A Rainbow Round the Sun…

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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Just passing through Kota Kinabalu. Got in from Poring by car a while back, and almost on our way to Danum, on a dying airline (the domestic-run of FAX). Same airline we took to Mulu – I just love planes where they ask the four passengers to sit on opposite sides of the aircraft to balance it!
We just had time to do the washing and buy another member of the team a new pair of walking shoes (so I’m not the only one who needs to make a mileage claim on footwear), before giving a talk at the Malaysian Nature Society Sabah branch, and then repacking. I have to be up at 4.30 a.m and it’s now midnight…groan.
Anyway here are some more photos from Kinabalu Park. The sun had a rainbow around it for about three or four hours the other day. Surreal. Photos don’t do it justice.

Once, I climbed a mountain…all 4,095m / 13,435′

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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Just checking in briefly from a tiny internet café in a place called Poring, where people come to soak their weary muscles in the hot springs after ascending Mt Kinabalu. We aren’t soaking, even though we did walk part of the way up the mountain in search of the Friendly Warbler (unsuccessfully, I might add). I took great pleasure in occasionally passing trekkers half my age on their way to the first leg of the summit…

not too often, I will admit, but there were some I could leave behind.

I first climbed Kinabalu back in the days before there were toilets on the way up, or those beautifully graded steps, or that restaurant at the hostel at the edge of the treeline, or those warmed rooms. Now that was the way to climb a mountain. (I love being smugly superior about the “good old days”, and “When I was young…”)

In some ways I enjoyed our “half-climb” more than the real climb I made 25 years ago (twice, although I didn’t quite get to the summit of Low’s Peak the second time around). This time we had time to admire the view, to poke around off-trail, to hunt for birds and pitcher plants…

I love this mountain. I love the way it never looks the same two minutes in a row. I love the way the clouds smoke away the trees like wildfire, only to snag on the anvil-claws of the rock. I love the way it dominates, a stark heap of granite snatching at the sky, all uncaring arrogance, without care for puny humankind scrambling up its slope like ants.

I am glad I had the opportunity to be one of those ants all over again, twenty-five years later. It was a privilege.

Endau-Rompin Park, Johor.

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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I am having telephone line problems at home in Kota Kinabalu, so that is restricting my blogging.

And I have another 10 days of field work – to Kinabalu Park HQ, Poring, then Danum, before life becomes relatively normal again. Of course normal for me means writing reports and writing novels seven days a week, 14 hours a day… is there a different kind of life out there somewhere?

Nah, I’m not complaining. I love my life and I reckon the change between between fieldwork and typing is as good as a holiday.

Here are some photos taken in Endau-Rompin State Park in Johor… wonderful place. Quiet. Peaceful, especially after Taman Negara during a long weekend holiday. Pleasant birding. The remains of the bridge show all that was left after the recent Johor floods – so there can be another side to nature. We should never forget that, and when we become careless of the way we treat the world, floods like this one will be more frequent.
If you are a Malaysian, and don’t belong to the Malaysian Nature Society (or to some a similar organization) – which works tirelessly to give you a better environmental future – then you should be ashamed of yourself. Visit their website and join. Today. www.natsoc.org.my

Should I claim on mileage?

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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I am back – briefly – in Kota Kinabalu. Off again on Tuesday, though, to Kinabalu Park and Danum Valley.

We have spent 3 weeks on the trail, and here’s a picture that explains what that means.

Unfortunately, the trekking shoes gave up a full two days hike, plus a boat ride and an aeroplane ride away from the nearest shoe shop…
It really is remarkable what one can do with a couple of elastic bands plus the ties out of my leech socks, when the alternative is to wear a pair of flip-flops on wet and muddy paths. Of course, thereafter the leech socks wouldn’t stay up, with not-so-good consequences…

I think I should claim sole mileage from my employer. Fortunately, though my soles may leave much to be desired, my soul is in good nick, thanks to the beauty and serenity of the places I have been.

More to come. Stay tuned. I have a lot of catching up to do – and apologies to all who emailed and had their email bounced back over the past week. Blame it on Viagra and the fact that I won an online lottery multiple times, all while I was internet-less in the forest.
Pix: Endau-Rompin Park, Johor.

Humbled

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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Just when I think “I couldn’t get a better review than this one” – I do just that. Get another review that knocks my socks off and leaves me humbled.

