Elephants, tadpoles, and hyperactivity

So today was one of those weird days. Yep, weird just about sums it up. We went first thing to the elephant reserve at Kuala Gandah after a breakfast of fried noodles and white toast with margarine at the LUXURIOUS Hotel Jelai in Lipis. The elephants were so beautiful mum! We got to feed them, play with their trunks a bit, and even got to ride on one for a bit. It was quite touristy, but they were so gentle that I regret nothing. NOTHING!!! It was unfortunately also a very sad time - there were two young elephants residing at the centre because they had been attacked. One was missing a tail and some shoulder flesh due to a tiger attack, while another was missing a foot. Because of a snare. I was so angry. The farmers here still shoot at elephants (only some, of course - many others will call organizations to move the pachyderms into larger parks in Malaysia). 

Also, some tadpoles we were looking to release died. The scoop with the taddies - when doing our marine insect survey, we got a lot of tadpoles that we stuck into a waterbottle thinking we would release them into the stream later. Unfortunately, they were forgotten the only other time we went to the stream, so I decided to adopt them and carry the water bottle around with me, refreshing the water as often as I could, in hopes of releasing them at another stream. But we hadn't passed any! For three days I had these little fellows - one of which was actually growing legs. Unfortunately, while we were with the oliphants, they all died. Simultaneously, even. It was very very strange...and actually quite sad...anyway, MOVING ON FROM THE DEAD HERPS! 

Sorry little buddies...

After this - believe it or not - we got invited to a Malay wedding down the road of someone who worked at the centre. All fifteen of us in sweaty, sometimes less than modest clothing. That wasn't even the weird part. The weird part was that we were told to stand behind the wedding party - all of us - for photos. With the family of the marriage couple. Even though we were all strangers. While everyone took pictures.

It was weird...

BUT! We got to eat delicious food in the end, so I'm going to go ahead and say that all was worth it. Plus, the cool part is, we had to eat with our hands! BOOYEAH! It was great - there is a specific technique you have to use - scoop it up and push it into your mouth with your thumb. You have to be super careful, though - right hand only!!! The left is reserved for less than savoury purposes...

After that, we went to a biological diversity centre and I did my itfield expertise - a short presentation regarding a topic of the tropics. A tropic topic, if you will. I managed to do  without notes - a feat that nobody else has managed thusfar (I know, I know, I am a horrible brag...but DEAL WITH IT!)

Then hanging out in town, going to Pizza Hut and a store called (get this) The Store, where I stocked up on writing pens. All of mine have disappeared apparently. No idea how or why, but there ya go...I may have to do some undercover work...with my fists! BLAM SMACK BOOM!

Sorry about the violence -  the bus driver likes to watch martial arts movies and action thrill rides like The Transporter - I think it represents his dream job.

Tomorrow is 7 hours on a bus, then...ugh...Radang in Terengganu on the East Coast. Which is where we find SEA TURTLES!!!!!!!!!! AND SCUUUUBAAAAAAA!!!! Plus, we've officially crossed the country now!! WOOT WOOT! Can you say, "Mairin is officially well travelled?"

SIDENOTE: In terms of heat, you stop noticing after a while. I mean, you notice that it is hot and that you are sweating like a wildebeest, but you don't mind so much. You just deal with it. Does that make sense? Maybe? Okay, good. Plus, this way, I'll be cool and collected when I fly back to Canada directly to Ontario while my parents are sweltering. MWHAHAH! MY PLAN IS FLAWLESSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's been a looong time

Hello again! In case you hadn't inferred, I have been without internet since Canada Day - that's July 1 for you non-Canuckers. This is because we are finally in the field!!! Doing SCIENCE and BIOLOGY and ECOLOGY and them MORE SCIENCE!! Because it's been so long and the days have been literally JAM PACKED with JAM I don't feel like I can really go into detail about all that I've done. We all know what that means: LIST TIME 

