tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24137687465714911872024-03-13T00:55:59.573-07:00chasing monkeys and dreams in the jungleAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03302242455097334019noreply@blogger.comBlogger47125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2413768746571491187.post-82122475184233920312013-08-15T00:10:00.002-07:002013-08-15T03:05:22.644-07:00Koh SamuiWell after a few boring days spent in Bangkok wishing I hadn't gotten so sunburned in Pattaya, I decided it was time to do something else. I bit the bullet and bought a ticket through Air Asia that included a flight, a bus transfer, and finally a ferry to get to Koh Samui. Since the best part of this trip were the sights rather than the experiences, I decided to just post pictures and captions.<br />
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Bye bye Bangkok. Look at those clouds!</div>
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On the bus from the airport to the pier. Southern Thailand is very different from Central Thailand</div>
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Ferry ride to Samui. This looks ominous.</div>
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Saw a very cloudy sunset on the ferry.</div>
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Storm clouds</div>
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First day on the beach, just my luck it was cloudy all day!</div>
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Chicken with Cashew nuts for lunch, they didn't skimp on the nuts. Yum!</div>
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The sun showed its self a few times during the day.</div>
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Swing Bar and Restaurant at my hotel (no it isn't how it sounds, there are swings at the bar instead of stools, that's all!)</div>
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Fire show! I was stupid enough to allow myself to be a volunteer at one point and was hit in the head with a fireball which definitely singed a few hairs...</div>
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Made an Australian friend at the fire show Monday night and he took me sightseeing on the island on his motorbike all day Tuesday. It was a great deal, got a tour and he paid for most of it! ;) This was a little waterfall and statue garden at the top of the mountain.</div>
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Next we visited a depressing tourist attraction, an animal park. This poor gibbon was tethered by her neck :( I was not happy.</div>
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But the garden and views at the animal park were beautiful!</div>
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So cloudy and dreary this day you could barely tell where the water met the sky!</div>
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Next we visited the Namiuang waterfall, which involved some difficult sweat-inducing hiking. Flip flops were a poor shoe choice.</div>
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Dinner at the Swing Bar on my last night on Samui</div>
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Took an early morning walk down to the south end of Lamai beach on my last day.</div>
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Surprised a few crabs who weren't expecting to be bothered by tourists so early in the morning!</div>
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Happy time every day! Haha</div>
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pretty coral rocks</div>
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Of course it was finally beautiful and sunny on the day I had to leave!</div>
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The sun allowed me to get some great pictures on the ferry ride back to the mainland though.</div>
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Couldn't believe how blue the water was!</div>
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So, after repeating the events from Sunday in reverse order I finally arrived back in Bangkok for my last night alone. My family arrives tonight for our vacation and I am so happy, but also sad because it means my time in Thailand is coming to an end. We still have two weeks to explore Thailand and I am so excited to be able to share with them everything I've learned here. I suppose the end of this adventure will just be the beginning of the next one.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03302242455097334019noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2413768746571491187.post-50800222805268068222013-08-09T04:29:00.001-07:002013-08-09T04:29:05.315-07:00PattayaChollada picked me up in the morning from the awful Rainforest Guesthouse and we headed to Chatuchak to do some shopping while her sister was still at work. I didn't feel like buying anything but had fun browsing. Chollada and I had lunch and coconut ice cream for dessert. The coconut ice cream is comes with various toppings of your choice (jellies and sticky rice) and is served in a coconut shell, with a cup of coconut water to wash it down. At about 4:30 we had finished our shopping and Ink was out of work, so the three of us were on our way to Pattaya. This is a beach town about an hour and a half southeast of Bangkok. It is in the Chonburi providence which is an industrial area, and while we drove we passed a billboard in English calling it "The Detroit of the East" so I guess I was on my way home!<br />
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After settling into our hotel we headed out for some seafood for dinner and then afterward we went to a famous ladyboy cabaret show at Alcazar. The show was great and the ladyboys were beautiful! Mostly. I got my picture taken with not one, but three of them after the show, which unfortunately meant I had to tip them all. It was pretty late after the show to we went back to our room and went to sleep. Sunday morning we got up and went to a floating market for breakfast. Luckily I was with Chollada and Ink because apparently farangs have to pay to get in here, but Thais can bring two guests in free. We walked around the market browsing for a while. I had a deep fried ice cream and we fed baby goats and koi from bottles, which was weird. Next we went to an "illusion art museum" which was basically just a bunch of photo opportunities. This is great for Asian tourists who LOVE taking pictures of themselves, but not the most thrilling thing for me. So mostly I just enjoyed people watching. Next we went had had a snack and a nice little cafe called La Baguette. Then we went to the beach finally and sat down in chairs under umbrellas and had foot/legs massages and pedicures while we dozed off, which was pretty spectacular. You seriously cannot visit Thailand without getting at least one massage. They are so cheap, you would be crazy not to take advantage. After another seafood dinner Chollada and Ink left me and I relaxed in my room the rest of the night.<br />
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Monday was a pretty laid back day. I spent the morning by the pool getting fried despite my efforts to "just get a little tan." Now I know, SPF 50 not 30 no matter what. I am too pale for tropical sun. So I spent the afternoon at the beach <u>under and umbrella</u> reading and relaxing. Considering I was red as a lobster I decided to head back to Bangkok Tuesday and not stay a fourth night in Pattaya. It was a nice trip, though Pattaya is more of a city for partiers and creepy dudes trying to find a Thai lady than outdoorsy nature chicks like me.<br />
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A reminder for those who just can't get enough of the "squat and piss" toilets usually found in Thai public restrooms</div>
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Alcazar</div>
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botched boob job...they were very uneven</div>
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all the ladies after the show</div>
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fried ice cream</div>
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bottle feeding koi...?</div>
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illusion art museum</div>
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My favorite one, it was 3D but you couldn't tell until you got close. It made it look like the buildings were moving.</div>
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lets pretend we are at a real waterfall and take a picture!</div>
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banana chocolate crepe</div>
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more seafood! </div>
