Home from Borneo

Wow.  It is so good to be home.  It's also pretty amazing -- I feel like I'm seeing everything differently!  As soon as we pulled into my neighborhood, I looked at all the big green lawns and the landscapers doing their work, and all I could think was, "Jeez, this is all so unnecessary!"  I don't think I'll ever forget that almost everything we have here in the states is a luxury!

I cannot believe how much I missed everybody!  It is so amazing to hear from all my friends and family -- I missed your voices!

I guess this is pretty much it for this blog.  I might use it for some other post-Borneo reflections, but for the most part, this might be the end.  Thank you, everyone, for reading!!!  I feel so lucky to have had this amazing experience!!!!

Thanks to Mom, Dad, Cam, Andrew Berry, Harvard, all my new BoB '09 friends, and all friends and family!

Love,

Abby

Borneo: the last days!

7/20 – Work Day in KK

 

Back to work.  Lecture in the morning from Cam on Biodiversity Informatics.  Also, poor Kristina – she has giardia.  It’s a parasite that you get from drinking bad water.  She’s been throwing up for the past three days and has dropped at least 20 pounds and has NO energy.  I think she got it from the water she drank at Maliau.  She was using iodine to purify her water, and according to Wikipedia, “most chemical treatment methods, including common point-of-use treatments such as iodine and chlorine dioxide, are considered unreliable in inactivating Giardi.”  THANK YOU, MOM, FOR SPENDING THAT EXTRA MONEY ON AN ULTRAVIOLET WATER PURIFIER!!!!!!!

 

Anyway.  After Cam’s lecture, I headed across the street to Borneo Books to do some research on gibbons and phasmids.  It was so nice.  I sat in that bookstore for 3 hours, loving their high-speed internet connection, looking through their books, getting work done, texting… it was awesome.  After that I walked around the mall in search of some sort of lunch food and ended up with a delicious frozen yogurt – mango and vanilla twist.  It was amazing.  I came back to the hotel to finish up my phasmids project.  Got a lot of work done, went and worked out in the room, took a shower, and then we all went out for some delicious Indian food!  Vegetable spring rolls, vegetable korma, and naan.  Mmmmmm, delicious. 

 

Then I came back, watched a little TV, and fell asleep.  Nice day!

 

7/21 – Last work Day!

 

I’m getting a little nervous about presenting to the University of Malaysia all by myself!  This morning I woke up, ate some breakfast of granola in the room, then went up to the Nepenthes room to work on projects.  Took a break to get some lunch with Ross.  It was awesome.  Went to the mall, ended up getting some cheap DVDs, frozen yogurt, and those delicious waffle sandwiches with peanut butter and chocolate.  Mmmmm.  Came back, worked some more.  Took a break to fill out the course evaluation and watch some planet earth.  Then a lecture from Marc’s cool friend Benoit on his studies of the Bornean pygmy elephant.  Then we all went out to a delicious caprese, pizza, and garlic bread dinner, followed by a trip to an ice cream shop!  Came back to the hotel, worked worked worked, then off to bed.  Presentations tomorrow!!  As Andrew would say – MEEP!!!

 

7/22 – AAAAAH!!! Last day!!!!!

 

Oh my goooossh!  I can’t believe it’s over! L L L  It’s so sad!  I’ve come to love every single person here, I can’t believe that I’m going to be leaving half of them to go back halfway across the world L

 

The day started with breakfast and last-minute touchups on the class website and on our presentations.  Then we left for the University of Malaysia.  We had a few students and some faculty watching us present (eek!).  But everyone did a GREAT job.  First went pitfall team, then dragonfly team, then rotting fruit team, then drip-tip team.  Then we had a nice coffee/tea/snack break, and then it was stream team, bird team, and me!  I was SO nervous, but I had SO much fun going up there and talking all about my gibbons.  It was great.  J  I got lots of applause – before and after!  I think that, even though everyone was too chicken to work with me, they all give me a lot of credit, lol, they were rooting for me all along – and I even had a bunch of the students come up to me and ask me questions afterward.  One lady even said she was impressed with the enthusiasm I talked with and said I was destined to be a primatologist (?).  I’m really proud of how everything played out!!!! J J J

 

Then we all took pictures near the cliff and climbed into the bus.  We went to the BEST dining place EVER for our end-of-the-course party.  It was called “@mosphere,” and the whole place was orange with funky furniture, and the floor SPUN (the building was round!).  We spent an hour and a half sitting in the comfy chairs sipping drinks and talking, then had dinner, then spent another hour getting certificates, talking some more, and then – surprise – dancing it out to some Michael Jackson with strobe lights!  It was so much fun, it was the best ending I could have imagined.

