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Borneo Dispatches #22: Bornean Miscellany, Part 3 - Scapes

Posted: January 25th, 2012, 4:12 am
by Hans Breuer (twoton)
I have two full sets of photos on my hard drive: one being a series of a Malayan Coral Snake, the other numerous shots of two baby Banded Kraits. Alas, the soul-crushing cold here in Taiwan has addled my brain to such a degree that I'd rather post a bunch of completely herp-unrelated - in fact, completely animal-unrelated! - photos of 'scapes and shapes from Borneo. The snake pix (and my much-delayed piece for the FHF blog) will have to wait until I'm back in the more braincell-friendly climes of Sarawak next Sunday.

So, here are, in no particular order, bananas, fat tourists, and rickety bridges. And a waterfall or two. You have been warned.

Limestone hills
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Hiking to and photographing waterfalls is the main weekend pastime for most nature photogs around here. There's a LOT of waterfalls...
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View through the roof of the Fairy Cave (inside the limestone hills)
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'Naners
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Hot Stuff
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Around the Malaysian-Indonesian border
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One of the many, many one-lane bridges in Borneo. Yes, they're for cars, too. :-)
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Guesthouse in Kubah National Park
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Flooded country road; my son checking for passability. One of the reasons why I'm ditching my Perodua "Gummybear Mobile" MyVi as soon as I'm back, and get a real badass, Borneo-proof herping vehicle, a Mitsubishi Triton 4x4 turbo diesel...
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Dead people, Chinese style
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Kuching Waterfront
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Kuching (which means "cat" in Malay") Cat Statue, complete with fat German tourist.
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Corny tropical sunset
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Logging road, take me home...
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(All pix, apart from the ugly ones, courtesy of Marcus Kloft)

Re: Borneo Dispatches #22: Bornean Miscellany, Part 3 - Scap

Posted: January 25th, 2012, 7:25 am
by Warren
Love the local flavour! :thumb:

Re: Borneo Dispatches #22: Bornean Miscellany, Part 3 - Scap

Posted: January 25th, 2012, 3:30 pm
by John Martin
Those pics'll (pixel :D ) do just fine! Wish I had the opportunity to see those places. Also, that jovial German tourist looks really familiar...

Re: Borneo Dispatches #22: Bornean Miscellany, Part 3 - Scap

Posted: January 25th, 2012, 5:02 pm
by CCarille
Some cool shots Hans!

Love the first photo and the one's of the peppers and bananas - neat composition!

That looks like some crazy flooding as well - the unherp-related post is precedented. :D

Re: Borneo Dispatches #22: Bornean Miscellany, Part 3 - Scap

Posted: January 25th, 2012, 8:00 pm
by Hans Breuer (twoton)
Thank you very much, gentlefolk!
John Martin wrote:Wish I had the opportunity to see those places.
...said the man who lives in Australia :-) A one-way Air Asia ticket from Sydney to KL costs you USD99 (ninety-nine). A two-week trip to Borneo, including food, will set you back less than USD500, if you stay with us. You're very welcome.
Also, that jovial German tourist looks really familiar...
Bah, they all look the same. Black socks in Birkenstocks - nuff said.

Re: Borneo Dispatches #22: Bornean Miscellany, Part 3 - Scap

Posted: January 25th, 2012, 9:00 pm
by ADCIII
Hans, Were those apple 'naners? They sure look familiar, Art
ps.bring on the banded kraits.

Re: Borneo Dispatches #22: Bornean Miscellany, Part 3 - Scap

Posted: January 26th, 2012, 3:48 am
by Martti Niskanen
Hans Breuer (twoton) wrote: Bah, they all look the same. Black socks in Birkenstocks - nuff said.
Haha! Don't forget the short shorts and 'taches.

Re: Borneo Dispatches #22: Bornean Miscellany, Part 3 - Scap

Posted: January 26th, 2012, 4:19 am
by Hans Breuer (twoton)
ADCIII wrote:Hans, Were those apple 'naners?
They call them pisang hotel - "hotel bananas", because they're small and decorative and thus popular for fruit baskets/arrangements in 4/5 star hotels.

Re: Borneo Dispatches #22: Bornean Miscellany, Part 3 - Scap

Posted: January 31st, 2012, 5:37 am
by MaartenSFS
Beautiful area to call home, Hans! Those karst peaks are very similar to here, though not as plentiful. The intact tropical rainforest would be a nice addition around here. We just get fragments of subtropical.. :? Have you ever been caving? In 2007/2008 I was really active in that pursuit, but have since, sadly, found no one else willing to enter the subterranean wonderworlds. One of the reasons being snakes (mainly in entrances or areas exposed to sunlight through dolines (tiankeng)! I told them that was a reason TO GO, to no avail.