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this was a huge feast for 3 people</div>
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hotel pool</div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03302242455097334019noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2413768746571491187.post-71239287430551124152013-08-06T09:12:00.003-07:002013-08-06T09:12:35.101-07:00KanchanaburiI woke up early Thursday morning and caught city bus #511 to the southern bus terminal "Sai Tai Mai." It was my first experience on a city bus, and despite the awful Bangkok traffic, it is a good deal if you aren't in a hurry. The bus was supposed to go all the way to the bus station, but of course nothing goes as planned and it stopped before the station. The woman who took the bus fare had gotten off already so I asked the driver where the bus station was, he just pointed to the bus stop. So I got off and started looking around. A minute later the woman came and grabbed my wrist and dragged me back to the bus stop, forced a ten baht coin into my hand and pushed me onto another bus. I am lucky that Thai people are so helpful, I think I would have a much harder time here if it weren't the case. The second bus took me right to the bus station where I bought my ticket and started on my way to Kanchanaburi.<br />
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Kanchanaburi is a city in the west of Thailand that is known for some WWII historical sites, most notably the "death railway" as well as some waterfalls. I arrived in the town at about 10:45 and got a ride via bike taxi to my hotel. Finding a ride to my hotel, the Tara Bed and Breakfast, was a bit difficult at first due to communication issues. I pronounced this hotel "tare-uh bed and breakfast," the Thai apparently just say "talabed." So luckily one taxi-bike driver had a brochure from the hotel to confirm where I wanted to go. I settled into my room and then headed back down to the lobby to schedule a tour. I scheduled a full day tour for Friday and headed out for a solo adventure for that afternoon. I took a bus about an hour and a half to the Sai Yok Noi waterfall. This waterfall was very beautiful. The rocks were very smooth, but not slippery at all, which makes this an ideal place to swim and play around in the waterfall (which is allowed). There wasn't much else to see around here, the waterfall was just off the side of the highway, so after about a half hour or so I caught the bus back to town and relaxed for the rest of the evening.<br />
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I woke up early Friday morning for my tour, which started at 8am. My group included an Israeli family and an Italian couple. We drove to Erawan National Park first to see the Erawan waterfall. This waterfall is actually a series of seven different falls stretching across 2 kilometers. The falls are absolutely beautiful because they empty into bright blue pools of water. I haven't confirmed this but I think there must be some sort of mineral deposit on the rocks causing the blue color. Again the rocks were all very smooth here and the water just glides over them, it is really beautiful. Swimming is also allowed here, and believe me after walking all the way to the top, you need a swim to wash the sweat off! We met back at the parking lot of the park to have lunch, and I sat with the Italian couple and taught them how to say "I don't understand" (mai kow jai) and "I don't know" (mai lou) and told them what other Thai foods they should try, besides Pad Thai which was apparently all they'd been eating. After lunch we drove to an elephant camp, and although I don't exactly approve of captive elephants being used for entertainment/tourism, I have to admit it was awesome being able to ride an elephant. At first I was sitting on the seat on the elephants back and the mahout was on her head, then he took my camera and jumped off. He took a couple of pictures and then told me to move down and sit on her neck. So I guess you could say I rode an elephant bareback. It is hard to balance on such a big animal and it was a little scary. It is so amazing how huge they are, the ridge of the top of her ear was about as big as my forearm. After the elephant ride we took a brief ride down the River Kwai on a bamboo raft and then headed to the death railway. We took a little ride on the death railway train and ended our day at the bridge over the River Kwai. This railroad and railway bride were built during WWII by allied POWs and Asian laborers. The Japanese were trying to expand west across Asia and wanted to build the railway to Burma. Apparently over 100,000 workers died during its construction, mostly due to malaria.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
tier 1</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfV6MUsqOH2IQkDLHelkS8CE3Iicuf8UkgOeNDio7cuSQukxksUwZMzPSXnaqEZbKYeziV_1t0i6VuB0RkY3-xuTDW5qaxDQFU11zduvOcolCH3WzljiZLWai1da_AKBLLQUt1pgl-9cSz/s1600/P1020830.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfV6MUsqOH2IQkDLHelkS8CE3Iicuf8UkgOeNDio7cuSQukxksUwZMzPSXnaqEZbKYeziV_1t0i6VuB0RkY3-xuTDW5qaxDQFU11zduvOcolCH3WzljiZLWai1da_AKBLLQUt1pgl-9cSz/s400/P1020830.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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A common bridle snake struggling in the river. Lucky spot! :) (harmless colubrid)</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
tier 2</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
tier 3</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
tier 4</div>
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tier 5?</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
tier 6</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
tier 7</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
grabbing a snack</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
elephants bathing</div>
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the River Kwai</div>
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Bridge over the River Kwai</div>
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so many bananas!!</div>
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hotel kitty :)</div>
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When we finally got back to the hotel I ran to 7-Eleven to grab a quick dinner and then got on the minibus my tour guide had helped me arrange, which would take me to a more convenient location in Bangkok than the regular bus. A Dutch woman who was headed to the Sai Tai Mai terminal in Bangkok needed to get there by 9pm to catch the last bus to Koh Chang, so our driver went VERY fast. When we got back to Bangkok we drove through the tourist area near the river and Khao San road. I haven't really spent much time in this area so it was really cool to see it at night. All the trees were lit up with white lights and it was really beautiful. I was dropped off at a BTS station and took the Skytrain to my usual hotel. Unfortunately the day before when I'd tried to book the room for Friday night there hotel was all booked up, so I had to find a new one nearby. I had to stop at the first hotel though to get the rest of my luggage. I then lugged my huge bag and two backpacks up the stairs to the Skyrain and took it three stops to the Rainforest Guesthouse. I will not be staying here again. I got there at about 10pm, and the man at the front was sort of mad because apparently I thought have gotten there by 9:00. How was I to know that? Anyway he carried my bag up the three stories to my room at least. When we got into my room it smelled like poop, literally. the man definitely noticed it but did nothing about it and I wasn't in the mood to do anything but shower and sleep. I showered and found that the toilet leaked profusely when flushed, which is probably why it smelled like poop. Then I tried to turn on the TV, and I noticed something that definitely looked like a spark inside. I probably left it on a little too long to see what would happen and my room ended up smelling like burned plastic rather than poop. If you thought it couldn't get worse, you would be wrong. At 3:00am I was jolted awake by someone vigorously trying the handle of my door. I have no idea what that was about but it scared me enough for me to get my machete and leave it on my bedside table for the rest of the night. So, basically, avoid the Rainforest Guesthouse at all costs, the free breakfast was not worth the trouble.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03302242455097334019noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2413768746571491187.post-21510658789251414982013-07-29T08:53:00.000-07:002013-07-30T08:25:23.099-07:00last few days with JulieAfter some last minute packing Julie drove me to the entrance of the park at 6am. I waited for the shuttle bus into Pak Chong, and when it arrived a nice guy who was also waiting lifted my bag up into the back of the bus. I felt bad because the bag was VERY heavy, and he was a small guy. Thai people are always willing to help, especially women and especially when it involved heavy lifting. Although sometimes it is insulting and frustrating when people are convinced they have to help you do something you are perfectly capable of, I just have to remind myself they are only trying to be helpful. When we arrived in downtown Pak Chong the nice guy helped me again with my back and I headed across the street to the bus station. The bus drive to Bangkok was uneventful. The most glorious part of the day was when I directed my cab driver to my hotel in Thai! It wasn't as awesome as it sounds. I basically just said "Sukhumvit soi hah sip" then when he asked "tahng loo-ang?" I unfortunately didn't understand and he repeated in English "expressway?" and I said "chai" and then later when we got to the toll-both for the expressway I asked "Tow rai? (how much?)" and he said "see sip hah." When we go to the intersection of the hotel I said "sai tee nee (left here)" and then said "tee nee" once we where out front! Woohoo!<br />