 

Then we got back on the bus, came back to the hotel, and did lots of hugging and tearing up.  L  Some people I will see in the morning, and the Americans I’ll be travelling back with, but this was pretty much goodbye to the Southeast Asian students. It was really sad.  Dita, Agri, Nuwan, Ridwan, Sreekar, Fae, Le, Bekti, MS – all these people turned out to be AMAZING, and I love and will miss them all!!!

 

Now it’s off to bed.  Leaving on a plane to KL with the Americans tomorrow morning.  Can’t wait to explore the capital of Malaysia.  Home the next night!

 

7/23 – Fly to KL

 

What a fun day.  We woke up, went for one last round of shopping in KK, picked up our laundry,  packed, and then headed for the airport.  We boarded a plane from KK to KL that left around 12:30 and got us in around 3:30.  But we had to take a bus from the airport to “KL Sentral” (downtown, I’m guessing), and then we had to figure out where we were sleeping that night!  We found some nice cab drivers who recommended a place called the “Star Town Inn” (our cab driver was really funny… he talked a lot and said “Aaaaah,” at the end of each sentence – like the first part of “Ah-HA!” but just the “Ah”).  It was 300 ringitt for one room for two nights, which meant 75 ringitt per person, which meant around $25 a person.  For two nights in a hotel right downtown in the capital of Malaysia, we thought that was pretty good!

 

By the time all that was taken care of, it was dinner time, and Molly was craving Indian food, so we found a good restaurant where Molly flirted with the Pakistani waiter who called Douwe “handsome boy”.  It was a good time.  After that we walked around the city.  Wow.  KL is SO DIFFERENT from KK.  It’s pretty much completely Westernized.  Full of malls and shops – the only thing reminding us that we were in Malaysia were the many women in burkas, and that one guy who had those poor poor captive macaques that he was letting people hold for 10 ringitt each. 

 

Anyway.  We had a nice time exploring the city and then headed to bed.

 

7/24  -- Explore KL & DEPART

 

This morning we had a nice, lazy start.  We rolled out of bed around 9 and went to a delicious little café with free wireless for breakfast.  Then Molly and I shopped around a bit while Douwe wrote postcards.  Shopping is so much fun here because clothes are so CUTE and SO cheap, but the male venders in the market are CREEPY!!  “My sweetheart, my sweetheart, I give you 10 ringitt, please don’t leave!”  You gotta watch out, they’ll grab you by the wrist and legit not let go until you buy something (which is how I ended up with the ugliest 20 ringgit purse I’ve ever seen).  I was really glad the two of us were sticking together.  Sheesh.

 

When we got back, we split up.  Douwe and Molly continued shopping, and Andrew and I headed to the National Mosque to be cultural.  It was SOOOOOO interesting.  When we first got there, it was during one of the 5 prayer times of the day, and the place was PACKED.  There were shoes all OVER the place surrounding the mosque, and people washing their feet, and you could hear the prayer songs from outside.  There was a big sign that said “CLOSED to non-Muslim tourists,” so we asked around and found at we could come back at 3PM.  In the meantime, we went to the National Museum of Islamic Culture (or something like that), which was FASCINATING.  It was SO great to learn about this religion – which was surprisingly similar to my own – and the interesting culture that comes with it.

 

When we could actually get into the mosque, we had to take our shoes off, and I had to wear this big purple cloak thing with a log skirt, long sleeves, and a hood to cover my hair.  We went in and explored the beautiful architecture, saw some people praying, saw some homeless people taking refuge, and talked to a woman who was chatting with all the tourists as part of an Islamic Outreach thing.  It was really, really interesting.  I’m really glad I went.

 

We all met back at the hotel, took showers, then headed out to our last dinner.  (McDonalds – lame, we know, but we wanted to come full circle.  McDonalds was the first meal we ate in Malaysia when we first landed at the airport, so we decided to make it our last, too.)  Then we walked to the Petronus towers – the third-tallest buildings in the world, after some building in Thailand and the Empire State Building.

