Borneo 4: Ramadan

Ramadan began this week. Ramadan begins when the first crescent moon of the 9th month of the Islamic calendar is seen. Being seen is critical and the general location to determine if the crescent moon is seen is Egypt. However, last week smog was so heavy in Egypt (and I doubt it was much better in Kuala Lumpur) that the moon actually could not be seen, at least by Islamic astronomers. Well, they declared Ramadan anyway.

I happened to come across the Malaysian National Islamic Mosque this afternoon, while walking through the city after a visit to the city Bird Park. Non-Muslims were allowed in after 5:30 and since it was 5:35 that sounded like an invitation.

The Mosque official that I spoke to was certainly friendly and happy to talk about Ramadan and the Mosque. During Ramadan, Muslims do not eat between sunrise and sunset (this has already caused a change in the restaurant hours in my hotel), and food is laid out for sunset (7:20 pm here) as seen above. By tradition here this starts with dates and a dessert and is then followed by a full meal. All can join, non-Muslims included, so during Ramadan, I suppose one could eat quite well for nothing. I was invited to join the feast but wasn't planning on being in the area that late.

Photo Credit: Me. Photos taken in the Malaysian National Mosque

Borneo 3: Kuala Lumpur and the Batu Caves

The Batu Caves are a Hindu shrine (to Lord Muragan, worshiped by the Tamil Hindus) just north of Kuala Lumpur (or given that you don't leave any sense of the city at all, they are basically in Kuala Lumpur). It is probably the most popular tourist attraction in the city and is certainly worth the effort. A very long series of stairs leads up to the main cavern where a series of smaller shrines are scattered everywhere.

Sharing the climb with you are many many crab-eating Macaques (Macaca fascicularis) (see below) that have learned to live off of tourists. They are pretty harmless but do 'get in your face' and I did see one hiss and bare its teeth for some unknown indiscretion on the part of one visitor. I also saw one quickly raid a souvenir bag that another tourist had placed BEHIND his feet. They aren't stupid.

One thing that surprised me was the lack of any literature on the significance of the shrine. There were plenty of touristy shops selling all sorts of kitsch (Hindus may have invented bling) but no information.

Photo Credit: me.

Borneo 2: Travel

I passed through the airport in Hong Kong, a common hub for travel through SouthEast Asia, yesterday. I only had a two hour layover but will spend a day here at the end of the month on my trip back.

Basically 100% humidity with temps of 30 C. The clouds look like completely soaked cotton, and passing through them on the plane gives the plane a pretty good kick. Pretty though, as they form huge towers in the rising heat.

Another 3.5 hours of flying past Hong Kong gets you to Kuala Lumpur (assuming you survive the choking insecticide spray they completely douse the airplane cabin with prior to landing), where I will be spending the day. Kuala Lumpur is a modern city in almost all respects, although the reason I haven't posted anything until now was because the hotel internet was down.

The first thing one notices about Kuala Lumpur are the endless oil palm plantations. The airport is about 60-70 km out of Kuala Lumpur so a taxi ride from the airport takes about an hour. That will set you back about $20 CAN and you get the great experience of driving at 140 km/hr in a taxi weaving in and out of traffic. Driving is a pretty aggressive game here (making Vancouver look pretty tame), and while cars mostly use the lanes (my taxi driver decided to straddle a couple for about 10 minutes), countless small motorcycles run along the dotted lane markers somehow avoiding collisions with cars that change lanes without using signals.

Picture Credit: Me. Hong Kong airport. Victoria Peak is in the background.

Borneo 1: The Ant Course

Tonight I'm catching the very red eye flight out of Vancouver to Hong Kong at 2:45 am to begin my connections for The Ant Course in Borneo.

The Ant Course is run by Brian Fisher with the California Academy of Sciences. Each year Brian brings together those involved in ant research across the globe. The main goal is to make sure everyone is completely up-to-date in ant identification skills and also to make connections within the research community. For anyone working on ants, The Ant Course is the World Cup of all things ant.

This year the course is in Borneo at the Danum Conservation Area (west of Lahad Datu) combining this fantastic meeting with the most biodiverse area on the planet. Over 60 people applied this year, from 25 countries. I was one of the lucky 30 to be accepted.

The Danum Conservation Area holds the largest continuous lowland rainforest (jungle) left in Southeast Asia. While it is technically possible to an individual traveler to obtain permits to enter the area, this is generally considered impossible, and is open only to researchers. It is one of the last areas on Earth to still have wild orang utans (Mias), as well as 9 other primates and an incredible number of other plants (World's largest flower, 270+ species of tree in a single hectare (100 metres by 100 metres)) and animals (Pygmy Elephant, Sumatran Rhino, Clouded Leopard, Sun Bear etc.). A great many species have not been described, and just recently, a new species of bird was discovered. I expect a large number of the ant species we encounter will be new to science.

Tonight I'll be bouncing through Hong Kong and on to a one and a half day layover in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia). As I travel into Borneo (the northern Malaysian portion) I will try to blog as much as possible, although once in the Danum Conservation Area, internet access is limited.