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So, feeling confident I went down the street to a fried banana cart I knew would be there and then headed to the Bo Bae market. I took the BTS and then a motorbike taxi. Unfortunately the market was a bust. I didn;t find any of the kind of thing I was looking for. It is a wholesale market and a lor of the stuff was more geared toward Thai customers I think. So I left frustrated, tired, and starving and went to Tesco Lotus' cafeteria for lunch. After lunch I just hung out in my hotel room enjoying AC and television. Julie and I were both exhausted from very little sleep the night before, so we went to bed early.<br />
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I woke up early Sunday and ran on the noisy hotel treadmill until I thought it might break. I got an omlette and rice and some banana muffins from Tesco for breakfast. After I ate Julie and I headed out for some shopping at MBK. I didn't buy much, but I did get myself a new dress. I am not good at shopping with people, so I think I'll go back alone later on. We also went to the huge store in Siam Paragon mall that sells EVERYTHING. You can buy tons of foreign foods and things from home there, as well as all the usual Thai stuff. We went back to the hotel and then went out at about 4:30 to Asiatique. Julie had explained it as sort of a night market, so I was surprised when we ended up at Asiatique, which is where we saw the drag show on my first night in Bangkok. After walking around for a long time looking at overpriced stuff we stopped at an Irish Pub and listened to live Irish music. I had a Guinness beer and it was sooooo tasty. Afterward we decided to go to a different night market that was near the BTS and was on a street with a bunch of sleazy night clubs. This was an interesting experience. Julie accidentally mixed up the BTS station and we ended up having to walk quite a ways, so my feet were aching. We walked up and down the street and were offered to see a "ping pong show" just about every 30 seconds. These are awful shows at these strip clubs which involve poor women doing degrading things. We insisted we weren't interested, though a few times when Julie said we don't want to look at women they cheerfully said "We have men too!!" It is a very different side of Bangkok. Julie also told me that when she got a massage at the hotel the first night the women who work there asked her if she had a boyfriend, and when she answered no they asked if she wanted them to arrange a Thai or Japanese man for her for the night. So, even if you aren't in Bangkok for that kind of thing, you can still find signs of the sex tourism industry.<br />
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Today I was tired from a long day of walking yesterday, so I slept in until about 9:30. I felt a little feverish all morning and mostly stayed in my hotel room. It was a pretty dull day, but Julie and I had dinner from the market together and beers at the hotel. It was a nice way to spend our last night. Our goodbye was a little awkward. We didn't become that close during the past few months, but we were still each other's only company the majority of the time, and when you see someone every day, it is weird to think you may never see them again. Anyway, I am happy for the opportunity she gave me and for her patience with me in the forest.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03302242455097334019noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2413768746571491187.post-58776109051927251442013-07-27T06:22:00.001-07:002013-07-27T06:22:50.127-07:00A perfect Khao Yai send-offFriday was a day full of mixed emotions. It was sad that it was our last day in the park, but we had a lot of fun and I think we could not possibly have ended our time at Khao Yai on a better note. <div>
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I slept in until about 8:30 (of course I woke up at 5:30 because of my internal clock, and heard the gibbons singing their hearts out). After waking I was luck enough to Skype with my parents for a while while packing up a bit. My dad always knows how to make me laugh, so the day had already started on a good note. At about 11am we left to have lunch at Heo Narok, we thought it would just be a lunch with the rangers of the search and rescue unit, but there were tons of rangers from all over the park there and a HUGE picnic set up. We were sat at the head table with a lot of park officials and I felt a little bit like royalty while the women rushed around handing out plates of rice and bringing plate after plate, bowl after bowl, of different foods. I had a bunch of different things. I also experiences some new, and very weird (no surprise here) Thai desserts. Julie and I both noticed a plastic carton containing some weird grey and white gooey gel-like disks and looked at one another nervously. We tried it though and of course it was something coconut flavored. If you ever have to guess what a Thai dessert is going to be like, you can make a pretty safe bet that it will either be coconut flavored or made of the weird yellow bean, and you can almost guarantee that it will be gooey or gel-like in consistency. Then Julie and I shared a bowl of a chilled dessert "soup" which had a very sweet coconut "broth" and little green jellies (tapioca maybe/probably?) shaped like tiny green beans. It was also weird. The best dessert I tried was the yellow cupcakes with shaved coconut on top. these too are not the consistency of regular cupcakes, but somehow also have a weird gooey quality to them. If you cannot tell I don't have a big appreciation for Thai desserts, which is fine because Thai people don't seem to have an appreciation for real, good quality chocolate. A cultural difference I am willing to accept (though it makes finding good chocolate difficult). We also had some fruit for dessert, and I am happy to say, Thailand has officially made me like bananas again, which I haven't enjoyed since I was very little, so yay! </div>
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After many thank yous we turned down whiskey and left the picnic site to go see the waterfall. The walk is short, less than a kilometer, but it ends with quite a few incredibly steep and terrifying steps. It started raining during the walk, and Julie and I nearly slipped (despite the paved trail) a few times, making the descent even more frightening. Once we got there we realized picture taking would be problematic even if it hadn't been raining. the huge waterfall sent big clouds of mist at us and between that and the rain we were soaked within a minute. So, I carefully snapped a few photos doing my best to keep my camera dry, and we ran for cover just as the rain turned into an all out downpour. We tried to wait it out, but eventually gave up and a good thing too because the rain just got harder and harder on our walk back so that we were practically running out of the forest by the end. We stopped back at the pavilion to talk to the remaining rangers, who by now were pretty drunk. One of them talked our ear off saying things like: "we know you," "you, run" to me, "you smoke and talk on phone" to Julie (haha a great description of what they see of our free time I suppose), "this, my family...you too, my family," ""we love you." Of course this was all drunken rambling, but it was a little bit heartwarming all the same. </div>
