February Floods and Drought!

After a lovely relaxing week in Singapore it was straight back into the Jungle for me. I was back into banteng duty with one of the Malaysian workers, Siti. Despite a very dry first few days in the jungle the weather soon turned wet and stormy, changing the quiet stream below the house into a raging river and stranding us in the house for 48 hours! The roads became streams and the metal roof of the house a giant drum, thank goodness for earplugs!

At the end of February I spent a week in town with Naomi and Jo, during this time we visited the Sen Bear and Orangutan rehabilitation centres in Sepilok. The centres rescue Orangutans and Sunbears that have been kept illegally as pets across Sabah and then teaches them the skills that they need to survive in the wild before reintroducing them into protected forests. Sun bears are the smallest bears in the world and are black with patch of white under their chin, they are kept illegally for their bile and usually confined to tiny cages where they can’t move around. At the centre they a free to roam large fenced off areas, mainly out of the public’s view. In the orang-utan centre they have a walkway through the forest where the oldest orang-utans live and they also have a viewing platform next to the forest feeding area, we timed our visit with the afternoon feed so we managed to see six of the orang-utans up close. The young orang-utans that are rescued are taught life skills in a small jungle nursery and where the carers teach them to climb and build nest, this is vital if they are going to be released as orang-utans build a fresh nest to sleep in every night. After this they are moved into the large forest area where they can practice their skills and learn to find their own food before they are released. It was really nice to actually see Sun Bears and Orangutans close up after spending so many months only seeing pictures of them on our camera traps.

After a week in town Naomi and I went back into the jungle while the Malaysian workers took their holiday. Unfortunately the water pump at the house had broken so all washing had to be done in the river, thankfully the river level was low again, but no rain for 2 weeks had nearly caused the flow to stop completely by the time we left the forest. We filled tanks of water for the toilets and doing the washing up in the house but we showered and washed our clothes in the river, not as bad as it sounds on nice hot days! Although Naomi got a bit burnt having a shower on the first day when we went to the river!

Washing my hair in the River

Clothes washing time

March 4^th meant only one thing- Pancakes! As Naomi and I were in the jungle we had to improvise slightly, so using the wok we made Malaysian style pancakes with flour and water. As we were on our own at the house for the day and pancake day in the UK is always freezing, we decided to eat them in our bikinis and sarongs.

After a week in the forest I was meant to go on expedition but a problem with the car put our plans on halt so Naomi and I swapped with the boys and headed back to town to get some more work done on our projects.

My placement project is on banteng forage so over the past few months I have started collecting plant photographs and specimens from banteng foraging sites in order to try and identify the forage of banteng.  I have also been looking at past camera trap pictures to assess the foraging behaviour of banteng between the different forest reserves we have visited. This project will hopefully give some baseline data on the banteng’s forage, which will be useful to the future conservation of the species and of the habitats where they are found. 

Me out walking one day on an old road used when the forest was logged.

Singapore Visa Run

At the end of January it was time for our second visa run. This time Naomi and I were both meeting family and had planned to meet them in Kuala Lumper airport, then fly down to Singapore together. Naomi and I caught the 8 hour night bus from the bus terminal by our house to Kota Kinabalu, arriving at 5.30am! The bus journey spans the width of Sabah and has to go over mount Kinabalu. Unfortunately the roof of the bus had a leak, so the wet weather combined with the winding road meant that water kept pouring through the roof onto the floor next to our seats, not much sleep was had! 

We arrived at the bus terminal on the outskirts of the city and like always every single local person tried to help us and tell us where to go, but we knew that we needed some breakfast and then we were going to catch the hop on hop off bus for 1 ringgit (less than 20 pence) into the city. The bus was full and negotiating it with our backpacks and rucksacks without hitting people who just stared blankly at us wasn’t easy. The next issue was deciding which stop was the closest to the city, we ended up getting off when everyone else piled off, landing us at another city bus terminal and luckily where we wanted to be! After the hassle of getting to this next bus terminal we decided that we would head straight for the airport instead of going into the centre of the city with our bags and caught a minibus for 2 ringgits each to the airport. So total for 2 bus journeys = 60p! 

