Goals

It sucks when...

1. you look forward to the long term goals but the short term ones are the ones needed to achieve the long term one.

2. you procrastinate and lose motivation.

3. you can't sleep/rest well bearing the guilt of procrastinating.

4. ... which leads back to #2.

The vicious, ass-kickin cycle

From Kuala Selangor to...

..Gombak!

Yup, the ecology field trip didn't just end in Kuala Selangor. ged species. Family name: Dipterocarpaceae). Large, tall trees and the occasional swirly hanging creeper/rattan branches. Go further in the trail and you'll reach the Gombak stream, which is a pleasure to be at (with a few leeches usually). As usual, quick lunch there with the students (packed lunches - ours were self-bought/brought biscuits). Picture time!

Rattan series

Starring: Rattan branches

Keh leh fehs: Shen and Cheryl

Hug the rattan. Cheryl and the Shen.

Then came this picture that 'gik sei ngo' (Cantonese: literally translates to 'excites me to death' but no, it really means something like "utter unpleasant shock"). Initially, I thought the rattan looked quite nice, then I zoomed in and saw Shen -_- hahah

Spot the Cheryl

Fat Milipede series

Hello!

It was hard to get this guy to not move and expose his body. Thank Shen and the students for spotting this guy on the trail. Spent a good 15 minutes or so with him. hehe.

That's my fat index finger. Top section of my finger's ~ 1 inch (~2.6 cm)

This fella's a good 20 cm long

Boo!

(Dunno how long I spend korek-ing the leaves away to take a picture.. *gently gently*)

Wood
Tree trunk

Tree trunk by a tree trunk. The big "wall" behind that middle broken-holey trunk is the trunk of a large tree. A dipterocarp, so to speak.

See? The dipterocarp's anywhere between 20-35 m tall.
On the tree trunk..

Now, don't get no naughty ideas.

Ecdysis

"Ecdysis" - the process of shedding/moulting, is seen above as the full moult of a cicada was found on the tree. There actually were quite a number of these. We thought it was alive at first, till we looked real close and saw a lil hole on its back that revealed that it was but an empty shell. Actually, there was one found by a spiderweb that we can't be sure was an empty moult, or a cicada-sashimi sucked dry by a nasty arachnid (Spiders, of the order Arachnida, hence the term 'arachnid', do not usually consume their prey whole or 'eat' them. They usually pierce their prey with their sharp mouthparts known as 'chelicerae', before sucking out all its prey's juices. Liquid meals, yum.

Hello!

Masalah lens kotor -_-

Mushrooms (Basidiocarps)

From the top
And a failed picture from the side, bad focusing. Silly me.

Students hard at work (yea right). I remember this loop of a rattan branch. I took pictures of it as a year 1 field trip student, as a demo last year, and now I'm taking it yet again. Same angle too. haha

Twirly branch

I like all three of these pictures. I was supposed to post one. But I just can't choose. You decide.

Gombak Stream

Here we are, for lunch =p

*peeps*

Hmmm.... hehehehe

And that's our blonde jungle guru/lecturer, also known as Dr. Cathy.

Can you tell that he's in pain? It's okay Tajang *pat*

The series begins with the explorer, and so it ends with one.

Awesome Day

Told you there's more to come =p

Mom's medical report on the possible cancerous lump just came back with a negative result, I can finally eat, sleep and live in peace. Whew~ God is good! Lately, all my prayers have been swiftly answered - like service just got better, haha. All heaven rejoice =p Tralalala~

Now, time to prepare for an adventure..

3rd April - 11th April

Mulu

Time for Miracles

"Baby, you know that,
maybe it's time for miracles,
'cuz I ain't givin up on love"

(Lambert, 20122009).

God is good. But it gets better =D

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Mr. Tyler!

The Demon of Screamin'

You awesome 62 year old freak!

No more Aerosmith breakup nonsense man, I'mma spank your ass for being a naughty 62 year old.

Ah man, I sound so kinkily gay. Pardon me.

Kuala Selangor 2

Again,we have our explorer start the post. Fresh from the mangrove field trip, everyone stained grey with mud at one place or another. Whee~

Dr. Jones? Jinggut

Mediocre tasting lunch at a seafood restaurant - Chilli and thai fried rice were the only commendable dishes.

Girls sucking their nuts.. well, coconuts..