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On the way home we saw an elephant! We have been so lucky this last month! Once we got back home I realized that in my carelessness I had gotten 3 leech bites on our little hike to the waterfall. I forgot about bug spray, and didn't tuck my shirt in, things I figured were unnecessary for a short hike on a paved trail. WRONG. I got a gnarly one in the belly button, one on my upper chest, and one on the neck (unconfirmed, but it feels like a leech bite). What better way for Khao Yai to say goodbye? After showering and continuing to pack we went to Jambee's house for dinner. On the way over we saw a monitor lizard, so I finally got a picture of one out of the water. Jambee prepared Moo Kata (the BBQ thing I had at a restaurant last time). We drank Leo beers and enjoyed a LOT of food. You should have seen the bowl of greens she had prepared. I learned many new Thai words, too bad I'm leaving soon, I'm just starting to pick things up. One the drive home we spotted a civet, and I got a halfway decent photo of it. </div>
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So, it was an incredible day full of eating and wildlife/nature sightings. I cannot think of a better way to have spent my last day in the park.<br /></div>
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Heo Narok</div>
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scary stairs!!</div>
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elephant!!</div>
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monitor lizard!</div>
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Moo Kata</div>
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Jambee</div>
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the civet!</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03302242455097334019noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2413768746571491187.post-30313779041953676222013-07-25T06:27:00.001-07:002013-07-25T06:27:29.230-07:00packing againWell, sadly my time in Khao Yai is almost up. We are leaving Saturday morning and heading to Bangkok. Even more depressing is that this week could not have gone worse. We spent Tuesday, Wednesday and today cooped up inside because of the stupid rain! So I didn't even get to enjoy my last few days with the gibbons. My last day with the gibbons was Monday and that was the awful day with E. Not a good way to end things. I guess this means I definitely need to find gibbons when my family is here visiting in a few weeks.<br />
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Tomorrow will be our last full day in the park and besides packing we do have some fun plans. We will be going to one of the waterfalls for lunch with some of the people form the search and rescue unit. I am not sure which waterfall. I was listening to the conversation between Julie and the head of the S&R unit, which was half in Thai and half in English so it was hard to follow, but I think I heard him say "Narok" which is the name of the big waterfall that I haven't seen yet. I will be happy if that is the case. Although with all this rain it would still be cool to go back to Heo Suwat and see how much bigger it has gotten.<br />
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Right now I am sort of dreading packing everything into my suitcase. I haven;t acquired that much more stuff than I came with, but it still seems like a lot to fit into one bag and a backpack (or two). I hope I have extra space because I think I'll be going on a much needed mini clothes-shopping spree once I get to Bangkok. I am really sick of wearing the same 3 outfits day after day. Hopefully I manage to keep myself entertained in the two and a half weeks I have before my family comes for our vacation. I have plans to visit Kanchanaburi, near the border of Burma, which has some WWII historical sites and some nice waterfalls. I also plan on visiting Koh Samet, a small island on the eastern side of the Gulf of Thailand. It is apparently one of the drier places in Thailand, so I am hoping to have some sunshine at the beach and perhaps finally get a bit of a tan going before the end of the summer. In between I will be hanging out in Bangkok trying to readjust to life outside the jungle, working on grad school and GRE stuff, and eating plenty of fried bananas.<br />
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I get to see these goofballs in exactly three weeks!!! :D</div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03302242455097334019noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2413768746571491187.post-84804083675599776222013-07-22T05:59:00.001-07:002013-07-22T05:59:28.598-07:00ouch.If all the gibbon groups were like E, I would be VERY happy to be almost done here. It had been a while since we had followed E, and I had almost forgotten that I HATE (following) THEM. Today I was reminded of this fact. I was reminded in a muddy, sweaty, bloody fury of the agony that is involved in following E. Now, I can't fully blame the misery that is following E on the gibbons. It is their territory that contributes to half of the misery. It is full of steep ridges and valleys and lots of crumbly slippery mud (especially after a night of rain, like today). The trees are high, and there are a lot of vines and stabby palm plants (which I discovered are actually called rattan palms, but I don't think this name does them justice). The other problem is Elane. She is an absolute <u> </u> ( fill in the blank, hint: starts with a B ends with an ITCH). Noi, the male, is perfectly habituated, but his mate, Elane, joined the group as an adult from somewhere outside the range of habituated gibbons. So she was never habituated, and her aversion to people has not lessened, probably because no sane person wants to run around E territory for hours trying to gain her trust. So, when she sees you she usually rushes away while you end up tangled in the spikes of a rattan while trying desperately to keep up.<br />
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Anyway, we hadn't even been planning on following E today. We were going to head back to M, and hope they had finished their two-day standoff with N, to do the leopard experiment. As we were leaving however, a ranger walked up to us, apparently ready to aid us with a playback. Yun had convinced someone else to help us for once, but hadn't notified Julie. So, not wanting to turn him away and set a bad precedent, since it is so stinking hard to get a ranger in the first place, we ran and got the playback equipment and headed off to E. This was a last minute choice on Julie's part, which had seemed reasonable at the time. After setting up the loudspeaker we set off in the direction of a male solo coming from the border of T and E. We arrived to find neither T or E (whose males are both black) but instead a white male singing his lungs out. We stayed a while thinking E might come, and sure enough Noi soon arrived to meet the white male. We don't know who the male was, a young white male had been seen with E on occasion but it was thought to be Naam, the juvenile of N (neighboring group) and nephew of Noi. We didn't think that this male was Naam though, so it is a mystery. When Noi finally lost interest in the white male, he rushed back to Elane. While trying to keep up I fell/slid on my butt at least three times. The worst of which involved landing directly on a fallen spiney palm frond and having one of the thorns driven deep into the heel of the hand I used to catch myself. I pulled it out and it hasn't stopped throbbing since. I am almost certain it is going to get infected because I was also covered in mud after this particular fall, and the wound is very deep but small. Once we caught up with the group, we thought we had gotten lucky because Elane clearly saw us, but didn't rush away. She apparently taught her fearful ways to her infant though because he/she took one look at us and swung away squealing. Of course mom and dad followed, and eventually we lost them all completely. So after trying to find them again for over an hour, we gave up and huffed and puffed our way out of their cursed territory. Thankfully, we won't be going back there again while I am here.<br />
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Also thankfully, all the gibbons groups are NOT like E. Many of them have easy territories and all of them (that we study) are well habituated. This is why I am not happy to be almost done here. I am very sad to be leaving behind silly William who loves to sing like he is big and bad but is actually a huge coward when it comes to real confrontation (sounds like some people right?). I'll miss the precious little M infant with its fluffy gray butt. I'll miss Baak, the worlds worst singer, who considers quantity more important than quality when it comes to great calls. I could go on. In a nutshell, I will miss most of the gibbons, and it is so sad to think we only have three days left in the forest (and that is if it doesn't rain!).<br />
