http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Scary-Israel/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Scary Israel en-us Wed, 23 Dec 2009 09:38:19 +0000 Wed, 23 Dec 2009 09:38:19 +0000 Well I did make it to the aquarium after all. I was even going to attempt a little invalid's totter around the park next door to up my status from just diseaseridden to diseaseridden birdwatcher but it was too hot so I thought better of it. The first part of the aquarium has changed quite a bit from my last visit in 2006 notably the very first tank which used to hold a revolving swirl of ra http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/blog-451917.html Despite my best efforts my attempts to see the Amorphophallus flowering came to naught. The damn thing just stubbornly refused to burst into bloom. You can't force nature's hand in matters like this. Its either too wet or too dry or too cold or too hot the conditions need to be just right and until they are the bud just sits there biding its time. After waiting for days after the estimated flowe http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/blog-450591.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Sumatra/Bukittinggi/blog-449603.html 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 Thatrsquos what I did. I donrsquot 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 wou http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Sumatra/Bukittinggi/blog-449407.html The reason Irsquod 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. Irsquod arranged for a pickup 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 awa http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Sumatra/blog-449394.html 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 didnrsquot quite know what to expect. It took 20 hours and it wasnrsquot too bad of a trip actually far more comfortable than any of the other overnighters http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Sumatra/Medan/blog-447505.html 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 wasnrsquot due to tourists but to the recent earthquake having destroyed all the hotels in Padang so all the local tra http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Sumatra/Bukittinggi/blog-446621.html It wasnrsquot much fun getting from Way Kambas National Park in the south of Sumatra to KerinciSeblat 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Sumatra/blog-446607.html 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 n http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Sumatra/blog-444830.html 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 nitpicking because there's only about five or ten there. Despite their common name Javan rhinos were historically found throughout so http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Java/blog-398255.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Java/Jakarta/blog-440122.html In New Zealand in the 1980s there was a newspaper cartoon strip called Bogor about a marijuanasmoking hedgehog. I donrsquot know why the hedgehog was named Bogor but now Irsquove been in a town called Bogor in Java. I donrsquot 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Java/blog-439999.html In between Borneo and Java I thought I'd stop over for a couple of days in Sunny Singapore. I stayed at the Cozy Corners Backpackers where I usually stay because its about the cheapest place in town. I've been going there for five years now and it hasn't changed one jot in that whole time from the broken tap to the soccer flags on the wall. Because its Singapore there are also lots of warning sig http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Singapore/blog-438177.html In my final days in Borneo I made visits to the Kota Kinabalu Wetland Centre formerly known as the KK City Bird Sanctuary where I saw a lot of common Bornean wildlife to the Lok Kawi Wildlife Park also known as the Lok Kawi Zoo where I saw a lot of uncommon Bornean wildlife and to Pulau Manukan also known as Isle of the Damned where I saw very little of anything.The Lok Kawi Wildlife Park http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Sabah/Kota-Kinabalu/blog-437857.html There are several species of Rafflesia scattered around southeast Asia. Irsquod seen R. keithii already at Poring Hot Springs of course but at another site just near to Kota Kinabalu grows another species R. pricei. The site is called the Tambunan Rafflesia Reserve and its also reputed to be good for birds like the bluebanded pitta and Bulwerrsquos pheasant. I could have in retrospect sho http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Sabah/blog-436984.html On the way back between Poring and Kota Kinabalu I stopped off for a few more days at the Mt. Kinabalu National Park. Its good there because there are no leeches or mosquitoes. The only thing thatrsquos of the bitey persuasion are these big horsefly type jobs with a really painful stab. Itrsquos a fly of such a size that you can actually see it preparing its proboscis as it readies itself to http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Sabah/Mount-Kinabalu/blog-434822.html Poring Hot Springs are a wellloved tourist destination in Sabah for both local and foreign tourists alike. They are also wellknown to birdwatcher types. I caught a bus from Sepilok heading towards Kota Kinabalu and got dropped off in Ranau from where you can get a minivan to Poring. There seems to be some sort of agreement amongst the Ranau drivers to fleece tourists because they tried to char http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Sabah/blog-434821.html En route from the Kinabatangan to Sepilok the bus passed a few oil palms by the side of the road. And by a few I mean a few million Malaysia is infamous for replacing forest with oil palm plantations but until you actually see it firsthand you really canrsquot grasp the problem. And even after seeing it its still impossible like trying to imagine the Universe. The biggest plantations seem to http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Sabah/Sepilok-Orang-Utan-Sanctuary/blog-434820.html I think Irsquom probably going to make myself unpopular amongst people who have been there and loved it but I found the Kinabatangan River to be distinctly underwhelming. For anybody whorsquod just arrived in Borneo and been nowhere else it must seem magical but for me having been lucky enough to have probably been spoiled by travel it was a big disappointment. Partly it was my fault due to http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Sabah/Kinabatangan/blog-434819.html Irsquod booked a seat on the first morning bus passing by Mt. Kinabalu en route to Lahad Datu. My destination was the Danum Valley one of the last best hopes for the survival of Bornean wildlife. There are two places to stay in the Danum Valley at the Borneo Rainforest Lodge BRL for which my pockets were nowhere deep enough and the Danum Valley Field Centre DVFC which is a research facili http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Sabah/blog-434770.html