In a couple of weeks I will be setting off again on another Asian trip. The previous two threads are http://www.zoochat.com/19/chlidonias-goes-asia-2009-a-78709/ and http://www.zoochat.com/19/chlidonias-goes-asia-part-two-2011-a-227279/ if you want to get up to speed. This one is a little different to the others. The first four countries of this trip I have never been to before, which is exciting. But I’m not going to tell you what they are or where else I’m going or even how long I’ll be travelling for. This will be a thread of surprises – not least for me, because I pretty much work seven days a week so I haven’t really had a lot of time to do as much prep-work as I would have liked!! I can promise some very interesting and exciting animals along the way though (or, at the very least, searches for those animals; finding them will be another matter entirely!!). For full lists of birds and mammals seen as I travel you can probably (hopefully) keep up to date on this thread: http://www.zoochat.com/65/zoochat-2013-big-year-304885/ A little background to this trip. Up until a couple of years ago I lived in Christchurch where I worked at the Southern Encounter Aquarium (for seven years!) until the earthquakes destroyed everything, and so I moved to my sister’s place in Wellington for a little bit and then did the Indonesian trip of 2011. When I got back I went to Hokitika and became the manager of the National Kiwi Centre (a kiwi house and aquarium). This was a tad run-down due to years of neglect so I pulled it into shape as best I could with no money, doubled the number of exhibits (largely through fixing everything that was broken!) and tripled the number of species on show. Apparently it now looks better than it has done for the last decade or so. But there’s only so much one can do on the smell of an oily rag, so after a year and a half I have decided to move on once more. I looked into buying Pouakai Zoo when that came up for sale but that never went anywhere for reasons, so I kept my money and decided to just go travelling again. I’m at my best when I’m wandering. One of my favourite quotes is from Jack London, “The function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.” Or, I guess, from Jack Sparrow: “Better to not know which moment may be your last....every morsel of your entire being alive to the infinite mystery of it all. And who's to say I won't live forever, hey? It's a pirates life for me. Savvy!” Arr matey, I know it will be a good trip because I got a new passport and it has birds on the pages inside!! How’s that for foreshadowing?!
Looking forward to see which species you ll manage to find. Will you be focusing on birds or will you try to go for some of the mammals as well? There are some very challenging ones in that part of the world. What if you would be the second person in the world who manages to video Kouprey.
funny you mentioning mammals. The primary targets for the first four countries are all mammals, although there will be plenty of birds to fill in the gaps. ("Primary targets", of course, translating as "animals I want to find but they will turn out to be too hard so I won't"). One of those mammals was the impetus behind the whole trip (so probably the one I definitely won't find! ).
actually five countries! I just booked my flight out of NZ (for 3rd of August) and I have a six hour stop-over in Hong Kong* en route to Mystery Country Number One. I don't know if I'll be able to leave the airport or not, but I'm hoping I can and that I'll be able to get in some unexpected birding. At the least I'll look out the airport windows and see some feral pigeons or something. *depending on whether one can count Hong Kong as a country. I guess for birding list purposes it can be.
I look forward to reading about your very exciting sounding adventure and about all the animal you see, or, at least, attempt to see I very much hope that one day I can afford to do the same type of traveling you do. ~Thylo
Saola? It goes without saying that if you can get some shots of a marbled cat somewhere, whether it be captive or wild, this would be GREAT.
I didn't think he would visit Indonesia as he was jealous of the amount of species Hix would find in Uganda. Indonesia would beat that number with around 600. At the same time you will need to visit several islands to get that number, although with Sumatra you could get yourself one of the rhino species while at the same time take a shot at 730 species of birds. Java the other island which would be interesting for birds would still help him to 500 species of birds, which is only half of Uganda's but still is only one out 4 countries he would visit. So my guess is that he won't visit Indonesia although I would not rule out he will try to hit Java, but it will not be his first stop as then Singapore would have been a more logical stopover.
This is kind of what I was thinking, too. I would think that, if he does do Java or another Indonesian island, it would be his last stop if he is laying over in Hong Kong on his way to the first mystery country. We will have to just wait and see what transpires. ~Thylo
I think shots of any cat in the wild would be great! I was going to start a thread like this in the Uganda forum, but not until I was on the road. Maybe I should start early so everyone can follow my preparations? Hix
Go right ahead! Just link us to it (whether here or on the 2013 Big Year thread as Chlidonias did) so we'll find it earlier. ~Thylo
my main target mammal isn't anywhere near as rare as a saola! It's just a really cool mammal I want to see (which is apparently very difficult to see). I shall do my best for a marbled cat, just for you. On this trip I may possibly be in as many as ten countries within marbled cat range. So, yeah, basically just a matter of luck!
note that I didn't say I was jealous of the number of species Hix could potentially see, simply that I was jealous of his destination; and that birding is easier in Africa than Asia. Indonesia in particular is pretty hard for birding because the animals are generally all very wary and getting scarcer every year, and also very spread out between islands. Each island you go to you get a lot of repeat birds from the other islands and only a percentage are new for the trip list. (Also I've already been to Indonesia so it can't be one of the first four countries which I haven't been to before ) Singapore was originally going to be at the start of the trip (reached via Melbourne or Sydney) but I rearranged everything and now I'm not sure when Singapore will feature. I will definitely get there sometime during the trip.
travelling isn't necessarily really expensive. It depends on how one does it. My trips tend to be "interesting" because I do them independently, without paying for tour companies and such-like things. Most of the cost is in the flights and travel insurance and things of that nature. On the ground most of the cost is in accommodation. It also depends on where you go of course. Somewhere like Thailand I can do on as little as NZ$15 a day (averaging expenses of course) or even as low as NZ$5 or 10 a day, whereas in some parts of Indonesia I was paying around NZ$100 a day! (Indonesia is very much more expensive than most of southeast Asia, surprisingly).
Ooh I quite like travel blogs. By my calculations, you should once again be overseas on your birthday. Is this the big four oh? I think that you will be visiting Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Taiwan, and the Phillipines. Am I right or am I right?
