Join our zoo community

LaughingDove Goes Travelling - SE Asia and Australia

Discussion in 'Asia - General' started by LaughingDove, 19 May 2018.

  1. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

    Joined:
    13 Jun 2007
    Posts:
    23,395
    Location:
    New Zealand
    Yep, Bukit Fraser to Raub by taxi, then bus to Jerantut via Benta. The distances between these towns isn't great but I don't know the schedules of the buses. Either way, if you have to go to Raub anyway, just check at the bus station(s) - it looks like there are three in town - to see whether it would be better for you to go Raub-Benta-Jerantut or back to Kl and then to Jerantut. Worst that will happen is that you have to stay overnight in Raub or Jerantut before getting to Taman Negara.
     
  2. LaughingDove

    LaughingDove Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    16 May 2014
    Posts:
    2,492
    Location:
    Oxford/Warsaw
    Thanks! Some super-cool species yesterday (and more today, which I'll post a bit later ;))

    That's definitely a reason for you to go back then! :p
     
    Vision likes this.
  3. LaughingDove

    LaughingDove Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    16 May 2014
    Posts:
    2,492
    Location:
    Oxford/Warsaw
    Yeah, I got a map which has been very useful in navigating around.

    Do you mean the food-court area just below (next to) the mosque or the one a bit further (200m ish) uphill from it?
    I had a look at those places for food, but a meal looks to be about 10RM in any of them. The food costs aren't so high though, considering the cost of accommodation, I thought food might be more expensive than it actually is.
     
  4. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

    Joined:
    13 Jun 2007
    Posts:
    23,395
    Location:
    New Zealand
    The one just up from the roundabout, by a playground (at the start of the road which heads to the waterfall).
     
    LaughingDove likes this.
  5. LaughingDove

    LaughingDove Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    16 May 2014
    Posts:
    2,492
    Location:
    Oxford/Warsaw
    I haven't book anything yet so either way is an option. Do you have a rough idea how long the buses would take?

    I was thinking that I would leave Bukit Fraser a bit later on the morning of the 1st to have a last morning of birding here before I go but I think however early I left on the morning, I wouldn't get any further than Jerantut on that one day which is fine, one night in Jerantut gets me to Taman Negara earlier than from KL. The buses to KL are probably more frequent though.

    I was also planning in KL to buy some food for the tapir hide at Taman Negara. I don't know how big Jerantut is, is there a decent sized shop/supermarket there? It may ultimately be easier just to go back to KL and go from there. I'll ask around here/the reception staff to see if I can get any information on bus timetables and lengths.

    I'm guessing you've not done a bus transfer through Raub yourself? Is there a particular website where you got that bus information from or just general googling?

    It looks like the bus from Raub to KL takes just over 2 hours and leaves every half hour in the morning and evening and every hour in the day whereas getting from Raub to Jerantut looks to involve two quite infrequent buses.

    It's probably best that I leave the decision until I see the schedule in Raub itself, although tbh I would rather have the accommodation booked one night in advance.
     
  6. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

    Joined:
    13 Jun 2007
    Posts:
    23,395
    Location:
    New Zealand
    If you have to stay overnight anywhere, then Jerantut is the best because you can catch the first bus out to Taman Negara in the morning. There are supermarkets in Jerantut (and ATMs), and there will be in Raub too.

    (From googling) it looks like the bus from Raub to Benta takes about 2 or 2.5 hours - I couldn't find a good schedule for that one, but from Benta to Jerantut buses seem to run about every hour.
     
    LaughingDove likes this.
  7. LaughingDove

    LaughingDove Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    16 May 2014
    Posts:
    2,492
    Location:
    Oxford/Warsaw
    It seems like going to Jerantut from Raub would the be the quickest and most efficient option but going via KL would probably be easier in terms of planning/working out where I'm going.

    I need to remember to inquire at reception about the buses tomorrow. The problem is that there's too much cool stuff to see around Bukit Fraser that I'll just head out as soon as I'm up and forget :p.
     
  8. LaughingDove

    LaughingDove Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    16 May 2014
    Posts:
    2,492
    Location:
    Oxford/Warsaw
    Bukit Fraser Day Two: Mind The Gap


    As planned, I headed out for some sunrise birding before breakfast which only begins at 7:30. I didn’t make it very far though, because I was distracted by a flock of stunning Silver-eared Mesias just on the edge of town. There was a White-thighed Langur just on the edge of town past the Shazan Inn too, there seem to be more of those around that I was expecting.

