Malaysia Field School pt.1

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Malaysia Field School

Penang

Well I decided to start a travel blog rather than try to e-mail everyone individually. I've already been in Malaysia for almost 3 weeks. It seems like I have been here for months and at the same time it feels like I just got here. I'll write a first message catching up on the first couple of weeks and then hopefully post more regularly when I have the chance.

For those who don't know I am taking a university course here in tropical field ecology through UVic and University Sains Malaysia. There is a group of 11 students on the trip, 9 from UVic and 2 Malaysian students. We started the trip by flying through Hong Kong on our way to Malaysia. We only had about 8 hours in Hong Kong but that was enough to take a train into the city and shop around a little. It was somewhat less busy than I expected which was a pleasant surprise given the picture of overcrowded mayhem that was in my head beforehand.

From there we headed on a 4 hour plane ride to Penang, Malaysia (Penang is both a province and an island). It is relatively close to the Thai border to get some reference. The town we were staying in was called Bukit Jambul (BJ for short). We spent about a week there, getting prepared for going into the field. The transition was made much smoother by our "buddies" from the International Office at the university. They stayed with us for most of the first week, translating and giving us important tips on the culture.

We stayed at a fairly nice hotel which was completely unexpected but also a pleasant surprise and made getting settled in and acclimatized that much easier. The hotel is a 5 minute walk from a shopping mall called Komplex Bukit Jambul. The mall is a weird mix of cheap clothes, lots of electronics, some food, and a strange yearning to be more western as illustrated by the Britney Spears, 50 Cent, and Lady Gaga constantly blaring in the background. Apparently the mall took a big hit since the new Queensbay Mall was built a couple years ago. We visited that monstrosity on a different date. The mall is relatively large, even by Canadian standards, and pretty much represented what we were all trying to get away from when we came here. Queensbay mall was about the only time where we all really wanted to leave a place after being there only briefly.

Back to the positives...Penang is well known for its food and it did not let us down. It is one of the most multicultural places I have been with large Indian and Chinese populations along with native Malays. We tried pretty much all of the restaurants in the vicinity of our hotel from Malay-Indian fusion to traditional Chinese. I think of the 7 or 8 we ate at only 1 was sub-par with the rest ranging from delicious to I want to eat this everyday. The best part of it is after a multicourse meal with at least 2 jus tembekai (watermelon juice...amazing) or teh tarik (tea mixed with condensed milk that is then frothed up) costs about 18 ringits or about $6 Canadian. You can eat a full meal with drink for under $2 Canadian pretty easily. I have learned to eat in the Malaysian way, using only your right hand. Since most dishes are rice based it takes some getting used to. The trick is using all of your fingers like a scoop and pushing the food off with your thumb...easier said than done. The delicious fruit, however, are quite easy to eat. I've eaten everything ranging from the mundane mangos and papaya to more exotic mangosteens (hands down my new favourite fruit) and rambutans.

The activities throughout the week were split between introductory lectures, excursions around Penang, and some pool time to cool off. We took a religious walk through a place called Georgetown that took us through Hindu and Chinese temples as well as a mosque. All of the religions coinhabit a fairly small area and there seems to be little animosity between people. Little India borders a Chinese district with a church just around the corner. Strange to see so many religions so close to one another. Apparently Georgetown also has a Jewish cemetery, but we didn't come across it. One of the cultural activities that our tour guide so graciously volunteered me to do was eat a mixture of betel nut and about 30 other ingredients that you chew in your mouth. Its taste is indescribable with various flavours melding and mixing. The best part is that it makes your tongue numb for a good 10 minutes afterwards.

Matang Mangrove Reserve

After we finally got used to Penang it was time to leave to start the principal part of our journey, the field portion. We started by taking our bus a couple of hours south to the Matang mangrove preserve. The preserve is renowned for its forestry management whereby part of the mangrove is set aside for conservation while other areas are rotationally logged. We stayed in simple wooden chalets that were perched on a boardwalk above the mangrove with simple mats on the floor. When the tide comes in there was water right underneath the chalet which unfortunately also brings the garbage into the mangrove forest. We were greeted by colourful birds, the occasional otter, and some large monitor lizards that swim across the small river just outside of the chalets. I've started the arduous task of trying to identify the birds that I am seeing while trying to take as many photos as possible. One of the most interesting activities in the forest was the firefly boat trip that we took at night. After a short boat ride up an adjacent river (one of many nighttime boat rides to come) the trees along the edge of the river began to flash like christmas trees. Millions of tiny 2 or 3 mm long fireflies flash synchronously, mostly to try to attract a mate. It wasn't until we pulled the boat up to the tree and I grabbed one that I really got a sense as to how small the insects really were. They produce a hell of a show that cannot really be photographed or described adequately. When not looking at fireflies the boat driver would shine a huge light onto the edge of the water looking for the red reflective eyes of crocodiles. I did see one, which was fairly lucky.