Writers love all good reviews, naturally – however, ones that not only dole out the praise, but which show that the reviewer has understood the subtleties of all the sub-story, well, they are rare indeed.

A nameless Canadian Lj blogger from Toronto, Bibliogramma, has left me humbled. Thank you, whoever you are. You just made my weekend…

I’d love to quote the whole review, but I shall be good and just put up bits and pieces…

The review begins like this:

“I’m really not certain how to begin praising Australian writer Glenda Larke’s Isles of Glory trilogy. Do I begin with her detailed and intricate world-building? Her skill in characterisation? Her original take on the whole business of magic? Her seamless incorporation of highly intellectual explorations of the psychology of perception, the social and personal functions of religion and the dynamics and consequences of colonialism into a damned jolly action thriller with a truly kick-ass, take-no-prisoners swordswoman? The structure of the trilogy that permits not only multiple perspectives on the action, each from characters with their own culture and personal philosophy, but also a metanarrative from another culture altogether? Larke’s novels are deceptively easy to read and enjoy, but so difficult to talk about. And they’re brilliant.”

And ends like this:

“And I haven’t even mentioned the considerations of changes in gender roles, the horrors of religious intolerance, the nature of corruption, the necessary values of living an sustainable life in a fragile ecology, the challenges faced by stateless persons, or any of the other issues that Larke weaves into her narrative. Oh, and did I mention a great action adventure story, and a damned fine love story to boot, with realistic characters who aren’t always right, and aren’t always heroic, and don’t always save the day, or if they do, it’s not what they hoped it would turn out to be? Oh, just read the books. You won’t be sorry.”

I’m speechless.

National Park pix

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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Some rather haphazard photos from Taman Negara (National Park) in Pahang, where we went when we left Royal Belum. We came down through the centre of the Peninsula from Jeli and Dabong to Lipis, then drove in to the Park.

We stopped for a moment in Dabong – not a good idea as it has roads no bigger than a footpath and only one of them goes anywhere – to the railway station.

The most striking thing about the area was the state of the nearby river. The logging and clearances up in the highlands (I assume) have turned the river into a brown flow of mud. So much for the government’s campaign on “Love our rivers”. Oh yeah? Now just who was the campaign aimed at, I wonder?

I guess the fishing in Dabong is now, well, up to mud.

The other nasty thing I saw in the town was the sight of three tattered Oriental Magpie Robins (Murai), missing tail feathers and looking thoroughly wretched, all sharing a tiny hanging cage hardly 30 cm across.

Are the owners being deliberately cruel? Or are they just so ignorant and stupid they can’t see the condition of these pathetic birds? And I’ll bet they feed them rice, too. There seems to be a universal belief here that all birds eat rice. After all humans do, right?

There was very nearly a nasty scene of one middle-aged lady rampaging down the footpath to rip the cage to pieces, but – alas – in the end I was too much of a coward.

Photo 1 is the Tembeling River.

Photo 7 I took from the boat while we shooting the rapids on the Tembeling on my way back from interviewing the delightful lady who runs Nusa Camp, which is upriver from the main Park entry point. A moment later the engine died when we hit a log. The boatman got us to the bank where he straightened out the propeller with a hammer…

Photos 2 and 3 show a Tualang tree on one of the trails. The base is huge – note the relative size of the two guys on my team – and the top emerges high above the canopy of the other trees. Can anyone tell me why Malaysia doesn’t make this magnificent species its national tree? It is even found in East Malaysia, where it goes by the name of Mengaris (I think that’s the right spelling). The scientific name, Koompassia excelsa, seems to be appropriately impressive-sounding.

The next photo is of a liana, just cos I thought it beautiful, and the next two show some of the boats that scurry across the confluence of the Tahan and Temebeling Rivers like water beetles, conveying people between the cheap accommodation and restaurants on one side of the river, and the Park on the other.

Alas, the project budget did not run to the many-starred hotel in the Park for us. We stayed instead in a place with a glorious view, shared bathrooms – and no hot water. Who cares? I love Taman Negara.

It’s late. More tomorrow.

A map for reading?

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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Yesterday we came in from Taman Negara, Malaysia’s premier National Park. Today the team leaves for another park, Endau-Rompin down in Johor state. Work, remember? All work, I swear. Back Saturday.

