me – went out into the rainforest (it was actually raining!) to get the pitfall traps.  We wore our leech socks because the rain supposedly makes them come out, but we didn’t see any leeches.

 

Came back, ate lunch, then it was time to look at the insects under a microscope!  We identified them by order, recorded the data, and then got a lecture from Rod that analyzed the quality of the experiment.  Then dinner.  Then a lecture from Sabrina (the lady with the University of Nebraska kids) on trade-offs that trees make – between wood density and the amount of photosynthesis, for example.  Pretty cool.

 

Then Kristina, Mindy and I went for a night hike!  We ran into Agri and Sreekar while we were in the forest; they were looking for geckos, but we were just looking for anything cool.  We saw two pairs of phasmids (stick insects) – different species! – mating!  We also saw a snake and a whole bunch of lizards and spiders.  It was SUPER cool. 

 

Came back, took a shower, put on my nice clean (fresh from the laundry!) clothes, texted Mom a bit, and had a great night’s sleep.  Good day.  J

 

6/13 – Day 6 in Lambir

 

Computing, Day 2!  Off to a smoother start than our first computing day.  J

 

We analyzed our data from the tree diameter measurements (our group was spot on!  Only one negative difference!), then we analyzed our insect data form the pit fall traps and the leaf litter.  Fun J

 

Next Kristina and I went and got our butterfly traps that we set as a preliminary to our experiment yesterday.  We caught 6 butterflies in each trap!  We recorded the data, captured as many as we could prevent from flying away, and gave ourselves a huge pat on the back.  J

 

Then we went to the bird tower!  This giant wooden structure around a HUGE tree.  Beautiful at the top.  J

 

Then worked out with Shana (abs, lunges, calves, push-ups, squats… fun stuff.)

 

Shower.  Dinner.  Talked to Sreekar, who apparently will be on TV in India soon!  He works for Disney, actually! J  They are making a TV series called “Deadly 60.”  Sreekar’s job is to go find snakes for them.  He gives them to the film people, they strategically plant the snake, and then the person on the show shouts, “OMG, look, a snake!” and goes to pick it up… haha J

 

Movie night!  Ate popcorn (J) and watched a documentary on this one guy’s quest to make “carbon credits” a commodity on the market for corporations.  Very interesting stuff, and a good discussion afterward.

Came back to the room, worked on my Phasmidae character matrix (Yay, stick insects!  They are so cool, and there are so many different species here!), off to bed. J

 

6/14 – Day 7 in Lambir

 

Wow.  What a day.  What should have been a rest day turned into the most dangerous adventure so far!

 

Woke up, ate breakfast, learned how to pin butterflies with Rod.  J  Went out with Kristina, put out the butterfly nets – site two! J

 

Then came the danger.  We were scheduled to go up into the canopy crane!  SO COOL!!!  A huge crane, 80m high, takes you 50m out, lowers you down into the canopy.  Super super amazing.  EXCEPT:  while we were out there, we saw some rain clouds in the distance and heard some rumbling. There was a three-way walkie-talkie in the tiny little cage we were hanging in, between us, the guy operating the crane, and the guy down on the ground.  The guy operating the crane said, “I am moving you to the left.”  I said to him, “What about the thunder?  It looks like it’s getting close.”  There must have been a language barrier, because he just said again, “I am moving you to the left.”  A few minutes later, he said, “If it starts raining, we will stop.”  But that wasn’t very reassuring, because we could see the lightening just meters away – and it seemed like we were at the same elevation as the storm clouds!

 

Then all of sudden, the storm – seemingly out of nowhere – got really close, and before long, we were right in it!  We could see the crowns of the trees blowing violently in the wind below us – and pretty soon there were rain pellets in our faces, and the wind was blowing the cage around like it weighed nothing!  And the worst part was, we didn’t want to hold onto the side of the cage, because we were basically standing in a giant lightening rod!  We were getting tossed around like laundry in a machine, and we could hear the guys shouting to each other on the walkie-talkie in Malay.  (Agri, who was up there with Kristina and me, said they were yelling, “Get them down fast, get them down fast!”)  A little too slowly for our taste, they brought us in from the 50m we were out, and then started to lower us down the 80m.  When we got to the bottom, our backpacks and camera bags were soaking wet sitting in huge puddles.  We grabbed them and ran the twenty minutes down the trail through the rainforest back to camp – in the pouring (and I mean POURING – it was like a monsoon!) rain. 