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So, here are some pictures of two groups of gibbons I DO like. These were taken during the longest intergroup meeting I've ever witnessed. For a full twenty-four hours (at least) M and N sat at the overlap of their territories and gently antagonized one another. Overall though it was fairly peaceful, a little bit of chasing by the males and some singing, but mostly just sitting around near each other in some sort of battle of wills over who would give up and leave first.<br />
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M group: Rung, Chikyu and infant</div>
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Malai (white) and mom Rung</div>
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Malai and Rung</div>
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The entire N group was in the same tree! (Claude isn't in the photo because he was further)</div>
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L to R: Hima and black infant, Nan (young juvenile), Nithat (black) and Naam (older juvenile)</div>
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Hima and infant</div>
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one with both their faces for once!</div>
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Hima yawning</div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03302242455097334019noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2413768746571491187.post-7184068452992685352013-07-18T20:56:00.000-07:002013-07-18T21:02:54.388-07:00A 35-hour birthday<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Well, I spent my third birthday in a row abroad. July 17th, 2011 was spent in Nice, Cannes and Saint-Paul <a href="http://melaniefromfarfaraway.blogspot.com/2011/07/sunday-stressful-birthday-to-me.html" target="_blank">in France</a> (though it was more adequately celebrated with an apricot tarte and champagne the next day back "home" in <a href="http://melaniefromfarfaraway.blogspot.com/2011/07/monday-birthday-take-two.html" target="_blank">Grenoble</a>). July 17th, 2012 was spent on a bus from San Jose to La Suerte biological field station in Costa Rica and later in the forest at the station. That day I saw my first wild capuchin monkey; the alpha male, and swam in the river la suerte. Again, my professor arranged to have a celebration for me the next day, because that day had been a little busy. So on the 18th we enjoyed some yummy cake made by Rosie, and my professor Chris bought me an Imperial (beer of Costa Rica), my first drink as a 21-year-old.</div>
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Although I am incredibly lucky to have spent my birthdays in so many amazing places, it is always a little bit bittersweet to realize all the people I really want to spend time with are thousands of miles away. While being away from friends and family is a definite drawback of a birthday abroad, this year I experienced an excellent advantage. That is, a 35-hour birthday. So, if you plan to be away for your birthday, I say do it as far as possible from your home country. Korea or Japan would have been even better (37 hours). I was able to celebrate my birthday from the start of the 17th in Thailand to the end of the 17th in Michigan. In fact, some people not quite sure about the time difference sent me birthday wishes even earlier, and inevitably there were a few late ones (including my own awful sister LAURA! hehe), so my birthday was even extended beyond the 35-hour window.</div>
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My birthday started a little sad. Going to bed Tuesday night I was bummed about being away and only having Julie to celebrate with. I was also dumb and had not told Julie in advance that my birthday was coming up, because I felt weirdly self-involved bringing it up. I woke up at 5:30 (late oops) feeling a little bit better. I found Julie on the porch and saw it was raining. We complained about the rain and then I told her today was my birthday, and she of course wished me a happy birthday. We sat a while to see if the rain would let up, it didn't really, and no gibbons were singing. I also think Julie thought it would be nice to take the day off for my birthday so that I could Skype people and we could go to town, so that it what we did. I went back to my room and was lucky enough to catch my sister and my mom on Skype before they left for their swimming class. I went back to bed briefly and then at about 9:30 we left for Pak Chong. We went on our last grocery trip to Tesco Lotus and I bought some much needed food. We headed back to the park, and a short while after unpacking our groceries Julie surprised me with a cake and 22 candles that she had picked up at the store. I blew out the candles and removed them quickly because wax was dripping everywhere and we decided to eat the cake later on. </div>
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In the evening we heard there was an elephant at the visitor center so we went to check it out. Sure enough a lone bull was wandering around eating whatever he pleased right next to the visitor center and park restaurants. There have been a TON of tourists in the park this week for some reason, so there we a lot of people taking pictures. Eventually we wandered down the road and into the forest to eat in peace. When we returned home I made green curry and coconut soup for dinner and then Julie and I cut my cake. We shared it with the head of the search and rescue center and the lady ranger who lives here with us. The head of the search and rescue center gave me a little hornbill magnet as a gift. </div>
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In the morning Julie and I went to W and FINALLY successfully recorded a leopard stimulus from them. Just in time too, because when they finished their song a ton of tourists showed up with their guides to see them. This is the problem with making the gibbons sing, you attract tourists. It is funny though when we are playing gibbon songs from the loudspeaker for a playback and tourists go toward it expecting to find actual gibbons. </div>
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Anyway, this experiment was really exciting because the gibbons sang for about a half hour when they saw the leopard. Then they started to move away, but the female returned and started to sing again, causing the male to join her. Then, when they were finished and she had finally moved high enough into the tree not to see us remove the leopard, we took it away. This was, to me, the most interesting part of the whole thing. When she noticed it was gone, she began to sing once more, and the male came closer and they both nervously scanned the ground and the canopy. I think this, more than anything, shows their level of intelligence. They have the capacity to understand that the threat could still be there even if they can no longer see it. This at the very least puts them ahead of human babies who think that once something is out of sight it is actually gone. I also think that their reaction is something most people can relate to. I don't know how many times I've seen a creepy bug or spider in my room and become even more afraid once it was out of sight. The element of surprise, the danger of not knowing where or when the threat might appear again, is a frightening thing. So, even if the gibbons can be convinced that a backpack covered in a fake leopard fur is a real leopard, they aren't entirely unintelligent.</div>
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So, that pretty much sums up my birthday. It was a great day. Although I have promised myself that I will be in the USA for my 23rd, who knows, I will probably end up breaking that promise to spend my birthday on yet another continent.</div>
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my cake! A bit smooshed from the drive back</div>
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They have such tiny eyes!</div>
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BAT!</div>
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Rung: female of M group</div>