Mmm.. nom nom nom

Enough of you, Shen. Look what you've caused the camera beside you (TY's). haha

(coco)nut suckin man
Pardon the picture quality - 20x zoom of a kingfisher lurking at the mangrove by the restaurant.
My work of nut. Yes, I confess, I sucked a (coco)nut too. Stupid shells, only 1/3 or so of those I tried to get were get-able. Rest were sandy etc. pfft.
Stick it in the nut!
Ty's nut, badly pierced.
Cheryl: To poke, or not to poke...
Shen's

Back in Nature Park. Here's the Silverleaf Monkey series.
Shy guy up in the trees.
Ermm.. Next

Cool dude. Kinda hard to take a zoomed picture with such a bright background.

Monkey-ing around.
Enough Monkey ass business.
Click on this to see his epic face. Love this picture.

*not paying attention*

Emotional Monkey.. EMonkeyCaught me, dang. haha

Next up, a walk into the secondary forest trail connected to the Nature Park. Brought students there and like before, got sucked dry by mosquitoes. Not funny. This place used to mangrove forests, but most of it was destructed when the Nature Park was being built. Now that they've been allowed time to regrow, it's a forest again, but with different species since it's no longer flooded like a mangrove. There still are several old Avicenna sp. mangrove trees here that survived. Tell-tale signs of this past are in the soil. When you dig deep enough, you get mangrove soil beneath the surface layer.

Some hardcore roots on the forest floor.
yeap
Ferns and more.
Tangly jangly mangle
Berak break

Balls, glorious balls~
*gasp* Three!?
These trees are rather cool. They develop secondary roots/trunks from their branches that goes right back down to the ground again. Either Accacia or figs..
They get pretty big too.
Tree monster

A darker perspective.. literally, hahah.

Elegantly tangled mess

Sunset Watch on Bukit Melawati
Now we walk up Bukit Melawati where there's a sunset-watch spot (kinda..) and a lighthouse. On the way up...

I don't know what plant this is.

And my hands were shaking + the wind was blowing. I couldn't hold still enough for a clear shot. haha

I like this tree
"Bersama teguh, bercerai roboh"
Very nice bands of light and dark brown on its queer trunk.

Now it may seem simple to take all these photos on the way up the hill, but it isn't Kuala Selangor mosquitoes are not the friendly household ones that just go when you shoo them. They come in visible clouds that have to be repeatedly shoo-ed and when you're shooing one side, they attack the other. That's how I got >30 bites on my right leg alone. They bit through my shirt too. and hands. So, taking pictures here really was a(n) (b)itch, having to stay still as you're being sucked try.

Ran up the hill when I couldn't take it any longer - I actually stayed back alone to take pictures as the rest went on initially.

Silverleaf up in the trees! High up, a mother with its cute orange baby. I failed to get a good shot because of the distance, their movements and of course, the mosquitoes.

And here's our failed cloud-covered sunset. Whee

On to other things, here's a greedy lil Silverleaf that took a loaf of bread from somebody and greedily went up to a hard-to-get edge to munch it himself, before throwing away the plastic wrapping of the loaf down. Litter bug ape.

Yes, caught on film.

Meh

Friends forever. Monkey business. I heard these Silverleaf monkeys don't usually hang around the park. Loads of them when I was there though. Maybe they're beginning to befriend the macaque residents there.

Kaboom~

Anonymous models

Fabulous Dinner Spot

The sign leading to the place. If you ever wanna have seafood in Kuala Selangor..... come here! (maybe I shouldn't advertise so they'll have less business and more time to layan me when I'm there. haha)

No food pictures cuz I was too hungry.
Ate em.
Good price too, we only paid about 10-11 per person for about 10 people and 4-5 dishes.

The Nature Park - Hostel

Pre-departure photos. That's my bed and bag on the left, the white one. Not luxurious or anything, as you would expect of a Nature Park hostel, but good enough as a hostel. Gotta run out or prop your phone high to get reception for Maxis users though.

Trying to show you how many Mozzy bites there were on my ankle alone. Those red splotches are multiple bites close to each other. Not really close, but heck, that's my Kuala Selangor souvenir. Got it last year too.

"But you've been here before right, serves you right, don't wanna wear long pants some more"

Bloody Yong... Forgot ma!