 

Then we came back, finished packing up, and left for the airport!  Homeward bound!

Amazing Rest Day in KK

7/19 – Rest Day in KK

 

What an amazing day!  Woke up, went to the Western Supermarket with Molly.  AMAZING.  Had a muffin and we shared a scoop of ice cream.  Bought some delicious granola.  Mmmmm, western food.

 

Then we went to the market and walked around, took pictures, and bought lots of souvenirs.

 

Then we came back, rested a bit, and then got ready to go work out at the pool with Douwe.  That was awesome.  We did push-ups, abs, butt exercises, calves, and shoulder burn.  Then I swan 500m.  Then I jumped off some HIIIIIIGH high dives.  First I went of the 1m, then the 3m, then the 5m, then the 7m, then – gasp – the 10m.  It was AMAZING.  Even Douwe was impressed!  It was SOOOO high!  I could hear the air whooshing faster and faster past my ears as I went down, and I hit the water HARD because I had been so high up!  It was funny, there were some Malaysian guys watching who clapped for me, lol.  Good stuff.  

On the way back we stopped at the Western Market again and got Bri cheese and crackers.  Mmmmmmmm.  We hadn’t eaten dairy in FOREVER! 

 

Came back, took a shower, then had the best trip to the mall EVER.  As it turns out, spa-ish activities are SUPER cheap here.  I got a shoulder/neck/head/hand massage that lasted an hour for 15 ringitt, or $5!!!! Then Molly and I got pedicures.  Aaaaah.  For the first time in FOREVER I feel like I’m on vacation!  I also got lots of DVDs for cheap, including Planet Earth.  Yay! J

 

Then we went to the market and got another one of those awesome fresh fish.  Then stopped at the Western Market one more time.  Then came back, watched the movie 23 in Douwe and Andrew’s room with the two of them, Molly, and Alex.  Then had some nice girl-talk with Molly and fell asleep.  Aaaah, what a great day!

GIBBON PROJECT IN MALIAU BASIN!!

7/12 – Rest Day at the Studies Center

 

Couldn’t sleep last night because I napped so well!  Got up, went to breakfast, went birdwatching with Sreekar and Le.  Came back, lunch, and loved internet access for a few hours.  Lecture from Rhett on figs, lecture from Charles on more paleontology.  Dinner.  Interesting discussion on evolution and religion and this course.  Nice talk with Molly.  Bed.

 

7/13 – Project Day at Studies Center

 

Got up and went gibbon watching!  It was amazing because for once the gibbons were NOT singing.  You can ALWAYS hear them singing when you get up in the morning, but not today, because it was all foggy out.  But I went out with our guide Harbin anyway.  We were walking around for a half hour or so, and I was convinced we wouldn’t see any because there was no sound for us to follow.  But we did see some!  A huge male with a female!  I got some good observations and came up with a project idea.  Yay!

 

Breakfast, project proposals, then wasted time on the internet, half-researching and half-instant-messaging friends until lunch.  Lunch.  Wasted a whole lot of more time on the internet.  Hopefully \the rest of the day will be working out, dinner, project revision presentations, and bed.  More gibbon watching early early early tomorrow morning!

 

7/14 – Project Day at Studies Center

 

Another morning of gibbon hunting with Harbin.  We were out in the jungle by 5:30.  We found a really interesting group and watched it for about half an hour!  It was awesome.  Came back, ate breakfast, during which I got some criticism of my hypothesis from my professor, so I spent the next few hours researching.  Then nap.  Then went out searching for gibbons some more.  We didn’t find any, but we did see a WHOLE bunch of long-tailed macaques!  And a giant squirrel!  Awesome.  A lecture from Gary on his phD about dipterocarpacae species distribution based on soil nutrients.  Dinner.  Work on proposals.  Bed.  J

 

7/15 – Project Day at Studies Center

 

Today was the most amazing day of observations EVER!!!  Check this out: 

 

AMAZING THINGS SEEN ON THE MORNING OF 7/15

 

·      So many gibbons!  We were following one pair and ended up right in the middle of 4-5 different groups’ territorial songs and displays! Apes screaming and jumping and swinging all over the place!  They even came down pretty close to us and looked at us for a while!  It was unbelievable.

·      A flock of juvenile macaques!

·      A flock of Samba deer!