• July 1
• Tropical fruit farm baby! It was delicious. I tried durian (which, by the way, is incorrectly known as the King of Fruits by the locals. It smells like cow manure and tastes like fried onions mixed with mushroom soup. It should be called the Jester of Fruits - lying little toad). My favourites were rambutan, mangostein, cat's eye, fresh pineapple, dragonfruit, and, well, everything. Considering that the typical diet here is starch + fried tofu + rice or fried noodles 5 times - that's right, 5 - per day, the vitamin C was greatly appreciated. Oh, and a guy tried to sit in my lap on a bus. I had to growl at him to leave
• We then went to a dim lit bar in a creepy part of Penang - it was remarkably smoky and full of men. No, seriously. We were the only women there! Kayla, Chris, Tim, Tannis and I played a game of pool using snooker cues on a snooker table. It took an hour and a half to finish one game. Good news is, I won. 
• July 2 
• The first day we left civilization - drove to a bird sanctuary/resort called Kuala Gula - all in all, saw a couple of sparrows. Most of the birds we saw were taxidermied...to be fair, the prime bird habitat was in the middle of the mangrove forest pools, so the expectations were reasonably low. BUT! We got totally excited because we saw some wild barnacles hanging out on a water pipe. Oh yeah, we are all cool kids here in Malaysia!
• Saw my first monkey. Yes, this was a big deal!!! Cuties...longtailed macaques. If you don't believe me, wait until pictures get posted (maybe when I have a faster internet connection and more than half an hour)
• Stopped for lunch and I had a delicacy - ABC. It's shaved ice with neopolitan icecream, two flavours of syrop, weird jellies, corn, and sweet beans. SO GOOD! I now want it all the time.
• Arrived at the Matang mangrove to BUCKETS of rain. Upon seconds of stepping off of the bus, WHAMO!! Soaking wet. I didn't mind - it's warm rain! The Mangrove had a serious of boardwalks through the heavily protected forest - of course exploration came first! So there we were, soaking wet, running along slick boardwalks in bare feet, when it starts thundering. And also lightning. Quite of a bit of it. And quite close to us. As in, forget-the-counting-rule-just-run-back-to-shelter close.
• July 3
• We climbed a mountain - over a kilometer upwards. We mostly went up just to see how the trees changed with elevation, which was quite interesting, but very tiring.
• Chris, a relatively reckless individual, ate a palm fruit. Which we later found out may have been toxic. Good work Chris, you have now cameoed in my blarugh. 
• The best part of the day was the ride down. We got to hitch rides from the top down the twisting (literally twisted - imagine snakes and ladders at a 45° angle in an open Jeep going 30km/h. Wow. Was that ever cool! Indiana Jones, MOVE OVER!!!
• By the way, lots of cool bugs. I love the bugs here. So many bugs. So much awesome.
• July 4
• Charcoal factory visit, fishing village visit...yep. Not a very exciting day. The charcoal factory was sleezy, the village filled of barefoot men sorting cockles from shrimp and gulpers. 
• Sadly, the boatride back from the fishing village was the best part! We ride around in these open fishing ships:



• Now imagine pouring rain while you sit in the open front. For half an hour. Have I mentioned how quickly it starts raining here? As in, it takes about 5 seconds to really get going?
• Not that I'm complaining - if it rains enough, we get to see my lovely orange babies!!! FINGERS CROSSED!!!

• July 5
• We totally planted mangroves! I took three Rhizophora apiculata into the mud (deep deep mud with only buttress and knee roots to save us from a deep sinking doom.) There was quite a bit of splooshing and splashing about – I had fun, but most others seemed a bit put off by the whole thing. YEAH MUD!
• Free time was the name of the game! AND FIDDLER CRABS!!! And last-minute-put-together presentations on aspects of the mangrove that affect bird, plant, or human populations. All in all, lots of BIOLOGY!
• At night, Amila, Maryam, Kayla and I went for a boardwalkwalk. About 20m in, a loud rustling in the bushes gave us a bit of a spook. I think it was a water monitor lizard – either way, Amila and I became distracted by a pair of shining eyes further on the boardwalk. We kept going, leaving Maryam and Kayla behind. We found out later that they turned back. The shape was fuzzy, with a longish tail (it looked a bit like raccoon, but the eyes were too close together and there aren't any raccoons here anyway). Either way, my first response was “OH SNAP! A SLOW LORIS!” Turns out, it definitely wasn't, but I think it may have been anything from a possum to a civit cat. I don't really know...hard to say. I wish I could have seen it in the light. But I still hold - it was neat and I wish it was a loris. Just sayin'.