Those Chinese graves look just like here, with the tiles, but much more expensive. Here I was thinking tiles on the outside of buildings was a "Communist thing"..

The sky looks so blue there. I just saw a blueish sky today for the first time in months. The winters are overcast.. I could do without them, even though it's usually less than four months long before I can go herping again.

I rather scoff at the idea of it being very cold in Taiwan. Daily temperatures were 5C here last week. It must be at least 15C anywhere in Taiwan except in the mountains. Sissy. :P

Love the driveable bridges. We just get really questionable one "lane" pedestrian/motorbike suspended (high) bridges here.

Re: Borneo Dispatches #22: Bornean Miscellany, Part 3 - Scap

Posted: January 31st, 2012, 6:14 am
by tai haku
Hans Breuer (twoton) wrote: Hot Stuff
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When I'm not herping, diving, birding or fishing or otherwise outside, one of my hobbies is growing hot peppers. The C. chinense variety on the right looks really, really interesting (and really, really hot)!

Re: Borneo Dispatches #22: Bornean Miscellany, Part 3 - Scap

Posted: January 31st, 2012, 10:17 am
by CCarille
Some nice looking peppers! I love hot stuff - those look like red habaneros and thai chilis. I grow habaneros, thai chilis, and ghost peppers here.

Re: Borneo Dispatches #22: Bornean Miscellany, Part 3 - Scap

Posted: January 31st, 2012, 1:18 pm
by John Martin
Hans Breuer (twoton) wrote:
John Martin wrote:Wish I had the opportunity to see those places.
...said the man who lives in Australia :-) A one-way Air Asia ticket from Sydney to KL costs you USD99 (ninety-nine). A two-week trip to Borneo, including food, will set you back less than USD500, if you stay with us. You're very welcome.
Yes, I do live in Oz, but unfortunately in the relatively "interesting reptile-free zone" of South Australia's Fleurieu Peninsula. I know, I need to get out more. As for the flight costs, I'll definitely have to look into that when an opportunity to travel arises. And thank you so very much for the invite! You may just live to regret that... :lol: :beer:

Re: Borneo Dispatches #22: Bornean Miscellany, Part 3 - Scap

Posted: January 31st, 2012, 4:01 pm
by morgan
Very cool photos. I always love seeing stuff from Borneo. You didn't happen to get any photographs of any Nepenthes did you?

Re: Borneo Dispatches #22: Bornean Miscellany, Part 3 - Scap

Posted: February 1st, 2012, 12:47 am
by moloch
Looks like a beautiful place, Hans. I am looking forward to seeing some of these areas with you before too long. Kubah looks very nice.

Regards,
David

Re: Borneo Dispatches #22: Bornean Miscellany, Part 3 - Scap

Posted: February 1st, 2012, 2:11 am
by Hans Breuer (twoton)
Thanks, all!
tai haku wrote:The C. chinense variety on the right looks really, really interesting (and really, really hot)!
It isn't, though. Most of these peppers you can eat raw - no comparison to habaneros, ghost chilies etc.. Unlike in West Malaysia, people in Sarawak don't like their food head-poppingly fiery. Even the Indian cooking here is quite tame. One of the few drawbacks of life here...
Yes, I do live in Oz, but unfortunately in the relatively "interesting reptile-free zone" of South Australia's Fleurieu Peninsula.
What a waste :-)
And thank you so very much for the invite! You may just live to regret that..
No worries. If you get uppity, we'll dump you in some croc-infested Nipah swamp :-)
Kubah looks very nice
That building is going to be your home for three days!
You didn't happen to get any photographs of any Nepenthes did you?
Sure did. Here's a bunch of common lowlanders.

N. mirabilis
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N. ampullaria
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N. rafflesiana,
the pretty purple variety
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More neps...but you have to find them for yourself :-)
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There are more nepenthes photos in the earlier posts in this series.

Re: Borneo Dispatches #22: Bornean Miscellany, Part 3 - Scap

Posted: February 1st, 2012, 3:31 am
by MaartenSFS
:shock:

Re: Borneo Dispatches #22: Bornean Miscellany, Part 3 - Scap

Posted: February 1st, 2012, 11:40 am
by morgan
Awesome. Thank you for posting those!