 

What an experience.  It DEFINITELY rained in the rainforest, and we were both above it AND in it while it did so!  We didn’t get out scot clean – our cameras got wet, our boots are disgustingly soaked, my UV Water Purifier (that I have been fondly calling my Light Saber) got wet and doesn’t seem to be working, my notebook is soaking wet, and all our clothes were soaked.  But we feel SO incredibly lucky just to have gotten down from that crane without being blown away, AND to have avoided getting struck by lightening, AND to have avoided being hit by a falling tree as we ran through the forest in a monsoon!  Ross and Cam insist that we were in no danger; they say that even if lightening had struck the crane while we were inside the cage, we would have been fine, but we’re choosing not to believe them (lol).  Wow.  What an experience.  But not one that I would want to have again!!!!!

 

Came back, dried off, and somehow ended up watching The Ten Commandments on my laptop with some of the other girls, haha.

 

Dinner, then learning Malay! Such a cool language. That was super fun.  Fae taught us, and the American guys only wanted to know how to say funny things like, “Can I have yo numba??” and “Hey, gorgeous!”  (“Hallo, chantik!”)  It was pretty entertaining. 

 

Prepared for oral presentation with Kristina, movie with Molly, Shana, Andrew, and Douwe.  Good day.  Caves tomorrow! J

 

6/15 – Day 8 in Lambir and Day in Nia

 

What a great day!  Woke up, went to breakfast (delicious today!  Omlettes and bread and papaya and mango juice!), had our project proposal presentations!  Ours on butterflies went really well  J  Molly, Douwe, and Andrew are doing lianas; Jess, Alex, and Mindy are doing water striders; Fae, Shana, and Serena are doing pitcher plants; Dita and Le are doing fungi; Sreekar, Agri, and Ridwan (apparently called Wang now; and everyone thinks Sreekar and Agri have a romance going on!) are doing lizards; and Nuwan (apparently called Imesh sometimes) and Awin are doing the Iba tribe.  Cool stuff!

 

Then Kristina and I went to get our butterflies and reset the traps.  We got fewer numbers this time, but brighter colors – two blue! J

 

Then we ate lunch and it was an hour and a half ride to the caves!  We got there, walked FOREVER through Nia National Park, and saw our first primates (!!!!) – Macaques!!!! SOOOO CUUTE!!!!  A whole family of them climbing up the trees and onto the top of the caves!  Then we went IN the caves!  Super cool!  Some parts of it had holes in the ceiling and beautiful streams of light coming through; other parts were completely pitch black; and ALL parts and squeaky bats hanging from the ceiling, sounding like they were cackling!! Creepy!! But soooo cool!!!

 

Then on the busride back I bonded with Shana, Andrew, Molly, and Mindy as we played mind tricks and other fun bus games.  Then we got REAL FOOD!!! Well, not all of it.  First I had some DELICIOUS puffed rice something with chicken and egg inside.  Then some American ice cream J  Then a strawberry milkshake!  (It wasn’t like an American milkshake… They made it with ice and soy milk, not ice cream.  It was thinner and sweeter.  Mmmmm J) Then something called Rito – some fried something – that I split with Molly.  Way too much to eat, I know, but we all got a little carried away with our ten free ringitts and a place full of GOOD FOOD!!!

 

Came back, watched more of The Ten Commandments with Molly and Shana, took a shower, now bed!  Other great things that happened today:  Managed to dry my hiking shoes out from yesterday with some newspaper and the sun, started to feel some real bonding among the group, had an interesting talk with Dita about our religions, saw primates TWICE, learned about oil palms and birds’ nest soup, successfully made my first scientific project proposal oral presentation, and lots of other great things!  A great day!

 

6/16 – Day 9 in Lambir

 

Wow.  Field research is toughter than I expected. Kristina and I went to the plot and set up our two traps.  Then we went to do a transect in the forest of the plot, but we soon found out that we were doing it all wrong.  Our new staff member, Stuart Davies (director of the Center for Tropical Forest Studies), came and pointed out that we were going perpendicular to the forest edge, which would lead to edge-effect skewing our results; he said we should go parallel to the edge, which would mean going off the trail.  But going off the trail was SO difficult!  It’s called “Lambir HILLS National Park” for a reason!  The slopes are ridiculously steep, and you can’t take five steps without getting attacked by a plant with thorns or hooks!  We were exhausted by the end of that day in the field.

