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ing the boat and us so close to the poisonous snake more than once the boys scrambled to the far side of the boat as the snake approached their heads i was already on the far side of the boat and didn t have to move i just hoped we wouldn t capsize crocodiles or a viper don t know which i d prefer that evening we all ate together i quickly got to know the dutch guys quite well this was their second reunion since graduating from university they have organized a trip every 5 years they fund these vacations by creating a pool of money to which everyone contributes a portion of their monthly salary then when year 5 rolls around they have all the money they need to travel together in a foreign country for a couple weeks amazing huh such an awesomely simple idea after eating we decided to play a game i can t remember the name or even all of the rules but it had to do with putting celebrity names in a bucket and each person would pull a name and try to describe the celebrity to their teammates without using proper nouns the next round we used the same names but you could only use one word to describe the celebrity and for the final round you could only pantomime the added twist was that everything had to be in english for the sake of david and me it was hilarious the 13 dutch were constantly arguing in dutch i is not a proper noun so lots of the guys used it to describe their celebrity only to be quickly admonished by people from the opposite team the game got pretty heated and was made even more exciting when strong man s plastic chair broke under his weight an entire leg snapped in half i think i almost peed my pants the next morning one of the women asked what happened and the only answer she got was oh it was strong man david and the dutch guys left the following day and i spent the afternoon trekking with nelly my guide in the jungle the banks of the kinabatangan are teeming with wildlife monitor lizards macaques proboscis monkeys orangutans pygmy elephants hundreds of birds and snakes the high diversity of rare animals in such a small space is quite spectacular but also very sad palm oil plantations are all over malaysia native forests are cleared and replaced with the economically important palm oil trees the palms take about 2 years to mature and can then be harvested for their fruit from which oil is extracted every month for about 20 years the success of the palm oil industry has resulted in the mass destruction of much of malaysia s natural forests the high diversity of rare animals along the kinabatangan is a direct result of palm oil plantations palm plantations are slowly encroaching upon the kinabatangan destroying these animals habitat and forcing them closer and closer to the river s banks on the third day i started my journey back to kota kinabalu sam drove me from the lodge back to the small roadside cafe where together we waited for the bus to pass the time sam and i practiced his english and he taught me some malay it was an awesome exchange of information i even learned how to construct some simple malay sentences i was also very grateful for his company i wasn t quite sure how i was going to wave down the bus much less know which one to stop sam took care of everything for me he even escorted me to the bus door posted by littlebitsaroundtheworld at 2 45 am no comments wednesday april 30 2008 i love borneo kota kinabalu sabah borneo mar 3 mar 21 borneo was amazing it was absolutely my favorite place i ve visited yet and i am going back volunteering at the borneo marine research institute bmri was absolutely the best decision i have made on this trip despite the fact that i initially dreaded the decision it takes me a few days to adjust to a new place which i tend to forget in the moment after 1 day at bmri had elucidated my volunteer project a proposal describing marine ecotourism and public outreach initiatives that bmri could implement in an effort to help conserve sabah s marine resources and to communicate bmri s research to the public woah that was a mouthful it was surprisingly fun to have a project and a deadline i even enjoyed reading some of the current literature on ecotourism i spent almost every weekday at the institute my typical day although long usually 8am 6pm was filled with reading emailing friends calling family drinking caramel tea chinos hanging out with the aquarium staff moose and musa chatting with bmri staff meeting with organizers of other marine public outreach programs one really cool local ngo focusing on high school students and marine conservation and i also met with the wwf malaysia marine project manager and of course i worked on my proposal the staff and professors were so welcoming and friendly quite a few took the time a lot of time to sit down and explain their research to me as well as discuss current environmental issues in borneo one afternoon two professors took me to lunch then once back at the institute a third joined us and we talked for a couple hours about mangroves shrimp farms coral reefs sea turtles fishing techniques that are illegal but still common and loads more during my stay bmri held a seminar jointly organized with kinki university in japan focusing on sustainability of seafood resources the director of the institute invited me i got to participate in every aspect of the conference i even got my own nametag and bag the first day was dedicated to aquaculture and the second focused more on marine diversity and policy it s sad how quickly this area s marine resources are being depleted and destroyed one big problem here is shrimp farming mangrove forests important nurseries for many economically important fish species are often destroyed to build these farms furthermore farming exchanges a high volume of water with the surrounding natural environment in turn causing nutrient enrichment leading to eutrophication introducing disease and not to mention it is costly to constantly fill and refill tanks one of the phd students here was testing the effectiveness of aquamats a us product that is placed in a shrimp tank and provides substrate for phytoplankton to grow a simple yet highly effective technique the phytoplankton successfully filtered the water and increased water quality as well as greatly reduced the frequency of water exchange with the surrounding ocean there is no governmental support money however for implementing such sustainable measures quite a frustrating problem there is a solution but how do you get everyone to participate everyday that i went to the institute mabel picked me up from my guesthouse and then dropped me off again in the evening she quickly became my closest friend at bmri we spent a lot of time together in the car at work and just hanging out one day after work we stopped at a local restaurant to get tea and a snack and talk about her research the snack ended up being intestines and stomachs i originally thought i was eating chicken and beef i understood when mabel ordered these two things in malay ayam dan daging i just failed to understand the waiter when he said they didn t have anymore of either meat and that they only had perut intestines and stomachs it was actually pretty good i just thought the beef was a little undercooked halfway through mabel told me what i was eating and she thought it was quite hilarious i finished eating and it was ok but not nearly as good as when i thought it was just chicken and beef my last full day in