·      Giant mystery cucumber fruit! (bua akar) (bua = fruit, akar = liana)

·      Cool centipede!

·      Squirrels – regular, pygmy, and giant!

·      Cool bird!  Big grey with some yellow on throat, rounded beak, picking up twigs and moving them around.  Pooped.

 

What an awesome morning.

 

Followed by breakfast, some research, and a nap.  Then lunch, and learning about how to construct phylogenies for our focal taxa – yay, stick insects!  Then a lecture from Ross on cordyceps.

 

7/16 – Project Day at Studies Center

 

A nice day.  Unfortunately, no gibbons.  It rained last night, so they were not calling this morning.  But I still got some good information and nice experience from walking through the woods looking at them.  Saw a really adorable baby long-tailed macaque.  Also saw a frog and heard a flock of Samba deer.  When we went out in the afternoon, we saw a barking deer!  It was crazy!  Made a sound like the roar of a dinosaur!  Then Harbin picked up a leaf and blew and imitated the sound of its baby, so it came really close to us!  It was huge!  Very intimidating, it looked so powerful and muscular.

 

At 5 we had a lecture from Gary on the High Conservation Value approach to industry.  Very interesting stuff.  Dinner.  Then a FABULOUS discussion on “Why care about biodiversity?”  We talked about whether or not there is an intrinsic value to biodiversity, independent on whether or not it is beneficial to humans in the long term, and whether or not that matters.  We talked about how religion motivates people to want to save biodiversity and if that’s a valid argument.  We talked about whether or not it’s hypocritical to want to save the environment and also want to have kids, because the best thing we can do for biodiversity now is control population growth.  Even if we want to save biodiversity simply because we get a feeling when we see how beautiful it is, that may be a selfish impulse to satisfy the human desire for beauty, but it doesn’t really matter, because that feeling is what we act on.  I think I decided that, whether or not saving biodiversity will be practically beneficial to humans (evidence suggests not), it helps me learn compassion.  If I can learn to have compassion for a fungus, or for a family of trees, and be willing to make sacrifices to save these things, and admit that my wants are not necessarily more important than their existence, I will for sure have no trouble admitting that my wants are no more important than other people’s needs.  I think learning to appreciate and be willing to sacrifice for biodiversity is a lesson in compassion, toward nature and even toward other people.  But anyway.  That was a really great discussion, because this whole time we’ve been learning about biodiversity and conservation and just assuming that it’s a good thing; now we really pushed ourselves to figure out why it’s a good thing.  It was great.

 

Bed! J

 

7/17 – Project Day at Studies Center

 

Our last full day in the Bornean rainforest! L L L

 

Started out pretty awesome – a successful gibbon morning! J

 

Ended with a last nature walk, swim in the river, watching some sports (badminton and volleyball), dinner, a night-walk, and bed.

 

7/18 – Drive Back to KK

Last gibbon morning.  AMAZING.  First found a pair.  Then found an adult with a juvenile, which was a miracle, because they weren’t calling.  Then an even BIGGER miracle – we thought we were done and we were walking back not even paying attention, and a HUGE lone male swung RIGHT by us near the river’s edge!  CRAZY!!! Ah.  So lucky.  So sad to leave the forest.  L

 

Drove back.  Settled into the room with Molly.  Slept all afternoon and night.  Niiiiiice.

Up the Mountain, Palm Oil Plantations, Deramakot, Maliau Basin

6/29 – Drive to the base of Mt. Kinabalu.  Stop in a pretty cool market and shop on the way. Settle into the hostel, go on a plant walk with Tony (new guest lecturer).  Nap.  Lecture from Tony and then from a lady who works with the tours of the mountain.  Night walk with Sabrina and Sreekar.  Sleep in hostel.

6/30 – Wake up, breakfast, drive to mountain, receive nametag, hiked the 6 steep km up Mt. Kinabalu to Laban Rata/Giton Lagadan.  Pretty sure that was the hardest thing I've ever done.  It was fun at first and then it was just hard.  We did see frogs and giant purple earthworms, but we also got rained on and were in extreme amounts of pain.  When we got back, we got some amazing help from everyone who hiked faster than us; as soon as we got in, they gave us dry clothes, tea, soup, and first dibs on the hot showers.  It was a good thing, because one of the girls, Dita, got pretty severely hypothermic. It's a good thing Cam's wife Kinari is a doctor.  She knew exactly what to do, and Dita got better with a lot of hot water bottles and some TLC.  We all passed out in bed super early

7/1 – Wake up after a rough night of traveller's sickness.  This mountain is doing a number on me.  Don’t go to breakfast, do make it to the montane ecology lecture and walk around.  Take a huge nap during the day and wake up feeling better. Bekti’s lecture on rhododendrons at 4, dinner, bed early.