 

Then a lecture from Stuart, who, by the way, is SO nice and supportive of me and my being a film major on a bio trip!  He even seemed like he would let me film at one of their cooler plots in future summers!  Remember to keep in touch with him…

 

Then a night hike with Kristina, Jess, and Mindy.  It was super fun, AND we found lots of phasmids, and a GIANT spider!  And Kristina and I resolved to complain less in the field tomorrow and to sing Disney songs on the trail.  J 

 

6/17 – Day 10 in Lambir

 

We said we would make sure today was better, and it was!  Well, we started out a little dejected, because it was POURING rain!  But we still braved the treck to the plot and got our traps, and one even had a butterfly in it!  We came back (did it fast enough to catch the cab there AND back!), re-set the traps (minor setback:  no bananas, only dragonfruit), and did 3 transect walks.  Tomorrow all we have to do is one transect walk in the plot, and analyze our data and write our report! J

 

I got my first leech today!  5, in fact!  The first one I didn’t even see, I just saw it bleeding.  The second one was right next to that one, and I saw it… it wouldn’t come off too easily when I pulled it, so I just let it fill up, and eventually it fell off (I was actually kind of sad to see it go!).  At that point I was thrilled.  But then when we got back at the end of the day I realized I had 3 more, all on my feet! (Note to self – do NOT wear just sandals after it rains!!!)  One was in between my toes, one was on the top of my foot, and one was smack in the middle of the bottom of my foot.  One of the guys who works at the national park saw Kristina and me freaking out when I took my shoes off, and he came over and crunched up one of his cigarettes and sprinkled it on the leeches; apparently they don’t like tobacco, so they let go and popped right off!  But my feet are DISGUSTINGLY bloody!  The leeches are so weird, you don’t even feel them, they’re even kind of cute, but they make you bleed SOOOOOOOO much!!!  They inject you with an anti-coagulant, so you just bleed and bleed and bleed.  My only motivation to wear my leech socks is so that all my stuff doesn’t get bloody!!

 

6/18 – Day 11 in Lambir

 

What a great day… felt productive, smart, and had fun.  J

 

Started out at 6AM to go birdwatching with Haw Chuan Lim.  We set up a trap, went back and ate breakfast (French toast!  Yummy!), and then went back to the trap and had caught a little yellow spider-hunter!  We watched him take all kinds of measurements and even a blood sample, and then we even got to hold it!  What an amazing experience.  J

 

Then Kristina and I got the taxi down to the plot and did our final transect.  Walked back in the blazing sun and heat, singing Disney songs for the whole 30 minutes.  J  Checked our traps – no new data! J – and went and got our analyze on.  Worked for a really long time until we went with Molly to go exercise and swim in the waterfall one last time.  Funnnnnn.

 

Worked some more.  Ate dinner.  Worked some more.  DONE WITH PROJECT NUMBER ONE!!! And even better…. Our results showed…. SIGNIFICANCE!!!!! YAAAAAAY!!!! J J J  Presenting in the morning, then leaving for Miri, where we will have hotel rooms and internet access!!!!!  Then to KK the next day!!! Then off to Gaya Island!!! AAAAAAH, this trip is amazing!!!

 

6/19 – Leaving Lambir, off to Miri

 

Yaaaaaay, internet!  We’re in a fancy hotel in the city Miri, and it feels like paradise!

 

This morning we woke up in Lambir bright and early and presented our projects at 9AM.  It was AWESOME.  Kristina and I were proud to show everyone how we had proven a significant association between Lepidoptera coloration and location.  J  The other groups all did an amazing job, too!  It was so cool to learn about pitcher plants, geckos, water striders, fungi, the local Iba community, and lianas, all in one morning!

 

Then we packed up, had our last lunch at Lambir, and got on a nice air-conditioned bus to Miri.  Such an interesting city – much different from KK.  We checked into the hotel, reveled in the internet access, and then headed out shopping at some Malaysian malls.  They’re a lot like American malls, except they have grocery stores in them, and all kinds of other weird shops – including a bookstore called “Salvation” that sold nothing but books that told you how to save your soul.  Yeah, it was an interesting shopping trip. 

 

About to take my first shower in two weeks that WILL NOT HAVE MOSQUITOES IN IT!  YES!!!  Then a movie night with some of the girls.  J  Some of the Americans are going out clubbing tonight… it’ll be fun to hear what they have to say about what Malaysian clubs are like, but the rest of us are looking forward to a cozy night in.  J

 

Tomorrow we fly back to KK, enjoy the city, have some lectures at night, and then leave for Gaya Island for the marine bio section of the course!!!!!  CANNOT WAIT!!!!!