With a few hours to kill in the airport we got a 6 pack of donuts, such a novelty after Malaysian food, and waited to check in and go through to the plane. The photograph shows 4 of the 6, we were too excited to eat them to get a photo of all 6!

4 of the 6 doughnuts... too tasty to wait for a picture of all of them!

In KL airport we waited for my mum and Naomi’s parents who were arriving after us and had a rapid terminal change from their flight from Heathrow. They met us at the gate to our Singapore flight, where we had just enough time for a quick hello before jumping on the plane again.

We arrived in Singapore in the evening and after saying a very sad goodbye to Naomi, who I had spent every minute with since the end of October and wasn’t going to see for a whole week, mum and I grabbed a taxi to our hotel. It was Chinese New Year so after checking in we headed out for some food by the river. We found a lovely Mexican restaurant and shared a portion of nachos and quesadillas, it was such a nice change from rice and veg and unlimited refills of lemonade just topped of the meal! After dinner it was fairly late so we decided to have a wander, the wide bridge walls in Clarke Quay were packed with groups of people sat drinking and socialising in the warm evening heat, all awaiting the Chinese New Year fireworks.

Over the next few days in Singapore we went took a boat trip to visit the bay, went for a walk in the botanic gardens and did some shopping. The 'bumboats' on the river were previously used as cargo carriers along the rivers before the bridges were built, they are wooden barges with red and green stripes on and eyes on the front which were thought to protect the boats from danger, now they are used for tours and as water taxis along the river, they have a commentary and video highlighting all the interesting buildings and history along the river and around the bay. 

There is a rule for new builds in Singapore stating that they have to offset their carbon footprint with the same area of greenery, this means that all the hotels have areas of trees and flower beds at various levels and on their roof tops. But along with greenery on top of one of the hotels in the bay  they have managed to place a giant ship model, it is balanced across three towers of the hotel with the front end projecting out of the final tower. The design and appearance of this hotel was absolutely amazing and very in keeping with all the other spectacular shaped hotels in Singapore. The hotel was linked to the neighbouring shopping centre by and underground river system with wooden paddleboats along it. It was in this shopping centre that Mum and I saw our first Chinese new year Lion performance, the groups with their lion and drummers visit many of the Chinese shops and offer oranges and money packets. The performances are very loud and can be heard through the whole shopping centre, so after seeing a few more in various places we tended to avoid them.

The Ship Model topper of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel! 

One morning Mum and I visited the Singapore Botanic Gardens, the year of the Horse had just begun so the gardens were littered with brand sculptures of horses, the business of the city centre was turned into quiet meandering paths in the gardens and around the large lake full of turtles and giant fish.

The use of renewable energy and offsetting of carbon footprints in Singapore was amazing, Along with the greenery in hotels rule,  the edge of the bay was lined were solar panel powered fans, large sculptures of pipes which were actually a sprinkler system for super hot days and of course the streets were immaculate due to the no chewing gum law. What amazed Mum and I even more was that at night the street stalls were not cleared away but were just covered with a blanket to prevent the weather and insects getting to the produce. Severe punishments for stealing and littering make this a very safe and super clean place to visit.

A visit to Singapore wouldn’t be complete without a Singapore sling.. or two! Unfortunately the cocktail is really nice so many were consumed over the week, although after 6 months of no alcohol one each day was plenty for me! The week of sightseeing, walking, shopping, relaxing by the pool and enjoying normal food went so quickly that before I knew it it was time to pack my bag again, this time half full with chocolate. Our flight from Singapore to Kuala Lumper was an early morning one so on the short flight we were able to watch an amazing sunrise before Mum and I landed and said our farewells for another 6 months and caught our connecting flights. For me it was back to the pothole roads and jungle and for mum is was back to the trains on strike and a very flooded uk!.. I think I had the better deal!