Bukit Fraser: Arrival Day

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I had a slightly later start this morning having gone to bed late last night and I got to KL Sentral just after 9 and got the train to Kuala Kubu Bahru leaving at 9:48. They’re quite frequent trains on the KTM Komuter line and very easy to get, but extremely slow with the train having to stop for signal clearance for long period of time a couple of times. The scenery did get interesting though as we left KL and started to get into forest.



At Kuala Kubu Bahru station I got a taxi with the standard official fee of RM100 to go to Bukit Fraser from KKB station with no negotiating or anything, that’s the fee currently. It’s a fair amount of money but I doesn’t seem to be a rip off despite the fact that they could probably get away with charging more because there is no other option other than a car. It’s quite a long drive too up windy mountain roads to get to Bukit Fraser and the scenery is absolutely stunning all the way up. A really nice drive. I did find out some annoying news from the taxi driver though (that it’s very good that I know) which is that the road from Bukit Fraser to KKB will be completely closed from the 30^th (day after tomorrow) until the 5^th. I’m leaving on the 1^st, so that’s a bit of a problem for me and the road is completely closed to be resurfaced so there’s no way to get back to Kuala Kubu Bahru. The only option is to take the other road out of Bukit Fraser to Raub which is the exact opposite way from KL. From Raub apparently I can get a bus to KL (I’ll probably have to look into this more or just work it out when I get there) which will probably be extremely long and much more inconvenient than the train from KKB but there’s nothing I can do about it. The taxi from Bukit Fraser to Raub though is an official price of 80RM rather than 100 to KKB so depending on the bus price compared to the train, this alternative route may work out cheaper. It will probably take up the full day though. Oh well, that’s not so bad and a problem for later. The taxi driver did ask if I was going to Taman Negara though and when I said yes, he suggested he could take me to Kuala Tembling (where you get the boat for the final leg of the journey to Taman Negara) for RM350 from Bukit Fraser. Considering transport via KL would probably cost almost RM150 anyway and it would save a whole night it’s almost tempting, but I think it’s too much and I’m better off trying to get back to KL by bus from Raub.

Anyway, I got to Bukit Fraser after a nice drive just before 2 and checked into my room. The number of 50 ringgit notes I had to hand over for this 4 night stay was quite high but there’s no dorms or anything in Bukit Fraser and I am staying in the cheapest room in the town. I then had lunch in the hotel restaurant. It felt a bit odd going into a proper sit down table service restaurant on my own – I had avoided doing that in KL and just stuck to street food and food courts – but you get used to it. The prices weren’t as high as I thought they might be either at RM11.50 for fried rice and a coke. It seems to be about as cheap as anything in Bukit Fraser food wise. It’s nice and cool in Bukit Fraser though since it’s mostly at about 1200m up to over 1500m on some trails and really pleasant weather for walking. Which is good because I’ll be doing a lot of that these next few days. The place is mainly set up for cars with long walks to go anywhere, but the whole area is forested with lots of birds so that’s no problem.

The town itself is really cute too. It’s an old British Hill Station and the whole place looks really cool with great views and great birds. I really like it here so far. After lunch, I went around a place called the Telekom Loop, so called because it has some big telecoms towers at the highest altitude point around. I didn’t do the whole loop, just about a third around a back maybe 3kms each way, because I spent too long stopping to identify birds. There are loads of bird waves and sometimes they’re just overwhelming with bird numbers and there’s no way to keep track of everything. One particularly large bird wave had loads of species as well as squirrels and a Hawk-eagle flew over and startled the whole lot and the forest exploded in alarm calls. Really cool. It’s an unusual problem for a birder, too many birds, but at times you just don’t know where to look in bird waves. Then the forest goes dead until the next wave. I also found a disused garage thing which was full of swiftlets which was interesting. As well as the squirrels, I saw a few White-thighed Langurs and heard some Siamangs, though not seen the latter yet. I did also get leeched once despite staying on the road, but I don’t think it’s worth wearing the leech socks unless I’m on the trails off the road and I don’t think there are any nasty diseases from leeches.

I got back to the town just after dark and got some supplies from the convencience store before having dinner at the restaurant again. After lunch I went back to my room to do some internety things and rest a bit (and write this) and now that it’s nearly 9 I’ll be going out for a bit of spotlighting back up the telecom loop.

I stayed out spotlighting for longer than I was expecting and got back to the hotel room just after 11:30. There goes the idea of catching up on sleep at Bukit Fraser, yeah right what was I thinking. Catch up on sleep in a forest with nocturnal animals and dawn birds? Not happening (there are quite a few possible nocturnal species actually). The problem with spotlighting is that you never know what might be around the next corner and I’ve got no one to tell me to turn back like a usually would. I’ll head out earlier for spotlighting tomorrow evening anyway (I’ll be having dinner earlier so that should happen naturally). I saw a fair bit though (more so later in the evening which suggests that going out earlier and coming back earlier would not have produced the same result) including loads of microbats which will probably mostly have to be unidentified but I think I can count Cave Nectar Bat because there were bats with audible sonar that were feeding off flowers and I think that description leaves that as the only species. If anyone knows otherwise please correct me though. Also seen were excellent views of a Common Palm Civet quite close up, some kind of large frog with a stripe down its back that I haven’t identified yet, and quite a few flying squirrels: mostly Red Giant Flying Squirrels, but also a Lesser Giant Flying Squirrel (great name; lesser giant) and a small flying squirrel that I couldn’t identify. There was something largeish moving in the undergrowth too that I also couldn’t see properly.

I’m planning to do quite a bit of walking tomorrow and do a walk down into the lower altitudes and back up to see a range of birds. The walking itself will be fine, I can do that distance even on hills, but I may not manage it in time if there are too many birds to stop and identify! (if I haven’t got nearly half way by the time I stop for lunch, I’ll just go back the way I came rather than walk). Anyway, I should go to bed now as I’ll be getting up before sunrise to maximise the morning birding.



New Birds Seen:

Blue-throated Bee-eater

Chestnut-capped Laughingthrush (probably the bird of the day – really common and cool looking)

Spectacled Spiderhunter

Striated Swallow

Mountain Tailorbird (super cute!)

Blue-winged Minla

White-throated Fantail

Long-tailed Sibia

Dark-necked Tailorbird

Streaked Spiderhunter

Mountain Fulvetta

Bronzed Drongo

Yellow-bellied Warbler

Black Laughingthrush

White-bellied Yuhnia

Blyth’s Hawk-eagle

Lesser Yellownape Woodpecker

Black-and-crimson Oriole

Mountain Bulbul

Blue-winged Minla

Sultan Tit

Glossy Swiftlet

Pygmy Wren-babbler

Mountain Imperial-pigeon

Silver-breasted Broadbill

Fire-tufted Barbet





Mammals:

White-thighed Langur

Pallas’ Squirrel

Western Striped Squirrel

Cave Nectar Bat

Common Palm Civet

Red Giant Flying Squirrel

Lesser Giant Flying Squirrel

Heard only: Siamang

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Comments

[Jean Kingham]

Even more lifers
Sounds like a fantastic birding spot. Would like to see some photos when you can spare the time.