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Malai hanging (juvenile of M) and the black infant on the left</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03302242455097334019noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2413768746571491187.post-73316218411981685032013-07-15T06:09:00.000-07:002013-07-15T07:09:17.857-07:00Binturong sighting!Today was a great day in the forest. Though it started off slow, M made themselves difficult to find so we trekked all over one half of their territory only to find them on the other side of the river. I didn't really mind this so much, because the M territory is great. The forest is very open and clear, so you aren't hacking your way through, it reminds me a little bit of a Michigan forest. It also isn't too hilly, but it is very muddy in some places, mostly where elephants have come through and stirred things up leaving big footprints that fill with water the day after it rains (such as today). Anyway, eventually we stopped at the river at a place where M could cross and scanned around for them. We waited a while in case they sang or came to cross. No one was singing this morning, and neither did M, but while we waited I spotted a tiny lizard in the water (we deduced it was a baby Chinese water dragon due to its similarity to the adult one we found <a href="http://junglefunk.blogspot.com/2013/07/heo-suwat-and-other-adventures-this-week.html" target="_blank">before</a>). So we got a few pictures of him and got to see him scamper/swim away from us. After several minutes with no sign of M we moved on to a place downstream where they also like to cross. This time we spotted them. Again, we waited for them to come closer (the river was much too high to cross after last night's rain, even with our over-the-knee rubber sock/boot things). Again, I spotted something! I guess I was on my A-game today. This time it was a terrific find: a binturong! This is a very rare animal to see, so we were incredibly lucky. Julie had been dying to see at least one while here. We watched him from across the river as he trotted along the bank and then carefully ascended a tree and used it to cross the river. After crossing he found a comfy spot on a branch and lay down and stare at us while we snapped photos.<br />
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So that was the highlight of the day, now enjoy some photos!<br />
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My friendly sambar deer neighbor. Just read on Wikipedia that pregnant and lactating females and adult males have the hairless, oozing patch you can see on her neck. It is some sort of gland apparently. There are always flies on it and it makes me feel bad for her.</div>
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What much of M territory looks like</div>
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Baby Chinese water dragon!</div>
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Binturong!</div>
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He was moving too quickly to get good photos at first. I have a great video from Julie, but it is too large to upload.</div>
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peeking at us</div>
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"Oh, hello there!"</div>
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"What are you looking at?"</div>
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Just relaxing.</div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03302242455097334019noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2413768746571491187.post-90242232737690440832013-07-13T19:15:00.003-07:002013-07-15T04:35:16.370-07:00sad news.Well, if you haven't realized it by reading this blog, I will tell you; our research is going painfully slow. We keep running into obstacles; mostly rain and lack of rangers for playbacks, and of course the uncooperative gibbons! If only we could tell them where to go and how to behave so that we could do our experiments in a timely fashion. I can say though, if there is one thing I will take away from this field experience, is that you cannot EVER predict ANYTHING; not the weather, not the gibbons' behavior, and certainly not the ranger's "busy" schedule.<br />
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So, what I am trying to say, is that Julie, after 8 months stuck here (5 without an assistant because of delays in my arrival) with minimal success, is fed up, and understandably so. She decided, considering the rain is just going to become more frequent in August, that it is best to just pack it in, have a serious talk with her advisor about the projects logistics, and to try again next year. This means we will only be at the park until the end of the month! So I only have about two weeks left with the gibbons. This realization hit me hard, especially today while we followed the M group, whom we had not yet done an experiment with and I had only seen for a few minutes once before. I realized this group would probably have become my favorite (W claims that title now, probably because of the many HOURS spent following them). The M group uses a lot of low trees in their territory, and their territory is relatively clear and easy to hike in. So you can see the gibbons easily and don't have to hack through spiny palm plants every few minutes! Not to mention the juveniles are awesome! The older one comes down really low and is very curious. The young one is just now spending all its time off mom, so he/she is very active and playful, but still tiny and cute. Anyway, it is sad to know I won't be able to get to know them much better.<br />
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This also means I will be starting my vacation 2 weeks early. Though I decided I will spend some of this time cooped up in a hotel room with free wifi working on grad school and GRE stuff. This is sort of a bummer because it means I'll have to spend more money that I had hoped. On the bright side I will get to explore Thailand even more, and maybe work on getting a tan finally!<br />
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Here are some photos from this week!<br />
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elephant footprint!</div>
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N female (Hima) with her black infant peeking at us</div>
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part of N group: Nithat (main male) grooms Hima with infant</div>
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A tree growing on a rock!</div>
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hornbill!<br />
After some research we figured out we've seen three types of hornbill in the park. This is the oriental pied hornbill (the one we've seen most often), we saw great hornbills <a href="http://junglefunk.blogspot.com/2013/05/happy.html" target="_blank">this day</a>, and <a href="http://junglefunk.blogspot.com/2013/07/bats-birds-and-elephants.html" target="_blank">this day</a> we saw plain-pouched hornbills.</div>
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a male deer visited my window this time!</div>
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found a porcupine den in the forest!</div>
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there were two of them sleeping in this hole under a tree</div>
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I think I see a different AWESOME kind of fungi every day</div>
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sunset</div>
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W baby following Sari (mom)</div>
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SO TINY!</div>
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W infant again</div>
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Sari and infant both looking surprised.</div>
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I love this infant!</div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03302242455097334019noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2413768746571491187.post-23980843574460377602013-07-08T06:46:00.003-07:002013-07-15T04:41:39.535-07:00Heo Suwat and other adventures this weekWell, I've been a slacker. Literally on my to do list every day this week has been "write in blog" and every day I have failed. I'm going to blame some of it on the exceptionally slow internet we've had the last few days, today has been much better. I also get to blame some of it on more productive activities (which feels better than saying I napped or read instead). This week I was busy preparing an application for another field position that would start in November. I am still waiting for a reply from a professor about an academic reference, but I am ready to turn in the application as soon as she responds! I just hope that I am one of the first to turn in my stuff, because applications are being reviewed on a rolling basis. I have also been busy doing my best to stay on track with my "apply to graduate school" timeline. I told myself emails need to be sent out to professors in July, so that its what I am starting to work on. It is very scary and intimidating to think about making a first contact with someone you idolize and someone whose first impression of you could change your life for the next several years...so <a href="http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1047." target="_blank">this</a> is how I feel about that.<br />