7/2 – Wake up at 2am. Hike 2.7 km to the summit of Mt. Kinabalu w/ white rope. AMAZING. Beautiful dense starry sky. Can see lightening in the distance. Can see cities below us and even peninsular KL across the ocean. Saw the sunrise from the top. Unbelievable. Hiked 2.7 km down to pack and eat breakfast at Laban Rata. Then hiked 6 km down to the bottom of the mountain. Hung out in the hostel, had a dance party, watched the rainfall. Took a shower. Relaxed.  ☺

7/3 – Palm Oil Plantation, Drive to Deramakot

Today was nice but depressing. We woke up and got to sit on a bus for 6 hours. That was awesome. Kristina and I rocked out to Disney music and conducted together, lol. Then we went to the oil palm plantation. It’s sad, the excuses that these people come up with. And it’s even sadder how MUCH forest they’ve taken. The figures are ridiculous, something like 70% of the forests on the island in the past 20 years. Cam says with full confidence that within a few decades there will be no primary forests and no large mammals left on this island if this continues. The problem is on SUCH a huge scale, it seems unconquerable. It’s hard to keep reminding ourselves that the little things we do actually DO make a difference – it’s just that EVERYONE on the planet REALLY needs to take a BUNCH of small steps, and some big steps too. Otherwise ALL of this will be gone. It feels real now… I’m looking at this forest right now, and I’m looking at all the miles and miles and miles of oil palm trees that USED to be forest, and I’m thinking of how hard it is to find a wild orangutan, and how easy it was 50 years ago – we are LOSING this forest NOW. It will be GONE within our lifetime if things don’t change. It’s so scary.

Anyway. We left the oil plantation and came to this sustainable logging place. Sustainable logging is great. It’s almost even GOOD for the forest – there are more orangutans here in this sustainably logged area than almost anywhere else on the island. And it’s even a sort of carbon offset, because the early successional forests that grow after you cut down a tree and leave the area alone absorb more carbon than mature primary forests. If you really want to help the environment: BUY SUSTAINABLY LOGGED TIMBER. And get a job at Planned Parenthood, Ross says – there are just too many people on this planet.

Sigh. A sad reality. But hopefully we’re off to fixing it tomorrow!

7/4 – Deramakot

Happy Fourth of July! All the Americans started off the day with a whole bunch of singing patriotic songs ☺. First things first – we woke up at 5:30 to go look for orangutans! Walked in the woods a bit and didn’t find any, but got a TON of leeches, so we turned back. Then we did breakfast, then got a lecture from one of the guys who works here. Then we went on a walk on the educational trail (saw some orangutan nests!!!), then went on a walk on the ecology trail while eating lunch. Sat for an hour looking for orangutans, didn’t find any, but had fun writing a story with Shana and watching Fae tie leeches into knots. Came back, took a nap, then went to a lecture from Rhett about sustainable forest management. Then had a debate about palm oil vs. sustainable forest management! That was fun. Then a fun dinner, some learning Malay, and bed. Yay. ☺

7/5 – Deramakot

Today was a fun day. Woke up after a great night’s sleep, got some breakfast, and then had an unexpected free hour, during which I did some taxon stuff. (Yay, stick insects! I’m up to 15!) Then it was off to an adventure through the world of sustainable logging! And it was definitely an adventure. First we got our hard-hats and piled into the 4-by-4s. We drove for a little bit, went on a trail, saw a water-hump that they use to prevent soil erosion, saw a tree stump, and then piled into the back of some pickup trucks. Because it rained all afternoon and all night yesterday, it was SO muddy! We all felt like Indiana Jones trekking through the mud! The pickup trucks took us further into the forest, where we watched the fellers sustainably log two trees. It was crazy, seeing those humongous trees fall almost in slow motion down to the ground, land with a huge crash, bounce once, then settle down. We examined the stumps for xylem and phloem and resin and other factors, then headed back to basecamp for lunch.

