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I work in an Aquarium in Christchurch, New Zealand. I started this blogsite when going on a 2006 trip through Malaysia and Thailand for three months to see the wildlife. The first 43 blog entries are for that trip, followed by ones from around NZ, Fiji, and Australia after birds. Now I'm heading back into southeast Asia for another five months, mainly in Indonesia. Anyone who is not interested in animals and who thinks nature is a waste of space shouldn't be reading this blog. Go back to your bars and your temples and your massage parlours; the kind of birds I'm contemplating would not excite you.

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Joined on: June 15th 2006
Last Login: November 4th 2009

Blog Entries: 140
Photos: 1064

TB Code: [blogger=18818]
Status: BLOGGER

Blogs & Travel Journals

by Scary Israel, order by Date newest first.

By Scary Israel
November 1st 2009

cigarettes: they make your brain go crazy Asia » Indonesia » Sumatra » Bukittinggi

Djarum black
see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil

When I first arrived in Indonesia there were little signs on all the tables in Balinese restaurants that just said "L.A. Lights". I had no idea what they were advertising. It was about two weeks before I realized they were a type of cigarette. Every single male over the age of six months smokes in Indonesia, and there are cigarette advertisements everywhere, although interestingly all of them also have the health warnings in smaller print along the bottom. I find many of them very amusing (especially as few seem to have anything to do with smoking), so spent some time in [View Full Entry]

runner-up for most nonsensical slogan: Absolute

By Scary Israel
October 31st 2009

The Things We Do For Flowers Asia » Indonesia » Sumatra » Bukittinggi

gecko I found in the Turret Cafe in Bukittinggi, where I eat and do internet-related things

Why would anyone, just for the sake of seeing a flower, come off a nine hour bus trip and get straight onto another bus for a further 21 hours? That’s what I did. I don’t know if it can be considered intrepid, inspired, or just insane. The flower in question, of course, is the Amorphophallus titanus by Bukittinggi. When I last saw it on the 21st of October it was still a bud and it wouldn’t be in proper flower for about ten days, by which time I’d have left the country. But the more I thought about it the more [View Full Entry]

if they're waiting on the train, they'll be waiting a long time!

By Scary Israel
October 28th 2009

Gunung Leuser National Park Asia » Indonesia » Sumatra

view up the Gurah River

The reason I’d gone up to Medan, apart for the obvious one of that was where my flight left from, was to visit the Gunung Leuser National Park to see orangutans. I’d arranged for a pick-up from my hotel by a public car (rather than going on the bus) on the understanding that we would be leaving at 9am, giving me plenty of time to get first to the town of Kutacane six or seven hours away and then from there to the little village of Gurah an hour further on. At 10am I was still waiting. At 11am I was [View Full Entry]

By Scary Israel
October 23rd 2009

Medan Zoo Asia » Indonesia » Sumatra » Medan

Brahminy kite (Haliastur indus)

Once more I was off on another overnight bus trip. Its almost like there are no other schedules on Sumatra except overnight! I had been variously told that the Bukittinggi to Medan run took 14 hours, 18 hours, 20 hours and 24 hours, so I didn’t quite know what to expect. It took 20 hours, and it wasn’t too bad of a trip actually, far more comfortable than any of the other overnighters I endured in Indonesia. The bus left Bukittinggi at 1pm, and almost the entire way up to nightfall the road went through forest. There were small villages here [View Full Entry]

Is it a ball? Is it a feather duster? No its a crowned pigeon!!