Batu Ring Homestay and Forest Ecology

From the mangrove we moved onto our homestays in a village called Batu Ring in the province of Perak. To get to the village, after another bus ride, we took a boat across a dammed lake on the Perak River. The village has about 300 people in it and is placed directly adjacent to a secondary forest (one that has been previously logged). The village welcomed us with a huge spread of traditional desserts...I'm rarely hungry here. We each got placed into a homestay house with a Malaysian to help us translate. The locals speak anywhere from broken to no English so this was crucial. My room was shared with me and my translator Suhaimi, who works for the university and helps us along the way. Our other roommate, briefly, was a giant poisonous spider that was about 10 cm in diameter and furry (that's for you mom). I'm pretty sure the parents gave up their room because they slept on the floor from then on out which made me feel a little remorseful.

There were so many people in and out of the house it was hard to keep track of who was family and who were neighbours passing through. Like most people in the area my "pa" owned a couple acres of rubber trees which they tap and sell the subsequent latex to factories elsewhere. The other main industry in the area is fishing, both from the river and by farming tilapia. My ma and pa had 7 children, a few of which still lived at home. There were also a number of cute grandchildren running around. I helped one of the children with his English homework. Switching verbs to past tense in English is ridiculously hard. We learned a little bit of Bahasa Malaysia (Malay language) and it is way easier than English. There are virtually no conjugations to change things into past or future tense...makes me glad I learned English first. The homes were simple but had a lot of room. One big difference was that aside from beds and one chair there was no furniture. Everyone sits on the ground, albeit they did have satellite tv with all the animal planet and soccer you could ever watch. I even woke up at 2:45 in the morning to watch the champions league final between Manchester United and Barcelona. Most people here cheer for Man U it seems, but Barcelona ended up winning 2-0.

The food definitely requires description. We ate almost all of our meals at home, coming back from any activity for a smorgasboard. Along with a huge bowl of rice there was usually a curry, some ayam (chicken), ikan (fish), various fruits, and some sort of vegetable. The spice level in the foods took some getting used to but after awhile you adjust. I'd like to take this opportunity to give a shout out to my colon for being rock solid throughout the entire trip so far, against all odds. The delicious food has, to this point, not come back to bite me...unlike the leeches.

Even though we had satellite we did manage to finally "rough" it a bit. Our biology activities took us into the jungle, past the rubber trees and into some thicker secondary forest. We set small mammal traps baited with bananas (unfortunately all we caught was the same banana bait) and put up two harp nets (basically fishing wire strung to poles with a net in the bottom) to catch small insectivorous bats. We also set up two mist nets to catch fruit bats. Our instructors ensured us that we did not need leech socks for the first part of the journey...we quickly found out otherwise. I didn't find out about mine until a ways up after he/she had gorged on my blood for a bit. You honesty cannot feel a thing and they don't bother me at all but they bleed like hell afterwards because of the blood thinners the leech pumps into you. I probably have had 9 or 10 so far but I've started wearing leech socks more. That night we went around the town and into a swampy field to catch frogs and toads. Not as easy as it sounds considering you only have a headlamp and your hands. We collected and brought them to a central location where we swabbed their hands, feet and bellies. The samples are then going to be taken back to Victoria to be tested for the chytrid fungus that is killing frogs elsewhere around the world. The fungus has not been found yet in Malaysia so hopefully the samples will come back negative.

The next day we went back to the forest to collect the bats that we caught from the previous night. We placed each bat in bag and then split off into groups and identified, measured, and sexed each bat individually. Squirmy little buggers but pretty darn cool. Only one person got bit...and no it wasn't me. I do however have the distinct title of the sweatiest man in Malaysia. Considering I can be sweating in an air conditioned basement (I still have nothing on Michael but I'm close), the dense humid jungle while working makes me thankful that I brought along a bevy of bandanas to mop me up. That brings me to the greatest place in Malaysia...the jungle waterfall. About a half hour hike through the jungle was the most picturesque waterfall imaginable complete with sandy bottom and access to a water massage. Best of all we had it all to ourselves.

On another day we took a boat ride to another village to go caving. The first cave was the site where 'Perak Man', a >10,000 year old fossil, was excavated in the 80's. It was a relatively siginificant find, helping link the migration of humans from Africa to Australia. The cave was fairly small and non-descript with only a few bats as inhabitants. We moved on a larger cave that we could climb down into, albeit not all that safely. I now know what it is like to be covered in bat guano while scaling a slippery incline with no hand holds, foot holds, ropes, or anything to stop a fall. Luckily everyone made it in and out safely (covered by some serious amounts of guano). Inside the cave were snails, cave crickets, tailless whip scorpions (look them up if you don't know what they look like), and of course bats.

There were many other events over the course of the week we spent in the village but this catch up blog is already long enough. Yesterday we took a 6 hour bus ride to Bukit Rengit, a forest preserve in the central part of the country. We are here for 4 days and finally get to see our first primary rainforest! I'll have internet intermittently over the next couple of weeks as we finish up the field portion of our trip before heading back to Penang, so I'll give as many updates as possible. Hopefully this blog makes up for my lack of communication so far and gives you a sense of what the heck I am doing over here. I'll try not to get bit by anything crazy and I'm pretty sure I haven't contracted malaria yet.

I attached some of the better pics that I have taken. I have hundreds so this is just a small sample.

Until next time,
Josh

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Photos

Insectivorous bat in my hand
Rhinolophus lepidus

Me and my ma
Dressed up to go to a wedding preperation in a slick baju melayu suit.

Part of my family
Suhaimi (my translator who works for the university) and Hafizuddin, one of the little grandchildren who lived in the homestay house