    Breakfast is included with the room so I made sure to eat as much as I reasonably could before heading out for the day. Today I decided to try and do quite a long walk with a rather nice loop covering a range of altitudes going down the mountain a bit and back up again. (Bukit Fraser translates as Fraser’s Hill, but given that it gets to over 1500m I think it’s probably fair to call it a mountain). Bukit Fraser has two one-way access roads. The ‘new road’ going down and the ‘old road’ going up so today I decided to do a loop that involves going down the new road, across a connecting bit of road called ‘The Gap’ and the back up the old road. My phone has a GPS app that lets me see my altitude without needing an internet connection so it was interesting to track the altitude going from just under 1300m at the top of the new road to a low of 870m at the bottom of the gap. I wasn’t sure if I would make the whole loop because it’s quite long, probably about 20km downhill and uphill, but I did it and it was a nice day’s walk.

    There were lots of cool birds seen along the way (see the list, I won’t go into detail about all of them) with a range of vegetation at different altitudes. Particularly cool were some big pink orchids that weren’t growing as epiphytes but instead coming up in big stands from the ground. The different altitudes also have distinct types of fern that are dominant which change as you go up and down which was particularly interesting.

    As I was heading down the new road, I heard a big crashing in some trees and something moving off. I think it was a Siamang but I couldn’t be sure. Siamang are probably the biggest target at Bukit Fraser so I was disappointed that it disappeared off so quickly before I could confirm the ID. A bit later though, maybe about an hour’s walk, I saw a siamang clearly moving slowly through the canopy near the forest edge and it was soon joined by a second one: a pair of siamangs which I got a nice prolonged view of as they moved around and slowly moved off. A great sighting. A bit further down was another new primate as a lone male Pig-tailed Macaque ran across the road and disappeared. Much shyer than the Long-tailed Macaques in the town.

    I was enjoying the walk – this was the downhill bit so not very tiring – with lots of interesting things to see. It did, however, start to rain slightly and at about the 4km marker (to the junction with the gap) I started to get pelted with rain. I was prepared for the rain though, and I had a rain mac so the binoculars and camera could stay nice and dry. But the rain was pretty heavy. My shorts certainly got a good wash for example. I didn’t have to walk for too long in the rain though because I was able to get a lift with a German family who dropped me off at the junction with the gap and saved me about 3.5km of the walk. I continued to walk down The Gap until I came to a shelter with a bench where I could sit and wait for the rain to clear. There was one casualty though: the field guide. I thought I could shelter it with my body while I used it to identify a bulbul but as it turned out, this was insufficient and it got a bit wet. Very wet actually. This was about 200m before getting to the shelter though so as soon as I got to the shelter I could try and rescue it and I tore out pages from the middle of my notebook to put between the affected plates to they wouldn’t stick together. It was fine, I think I’ve managed to save it, but it’s looking rather worse for wear given it’s not even been a week yet.

    Since it was around 1:30 by this point and I had to wait anyway, I had the lunch that I had brought with me while in the shelter waiting for the rain to clear and then headed onwards as the rain stopped and the sun came out.

    I also got some useful information from a birder I met on the way up the old road back up to Bukit Fraser. Apparently, there is a spot where Hill Partridges can be seen reliably at around 11 and again at 4 crossing the road not too far from the town. I’ll definitely have to try for that tomorrow (for anyone interested, it’s along a road called Richmond Road that leads to a dead end and disused bungalow just right past the gat coming up from the gap. It’s marked on the map. Apparently there’s a patch of bare earth where the Hill Partidges cross. I’ll have a look tomorrow). The birder I met also said he’d seen a few Orange-breasted Trogons along The Gap a bit earlier which I must have missed, but oh well. On the way up I was scanning the tree trunks for colugos although I didn’t find any. A was starting to imagine colugos on every knot on every trunk by the end though.

    The last few kms back up the Bukit Fraser were a bit gruelling as I was quite tired by this point and it had started to drizzle. It’s fairly steep at points too. One particularly nice bird wave near the 3km (distance back to Bukit Fraser) mark kept me going though with cutias (which were high on my to-see list) as well as a small group of what was possibly my most wanted bird at Bukit Fraser: Blue Nuthatches. These are absolutely gorgeous nuthatches with a lovely white a glossy blue colour. Stunning.