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Anyway, last Wednesday was a good day because we were able to do the duet playback with W. Yay! Unfortunately that is where our luck ran out. The ranger didn't show up Thursday (because Yun is our only reliable ranger and he was busy). I wasn't too mad about this though, because we hadn't had a day off in a week, and it was the 4th of July! So I got my American holiday. We went to Tesco Lotus to celebrate, which meant I got to eat yummy, fresh food for dinner that night. Friday unfortunately we didn't have a ranger again, which I wasn't so pleased about. However, we made the best of it and decided to head out to see one of the park's waterfalls and to look for some pileated gibbons. Pileated gibbons are a different type of gibbon that live in a different area of the park, they have a drastically different duet, and a different coat pattern. They are also sexually dimorphic in coat color, so males are always black and females are always white. Something interesting is that there is a hybrid zone between the pileated and white-handed gibbons ranges, and the hybrid females apparently have a really weird sounding great call. It is also interesting that sometimes hybrid groups have multiple adult females, which never happens in normal groups, so they think it may be because they females do not recognize each other as competitors when their calls are so different from one another. Just some fun facts for you.<br />
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Before going to the waterfall we drove up a scary, pot-hole ridden road to a really high point in the park (>1100 m), and took some pictures from the view. The water fall, Heo Suwat, was pretty awesome in my opinion. Apparently it can be even bigger, later in the rainy season. We took pictures at the top, then I hiked down over 100 steps to the bottom to take some more photos before trudging back up. After that we took a little hike upstream from the falls in search of pileated gibbons or crocodiles. We found neither. We were lucky enough to find a big iguana, an huge monitor lizard, a troop of macaques crossing the river, and a TON of butterflies. So it was a successful day.<br />
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Some sort of weird display in the middle of the forest, that is a rack of clothes on the right, and the huge tree is wrapped in fabric. Probably something religious...</div>
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It was SO difficult to get butterfly pictures. Thank goodness for the "burst" setting that let me take 3 quick shots in a row (although this compromised quality).</div>
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Heo Suwat</div>
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upstream from the waterfall</div>
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Chinese water dragon</div>
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big spider!</div>
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upside down sign</div>
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no crocodile sightings for us :(</div>
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Saturday we tested the barking deer alarm call recording we had on the W group. Unfortunately the recording had a log of background noise, The gibbons just stared in the direction of the speaker like "what the heck?" but didn't sing a predator song in response. there have been a lot of instances of them singing after hearing a barking deer alarm though, so we really want to test this with a playback. We are just going to have to get a better recording. Sunday, since we wouldn't have a ranger anyway, and the barking deer experiment wasn't ready yet, we decided to sleep in. This was fabulous because it had been over a week since we'd slept in, because even if we didn't go out some of those days, we still woke up at 5 only to find the ranger hadn't come.<br />
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Today we attempted a playback with R again, but we have come to the conclusion that the rainy season is a bad time for a playback with them. Evidently there are fruit trees on the other side of the river now, a part of their territory they barely used when I first arrived here. Now they cross every time we try to follow them, so we are going to work on a different group instead.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03302242455097334019noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2413768746571491187.post-4585561813565074972013-07-02T06:36:00.000-07:002013-07-02T06:36:46.111-07:00bats, birds and elephantsWell, despite some frustrations in the forest, including barking deer alarm calls stimulating predator songs from multiple groups and gibbons crossing deep, impassable rivers and leaving us behind, the last two days have still been a bit exciting. Monday morning Yun, our ranger assistant, told us that the night before there had been 30 elephants in the big field near the R territory. Monday night Julie asked if I wanted to join her on a drive to see if the newly repaired brakes on the truck were still burning (luckily they were not). I thought about it, it was 5:45, I wanted to run soon, but I also knew at dusk there are always opportunities to see interesting things, so I ran to get my camera and off we went. Sure enough, driving up the road we passed some of the rangers from the search and rescue unit along with the "elephant man" (what I call this guy who follows the elephants, Julie pointed out this isn't the most flattering nickname...). If you want to find elephants, you are usually in the right place if the elephant man is nearby. So we pulled over and looked, we saw two elephants but they were already making their way back into the forest and just looked like two giant, moving boulders. So we drove on. We stopped at the lookout point before turning back because we had never stopped there before, so I could get a picture of the view. Once again we were lucky, soon bats started coming out for the evening, in huge groups. One group after another flew by in every direction, it was really awesome. There were hundreds if not thousands. We were also lucky enough to see several groups of hornbills flying together to their sleeping trees. Seeing one hornbill flying is cool enough, they are so huge their wings make a loud swishing noise when they fly by. So needless to say seeing groups of up to eight of them was awesome.<br />
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We eventually got back in the car and drove back down towards home. Everywhere there was evidence of this group of 30 elephants we had heard about. Branches and poop were strewn across the road. Sure enough, after a few minutes we found ourselves in a long line of traffic. The elephants were back on the road. It was starting to get dark, and we were not very close to the front of the line, so I only got a few pictures, but it was amazing how many there were! They took their sweet time on the road, and we were stuck behind them for over an hour and a half. When the finally did move off the road and we drove by, they were still very near the edges of the road. It was awesome to be driving along, window down, and to suddenly see out of the corner of my eye and enormous bull elephant standing in some brush at the side of the road, probably 6 feet from me in the car. Before heading back home we drove further to a field that was very dark so we could see the stars. it was absolutely beautiful, but it didn't last long. Soon the lightning from the distance brought storm clouds and covered everything up. We finally got home at about 8:30, so I missed my run for the day, but I guess it was worth it.<br />
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Today was less exciting, but the elephants were still around. I ran in the direction we'd seen them last night because I was sick of my usual route. I got just over a half mile out and had to stop because apparently they were still nearby in the forest and the rangers suggested I turn around.<br />
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Unfortunately it was really hazy, so the view isn't great</div>
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BATS!</div>
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BIRDS!</div>