After that I went for a walk in the forest to find some orangutans. I went by myself because I wanted to be super slow and super quiet, and I wanted to look for more stick insects. I walked SO slowly and looked ALL over the place, for almost two hours, but I didn’t find any stick insects or orangutans. But it was okay, because it was SO nice spending some time by myself in the rainforest. It has a certain rhythm that you don’t really sense when you’re with a big crowd of people. I saw some beautiful butterflies, some very interesting birds, and had some run-ins with many a fly, bee, and mosquito, and I felt like I was really completely immersed in the atmosphere. I listened extra carefully to every sound and tried to trace it back to the bird or squirrel that made it… this sounds really tacky, but I really was trying to be “one with the forest” or whatever… you know, so that I wouldn’t stick out like a sore thumb and scare away the orangutans. Even though it didn’t work, I really enjoyed myself and noticed more than I’ve noticed on any other walk.

Anyway. Then had a lecture on paleontology (SO COOL! Remember to take Charles’s OEB class and look into HEB or the bio track of anthro…), and another one on the peoples of Borneo (I love anthropology… once we were finally talking about people and cultures instead of scientific systems, I suddenly found it so easy to concentrate! I’m loving exploring a new field, but this whole trip has definitely confirmed my passion for the humanities above the sciences).

Then a quick walk with Kristina (beautiful sunset!) and a yummy dinner. Then a night drive! Cam called it a safari, but it was way to uneventful to call it that. All we saw was a frog. I heard another group saw a forest cat and a hornbill… oh well. We weren’t so lucky.

Apparently this forest is the forest with the most wildlife out of all the ones we’re going to, so I’m kind of disappointed that I haven’t seen ANY mammals yet. Tomorrow morning is my last chance! I’m going out at 5:30AM with Kristina to find those orangutans. It’s now or never!

7/6 – Leave Deramakot, drive to Maliau

No orangutans ☹ We had a lovely morning just sitting in the forest taking in the sounds, from 5:30AM to 7, but sadly, no orangutans. All we saw was a hornbill. (It was pretty sweet, but not as cool as orangutans.) Sigh. That’s the rainforest for you, I guess. There are only 11,000 left in this whole big forest, so I guess it’s no surprise that one didn’t happen to swing past me. Oh well.

Then we had a LOOOOOONG and rough drive in the 4-by-4s from Maliau to Deramakot. We left at 9am and got there at 6:30pm. I bonded with Ross and Douwe and Jess in the car. Other people like Molly did stuff like plan out the next 10 years of their life, but I just tried to sleep and translate some of Douwe’s Spanish rock-and-roll. It was good times.

Now we’re at the research center in Maliau Basin. It’s GORGEOUS here. Tomorrow’s a day off, and the next day we leave on our amazing 4-day hike through the basin! Can’t wait! ☺
7/7 – Rest Day in Maliau
Today was a fun day! Woke up, ate breakfast, played some Scrabble, then went on a short nature hike with Cam and some of the crew. We got a little intro to the forest here, and we got to walk on the canopy walkway! It was so cool. Saw an awesome black Bornean squirrel, and a REALLY cool hornbill (it wasn’t a rhinocerous, I think it was a helmeted… yellow on top, SO COOL!), and some amazing butterflies and dragonflies (pink, velvet red, blue – awesome!). Good stuff. Then ate lunch and wasted some time, went on computers, played Scrabble, etc… then went on a 20 minute run with Shana. Then got two lectures, one from Swee Peck on ants and Macarangas, and one from Charles on paleontology. Then ate dinner and headed off to bed. Hike tomorrow! ☺

7/8 – Hike from Agathis to Camel Trophy
Wow. Intense but amazing. But intense. Up, up, uphill. Then kind of flat. Carangas forests are cool. Yup. Camel Trophy was so cool. Sat around, learned card games (Egyptian Rat Screw, Thai Tea (Big 2!), Bridge, Texas Hold’em, and more fun), saw a civet (cute little wild cat!), set up mosquito net for the first time, went to bed. ☺

7/9 – Hike from Camel Trophy to Ginseng
So this is the day that I wrote my journal entry on a soggy scrap of paper. Here it is, reincarnated in the computer:

Today was amazing! Woke up, played cards and chatted, ate some delicious donut/pancake-type food, then headed out on an amazing hike. Saw heath forests, lower mixed dipterocarp forests, and – gasp – Bornean Gibbons in the wild! Swing from tree to tree, jumping across trees. Amazing. Our guide heard them calling pretty close, so he started imitating their calls by blowing a whistle through his hands, and it was amazing – they came closer and closer! (Insert little sketches of gibbons swinging and jumping here, because they were too fast for me to snap a picture.) Hiked on crazy downhill slopes (real conversation: “Jeez, this is nuts! Where am I?!” “In the rainforests in Borneo!” “How did that happen??” “Um, you go to Harvard! Opportunities are just handed to you there!” So true.), and crossed breath-taking waterfalls. Saw some crazy nepenthes (huge, different color/size/shape/fuzziness of pitchers!), blood-red-tannin-water. Wow.

Random fact about Malaysia that I keep forgetting to mention: There are SO MANY unnecessary STEPS here! I mean, like, steps from a staircase. They’re EVERYWHERE. Between rooms, up to the toilet, up to the sink, out of the hallway – it’s ridiculous! We Americans keep tripping all over ourselves because we are not used to having steps in all these weird places!

7/10 – Hike from Ginseng to Serya
• Long black and white striped earthworm with this crazy beautiful blue luminescence if you poke it, and it spat nasty green sticky stuff at Mindy when she tried to pick it up.
• Ate a mangostene off a tree in the middle of the jungle – mmmmm! So good! Tasted like a cross between an orange and a lemon and a banana. (Real conversation between me and Cam: “Ew, a seed.” “Swallow it!” “No!” “What do you mean no? This is a rights and responsibility thing! You have the right to eat the mangostene, but you are responsible for swallowing the seed, pooping it out, and dispersing the species!” “Um, it’s big. If I start choking and fall down the hill you have to come get me.” “Eh. Carcasses make good nutrients for the soil here.”)
• We walked through forests that had recently seen a landslide todfay. That was SO hard. That’s when the guides had to break out the machetes (though they’re called “parongs” here). Walked through crazy spiky rattan tunnels, etc. Nuts.
• Maliau falls – AAAAAH!!! See pictures. Nuff said. Too bad we couldn’t swim in it – it rained all night last night, so they were SO rough!
• Took a tiger leech to the armpit today. That was pretty awful.
• That crazy sandstone rock ledge that we climbed down from and then under! Jeez! Totally almost died there, as we got rained on from the dripping water and shimmied around the slippery ledges.
• Aranid – crazy horned spider! Get pics from someone.
• Then got caught in the rain. At that point we had all had enough fun for one day. Douwe: “That’s it! I’ve made my decision. This place can be logged.” “Yeah, give me some Oreos! I want my oil palm NOW!”
• Interesting religious discussion. Yup.

7/11 – Hike from Serya to Studies Center
• Me and Shana were sick. Me still with traveller's sickness, her with some kind of horrible stomach virus. So Cam let us go really slow in the back, and the three of us had some amazing conversations. Cam used to be captain of the Oxfored Undergraduate Competitive Plowing Team. Hahaha.
• Got 2 leeches. In my pants. Luckily, they only bit my thigh.  Some people are getting bitten in way worse places.  These things are getting on all of our nerves.  Douwe's taken to slicing then in half with his penknife, Aywaen's taking to burning them with his lighter, Fae's taken to tying them in knots.  Sheesh.
• Saw that huge, gorgeous, black orange and white butterfly! Wow! Even Cam was impressed!
• Right after Shana and I declared ourselves “Team Ill,” we saw a pig-tailed macacque cross the road right in front of us. AWESOME. Never saw one of those before! Walks like a lion. Then a hornbill flew RIGHT overhead. Wow. That’s our payback for being sick in the woods.
• Showers are amazing. Cold ones. Right after a nasty 4-day hike. Amazing.
• Nap time! Planet Earth marathon tonight! I love Cam! Thanks for entertaining my film love!

Another random fact about Southeast Asia -- so in Indonesia and in some parts of Malaysia they eat with just a spoon and fork, but I found out that in other parts of Malaysia and also in Sri Lanka they eat with their right hands.  There are two guys on the trip who eat like that.  Just mush the food up into a food/rice ball with their hands and eat it.  And only their right hand, because the left is the "dirty" hand that they use in the restroom and things like that.  Interesting stuff.