    I got back to my room at about 5:30, making it a 9 hour walk which is fairly slow for just over 16km but it is up and down a lot and of course, lots of time stopped to look at and identify birds. I was going to go for a look at the sunset birds back at the Telekom Loop but my feet were too sore and I was too tired so I went back to my room to be on the internet for an hour or so and rest a bit (and write this). The sun’s just setting soon so I’ll head out now to find some food and the go for spotlighting. I think I might try going down the ‘up’ access road this time (back where I walked today) rather than going back to the Telekom Loop because I can get to the proper forest quicker this way.

    Having now got back form spotlighting, I would describe it as moderately successful. As mentioned, I went back down the road that I can up this afternoon and a spent a few hours out spotlighting, going down to the 3km marker and back up (so 6km spotlighting in total). Lots of microbats and insects as usually and on the way down that was it. Nothing else at all, not really any movement either. On the way back up between km 3 and 2 I saw two interesting things though, the first was a Red Giant Flying Squirrel (the same as I saw a few of yesterday) and then more excitingly was a Small-toothed Palm Civet. So not bad, and I can’t complain about a new mammal, but I was expecting a bit more and the forest here seemed quieter than up the Telekom Loop last night with just one squirrel and a smaller number of bats. I’m not sure why because if anything this forest is better habitat but I think it’s just luck. Most people do talk about spotlighting around the Telekom Loop though so maybe I’ll stick to that for the next two nights. I really want to see a Slow Loris which is supposed to be fairly common around Bukit Fraser. Small-toothed Palm Civet is certainly rather good though, although I may have slightly overdone the walking today. I feel a bit like my field guide looks.


    New birds seen:

    Silver-eared Mesia

    Grey-cheeded Fulvetta

    Malayan Whistling Thrush

    Ashy Drongo

    Large Niltava

    Black-throated Sunbird

    Mountain Leaf Warbler

    Asian Fairy Bluebird

    Ochraceous Bulbul

    Streaked Wren-babbler

    Black-headed Bulbul

    Long-billed Spiderhunter

    Orange-bellied Leafbird

    White-rumped Shama

    Orange-bellied Flowerpecker

    Black-browed Barbet

    Pale Blue Flycatcher

    Everett’s White Eye

    Grey-cheeked Bulbul

    Grey-headed Canary Flycatcher

    Blue-winged Leafbird

    Greater Racket-tailed Drongo

    Oriental Cuckoo

    Lesser Racket-tailed Drongo

    Yellow-Breasted Warbler

    Grey-chinned Minivet

    Cutia

    Blue Nuthatch

    Chestnut-crowned Warbler


    Mammals:

    Siamang

    Southern Pig-tailed Macaque

    Slender Squirrel

    Dusky Langur

    Small-toothed Palm Civet
     
  9. Brum

    Brum Well-Known Member 10+ year member

    Joined:
    27 May 2011
    Posts:
    3,704
    Location:
    Birmingham, UK
    With this and the earlier mongoose sighting a certain tea loving moderator is going to be awarding you a badge very soon! ;):p
     
    LaughingDove likes this.
  10. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

    Joined:
    13 Jun 2007
    Posts:
    23,395
    Location:
    New Zealand
    Spotlighting at Bukit Fraser (or anywhere, actually) is really hit-and-miss. Some nights there's nothing except frogs and insects. I've never seen a flying squirrel up there, for instance, whereas you seem to be seeing them everywhere!

    I kind of want to be back there right now...
     
  11. LaughingDove

    LaughingDove Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    16 May 2014
    Posts:
    2,492
    Location:
    Oxford/Warsaw
    That's surprising about the flying squirrels. Red Giant Flying Squirrels are definitely the most common nocturnal mammal around after microbats.
     
  12. LaughingDove

    LaughingDove Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    16 May 2014
    Posts:
    2,492
    Location:
    Oxford/Warsaw
    I've asked around a bit about the bus by the way.

    Apparently to go to Jerantut from Raub I have to change at Kuala Lipis and it's two slow buses. Alternatively I can get an express bus to KL which goes every hour and is quick but then from KL it's slow obviously.

    The reception person thinks there's two buses per day Raub to Kuala Lipis and two buses per day Kuala Lipis to Jerantut so to get to Jerantut in one day I have to leave early or to go to KL I can leave any time.
     
