Imbak Canyon: Into The Heart of Borneo [Field Work Part 1 ( Day 1 and 2)]

Curious of what does a Biologist do?
Well, I have a first exposure during my Field Trip to Imbak Canyon Conservation Area, Sabah.

This was a training to prepare us before we start doing our own research.
Imbak Canyon???? Where is it?? never heard of it..

This was the reaction that I get from most of my friends.

Imbak Canyon Conservaton Area is the last remaining untouched and relatively unexplored area of Sabah. 

It is a Virgin Jungle which means no human disturbance in this area.

Imbak Canyon Conservation Area is located over 300 kilometers south east of Kota Kinabalu, 

 north of Maliau Basin in Lahad Datu and

in the heart of Sabah (almost in the middle of Sabah).

The access to this Imbak Canyon Conservation are  is strictly controlled.

 The permission to enter must be obtained in advance from Yayasan Sabah Group offices in Kota Kinabalu or Sandakan.

1day travelling is required to reach there which includes

4 hours travelling from Kota Kinabalu to Telupid 

then 2 hours  from Telupid to the Base Camp just outside the Conservation Area.

Four wheel drives are needed to travel off track in the forest..

After the base camp, we need to travel almost 2 hours off track into the conservation area.

Then we need to travel 2km by foot to enter the scientific expedition camp.

P/s: OMG.. Tiring is IT?!

Enough of the information, and lets have a peak what is happening during my trip~

As it is a 6 days field work, I bought a super huge Back pack to stuff in all my things.

It weight almost 12kg!!!

Imagine that carrying that to walk 2km in the forest!!

As I mention earlier, 4 Wheel vehicles are essential to travel off road.

My Institution have rented 11 4 wheels vehicles with professional drivers to drive us in..

Well, This is VIRGO.

The Hilux that I traveled in and out of the Forest~

Luckily Hilux is more comfortable compared to other 4 wheels.

The name list for my travelling companies~

And We start traveled after a short briefing~

Along the journey, we passed by Tamparuli Rumah terbalik, Kundasang and Kinabalu park.

Then we stopped by Ranau to have our lunch~

~Ranau Town~

We even meet a bus of juniors travelling to Kundasang there~

And we continued Rolling~

The drivers actually do have great sense of humour while they entertained us with their hilarious joke and singing.

Then we stop by Telupid town to have a break~

Enjoying Ice-cream while waiting~

At last we reached the forest...

It was challenging to travel off road while raining.

The road was so muddy and sticky to travel..

We even need to pass through a river during the journey..

We were so scare when the river water started to flow into the car and soaked our leg..

The bad new was...

Our back pack were soaked with river water...

>.<

After bumping and shaking our head and waist all the way,

we finally reached the base camp.

Yeah!!!

We stayed in tent for the 1st night.

Luckily I bring my sleeping beg along as I can felt all the rock behind my back..

However, I fainted right away after I lyed down~ xp

It's A good night sleep.

Second day started with freezing whether..

I wrapped my selves with scarf and long sleeves~

After packing our tent and had breakfast, we continue rolling ( term used by the driver) ~

Sun glasses are crucial  while traveling under hot sun~

And of course to sleep~ Xp

Opps~ A car broke down during the journey..

The frame that support the wheels broke..

Challenge never ends~

Tougher road ahead while we getting closer to the virgin forest..

After 2 hours travelling in car,we reach the conservation area.

We have to walk in 2km to the expedition camp  with all our back pack..

No roads for car anymore..

Only trail for people to walk.

>.<

To enter a forest, what you need is a cap,

 a pair of Kampung Adidas ( rubber shoe that looks like adidas) for RM3.50, 

a pair of Leech Socks or Stocking Pacat (to prevent leeches),

 long sleeves, towel to cover your neck, tug in your shirt ( well, i Haven't tug in In this picture)

[ all this to prevent leeches].

Our journey into the virgin jungle started.

It was kind of hard to walk as it was slippery and muddy all the way through.

And  super tiring with the super heavy back pack on us..

We need to cross few rivers during the journey..

This is the fast flow river, quite dangerous cause I nearly swept away by the river flow.

After almost 1 hour of walking , We finally arrived the Expedition camp.

After the long journey, we have a lovely lunch prepared for us~

I ate double size when I was in the camp!

They found a snake in the camp!!!

During the night, immediately we started our 1st field work that was frogging.

Frogging means catching frog~

Oh ya.. catching frog in the rain and super dark and slippery forest.

It was a tough!!!

And we need to go frogging for 2 nights!!!

Well, to sum up, day 1 and 2 are mainly travelling into the Imbak conservation area.

Spent most of the time in car, bumping and shaking all the way through.

