Dolphin's Carving or Diving?

Not only terrestrial animals but aquatic animals is my favorite too. I really hope that one day i can touch this animal means that i can see it for real again. When i was a little kid, there was one family of this animal used to swim pass by our village when the water level is high and the salty water from the sea enter our river. There was a few times they enter our river but there was no more now. It is about in early 90s.

So, my next things to do is go for diving. I will do it but still not sure when. New things is really interesting and new adventure means i really have to go for it..:)

Malay Civet (Viverra tangalunga)

Mid this year, i join my friend to do camera traps inspection and we go for night survey in the plantation. We are very eager to go for that night survey but then when we enter our vehicle, we realize that our spotlight is not working because of the connection failure. So, my friend became a McGyver and he connect the wire directly to the battery so our spotlight is working. We continue to do our survey in the plantation area. There is where we saw this Malay Civet (Viverra tangalunga). The funny things is this animal keep on walking nearby the road even though we are there and we can see clearly what it is doing. We observed it for about 10 minutes and then it left us.

However, we can not take a good photo of it because i am not good in operate our camera. It was keep moving on the ground and i am in our vehicle trying to take the very best view of it. But, i took a very bad photos and my friend took these two photos. It quite good because we still can see the morphological characters of this animal. It is still clearly can be identified as Malay Civet though. It was a great experienced but we have to turn back after a while because it was raining after that.

It's Rock Climbing...It's ROCK

On Sunday, i joined my friend and his groups to Fairy Cave at Bau for rock climbing. I met six new friends and they were all crazy about rock climbing. They keep talking about bolts and everything about rock climbing and i am lost in the middle of them because i don't know what is that all about. When we reach at the site there are three new climbers (include me) and one of the senior teach us at the baby climb wall. It is not that high and it looks easy and it is easy and i can reach the top very fast. She teach us on the command that they use, what gear that we should have and how to operate it. I still confused with the command. Climb on, Take, Taken....something like that. The picture above is the Chimney Climb and it is not easy.

I climb at Baby Climb once and it is easy. Then i climb once next to Baby Climb but that one is not that easy and i have to put up my effort to climb up. This Chimney Climb is really piss me off. I quit in the middle of it and ask my friend to lift me down but they keep on pushing me to keep on and they won't lift me down. I have difficulties at three part of this wall. Because i don't know where to put my feet and where to put my hand. I don't know where to grab. All is so flat, no hole. When i stop for the third time, it is really close to the top. It is just about half meter and i almost give up again. But then i realize one thing about myself when i was at that position. I always like that, give up when i almost get there. I fight with my own emotions at that time and use my energy to lift my body up and at last i grab the last point and i reach the top. Hmm...i can do it no matter how difficult it was. It does give me self motivation.


On the way back to Kuching we stop by the abandon lake (mining activity was held here before) and we have refreshing at this beautiful lake. This is the photo surrounding the lake. It quite beautiful and peaceful.


This is the lake and my friend practice her kayak here. All of them are very crazy about outdoors activity and glad to know them. Three from Australia, one from Indonesia, one from German, one from Bintulu and one from US. I have a great time swimming here with the bird's call and the clean air to breath in.





There were no photo of myself because i forgot to ask my other friends to take it for me. But i have a very good photo of it in my memory. These two days, i have a muscle pain and it really painful but that is what i have to pay..hahahahah...

I Have So Much Fun @ KAMPUNG BUDAYA

Last Saturday, was the first time i visited Kampung Budaya and i am really excited. Only my friend and I, and both of us don't know where is Kampung Budaya and we lost about one and half hours where we heading to a wrong destination. We reach the end of the road to Matang. I think we reach the last village at Matang because we pass through the Matang Wildlife Centre. It was crazy but we never lost hope and make several calls to our friend and at last we found the right road to Kampung Budaya. Here we come...

I am from Melanau tribe and i really excited before i enter this tall house but then when i am inside the house i really dissapointed. From outside this house looks really amazing and i never imagine how Melanau people stay in this tall and big house. When i enter the house, it looks like that no one take care of it. There were spider web every where and just like big haunted house. Hmm..really dissapointed with what i see inside this house.

I have so much fun visit Bidayuh longhouse. I like this bamboo bridge and it was the entrance to the longhouse. I really like this bamboo bridge. Is there any Bidayuh longhouse out there still use this kind of bridge?

At last when we wait for the show at the theatre hall, i take a chance to take some funny photo and this is one of it. I am not sure what sculpture is this but it looks unique though..hehehe..i am not regret to visit this KAmpung Budaya because we really have a good time.

Rock Climbing

I like adventure so i like to try new things especially outdoors activity. It has been a while i try to join my friend go for mount climbing in Bau. I have no idea how it will be look like and what should i do. Climb up the rock. But how difficult it will be? I don't have height phobia but at some point i do have some nerves too when i look down. I am not worry about it because i still can control it.

Even though i still not sure, how this activity will be going on but i am really excited. I miss a lots of things while i am here in my uni. I miss to go into the forest and be close to the real nature, where i can see the wild animals and breath the fresh air, i miss my aerobic class, where i can stretch my muscle and enjoy the fast music, i miss my joging activity at Bintulu Promenade, where i always see the beautiful sunset and sunrise...so many things i miss about my previous activities. But, everythings should be fine because i will have a chance to do another things while i am here.

I already visit the Semenggoh Wildlife Centre and it is a good start for me. This weekend will be rock climbing at Bau. It will be interesting and fun. Challenging too.

Can't wait to go.

Wild Cats (Leopard Cat)

This is a photo of leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis) that i took a few months ago during our visit to one of the plantation in Bintulu. I love wild cats very much and my first proposal for my project was to study the populations of wild cats in Sabah. But then i have to think it over again when my ex-lecturer in UMS told me that it is very difficult to catch this elusive animals. I do some research on other study and after think of it deeply, i decide to give up with wild cats and change to small mammals (rats, squirrels, treeshrews, shrews) and it does related with wild cat too. Why? Because small mammals is one of the food source for wild cats.

Back to the picture above. This leopard cat was kept by one of the oil palm manager at his house. His house is inside the plantation area. Based on his story, there were a few others that have been taken from the plantation area and kept by him but some of it get back to the wild and never return to his house. This in the only one that left with him at the moment. It is not tame and it keeps showing his teeth to me when i tried to get closer to him and took his photos. Actually, when the natural forest is cleared for the plantation, this animal lost their nesting habitat as all the trees is cut down. However, they do foraging inside the plantation. Based on the study that have been done by Rajaratnam in Sabah, a lot of leopard cat recorded use oil palm plantation as their foraging site. He do his study using telemetry and did follow where this animal go.

In May this year, i have a chance to assist group from UTAR to do small carnivore trapping in the tree plantation area. During the night we went for a night survey via spotlighting. We spot a few individuals of the leopard cat. It does prefer an open area with a little bit canopy to stalk for it's prey. This is what happen inside the tree plantation because some of the young acacia not having a closed canopy.

I am still in love with this unique and interesting animal and i am still hope that i can work on this animal again in near future.