Journey to Kalimantan Barat

**kuching** · 4th Jun 2007, 22:02

During the long holidays for celebrating the harvest festival (Gawai) in Sarawak, I went to visit my friend, Yuping in Pontianak (= Vampire) city of Kalimantan Barat, Indonesian Borneo.

I told him I wish to search a few species of beautiful wild fighting fish that I failed to find, 2 years ago.

Before telling my story, I'm posting some pictures taken recently in Kalbar.

Sungai Landak. This shot was taken at northern Pontianak.

Jembatan Kapuas (Kapuas bridge). Kapuas river is the longest river in Borneo. Kapuas river basin is the eden for wild fighting fish of Borneo.

The rainbow. It rained almost every late afternoon in Pontianak area. The water level in some swampy areas were very high.

**benny** · 4th Jun 2007, 22:19

Originally Posted by kuching

I told him I wish to search a few species of beautiful wild fighting fish that I failed to find, 2 years ago.

Before telling my story, I'm posting some pictures taken recently in Kalbar.

Ooi! Don't keep us in suspense leh! And keep the nice pictures coming!

Cheers,

**kuching** · 4th Jun 2007, 22:25

In this trip, I found 4 species of Betta. There are more than 4 species of Betta in lower part of Kapuas basin. Therefore, I have to go back again in the future.

I think this is Betta mandor. (?) This one was not found at Mandor, but peat swamp of Anjungan area:

Betta anabatoides ???

Betta edithae (?) - found at Mandor:

The small wine red Betta , Betta rutilans:

Also, I found this aquatic aroid for the first time. It's Cryptocoryne fusca. It's very rare in Sarawak, but a common species in Kalimantan Barat. The one below is growing a submerged condition:

To be continued.....

**kuching** · 4th Jun 2007, 22:27

Originally Posted by benny

Ooi! Don't keep us in suspense leh! And keep the nice pictures coming!

Cheers,

hee....hee...not very nice photos leh...cos I only brought my old digicam with me....

**kuching** · 5th Jun 2007, 19:36

June 2, 2007. I was shocked to see the destruction of natural habitat when I stood at the riverbank of Sungai Mandor. The Kerangas forest are gone due to the illegal gold mining activity. In some areas, the ground is covered by a layer of white hot sand.....no vegetation at all. I felt like wandering in the white desert!!! Because of money, Humans willing to destroy our mother earth.

Sungai Mandor was used to be a blackwater river....but now it became a muddy brown river caused by mining activity:

White sands are everywhere. There are a lot of man-made ponds along the river. Some of the ponds are polluted with poisonous mercury, hence there is no life in the water.

The wasteland created by Humans. There are some pitcher plants (N. mirabilis) growing in the streams or near the ponds.

When we reached an unpolluted tea-coloured stream, we were "greeted" by this swamp orchid, Papilionanthe hookeriana.

**kuching** · 5th Jun 2007, 20:04

First location is this tea-coloured stream. Water ph is 5.7.

Caught a juvenile of Betta.

Six banded barb, Puntius hexazona.

Rasbora pauciperforata.

Rasbora gracilis found abundantly here. I never found this species in Sarawak.

Rasbora cephalotaenia.

**kuching** · 5th Jun 2007, 20:15

A blackwater lake. There are a lot of water plants such as Blyxa sp. & Utricularia sp. growing near the bank. There are a lot of juvenile of Rasbora & Betta hiding in the water plants.

Chocolate gourami, Sphaerichthys osphromenoides is very common in Kapuas basin.

Catfish, Kryptopterus sp.

Bangka snakehead, Channa bankanensis is very common snakehead in blackwater streams of Kapuas basin.

To be continued.....

**kuching** · 6th Jun 2007, 16:34

June 3rd, 2007. Yuping & I went to middle part of Sungai Mempawah to explore. After 2 hours of driving on the rough country road, we found a big population of Cryptocoryne fusca at the shady area & in the water of a tributary of Sungai Mempawah.

A paddy field at Toho.

A tributary of Sungai Mempawah.

Two species of aroids growing together : the big one is the common Lasia spinosa and under it is the aquatic aroid, Cryptocoryne fusca.

Cryptocoryne fusca grows abundantly in the water:

Cryptocoryne fusca

**kuching** · 6th Jun 2007, 16:43

The spathe of Crypt. fusca is still developing:

There are a lot of waste land created by people along the way. Below is a mini desert created by Humans:

A strange looking pitcher of Nepenthes mirabilis:

These 2 pichers of N. gracilis are about 15cm long !!!

A beautiful pitcher of N. ampullaria:

**kuching** · 6th Jun 2007, 16:55

The street of Pontianak city:

Blackout. Power shortage is happening all the time. A lot of people have to buy their own generators if they don't want to live in the pitch dark place.

Yan mee is a delicious seafood noodle of Pontianak. Don't forget to try this if u come to visit this city. Most of the Chinese there are Teochew, so the Chinese food there are very teo-chew style.

And, if u like pitcher plant (Nepenthes spp.), don't forget to buy this book at the local book shop. To find out more about this book, please visit this website: www.trubus-online.com