[Vectis Birder]

I am at Heathrow, killing some time before my flight to Singapore. Internet time here's a rip off, £1 for a paltry ten minutes on their airport computers!
Hopefully, the next post on here will be from Singapore tomorrow or Wednesday.

Cheers
'VB'

PS I am not sure how you spell 'oddysey'!

[delia todd]

Originally Posted by Vectis Birder

I am at Heathrow, killing some time before my flight to Singapore. Internet time here's a rip off, £1 for a paltry ten minutes on their airport computers!
Hopefully, the next post on here will be from Singapore tomorrow or Wednesday.

Cheers
'VB'

Have a great time VB - really looking forward to reading your reports

PS I am not sure how you spell 'oddysey'!

Close "Odyssey"

Take care.

D

[Vectis Birder]

Originally Posted by delia todd

Have a great time VB - really looking forward to reading your reports



Close "Odyssey"

Take care.

D

Cheers Delia. As a mod, you able to correct the spelling in the title please?

Wasting another quid in airport computers - it seems that it isn't just for baggage theft that Heathrow lives up to its 'Thiefrow' nickname!

Managed to find book to read on the flight - 'birding' mystery novel Out of a Clear Sky by Sally Hinchcliffe - been wanting to read this for ages but couldn't find a copy until today. Should pass some of the next 15 hours with that!

[birdboybowley]

Have a great trip VB - Singapore had free internet last time I was there!! Good 'ole rip-off Britain strikes again!

[Allen S. Moore]

Sounds like you're on your way to another good trip!
Allen

[Larry Wheatland]

Nice one VB and best of luck.

Have you got time to try the NW of Sentosa island (viewed from mainland) for Great-billed Heron while you're in Singapore? We dipped but you might have more luck.

When you get to Oz some of the libraries have free internet (we're in a free one in NZ now!)

Hope you can keep us all posted

[jacana]

Good luck! When do you arrive in Thailand? If you need any gen, i'll try and help out anyway i can...

[chowchilla]

As I recall, when I left the UK for good a few years back, I bought a biog of one of my comic idols Peter Cook in the airport book shop. Ended up not reading a word of it until I got to Aus!

Come to think of it... what on earth did I spend 15 hours doing on the flight to Hong Kong?

Hope your Odyssey turns out to be an exciting adventure with great birding moments at every turn!

[Vectis Birder]

Well, I have made it to Singapore and checked into a hostel, which has free internet - Thiefrow and Gatwick take note!. The height of luxury, it's a 12 bed dorm but it'll do me for 4 nights - I've been in worse! Believe it or not the Qantas flight was EARLY, we arrived at the airport well ahead of schedule. Surprisingly we flew over a couple of the world's most newsworthy places - Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, before flying along the southern edge of the Tibetan Plateau, past Mt Everest (didn't see it though), an interesting flight. I thought that the airlines avoided these places for fear of the Taliban and other unpleasant types taking pot shots, although I guess we were well out of range at 31000 feet.
I have some lifers already - I need to dig my SE Asia field guide from my backpack but so far Myna sp on the grass outside the hostel and an Eagle sp (the eagle seen along the river on the taxi journey from Changi airport to Chinatown).

Right, need to go and find some food and, more importantly, beer! Hoping to get to Bukit Timah reserve tomorrow or along the river.

Thanks Delia for correcting my hopeless spelling; 'odyssey' is a word along with 'conoisseur' that I can't spell!

[Vectis Birder]

Originally Posted by jacana

Good luck! When do you arrive in Thailand? If you need any gen, i'll try and help out anyway i can...

I'm arriving in Thailand in June, around the 12th, I think.

[Andrew Whitehouse]

I shall be interested to read about how you get on, as I shall be doing a similar journey myself in a few months.

[Vectis Birder]

No birding at all today because jet lag caught up with me. Got up at 7am with every intention of heading to Bukit Timah. Had a 'little sit down' and woke up at 2pm - very annoyed, but it got rid of the jet lag!

Off to Bukit Timah or Sungei Buloh tomorrow, hoping to get the list off to a quicker start than so far!

The Myna species is Javan Myna. Also House Sparrow (yawn!) and what I think is White-bellied Sea Eagle seen on way from airport yesterday. I also found some hanging sock-like nests of a weaver bird species in the city centre this afternoon, so I need to look that up.

[Larry Wheatland]

At Bukit Timah there's a big fig tree right at the top of the track that apparently is a good bet for Red-crowned Barbet if it's fruiting. It wasn't fruiting when we were there , and I still need it, so make me jealous!

[chowchilla]

Originally Posted by Vectis Birder

No birding at all today because jet lag caught up with me. Got up at 7am with every intention of heading to Bukit Timah. Had a 'little sit down' and woke up at 2pm - very annoyed, but it got rid of the jet lag!

