[cbkhoon]

15/5/2010
i went Bako this morning, it was raining whole day, the trails are wet & slipery, my friends and I fell during the hiking, but luckily nothing happen. We did not many animals but only 1 probosic monkey and 1 silver leaf monkey & many normal monkey found in Penang Botanical Garden. And ya, some birds too, duno their name.
And on the way going from Kampung Bako to Bako NP by boat, we saw few Irrawady Dophins. Cant get photo of them coz the appearance is random and less than 0.5 second.

We took the Lintang Trail. At frst we expect to finish the trail in 3-4 hours and maybe take up the teluk pandan besar & kecil trail to see the "seastack". But it was raining and the trail is hard for us, so we only did Lintang Trail. It took us 5 hours to complete it. But of coz we stopped at so many places to snap pics & look out for them. Among the Nep found are ampullaria, rafflesiana, albo, gracilis. Each of nep species have few variants. And I found a lot of Drosera spatulata "Var. Bako", they are really really red.

16/5/2010:
I am typing all this in Kuching airport while waiting for my flight...

After droppping off few friends at kuching airport in 7am, i go Serikin Market & kampung Duyoh myself. After almost 45mins driving, for the first time i tried the glutinous rice cooked in Ampullaria pitchers, RM1 for each, that was my breakfast for the day, taste not bad but i dun feel anything special. Some stalls sell the pitchers too but I dun see any stall selling the plant itself. I hope they only collect pitchers from wild without damaging the main plant, but looking at the size of the pitchers, i dun think they are able to sell the plant, they must be very big.

Coincidentally, i passby Dream Orchid, have a short chat with the boss Mr Amos. Stayed there around 30mins visiting around and then proceed to next destination.

After lunch i go to Kota Padawan Pitcher Plant and Wild Orchid Garden, entrace ticket is RM2/head. Most neps are not getting good care and dried, some are even dead at all, only Bical, amp, mirabilis, and some hardy neps are in good shape, the rest all drying or dying, even many hybrids also facing same problem...I dont think this is a successful conservation center, the location is hot and humidity is bad. I spent around 1/2 hour there. No comment on the orchid as i am not in this at all. The Municiple Coucil should improve on how to take care of the neps.

After that i continue on to Semenggoh Orang Utan Rehab Centre. This is a good place, with very informative personels, giving out advices before we could enter to the feeding area. And I saw the dominant Orang Utan acting like a king there, a female adult carrying her baby, and few more middle age orang utan. All the visitors were adviced about the do's and dont's & we were told that the power strength of a adult male is equivalent to 6 mens's strength.

Overall comment for Kuching trip : nice to visit, very relax lifestyle here, nice National Parks/Wildlife. Nice foods are at reasonable price too. I would like to suggest Bako NP for those Petpitcher members who like to see them in wild, but preferably those who are get use to hiking or strong enough.

Pictures will be uploaded soon after i sort them. Stay tuned...