In the meantime, here’s something to play with.

When you type in an author’s name, it gives you the other authors you might like. No idea what criteria they use to make these decisions! It alters a bit from time to time, but basically, if you like Glenda Larke, you will love Alma Alexander, also Louise Marley and Judith Tarr (neither of whom I’ve ever read), and then Jenny Fallon, Trudi Canavan, Anne Bishop and some guy called J.R.R.Toliken (sic), etc. Even Guy Gavriel Kay is there…

More mysteriously, so is Dahl, Judy Blume and Amy Tan, although further away in the liking stakes. Hmm.

Royal Belum – so why don’t you go there?

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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Astonishing beauty…

A boat dwarfed by rainforest exuberance…

Our boatman, Along, who put up with us always wanting him to stop and turn off the engine so we could focus on the birds…and who found us our last hornbill species at the eleventh hour. Here we are at the beginning of our journey, near the Banding Island bridge on Lake Temengor, Perak.

No roads in Royal Belum – none. You travel by boat or not at all.

Flowering Bongor trees edged the lake like purple lace…

Sometimes we walked inside the forest…

Scenery…
The view from my tent.
Our camp on the upper reaches of the Perak River.
Oh, and did I mention that we saw 10 species of hornbill in a day and a half? All identified by sight, not just sound?
And you know what the most amazing thing about that is? That no one else goes there to see.
There are a number of guides who have permission to take in tourists – only one of them (Hj Silah) does ecotourism tours (the rest take in fishermen to the area). And we were only the third lot of bird watchers that Haji Silah had guided in the thirteen years of his operation. Now that is truly astonishing.
And did I mention that we saw nine species of raptor? Lesser Fish-Eagle, Osprey, Rufous-bellied Eagle, resident Oriental Honey-Buzzard, Crested Goshawk, Crested Serpent-Eagle, Changeable Hawk-Eagle, White-bellied Sea-Eagle, Blyth’s Hawk-Eagle – plus a couple we didn’t manage to identify.
So, does paradise have its snake? Yeah, always. there was the little question of permits. And those ants … more about that next time.
Contact: Silah bin Mohd Yusof : hjsilah at yahoo dot com

Hornbills in Royal Belum – ten out of ten!

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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Have we got a record here? More of the hornbills in a moment….

I have embarked on the fieldwork for the project I am working on.
Yep, visiting six National Parks or State Conservation areas is work, you know…

We started off with Royal Belum in northern Perak, bordering the Perak border. And of course, got Noramlyed* again. What did you expect? [*disastrous events occurring whenever the Noramly family travel]

We were supposed to start off from Banding Island in Temengor Lake ( a man-made lake) at eight oclock in the morning – but didn’t get started until 12.30, because the police didn’t sign our permits the day before to enter a restricted area as expected (the OCPD was busy), and then the Parks department gave him the wrong forms anyway…and as a result we spent a morning twiddling our thumbs at the jetty.

Ah, but what happened next was pure magic. Apart from the fact that Royal Belum is stunning – a lake cradled by rainforest-clad hills, fringed with flowering bongor trees, scattered with islands, and veining rivers outwards into valley after valley – in the next 24 hours we saw nine species of hornbill. That’s right: nine.

And the next day, as we travelled out – with ten minutes to go, and two hundred meters to travel, the boatman pointed – and lo, species number ten flew into a nearby tree. The perfect moment.

Malaysia has ten species of hornbill, and we had seen them all in just over a day. Can there be a single other place in the world that can offer something as magical as that?

Oh, and did I mention that we also saw nine species of raptor? The last was a migrating Osprey overflying just as we crossed over the Park border on our way out…

I have the best job in the world.

Are male readers prejudiced against woman writers?

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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Over on Bibliobibuli, Sharon remarks that female readers will read books by both males and females, but that men have a preference for books written by other men. Or, to word it another way, they tend to dodge books written by women authors.

True or not?
What do you think?

I’d hate to think that a significant number of men were so prejudiced they censored their reading in this fashion! I can understand not wanting to read a genre – romance, or chck lit, for example – but to turn down a book simply because of the author’s gender?

So, what do you think – are we still living in the nineteenth century or not? (I’d particularly love to hear from a man who has such a tendency…if he is brave enough to admit to it!)