Off to Bukit Timah or Sungei Buloh tomorrow, hoping to get the list off to a quicker start than so far!

The Myna species is Javan Myna. Also House Sparrow (yawn!) and what I think is White-bellied Sea Eagle seen on way from airport yesterday. I also found some hanging sock-like nests of a weaver bird species in the city centre this afternoon, so I need to look that up.

Hi VB, hope you're over your jetlag now!

If you don't get a deffo White-bellied Sea Eagle in Singapore, hopefully you'll get at least one here in Aus.

Went to the cemetery yesterday: at least 18 Bush Stone Curlews around the gravestones plus lots of Rainbow Bee eaters. Great photographic opportunities methinks...

Are you thinking of keeping a 'running total' on here or just the highlights? Either way, I look forward to reading about your birding exploits!

[jacana]

Originally Posted by Larry Wheatland

At Bukit Timah there's a big fig tree right at the top of the track that apparently is a good bet for Red-crowned Barbet if it's fruiting. It wasn't fruiting when we were there , and I still need it, so make me jealous!

They are (not so) little beauties! I had one at KNC. Well worth the effort looking for them.

Vectis: Cool, i'm still around then.

[Vectis Birder]

Originally Posted by jacana

Vectis: Cool, i'm still around then.

Want to meet up?

Went to Bukit Timah today but, frankly, it was so hot and humid which, coupled with only 4 hours’ sleep last night meant I ended up doing very little! The heat was 31 degrees (high 90s) and the humidity an appalling 90%, apparently the hottest it's been in Singapore for a long time. Walking was hellish, but I did manage to see some species, such as Yellow-vented Bulbul, Asian Fairy-bluebird, Pacific Swallow, Germain’s Swiftlet, Crimson Sunbird (brief view, hoping for better!), Javan Myna, Tree Sparrow, and Banded Woodpecker.

As well as these birds, there were large monitor lizards on the path, I nearly stepped on a three-feet long specimen, and abundant monkeys, which were very cute - I love monkeys - but there were signs everywhere warning people not to feed them as that makes the monkeys aggressive and is bad for them. There were also some large and beautiful butterflies and some scary-looking large ants.

Last evening I went up to the 21st floor (the hostel is located in a huge block of flats and shops) and took a photo of the city lit up, something Singapore is famous for. I had to go high to get above the roof of the next-door Buddha’s Tooth Relic Temple, a large and lovely new Chinese temple (must get photo of that before I leave on Saturday). Five minutes after I got the photo, a spectacular tropical storm erupted.
Generally I don't like cities, but Singapore is clean, safe - there is no air of menace like you get in a lot of places - and there are no sirens every five minutes, unlike in the UK and other places. I wouldn't mind living here, if it wasn't so hot.

I saw an amusing (to me, anyway) sign on MRT train, this stated, among other prohibited items, ‘No durians’. Durians are spectacularly smelly fruit very popular in SE Asia, so I am going to track some down tomorrow to see if they really smell as appalling as they are reputed to be. They sell them in the nearby Chinese market, apparently.

Food's good here, too. Loads of food centres (indoor stalls selling Asian - Thai, Malay, Chinese, Vietnamese, etc) food - and the Chinese food street (Smith St) in Chinatown. Good food, you won't get food poisoning!, and cheap, as well. Forget MacDonald's, KFC, or any of that crap, go for the local stuff.

I can't upload any photos here, because there's no editing software, but I have loaded them as taken onto my blog: travels

Chowchilla - sounds great. Photo opportunities a little limited here as it's been almost too hot to bother getting the camera out!

[jacana]

it is as bad, or worse than all descriptions you've heard. It took 5 seconds tops for it to stink out a taxi when i bought some, and that was tightly rapped in clingfilm!

Vectis: Sounds great, just tell me when you arrive

[Vectis Birder]

Will do Jacana.

Well, I had a far more productive day at Singapore Botanic Gardens. It was hotter today but the humidity was not as bad - either that or I'm getting used to it (just when I am about to fly to Australia and freeze in Melbourne for a few days!).

I saw around 20+ species, including Collared Kingfisher, Olive-backed Sunbird and Black-naped Oriole. I'll post the full list later when I dig out the notes.

Edit: dug out notes and birds are as follows -
Collared Kingfisher
Javan Myna
White-vented Myna
Common Myna
Yellow-vented Bulbul
Little Heron
White-breasted Waterhen
Pacific Swallow
Long-tailed Parakeet
Brown-throated Sunbird
Common Tailorbird
Striped Tit-babbler
Peaceful Dove
Spotted Dove
House Swift
Asian Palm Swift
Olive-backed Sunbird
Black-naped Oriole
Oriental Magpie-robin
Pied Triller
White-throated Kingfisher
Coppersmith Barbet (heard only - I could not track the little bugger down!) and
White-bellied Sea Eagle (this was high in a tree overlooking the Botanic Gardens Swan Lake - good pickings to be had, judging by the size of the fish in it).