• July 6 
• The coolest part was tonight! We went out in a rented boat. To see fireflies!!! And guess what?! WE SAW THEM! It was amazing! Like Christmas treeees! All lit up and beautiful. Plus, I got to see new stars! How often does that happen! Including SCORPIO!!! WOWIE!!!!!!!!! Amila and Amarr showed me a bunch of new stuff, including these new stars, and taught me about their governmental system. Did you know that they have a rotating kingship that moves around five dudes, one from each state (I don't know either – maybe 5 Peninsular states? I dunno. GEOGRAPHY GO!) The guy now in power is on round 2. Democracy? Psshhhh....
• I think we also went to the mall, but everything is fuzzy before the wee lighty uppy beetles - and who cares anyway? TESCO PALES IN COMPARISON TO SCIENCE!
• July 7
• We left the Matang mangrove, heading for a USM archaeology field station in Lenggong - apparently they found the Perak man here. What's this? Biology and Archaeology in the same place? COUNT ME IN!
• There was cool archaeological stuff there, too! Like massive pelvic bones, stone tools, etc. So cool! I want to poke and prod them all – despite the bad that I know would come of it. Either way – tonight we had a lecture about bat diversity → just plain amazing! There is so much diversity!!! They have funky noses with neat rhino horns, indents, leaflets, tiny eyes, and giant ears! They are champions of nocturnal living! And fruit bats- they are just plain adorable. We also talked about small rodents, but this wasn't as interesting. Because let's face it - they aren't bats.
• After the lecture, we went to a nearby park – Lata Kekabu to put down small rodent traps (Sherman traps and rat cage traps) with bits of banana. We also set up two harp traps for insectivorous bats. They look like they sound - strings of fishing wire set up in vertical lines above a catch bag. It cannot be healthy to fly into strings you can't see at high velocity, but in the end all of our bat friends were okay
• July 8
• Speaking of bat friends...BATS! AND HERPING! AND FROGGING! I loved it! I could frog every day forever maybe. I don't know at this point because I have yet to test this theory. The bats were cute as promised, of course. We ID'd them, measured them, and released them in the AM. I'm happy to say that I got bitten! YAHOO! No skin breaking, luckily, but I bear the scratches with pride. After all, the fellow was a frightening 5cm long with itty bitty teeth. (Photos to come - yes, I can photographically prove I was here!)
• Anyway, frogging at night was just plain amazing – walking through the stream with my leech socks, water shoes, and quick dry zipoffs like a nerd, a very very happy nerd. I caught a big fat toad, two small poison tree frogs, and a small torrent frog (With Chris! We had to double team the little frogger! Essentially, he half caught it, it jumped onto me, I went for it, it jumped onto him, a quick snatch, a quicker hop, but in the end I snagged the guy.) Either way – I loved it, and hated it when we had to leave the river behind. Every time I pass a body of water now, I take a quick look for the wee amphibians.
• July 9
• TREE PROFILING! Basically, it was a game of "Let's go into the forest and estimate the height of trees in a 20x4m plot of land, ID the trees, measure their diameter and canopy size, and then draw a scientifically accurate diagram of the forest strata!" CAN YOU SAY FUN PARTY TIMES IN THE FOREST? Because I CAN!!!
• Afterwards we were super hot and pretty much drenched in sweat...so the only real thing to do was to JUMP INTO THE RIVER! There was a beautiful cold waterfall nearby - it was so great! Clothes and all, in we went. 
• July 10
• I'm getting tired of this list. SO I'LL CONCISE IT UP!
• CAVING
• RAPPELLING DOWN EMPTY AIR
• KAYAKING IN A LAKE
• SHOWING UP BOYS IN KAYAK RACES - booyah booyah
• FINALLY FINISHED "FEAST FOR CROWS" but have nobody to discuss juicy plot points with...please, people, read these books so I can talk to you about them.
• July 11
• Aquatic insect catch with Amarr and Maryam - cool stuff plus giant leeches. WOOT WOOT
• Insect ID and preservation - I saved as many as I could (by secretly smuggling them into the tadpole jar after counting), but we still killed quite a few insects by dropping in EtOH. Why didn't they tell us that we had to kill them all?!??! Curse those deceiving entomologists...
• But I still love bugs - which, by the way, are remarkably awesome here! On that note, I had a pet female rhinocerous beetle this night. She hung out on my sleeve. For hours. It was awesome. I want one to keep forever.
• Anyway, nightime bug collection with a great big light - I smuggled out a few survivors here too, but got STUNG BY ONE OF THE BUGS I SAVED! Can you believe it? Dirty rotten giant wasps...just when you think you can trust them they go and stick their pointy behinds right in your butt. *Sigh*
• July 12
• In the morning, bug ID and subsequent release of those that made it through the night
• I got to pin a bunch of bugs that died. It was fun, and I realized that I missed pinning. Plus, I got to learn how to spread Lepidoptera on a dead moth. By the by, spreading is when you open the wings for viewing - it has to be done when the bug is fresh and not yet brittle.
• Only one drawback – a beetle that was brought to me “dead” that I pinned and spread turned out to be slightly less than advertised. Its legs started twitching an hour into my spreading of its wings. It was not pleasant. I put it into the jar with ether (killing jar) for ~10 minutes, it stopped moving and breathing, so I pulled it out and put the wings back into spread position. No problem. When I glanced over an hour later, and it started twitching again. Again to the jar. Again with the twitching. Poor guy - it took a half hour turn in the ether before he had given up the ghost. On the bright side, I got to keep the specimen and he is beautiful - but comes with a horrible story.
• Then on to a palm plantation - where I am now - where we are staying in a hotel. That's right. We are being spoiled rotten!!! Thus, the internet. I may not have it again for another week, but you will all have to deal with it! 
• MWAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA!!!