borneo was a public holiday muhammad s birthday mabel invited me to go with she her husband and her little sister to a huge local market of course i went i love markets they are so overwhelming the smells the sounds the crowds thousands of different things to look at and try it was really interesting walking through the seafood section especially after having spent a few weeks at the institute learning about all the problems with illegal fishing techniques over harvesting of marine populations and fishing of endangered species mabel was my translator and we walked from vendor to vendor asking from where they got their fish or shellfish and how much it cost some guys were selling giant clams have you ever seen one they re beautiful tons of different colors because of the photoautotrophic algae living in their mantles they re endangered but that doesn t deter people from eating them there were loads being sold at the market most were still alive also the freshwater fish that they were selling were almost all in bags with a minimal amount of water and again still alive they had live eels and turtles in plastic bags too as a whole the seafood section was quite a sad sight borneo has such a diversity and abundance of marine resources and they have laws to protect them well sort of just no money or manpower to enforce all the laws they make seafood is delicious and to keep it in the markets and on our tables we need to make responsible decisions when choosing and eating seafood we should always ask before we eat from where did the fish shrimp crab etc come and how was it caught ie farmed trawling long line etc the monterey bay aquarium maintains an awesomely informative website about how to sustainably eat seafood in the usa including a useful pocket size guide listing the best and worst seafood choices based on fishing methods current status of populations metal content etc that you can consult whenever and wherever http www mbayaq org cr seafoodwatch asp print one and put it in your wallet posted by littlebitsaroundtheworld at 2 08 am no comments saturday april 26 2008 volunteering continued borneo kota kinabalu sabah borneo mar 3 mar 21 searching for volunteer positions in australia also led to searching for volunteer positions in borneo a quick google search took me to the borneo marine research institute s bmri website and a few minutes later i had emailed the director my idea of volunteering was to help with some research projects and scuba dive for free after emailing back and forth for a couple weeks with the director my idea of a simple volunteer project rapidly developed into a project requiring a proposal and a letter of reference ok so maybe my stay in borneo was going to be a little more work than play i could handle that right first days are always overwhelming i arrived in kota kinabalu on monday morning a few days before arriving i had booked accommodation and arranged airport transportation when i walked out of the airport vincent the owner of the guesthouse was waiting for me a very nice guy but i quickly learned that he was also quite the alcoholic 10 30am and vincent drove me to the guesthouse with an ice cold beer secured between his legs i had promised the marine institute that i would come by after lunch next problem i had no idea where the institute was nor how to get there vincent quickly solved that problem and offered to personally take me to the univerisity of malaysia sabah campus after he had picked up a few more guests from the airport i m sure he continued to drink beers as he made his afternoon pick ups and then just as he promised he took me to the university with a fresh stash of 2 beers i know it was dumb to have ridden with him but it was free and i didn t know where i was going when i arrived at bmri siti the receptionist was waiting for me i thanked vincent and jumped out of the car siti took me to meet with the director despite the fact that i had to write a proposal for my volunteer project i quickly learned that my project had nothing to do with what i wrote actually after meeting with the director i had no clue what i was going to be doing for the next 18 days something about developing marine ecotourism to help conserve sabah s natural heritage after such a fruitful meeting siti escorted me to my new office can you believe that the institute had given me an office a desk a computer and had even printed my full name elizabeth lindsay podowski on the door sweet i had an office to sit in and surf the web all day because i still had no idea what my project was later that afternoon i met dr mabel her office was directly across from mine and she quickly became my main resource and closest friend after talking with her for a little bit i developed a basic understanding of my volunteer project to propose marine ecotourism and public outreach initiatives that would highlight the current research at the institute enough progress for the day siti drove me home that evening enabling me to avoid drunken vincent s services those first couple of days i really questioned whether or not i had made the right choice in committing myself to volunteering for the entire length of my stay in borneo did i really want to sit behind a desk all day when i could be scuba diving climbing mt kinabalu visiting the orangutan rehabilitation center or jungle trekking posted by littlebitsaroundtheworld at 2 46 am no comments picture update my public gallery on picasa now has new zealand australia malaysia and thailand posted click here to check it out also des posted her pictures from when we were together in thailand she documented our trip more thoroughly so check those out too click here posted by littlebitsaroundtheworld at 2 28 am no comments wednesday april 23 2008 hello malaysia pulau sembilan feb 29 mar 2 8 hours after landing in kuala lumpur my dad and i headed north for a 3 day dive trip at the end of february my mom and dad did their open water and advanced certifications respectively in indonesia lucky i know now it was my turn to dive with my dad and get my advanced certification we did 1 1 2 days of diving near pulau sembilan famous for seahorses the first morning we woke up to rain after breakfast and having a spanish woman think that i was my dad s wife we got in the water visibility was poor at best i think i could see maybe a meter in front of me and the sea was quite rough we did 5 dives that day including one night dive i thought i would love the night dive but it wasn t really that great however i don t think it was the night dive that i didn t like but the crappy visibility and the fact that my mask was squeezing my face so hard i thought it might break a few weeks later while diving off the coast of borneo a dutch woman gave me a brilliant and logical tip loosen the straps on my mask wish i could have thought of that on my own the next morning the water was calm and clear and we did two more dives i love diving with my dad i mean really how many people get to go scuba diving with their dad in southeast asia the whole trip was quite amazing even if conditions aren t perfect i love being in the water plus we had an awesome malay cook who also thought i was my dad s wife hmmm seeing a trend here and awesome malaysian food for every meal noodles rice sweet potatoes one of my new favorites mangoes fried eggs soups full of veggies chicken and seafood and so much more on sunday afternoon we drove back to kuala lumpur to meet my mom the next morning i was off early ...