Journey to east coast of Peninsular Malaysia

[kuching]

After so many days of travelling, I finally back to my home from east coast of Peninsular Malaysia.


In this trip:

(1) I caught Betta stigmosa (fighting fish; endemic to Terengganu)

(2) I found Nepenthes benstonei (pitcher plant; endemic to Kelatan)

& many more......

There are tons of photo to upload, so I'll post the photos when I am free.....



The aerial view of the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia:





Jungle Mike in the jungle of Terengganu:





Nepenthes benstonei

[kuching]

July 12, 2007. The night before I arrived at Kuala Terengganu, a town at the east coast, I was spending a night in Sepang airport. Luckily, I met a photographer from my hometown, so we talked about photography almost the whole night.

The following day, Zahar came to the airport to pick me. Later both of us went to meet Lim at the bus terminal. Then three of us went to a jungle stream where it is the only place (so far) can find this Betta stigmosa.


Good morning Terengganu !!!






My birthday gift, a pair of Betta stigmosa: (colour is not coming up yet)





Zahar in action. (Water ph is 6.5, water temperature is 25 degree Celcius)

[eddyq]

Hello jungle Mike, thanks for showing us the country side again.

[kuching]

Hello jungle Mike, thanks for showing us the country side again.

Welcome.

[andrewtyr]

Beautiful fish! Let us know when it has coloured up!

[kuching]

There are a lot of Rasboras in the stream but the population of Betta stigmosa is very very small. Less than an hour, we only managed to catch 5 adult fish!


Unidentified species of Rasbora. Never seen it before but it's very common in Terengganu.




The common barb, Puntius binotatus:






Channa gachua. This is very common (& smallest) snakehead mostly living in the jungle stream.






A beautiful shrimp:

[kuching]

Beautiful fish! Let us know when it has coloured up!

Yup...will post the pix if the colour is up...

[kuching]

Unidentified species of frog. (Rana sp. ???)






This bug is very interesting cos it lives in a foam (see the next picture below):




The "home" of that bug (Order: Hemiptera)





A giant millipede:

[kuching]

Schismatoglottis sp. (aroid)





A species of wild ginger?





Java fern, Microsorum pteropus





A waterfall near Berang river of Terengganu.





The next location is a softwater river near Dungan. The whole population of Cryptocoryne affinis has been wiped out after the habitat is destroyed!!! The road widening & bridge replacement project has caused the soils washed down to the river and covered the entire population of Crypt. in the river. According to Zahar, Crypt affinis was growing abundantly here about one year ago....but now it's gone. Mostly Crypt affinis is growing in hardwater river, but over here, it can grow in softwater river (ph less than 6).

Pix below: Zahar & Lim are searching for Crypt. The spot where they stand was used to be growing a clump of Crypt. affinis.




To be continued.....

[MrTree]

Don't look like Rana...got different angle shot or not?

[kuching]

Don't look like Rana...got different angle shot or not?

got. will post the pix later.

[kuching]

On the late afternoon, we headed south to Kemaman area. When we passed by a virgin jungle near a new road, we stopped the car near a jungle stream. Lim & Zahar went down to look for fish & I went to the opposite side of the road to look for anything.

When I was entering the undisturbed rainforest, I was feeling very excited because there are so many interesting plants which I never seen before. It's a hidden paradise. There are so many species of birds on the forest canopy.....then I saw a few Crestless fireback (Lophura erythrophthalma) crossing the stream !!! I was shocked to see those rare birds which looks a bit like junglefowl. I wanted to photograph them but they disappeared under the thick jungle by the time I grabbed my camera. Then I realised I was alone in the jungle of Peninsular Malaysia! And, I remembered what Zahar just told me before we came to this location....a few cattles were killed & eaten by the tiger in the nearby area.

I slowly walked back to the place where we parked our car....& took a few pictures before saying goodbye to this beautiful forest.


The road cutting through the rainforest:






The green rainforest of Terengganu:






The only fish I found in this stream is Rasbora einthovenii:






Unidentified species of ground herb:

[kuching]

Most of the pitcher plants at Terengganu are very common lowland species such as Nepenthes gracilis, N. ampullaria, N. mirabilis & N. rafflesiana. According to Lim, this is his very first time to discover N. rafflesiana near a peat swamp forest of southern Terengganu. He said this species is common in southern Peninsular but very rare in the north.



Red coloured Nepenthes gracilis





Upper pitcher of N. rafflesiana found at the roadside near peat swamp of southern Terengganu.

[jwuog]

Hi Kuching, I just want to say thank you for sharing your adventures with all of us.

Been visiting your site, and reading your adventures and looking at your pictures. Somehow brought back memories long passed when I used to visit Malaysia with my family.

Those were the care free days. But now, I envy you for doing what a lot of us can only dream of – putting everything down, work, committments and go exploring.

[kuching]

Don't look like Rana...got different angle shot or not?

Can you see the attachment? Any idea what species of frog is that?

[kuching]

Can you see the attachment? Any idea what species of frog is that?

Another pix....

[kuching]

Hi Kuching, I just want to say thank you for sharing your adventures with all of us.

Been visiting your site, and reading your adventures and looking at your pictures. Somehow brought back memories long passed when I used to visit Malaysia with my family.

Those were the care free days. But now, I envy you for doing what a lot of us can only dream of – putting everything down, work, committments and go exploring.

Welcome....but once I got my own family (so far still single), I gotta say goodbye to the jungle.

[ahaetulla]

nice, thanks for sharing. but why can't you bring your wife/kids exploring too..?

[kuching]

nice, thanks for sharing. but why can't you bring your wife/kids exploring too..?

I'm single leh.

U mean if I got wife & kids, I can go outing? I think most of the Asian women not interested to go hiking (with small kids) in the jungle...especially women from my country.

[ahaetulla]

I'm single leh.

U mean if I got wife & kids, I can go outing? I think most of the Asian women not interested to go hiking (with small kids) in the jungle...especially women from my country.

IMHO, why not? I'm just curious as to why you assume that you will have to give up your jungle adventures when you are no longer single, first because there are women, Asian or otherwise, who are interested in trekking/nature (though they are probably in the minority), and second because your girlfriend/wife might not mind you going even if she herself is not interested.

Don't worry lah.