  13. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

    Joined:
    13 Jun 2007
    Posts:
    23,395
    Location:
    New Zealand
    Yeah, there are only a few buses between Kuala Lipis and Jerantut, but there should be a lot between Benta and Jerantut. See this link with bus schedules, for example: Bus Services (for the Pahang Lin Siong buses). Benta is basically at a junction between the roads for Raub, Kuala Lipis, and Jerantut, so the routes from Kuala Lipis to Jerantut won't include all the routes between Benta and Jerantut.

    Anyway, check at the bus station in Raub to see the options first-hand and choose the best one on the day.
     
    Last edited: 30 May 2018
    LaughingDove likes this.
  14. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

    Joined:
    13 Jun 2007
    Posts:
    23,395
    Location:
    New Zealand
    That's the way it goes. You could go back next month and see not a single flying squirrel. Usually when I'm at Bukit Fraser I see lots of White-thighed Langurs - but last time I was there I don't think I saw any. On Mt. KInabalu I have seen loads of Small-toothed Palm Civets on one visit, but none on another. Wildlife is pretty random.
     
    LaughingDove likes this.
  15. LaughingDove

    LaughingDove Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    16 May 2014
    Posts:
    2,492
    Location:
    Oxford/Warsaw
    Here's a bird that I think should be quite obvious to ID but I just can't find it in the field guide:
    [​IMG]
    Any ideas?
     
  16. Vision

    Vision Well-Known Member 5+ year member

    Joined:
    29 Aug 2015
    Posts:
    1,091
    Location:
    Antwerp, Belgium
    @LaughingDove that looks like Malayan laughingthrush, Trochalopteron peninsulae, which is a recent split from Chestnut-crowned laughingthrush, Trochalopteron erythrocephalum (probably why it isn't in your guide). Good-looking bird!
     
    LaughingDove likes this.
  17. LaughingDove

    LaughingDove Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    16 May 2014
    Posts:
    2,492
    Location:
    Oxford/Warsaw
    Thanks!

    The illustration in the field guide looks really off compared to the birds I saw, even though they do illustrate the Malayan subspecies it doesn't look quite right.

    They were certainly really cool birds, there were three of them at sunrise this morning hopping back and fourth between the road and the trees alongside.
     
    Vision likes this.
  18. LaughingDove

    LaughingDove Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    16 May 2014
    Posts:
    2,492
    Location:
    Oxford/Warsaw
    Bukit Fraser Day Three: Soaked


    Like yesterday, I started the day with some sunrise birding and I saw a few interesting birds around although it was very foggy so visibility was low. It’s great to be up with the siamang calls too.

    While I was walking along just after sunrise I saw a small mammal moving through the undergrowth by the path which looked to me like a large dark vole. It then disappeared and ran across the path a few metres up and it was rather odd looking being dark grey, almost black, with a glossy coat a distinctly flat face and not much of a tail. Like an odd vole but fairly big. Looking through the field guide, I think there’s only one possibility: a Hoary Bamboo Rat. Bukit Fraser is just on the edge of the range map and I can’t find anything about small mammal surveys to see if they are known to occur here and I think it’s a bit unusual to be out in the day but I’m quite certain there’s nothing else it could be. What a cool mammal!

    I then headed back to breakfast and found that I had an unwelcome guest: a leech. This time I found the leech sucking just above my ankle and getting quite fat with my blood. It wasn’t very pleasant to remove and the gushing blood looked quite spectacular. It was but a flesh wound. I got the leech socks out after that though.

    After breakfast I headed to the Hill Partridge spot that I mentioned in the last post about hearing from a passing birder. I found the site easily enough and there seemed to be a fairly obvious ground-bird pathway going into the forest ,but I staked the site out for a while I didn’t see anything. It’s quite close to a house with a dog that was free to wander around and it did come up to have a sniff around which makes me wonder about how likely it is for a partridge to come out.

    After that I tried a few of the trails, I had been birding along roads for the last two days but I decided to try the trails. There wasn’t a huge amount to see though and it was much more difficult birding than from the roads.

    In the afternoon I decided to do the walk down to Jeriau Waterfall which is about 4km each way. On the way though I had a fantastic siamang sighting in the trees directly above me. A pair crossed the road by an overhanging tree right overhead followed by a youngster. They then sat in a tall tree just across the road and I noticed that there was not just the one youngster, but the female seemed to also have a baby clinging to its fur although it was difficult to get a clear view looking up and silhouetted. Another cool thing at the top of the walk down to the waterfall was a mud bank by the roadside with lots of holes for trapdoor spiders and tarantulas with some pretty big tarantulas in holes surrounded with silk which came up to the entrance when slightly touched by a stick. Really cool.