By Scary Israel
October 21st 2009

Bukittinggi: big flower town Asia » Indonesia » Sumatra » Bukittinggi

the sad giant orangutan

After I had finished my stint at Mt. Kerinci, I moved on via yet another horrible overnight bus experience to the town of Bukittinggi eight hours north. Bukittinggi is a popular place for tourists to visit and all the cheaper hotels seemed to be full, although it turned out that wasn’t due to tourists but to the recent earthquake having destroyed all the hotels in Padang so all the local travellers had to come here instead. I arrived at 6am and after finding a hotel with a room (the Hotel Asia, because I’m in Asia of course) and getting some sleep [View Full Entry]

By Scary Israel
October 20th 2009

the dying mountain Asia » Indonesia » Sumatra

Mt. Kerinci, from Kersik Tuo
if you click on the photo to get the large size you'll be able to see better the deforestation and also the smoke rising from the summit. The green fields in front are the tea crop.

It wasn’t much fun getting from Way Kambas National Park in the south of Sumatra to Kerinci-Seblat National Park in the middle. I had been planning on taking a ten hour train ride from Bandar Lampung to Palembang then another ten hour train ride to Lubuklinggau followed by a ten hour bus ride to Sungai Penuh and finally a one hour bus ride to the final destination of Kersik Tuo, but from one of the film crew from Indonesian TV station Trans7 who were staying at Way Kanan I learned that there is an overnight bus from Bandar Lampung to Bangko [View Full Entry]

the welcome-to-Kerinci sign, no longer so welcoming

three-striped ground squirrel (Lariscus insignis)

By Scary Israel
October 12th 2009

Way Kambas Asia » Indonesia » Sumatra

Rawa Gajah, where the white-winged wood ducks live

After the Ujung Kulon trip in Java, my first destination in Sumatra was to be the Way Kambas National Park down in the very south of the island. In Carita on Java I had run into a local chap who told me that I should hire him to take me to Way Kambas in his car because it would be easier and cheaper than using local transport. Only 1.7 million he says. When I said that was very expensive he said no it was cheap because it was in rupiah not dollars. (Everybody in Indonesia thinks that any amount of rupiah [View Full Entry]

the shower frog again, looking lugubrious

lesser short-nosed fruit bats (Cynopterus brachyotis)

By Scary Israel
October 6th 2009

The Ghost That Walks Asia » Indonesia » Java

Ujung Kulon National Park

Ujung Kulon National Park sits on a tiny triangular peninsula at the extreme western end of Java. It is famous as being the last home of the Javan rhino (although actually there are two last homes of the Javan rhino, the other one being in Vietnam, but that's just nit-picking because there's only about five or ten there). Despite their common name Javan rhinos were historically found throughout southeast Asia, from India in the west, China in the north, and eastwards through the Greater Sundas to Java. They were so common in Java in the 18th century and caused such damage [View Full Entry]

the Cigenter River, haunt of the Javan rhinoceros

By Scary Israel
September 28th 2009

Israel versus Jakarta Asia » Indonesia » Java » Jakarta

Ragunan Zoo statue

I had originally planned on staying in Bogor and commuting by train each morning to Jakarta for the couple of days I needed to see the essentials in the big city - the essentials of course being the zoo, the oceanarium, the bird park, the bird market and the bird reserve. However when staying there for the one night before going to Cibodas I had discovered that I did not like Bogor one little bit, so decided Jakarta couldn’t be any worse. I ended up in the backpacker haunt of Jalan Jaksa staying at a place called Borneo Hostel 31. Coming [View Full Entry]

By Scary Israel
September 27th 2009

Israel versus Idul Fitri Asia » Indonesia » Java

great argus pheasant (Argusianus argus) at the Bogor Museum

In New Zealand in the 1980s there was a newspaper cartoon strip called Bogor about a marijuana-smoking hedgehog. I don’t know why the hedgehog was named Bogor, but now I’ve been in a town called Bogor in Java. I don’t know why the town is named Bogor either. I flew into Jakarta on an almost empty plane from Singapore. The line for the Yogyakarta flight was full to bursting and I think the Air Asia crew were feeling sorry for us going to Jakarta because they gave everyone on board free food and water! In Java the attempted rip-offs started before [View Full Entry]

Wallace's standardwing (Semioptera wallacii), a species of bird-of-paradise from the Moluccas

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