Not a large list, would have done better with cooler conditions, earlier in the morning. I'm hoping to see the 'missing' species in Thailand and Malaysia in a couple of months.

Only downer was logging onto the net and seeing that Southampton FC - who I have the singularly bad fortune to be a supporter of - have been done for 10 points thus ensuring our relegation to League 1. F***!!!!

[chowchilla]

Off to a flying start there VB! There's several species on that list that are common in Cairns too, but at least I know you won't 'need' them.

[SueBryan]

Hi Fay
Hope you have recovered from the jetlag! Exactly the same thing happened to me and I missed most of the day's birding too. However it sounds as if you have seen some good birds already. Have a wonderful trip!
Sue

[Vectis Birder]

Originally Posted by chowchilla

Off to a flying start there VB! There's several species on that list that are common in Cairns too, but at least I know you won't 'need' them.

Yeah, I'm reasonably pleased so far Chowchilla.

Durians: I tracked some down and I ate a bit. It is REVOLTING!!!! They taste absolutely vile and smell worse and have to easily be one of the worst things I have ever tasted. But at least I have tried one. The trouble is now, the damned stuff is repeating on me so I am having to relive it every so often, but at least I have some indigestion stuff handy and that seems to have stopped it.
The only way I can describe the taste and smell of durians is rotten brie cheese mixed with gorgonzola and vomit. The appearance is pretty gruesome as well, it's yellow and lumpy but somehow looks worse than just badly made custard.
Someone walked past me earlier with one and I am not surprised that they are banned from public transport, they are awesomely bad smelling.

[Vectis Birder]

I've just arrived in Australia and the fact that Melbourne is less than warm is a nice change after the sauna of Singapore!
It's 0644 and I've not gone to bed yet, probably won't until bedtime now, not that tired and the birds are out there waiting! Or until it gets light enough to see what I am doing, it's a crowded hostel room, I didn't want to wake anyone so I opened the door, slung my rucksack in and came down to the computers instead.
Did make one mistake though - I've not been to Melbourne before and jumped into a taxi at Tullamarine Airport thinking it won't cost more than $25 'cos it can't be that far surely...an appalling $63 later I was wishing I'd waited another hour for the airport bus! I'm pretty pissed off but, you live and learn.
There are penguins here in St Kilda, down at the breakwater, so I'm going on a penguin hunt later.

Just realised what a bloody pretentious title I've given this thread - 'odyssey' indeed! Just goes to show how bad I am at thinking of snappy titles!

[chowchilla]

Originally Posted by Vectis Birder

I've just arrived in Australia and the fact that Melbourne is less than warm is a nice change after the sauna of Singapore!
It's 0644 and I've not gone to bed yet, probably won't until bedtime now, not that tired and the birds are out there waiting! Or until it gets light enough to see what I am doing, it's a crowded hostel room, I didn't want to wake anyone so I opened the door, slung my rucksack in and came down to the computers instead.
Did make one mistake though - I've not been to Melbourne before and jumped into a taxi at Tullamarine Airport thinking it won't cost more than $25 'cos it can't be that far surely...an appalling $63 later I was wishing I'd waited another hour for the airport bus! I'm pretty pissed off but, you live and learn.
There are penguins here in St Kilda, down at the breakwater, so I'm going on a penguin hunt later.

Just realised what a bloody pretentious title I've given this thread - 'odyssey' indeed! Just goes to show how bad I am at thinking of snappy titles!

Welcome to Australia VB!

Yep, Melb'n is a huge city and taxis are a rip off here... I was wondering about those penguins; would they be around during the day or out at sea feeding? I'll be interested to find out when you see them.

[Gill Osborne]

Sounds like you're having a fantastic time VB I'm soooooo jealous - I think I'lll tell Neil that I'm off for a couple of months next year I'm sure he'll cope as long as I leave clean clothes in the wardrobe and fill the freezer for him

Wow - penguins in Australia Cool! I never knew they had them there - need to get myself a few more books and get reading

Anyway, must rush....off to work now *booohoo not fair!* Look forward to reading about the rest of your travels

[chowchilla]

Originally Posted by Gill Osborne

Wow - penguins in Australia Cool! I never knew they had them there - need to get myself a few more books and get reading

We have Little Blue Penguins here, a very small species. And they really are tiny: I saw them up close on Phillip Island last year and I reckon that you could fit three of them into a shoebox! Not that I've tried of course...