    As I was walking though it did start to rain. I was expecting it this time though and was fully prepared to walk in the rain. But then it got heavier, and heavier, and there wasn’t really anywhere to shelter. I know I’ve been complaining a lot about rain, but I think this time it was genuinely unusually heavy because sections of the roadside were being washing onto the road and on the return walk up, I found that a bit of hillside had collapsed and was blocking half the road.

    After a few minutes, I was soaked. To the point that I would not have been more wet if I was actually swimming in water. My trousers were really heavy and my shoes, despite being waterproof, had filled up with water. I was near the bottom of the walk down to the waterfall when it got really heavy and at the bottom was a small shelter where I could wait for the rain to die down a bit. This however, was when I discovered a design flaw with my rain mac in heavy rain. It has waterproof pockets in it where I transferred the stuff out of my trouser pockets to keep them dry. However in very heavy rain, the water funnels down my sides and a stream of water is funnelled into the pockets which had filled up with water. There was one major casualty from this: my phone. I turned it off and pulled out the battery and tried to dry as well as possible when everything is wet and put it in a plastic bag to try and keep it dry until I got back, although it wasn’t looking good.

    I stayed in the shelter until the rain was just normal thunderstorm low pressure shower strength rather than ridiculous high-pressure fire house strength and had a quick look at the waterfall before heading back up. Although the slight lull didn’t last for very long and it was soon heavy again and it was quite a difficult walk back up because of all the water weight and the fact that I was walking against the current on the road with a few centimetres of water at its shallowest point. I made it back to the room absolutely soaked and once I had wrung out my wet clothes I checked on the water damaged phone, but no luck. I’m hoping that it dried out, but I think it might be dead. It’s not an expensive phone and quite old, but it’s really annoying because I have everything set up on it. Luckily though, because my phone was so old and occasionally unreliable (although I doubt most phones would have coped with that water treatment) my parents insisted I carry a spare phone, a fairly cheap phone but a smartphone nonetheless, so that I could stay in contact. So although it’s not set up with all my ebooks and podcasts and music and things, which is annoying, I do still have a phone with a data connection which makes me feel much more secure when travelling so I do have contact with the outside world if I have to. I’m still hoping my proper phone dries out. It could be worse though, and that’s what travel is about: turning dreams, both good and bad, into anecdotes. I really hope my shoes dry out by tomorrow though.

    I was going to go out spotlighting, but it’s still lightly raining and it’s a bit annoying to spotlight in the rain and when everything’s wet because all the water droplets are shiny like eyeshine. I’m quite tired too. Tomorrow is my last full day here at Bukit Fraser and I’ve got the morning of the day after too. I would have spent longer, but RM100 +RM10 tourism tax per night is really steep. I have to remember that four nights is decent though, and on a normal length trip it would be a good length of time.

    Today also marks one week since I left Poland at the start of this trip. Although there have been numerous annoyances and problems already in just this week, I’m really enjoying the trip and I’m so pleased that I’ve done it. I always knew there would be ups and downs and this trip is definitely making me more self-sufficient. I was worried that at the end of the first week I’d be wishing that the trip was shorter and would be wanting to go home soon, but I’m not, and I’ve another 15 more weeks to go which I’m still just as excited about.


    New birds seen:

    287) Little Cuckoo-dove
    288) Slaty-backed Forktail
    289) Malayan Laughingthrush
    290) Rufous-browed Flycatcher
    291) Barred Cuckoo-dove
    292) Greater Yellownape
    293) Blue-eared Barbet
    294) Black-eared Shrike-babbler
    295) Chestnut-crowned Warbler

    296) Emerald Dove
    297) Common Green Magpie
    298) Javan Cuckooshrike
    299) Black Eagle

    300) Buff-breasted Babbler
    301) Stripe-throated Bulbul

    Mammal:
    36) Hoary Bamboo Rat
     
  19. DavidBrown

    DavidBrown Well-Known Member 15+ year member

    Joined:
    12 Aug 2008
    Posts:
    4,867
    Location:
    California, USA
    Seeing (and hearing) wild siamangs and a city of tarantulas sounds quite magical.
     
    LaughingDove likes this.
  20. LaughingDove

    LaughingDove Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    16 May 2014
    Posts:
    2,492
    Location:
    Oxford/Warsaw
    Definitely. Bukit Fraser is a really, really nice place. I like it here a lot.