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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

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  1. Chlidonias

    The Malay Archipelago, 2009

    thanks guys. The trip I did after this 2009 one was to New Caledonia. Not exactly to the same scale or hardship but I saw a couple of nice birds nonetheless. http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=180251 Next trip is, erm, three days in Sydney next week.
  2. Chlidonias

    The Malay Archipelago, 2009

    thanks guys, it was a pleasure to write so it had better have been a pleasure to read! I didn't think of Dengue Fever because I understood it to be an extremely painful illness (not known as breakbone fever for nothing I hear). But I'm likewise no expert. I just take the diseases as they come...
  3. Chlidonias

    The Malay Archipelago, 2009

    PENINSULA MALAYSIA and THAILAND, end of trip! For most of my final week in Indonesia I'd just been sitting in Bukittinggi doing pretty much nothing, waiting for that darn flower to bloom. This was sort of the start of the steep decline that hit the end of the trip. I had ten days left once...
  4. Chlidonias

    The Malay Archipelago, 2009

    SUMATRA, back to Bukittinggi, 29 October - 3 November 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? That’s what I did. I don’t know if it can be considered intrepid, inspired, or just insane. The...
  5. Chlidonias

    The Malay Archipelago, 2009

    SUMATRA, Gunung Leuser National Park, 22 - 27 October 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...
  6. Chlidonias

    The Malay Archipelago, 2009

    you know me, I judge the acceptibility of hotel accommodation on the eligibility of the receptionist... nope, never seen any other Eurasian little grebes of any description, so just the Flores one it is for me.
  7. Chlidonias

    The Malay Archipelago, 2009

    SUMATRA, Bukittinggi, 21 October 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...
  8. Chlidonias

    The Malay Archipelago, 2009

    you should go back to Thailand; the overnight buses there now are great (at least the ones I've been on). The only issue I have with them is that they are so proud of the air-conditioning that they have it turned up full all the time and provide blankets to keep you warm. The locals turn up for...
  9. Chlidonias

    The Malay Archipelago, 2009

    ah yes, all the birds I missed. Thanks for reminding me lol. The long-billed wren-babbler was one I did particularly want to see as it apparently looks like a little teeny kiwi!
  10. Chlidonias

    The Malay Archipelago, 2009

    SUMATRA, Kerinci-Seblat National Park, 13 - 19 October It wasn’t much fun getting from Way Kambas National Park in the south of Sumatra to Kerinci-Seblat 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...
  11. Chlidonias

    The Malay Archipelago, 2009

    read on to the night birds of Mt. Kerinci with no tapes.....
  12. Chlidonias

    The Malay Archipelago, 2009

    SUMATRA, Way Kambas National Park, 8 - 12 October After the Ujung Kulon trip in Java, my first destination in neighbouring Sumatra was to be the Way Kambas National Park down in the very south of that island. In Carita on Java I had run into a local chap by the side of the road who told me that...
  13. Chlidonias

    The Malay Archipelago, 2009

    it really is both mindblowing and tragic. Its quite difficult to grasp, writing that 500 were shot for bounty in Java alone in just two years - and this is a solitary forest-dwelling rhino, not an open-country one like white rhino. Deeply saddening.
  14. Chlidonias

    The Malay Archipelago, 2009

    JAVA, Ujung Kulon National Park, 29 September - 5 October 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...
  15. Chlidonias

    The Malay Archipelago, 2009

    JAVA, Jakarta, Muara Angke Nature Reserve, 28 September 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...
  16. Chlidonias

    The Malay Archipelago, 2009

    JAVA, Gunung Gede-Pangrango National Park, 21 - 25 September In New Zealand in the 1980s there was a newspaper cartoon strip called Bogor about a marijuana-smoking hedgehog. I don’t know why the hedgehog was named Bogor, but now I’ve been in a town called Bogor in Java. I don’t know why the...
  17. Chlidonias

    The Malay Archipelago, 2009

    SINGAPORE, 19 - 20 September Singapore |=)| In between Borneo and Java I thought I'd stop over for a couple of days in Sunny Singapore, partly because the airfares worked out a bit cheaper that way. I stayed at the Cozy Corners Backpackers where I usually stay because its about the cheapest...
  18. Chlidonias

    The Malay Archipelago, 2009

    SABAH, last days in Kota Kinabalu In my final days in Borneo, I made (return) 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...
  19. Chlidonias

    The Malay Archipelago, 2009

    SABAH, Tambunan and Crocker Range, 12 - 16 September There are several species of Rafflesia scattered around southeast Asia. I’d 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...
  20. Chlidonias

    The Malay Archipelago, 2009

    SABAH, Mt. Kinabalu: take two, 2 - 8 September 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 that’s of the bitey persuasion are these big horsefly...
  21. Chlidonias

    The Malay Archipelago, 2009

    SABAH, Poring Hot Springs, 30 August - 2 September Poring Hot Springs is part of the Kinabalu National Park but is much lower in elevation (around 460 metres). It is a well-loved tourist destination in Sabah, for both local and foreign tourists alike. The place is also well-known to birdwatcher...
  22. Chlidonias

    The Malay Archipelago, 2009

    a portacabin in a big warehouse eh? Oh well, I guess its still somewhere to plan your next epic trip.... I can't remember if I've written this in the thread already, but (apparently - can't vouch for its truth) the Malaysian government includes the oil palm plantations in its official figures...
  23. Chlidonias

    The Malay Archipelago, 2009

    SABAH, Sepilok, 26 - 29 August 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 first-hand you really can’t grasp...
  24. Chlidonias

    The Malay Archipelago, 2009

    I really would like to go back to Danum, for a whole month to really get stuck in there. Its the kind of place where the longer you stay the better. Just as a side-note I have recently heard that the prices at the DVFC have doubled since I was there. I'm not sure if that's true or just hearsay...
  25. Chlidonias

    The Malay Archipelago, 2009

    I know!! Half the people in the boat actually missed the flat-headed cat unfortunately for them. It was sitting inside a hollow in the bank just above the water-line, which was half covered with drooping grasses. The boatman was pointing and saying "kuching hutan" ("wild cat") and I was...
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