And I leveled up my sleeping skill where I can sleep even in a bumpy 4 wheel car!!!

That's all for Part 1 of My IMBAK Field Trip~

Stay tune for the 2nd part~

Sleepy face~~

If you are interested to travel to Imbak to explore the nature,

you can contact:

Research & Development Division

Yayasan Sabah Group

12th Floor, Menara Tun Mustapha

P.O. Box 11623

88817 Kota Kinabalu

Sabah, MALAYSIA

Tel: (6 088) 326300 Ext. 6318

Fax: (6 088) 326315/326316

E-mail: albinus@icsb-sabah.com.my

Or

Imbak Canyon Conservation Area

Rakyat Berjaya Sdn. Bhd.

Yayasan Sabah Group

Jalan Sekolah Cheng Min

P.O. Box 1437

90715 Sandakan

Sabah, MALAYSIA

Tel: (6 089) 225836  Fax: (6 089) 210852

E-mail: imbakcanyon@gmail.com

Languages Spoken: English and  Bahasa Malaysia

or 

North Borneo Safari

Lot 31, 1st Floor, Block B4,

Jalan BU 5/1, Bandar Utama,

Mile 5, Sandakan, Sabah,

Malaysia.

Postal Address: 

WDT 49 PPJU 90309, 

Sandakan, Sabah, 

Malaysia. 

Tel: +60-89-235525, 

Fax: +60-89-235526, 

Email: cpu@tm.net.my

Saturday Outing= Dim SUM+ PC Fair+ Fiesta Cahaya

1st of all, I would like to say sorry Guys for not updating my blog for quite sometimes...

My friends started to ask me why didn't I update my post..

I'm just too busy with whole bunch of Lab reports and assignment and Midterms..

Hectic week... Not enough sleep for quite sometimes...

But still I would like to blog bout the quality time i spent with my bestiest last saturday.

I had a date with Wei Ping and Lao Da a.k.a Shun Chern~ 

We start our day with The Aquarium of UMS .

Haha~ cause Wei Ping never been there before..

It such a humiliating that we as students of UMS never been to the famous Aquarium that all the tourist would like to visit in our University...

P/s: despite that, I actually never been to ODEC beach in my own University yet~ xp
Ya... My university have our own beach located within the University...

May be next time I will find sometime to pay the beach a visit~

Then we went to have Dim Sum as our brunch.

Ya.. It's the Dim Sum restaurant that I blog before..

New Wong Kok Restaurant. 

http://jessie-kan.blogspot.com/2012/01/final-ended.html

Wei Ping started to grumble that we haven't brought her to eat Dim Sum yet..

So, we are here~

The abalone Dim sum that I miss it during my last visit.

And can't miss the Lao Sa Pao too!! still super Love it!!

This is the Ha Gao ,Prawn Dim sum that I had been craving for a long time ago..

I keep looking at the Dim Sum troli to search for it~

For me, if didn't eat Hap Gao means didn't eat Dim Sum!!!

After eat till Stomach almost burst, we proceed to Picom Pc fair In KK.

The complex was full of people and it was so hard to find a parking site..

Really is "People Mountain People Sea" ~ xp

I bought myself a 3in1 Canon Pixma Printer which is the main reason we are out that day..

Just can't bear to go everywhere just to find a printer to print out my assignment anymore.

Besides that,  I also bought a G-shark speaker~ 

It was so cheap that it was only RM19!!!

Wei Ping also bought one too with different colour.

Then in the night, we went to Feista Cahaya held in Dewan Chanselor.

It is actually a program carried out to introduce the Indian Culture to UMS students and also the public..

It is actually all about dancing...

The program for the whole night is just dancing.. Dancing... DANCING...

Of course they are the dance of different ethnic of India...

I quite amaze with the stamina of those dancers as they dance from the beginning to the end..

And trust me.. Indian Dance is so TIRING...

Keep Jumping here and there and Shaking all the way..

But some how, we don't really understand the story line of their dance as they are mostly Indian Traditional folks and goddess story that I don't really know bout it..

Sorry for Losing my Attention!!! >.<

The stage..

This is what we do while losing our attention.. Camwhore!!

Epic fail group camwhore~

Kelly and Lao da seems like ghost~

~3 girls taking photo with the decorations~

Happy to spent time with my bestiest~ <3

This is how I spent my Saturday~

 Kind of last gathering before the coming semester break..

Very sad that I can't be home for this coming holiday because I have Field trip during the holiday..

I have to enter the forest for 1 week without any reception and Internet!!!!

Hope that I can survive through this..

Wish me LUCK~

Interesting Facts of Insects: ANTS.. Male? Female?

