Journey Along the Katibas River - Part 1

Boat express from Sibu town to Song which depart at 6.15am and reach Song at 8.15am.

It was a follow-up trip to the long houses along the Katibas River which is regarding the labours appointment to join us in our orangutan nest survey last June. Actually i only assist the officer from the Forest Department but as usual, i am excited because this is my first time going upper Katibas River.

My excited face on the boat just before we start our journey.

We already plan to overnight at the last longhouse which is Rh. Sapai and TR Sapai himself is our boatman for this trip. Our journey will took us more than six hours because we will be stopped at a few longhouses to deliver the letters and meet up with the locals. Somehow, the weather is not as good as we hope it will be. After our second stop, the rain was too heavy and we must reach Rh Sapai before its dark. So, we decide to skip the other four longhouses and continue it the next day on our way down to Song town.

The mouth of Katibas River

The water level is just nice so we don't have to pass the shallow water with rocky rocks in this super cool river. I imagine of the strong current but since the water level is quite high, so the current is just mild. 

Our boatman, TR Sapai. The fuel is cost about RM500 for one way trip. 

Our boatman is very experienced and skillful person and he knows all the safe route to escape the big rocks in this river. I salute him for i feel safe along the way but somehow, he was drunk on the next day after a few stops at the longhouses. Only then i start to feel scared. Ha ha ha..

The flowers of Ensurai tree (Dipterocarpus sp.) is food source of aquatic life in this river.

It was a great experienced, even though it took us six hours to reach TR Sapai's longhouse and bad weather on the first day but i amazed by the beautiful scene along the river banks especially after the second last longhouse. It was amazing to have a chance to see the flowering Ensurai trees (Dipterocarpus sp.) along the rivers and knowing that the food source of the aquatic life especially the fishes is abundant and available. 

Finally, in the end, this will be one of the experience that i will appreciate as much as other trips that i have made while exploring the Rainforest of Borneo. I am grateful to God for this great opportunity and i am still safe and sound. 

---

Grateful Heart, 

Rose Ragai

#1 ~ The Mangrove Adventure Begins

I came from a village that river is the main transportation. It is located along the Igan River. I put quite a few entries about my village when i start this blog and you can find it by click to this link:

Part 1: My Childhood (mind my grammar in that entry because the main reason creating this blog during that time was "to improve my poor English")

Frustration on Rajang River Disaster (you will find a few links in this entry and i am sure this entry will remind you of the 2010 tragedy in Rajang River). 

So, what i want to share is that, there is a mangroves in my village. This including a few species of mangrove trees such as Nypa fruticans, Bruguiera sp and also Sonneratia sp in my village. Then, when i get an offer from this new company that i am working now, i was excited when i was told to be working in the mangrove. Even though i will be far away from home, miles away, but i will feel like i am at HOME. Why? Because i will be in the mangroves. Sounds crazy to you? Maybe i am am.

So, my first visit to this mangrove forest was way back on 10th of July 2013. We went there through the sea and i found it, this mangrove is SPECIAL and INTERESTING to be explored. To be honest, i don't have any clue of the mangrove species and what else inside there. This become more exciting when i know that i will learn something new here and new findings not like up on the MOUNTAIN. (^___^). Well, it's very warm here compare to the mountain. 

This entry is only my introduction. I will share more after this. It's good to make you wonder, what i found right? I leave you with these photos, till then!

The river mouth, into the mangrove area from sea.

The Rhizhopora forest. Observed the roots!!! AMAZING right?!!

Ignore my chubbiness, just look at what i have in my hands. Its Horseshoe crab, Tachypleus tridentatus.!!! 

 Till then guys! Enjoy!

The Big Tree

Do you ever encounter a very big tree when you walk inside the forest? I mean a natural forest. I found many but not so big though but still they amazed me. When i went for a field work at Danum Valley, Lahad Datu, Sabah way back in 2003, that was my first time saw a big tree in that virgin rainforest. It was great to see those big tress still standing firmly on the ground.

In my village we did not have any forests left so no big native trees standing. Its all open up for agriculture, by the local communities and also by the oil palm companies. Quite frustrating but what can i do about that. Our village located in lowland areas and its really suitable for agriculture and agriculture is our way of living. But then, if we put a sustainable practice of agriculture by put aside forested areas in our village for non-timber forest products collecting, we may still have some forests left. However, it is not our practice. Our elders seems to be very productive with utilizing all the land that they have and develop it into a sago farm or paddy field. Hmmm... that is our way of life.

Okay, i left you guys with two of big trees that i found during my field work with Raleigh International November - December last year in Pitas, Sabah. This two trees are the hard word trees. They are AMAZING right??

I love this trees... Let's HUGS A TREE!!!!

#1 -- Go Green ^-^ My Green Friends

I want to GO GREEN so where do i start? Hmmm... I was thinking planting some indoor plants or flowers. I already have three small pots for creepers on my table in the office. At home, i have none because of my hairy friend, Joy keep on disturbing my plants. She always drink all the water in the glass vase and also took out the flower from the vase. She really great of doing that.

So, last Saturday, my friend and i visit one of the shop selling flowers and plants for gardening. I saw a tiny little cactus, so i was attracted to it. Hoping that i can take care of this plants well so i ask the owner of that shop to teach me on planting cactus. She did gave me some advice and it sure will help me. I need a cactus soil which i can bought from the shop itself. Need to water it once in three days. Okay, sounds not that difficult. I hope this cactus will survive well with me.