As a Conservation Biology student, I often encountered interesting facts bout animal , insects and plant in my course that really amazed me~

Things that you will never thought of it although they are always been there around you~

So, I decided to share my knowledge to you all~

Today I will talk about ANTS~

"Ants? What so special bout it?" you may ask this question..

But I can tell you that there are much that you actually do not know..

The question is:

Do you know that those worker ants ( those that go out searching for food) are male or female?

.

.

.

:

.

.

.

.

The answer is female ants!!!!

Then you wonder where does all the male ants go?

Actually male ants will just stay in the nest and wait for the right time to mate.

The female ants will provide food for them...

Weird right? 

In Chinese, they are said to be "eat soft rice" (吃软饭)

which means guys that rely on girls for living..

Xp

Then sometimes you see ants that have wings flying around the light after rain right?

And they will die on the floor within a week..

That's actually the male ants..

Only the male ants and Queen ants will poses wings to fly..

The male ants with wings

When it is the time, those workers ants will open a passage for the male ants to fly out from the nest and mate with the queens from different colonies.

After mated, the male ants will die as their duty have completed
while the queens will search for some where strategic to build their nest.
P/s: In one nest may have only one queen or few queens.

The Queen

Only queens are fertile to reproduce, other female ants/worker ants do not reproduce.

Queens only work as " reproduce machine" while
Worker ants search for food, look after for young and defend their nest.
P/s: There are actually more than 20,000 or more species of ants!!!

Interesting right?
Stay tune for more Interesting facts bout animals, insects and plants in my blog~

The rises of The Maize

Well...

Once again a boring sunday...

Try to repair printers left over by seniors at home..

All my fingers are stained with INK...

Colourful hand...

Conclusion:

There are no Free lunch in Life..

They are all spoiled printers...

=.=

Do reports and watched Rango then..

Feel unlively on Sunday...

Then I have a peek on the Maize of the Physiology Lab that being brought home for result recording.

Opps~~

They have grown~ <3

The shoot even push against the petri dish cover~

Wao~

Life Just Beautiful~

Feel lively again~ <3
Oh ya~ My blog is now on Face book page~
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jessies-Blue-Sky/394520563899996
Do like me on Facebook~ ^^

Picture Of The Day: 24.3.12

A beautiful morning with great sunlight shining on the trees.

I just can't resist and stop by just to admire the beauty of it.

Taking picture of my surrounding is one of my favourite things to do.

I just wish to take down every beautiful moment of my life.

Flower at the road side reminds me of my childhood where I used to plant this at my house.

Although it is just some "normal" small things around us that always being ignored 

but I just love to snap them down. 

May be that is just the way I look at things~

Admiring the beauty surrounding us~

Insect Phobialogy: The dissecting of grasshopper!

This semester I'm taking Entomology as one of my main course.

It's a NIGHTMARE...

I'm seriously phobia with insects...

Especially big and flying insects...

So, for the first lab of Entomology,

we are required to observed and drew the specimens.

Seriously, this was my first time to look at an insects that "close".

I'm super scare of Bee...

Luckily, they are dead specimens..

If  suddenly they become like " The Night In The Museum",

I sure scare DIE DIE lo...

But the hardest part is drawing...

We need to draw the insects...

Scientific drawing with scale...

Damn.. I hate DRAWING..

Make me STRESS!!!

The second lab was a disaster too.

We are required to catch 5 life insects each person for dissecting....

Catch INSECTS!!!! OH NO!!!!

This is my course mate's Giant Stick Insects.

Luckily with the help of my course mates,

I have my specimens at last.. 

First, we need to make it DEAD.

We place the specimen into a jar covered with tissue dropped with few drops of etylacetate. 

P/s: It's quite hard to place them into the jar actually.

They keep tried to escape.

Then, we wait till it dead.

P/s: So cruel watching them slowing weaken and dead..

Then, we placed the specimens on the dissecting board and pinned it to fix its position.

And, We start dissecting it.. 

However, my specimen was too small so we take quite some time to dissect it.

P/s: Poor Grasshopper as it didn't die completely when we dissected it..

It's antennae is still moving!!!!

Amitofo...

Stereoscope is needed to observed our specimen.

P/s: Really Too small!!!

Here  this is the larger version of the dissected specimens.

We can see the heart and its muscle clearly.

The black colour thing in the middle is the heart.

Above it is the lung and orange colour thing beside it is the wing muscle.

P/s: Before this I never thought of what's inside an Insect!!!

And.. we need to draw it... ==

Haiz... It's isn't over yet...

I just know that we have to collect 25 insect specimen for collection 

and we still have another Fisiology lab that we need to learn how to preserved insects..

Oh GOD....

I just hate Bugs...