Besides those cactus, i already have two types of creeper plants that i took from one of the site visit last month. It looks like growing well in those small glass jar/bottle. I recycle it.

Have a look of my green friends in the house. (^___^)

All four on the fridge....

Creeper plants on my dining table....

Another small creepers on my working table in my room....

Till then!!! ....

# 1 - Walking Through Nature

It has been a while i did not share my experienced walking through nature. This will be my story for today. On the 10th of Jan, i went to the waterfall area, one of our conservation area to do some site survey for my Vanilla trial plot. Along the walk i observed a few interesting small creature and plants. Actually we wanted to plot a 50m x 50m plot and do some clearing for our pathway. So, along the pathway that we cleared we cross two rocky streams that have a very clear clean water. Cold and refreshing. Here is photos of four interesting fellas that i met along the walk.



A shy little criket on the mossy rock near the stream.
Keeping itself silence and static on the rock.
When i wanted to capture more of it photos, it flew away.

Climbing lianas with it's beautiful flower. It is quite interesting
because before this i captured a photo of liana's fruits.
Now i got one that with flower. Quite interesting for me because liana
is one of the important climbers for small mammals movements in the forest. 

The tree roots attached to the rock inside the rocky stream.
Amazing right? How the tree survive just attached its root to the rock.

Is this fungi? Hmmm... i think this is a fungi. One of the species.
Not sure what is t exactly.

That is all the findings for the day! Will share more stories of my walk in my next posts. Till then guys!

My Fungi Photo Collection - 2010

My Flowery Friend - Liparis wrayi

Photo taken at Muaya Waterfall, Sipitang

It has been more than a week i didn't wrote here. Today i want to share a little bit about one of the Orchid that we found last year. This is the terrestrial orchid species. They grow on the ground. Actually before this i only known that orchid grows on trees and never on the ground. But when i joined one of scientific expedition with UMS last year, i learn a little bit about orchid from a botanist friend that working on orchids of Borneo.

She told me that orchid did grow on the ground and using soil as the substrate to growth. This is a new thing for me and i find it is interesting, though.

This one is a tiny orchid, only about 15cm height and the flower also tiny. But they are pretty as you can see in the photo above. The scientific name is Liparis wrayi. I tride to Google to get more info on this orchid but can't found any details info about it.

So, then i leave you guys till here. Have a good day and I Love Orchids.. (",)
 

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY - Climbing Liana Fruits

Photo taken at Muaya Waterfall, Sipitang.

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY -- Another Ferns

Fungi Collections - Part 1

I did wrote two entries about fungi before. There were three related posts about fungi with the title WORDLESS WEDNESDAY - FUNGI, Fungi - Consumable or Poisonous? and Fungi - Consumable or Poisonous 2. But for this post i change the title to Fungi Collections because i can not give information on consumable or poisonous fungi. So, with this entry i just want my reader to see the different species or type of fungi that i found when i walk in the Borneo rain forest. To share how diverse we are with so many species of plants and animals. 

Here are three different species of fungi that i found during my recent trip to one of the forested area where i work. As far as i know these three species is not consumable but i am not sure if all of it poisonous. I can't tell more info about it. Huh! Will come up with more of my fungi photo collections after this. Enjoy!

Edible Species of Ferns

Scientific Name: Nephrolepis acutifolia 

Local Name: Pakis Ikan / Cak ku'ut

Scientific Name: Stenochlaena palustris

Local Name: Lemiding / Paku Miding/ Lembiding

Scientific Name: Stenochlaena palustris

Local Name: Lemiding / Paku Miding/ Lembiding

Scientific Name: Diplazium esculentum

Local Name: Pakis

Scientific Name: Diplazium esculentum

Local Name: Pakis

*Note: I am so sorry for my long silence here. Feel free to visit my other blog, Rose's Daily Journal that i often update compare to this blog. But, i will try my very best to update both of my blog. Thanks for your visit. 

Another Collection of Ginger's Flower

Shyness of A Fern

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY - FUNGI

Herbs - Etlingera eliator

Let’s start this year with some medicinal plants or herbs. I would like to introduce you guys with this plant but I am sure it is already well-known. If you Google it using scientific name Etlingera eliator you will fine at least 14, 500 results. Meanwhile using English name, Torch Ginger you will get about 58, 000 results and using Malay common name Bunga Kantan you will hit about 128, 000 results. So, it means that this plants is already known by most of people in the world (this is just my random thought, can not be really count on it because maybe some of you doesn’t know about the existence of this plants).

Photocredit to PIER

As describe by Smith (1979) this plant is “a coarse herb growing in large clumps 3-6 m high; its leaves are up to 85 x 18 cm; the scape may be as much as 1.5 m tall, and the inflorescence bracts are bright red; the inner perianth segments are pink, the labellum being red with a yellow or white margin and the anther red; the fruits are green to reddish".

This plant is widely distributed in Malesia, subsequently introduced into the Philippines, and now widely cultivated elsewhere (Smith, 1979). However, it is native to Indonesia, Malaysia, and S Thailand but widely cultivated and naturalized in SE Asia.

Photocredit to travelpenang.com

This plant can be cultivated for ornament too despite of most people used it in traditional medicine and as a flavor in local dishes.

I love the aromatic smell very much. Any dishes that prepared with this plant will make my mouth watering.

My trip to one of Murut village last year gives me a chance to see how they prepare food using this herb. However, unlucky that I didn’t snap any photos of the dishes that they served. But, I am telling you that this herb really can spice up any dishes that you prepared.

Three Colour Fruit

Blue and Purple

Blue, Purple and White