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ELEPHANTS!</div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03302242455097334019noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2413768746571491187.post-42930968792678163962013-06-30T07:14:00.002-07:002013-06-30T07:14:50.699-07:00Sunshine!Well the sun finally came back! We've had barely any rain since Wednesday. So that means we've been in the field, which is wonderful. I missed the gibbons and the smell of the marshmallow trees! The impact of the rain was obvious when we went to the W territory on Friday, the pond that was dry when I arrived has filled about with a foot or two of water! The river has also risen significantly. The reservoir is coming back to more normal levels, but our water is still a disgusting, murky, yellow-brown color. I have been in much better spirits since we've been able to be back in the forest and I have started running again after taking a week off. Today on my run I went past two monks on the road. I am not sure if I have mentioned it before, but me running is quite the tourist attraction apparently. People wave excitedly and lean out their car windows to photograph me as they pass in their cars. I think maybe the blond girl running is more interesting than the wildlife, or maybe they just haven't seen much wildlife. Anyway, the two monks both had huge cameras and as I got closer the one switched the direction of his camera and pointed it right at me. He waited until I was only 3 or 4 feet away before snapping what I'm sure was an incredibly attractive close-up of me using that huge zoom lens. Anyway, I decided that after that I'm definitely not going to feel rude or like an obnoxious tourist if I should ever decide to snap a photo of a monk.<br />
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My first day back in the forest I got a nice leech bite on my butt. Okay, just above my butt. Anyway, as usual I had no idea it was there and he didn't drop off until I showered I guess. I still had no idea and I put on my clothes, made lunch, and it wasn't until I went to the bathroom and noticed blood all over my shorts and underwear that I realized it. I was really traumatized about why my butt was bleeding for a few seconds before realizing it was a leech. Yeah, imagine the thoughts running through my head...anyway, that makes leech bite number three. every time I am amazed at how much those suckers make you bleed. Leech bite number one from four weeks ago still itches once and a while so I really hope this one isn't the same.<br />
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Anyway, besides that, the last few days in the forest have been pretty uneventful, so I am just going to post a few photos.<br />
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Chao groomed by Chinda</div>
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Baby climbing on Chinda's head. "Mom play with meee!"</div>
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C group infant hanging around by mom and dad</div>
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Chinda and infant</div>
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Chokdee, looking worried.</div>
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Finally got a non-blurry photo of a barking deer or munjak.</div>
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So pretty!</div>
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The leech that attacked my butt Thursday and fell off while I showered.</div>
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I found him still creeping around in there Friday morning, so I sprayed him with 40% deet and he regurgitated my blood. Revenge.</div>
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William :)</div>
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The river is raging now!</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03302242455097334019noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2413768746571491187.post-42594899075138513402013-06-26T06:42:00.000-07:002013-06-26T06:42:08.209-07:00reasons I hate rainYou may recall a <a href="http://junglefunk.blogspot.com/2013/05/sweet-beautiful-rain.html">post</a> from last month in which I praised the rain for coming and cooling me off. I did admit that I would probably end up regretting saying such nice things about rain, and that time has indeed come. The rainy season here at Khao Yai comes on gradually. It starts in about June. Normally, it starts off slowly, with a few little showers here and there and gradually increases to full blown rain all day by September or so. At least this is what I've been told. However, the last week has been anything but normal. It has rained every single day since last Monday afternoon, and not just little showers, but nearly constant rain. Though I admit the rain does have some benefits; namely, it makes it a heck of a lot cooler. This week the costs have considerably outweighed the benefits. When your research project is about vocalizations and requires a lot of expensive, non-waterproof equipment, then rain becomes synonymous with boredom. Last week after waking up three days in a row to rain, we decided to go to Bangkok hoping for better weather come Monday. That did not happen, nor on Tuesday, nor today. So it has been a REALLY boring and unproductive week. I haven't seen the gibbons in so long! The good news is that tomorrow the weather is supposed to be excellent, so lets just hope that is true.<br />
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Although Monday was an especially painful day because the power was out all day, we did see elephants again! Today we went to Pak Chong to get some maintenance done on the truck. That took a long time, but we stopped at Tesco on the way home and I got some banana muffins! We also stopped at a restaurant for dinner which was pretty good. I accidentally ate an incredibly spicy yellow pepper from the green curry and coconut soup not realizing it would be so hot. I always think of sweet bell peppers when I see yellow peppers. So my mouth burned for about 15 minutes. So those are the highlights of this week so far, there aren't many. but tonight I am optimistic, hopefully we will be about to do a playback tomorrow!<br />
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mom, son (with tusks) and daughter (baby)</div>
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The big field and salt licks (teeny elephants on the right)</div>
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getting a little too close for comfort</div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dynlxTnCj-e6Cj6hKFPEBfnLO-vL6yQ_MDQGW76VhvlIUVf4gLmAEApoKLslh9C4FGkD1M7e_O9QlxUV6VozA' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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Took a video because I thought it was cool to see them moving all together</div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03302242455097334019noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2413768746571491187.post-91160859654595491262013-06-22T10:24:00.004-07:002013-06-22T10:24:44.461-07:00Chatuchak MarketIf you were only going to be in Bangkok for a single day, you should spend most of that day at Chatuchak Market. This is one of the world's largest weekend markets and it is seriously awesome. That statement means a lot coming from me, daughter of Nancy Jackson, who hates shopping and crowded places. This is why I recommend going in the morning. After we had lunch, by about 2:00 the crowd was starting to get seriously unreasonable.<br />
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The reason I decided this is the place to go if you only have a day in Bangkok is because it has EVERYTHING. It gives you a little peek into everything that is Bangkok. Food on food on food. Every kind you can imagine. There is also no shortage of souvenirs. You can find anything from the goofiest knick-knacks like a butt-shaped toilet paper dispenser to the most beautiful art including huge murals and sculptures. You can also find a ton of everyday useful stuff. There are vintage clothes, new clothes, shoes, jewelry, leather products, books, kitchenware, essential oils, spices, and soooooooo much more. There is even an entire section dedicated to "creatures," as it says on the map. This includes everything from roosters, to puppies and kittens, to snakes, to sugar gliders. It is ridiculous. To me really, beside a few temples, this is Bangkok: food and shopping. I dislike cities, so maybe this is just my perspective but to me Bangkok's most redeeming factor is that if you need something, you can buy it; if you are hungry, just look around you there will be food and lots of it.<br />
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So, today Julie and I went to the market. Sadly, I forgot to take any pictures due to the serious sensory overload I was experiencing. So I will need to go back and remember next time. The downside of visiting such a huge market is while you may be able to buy anything there, you probably won't be able to <i>find</i> anything. So you can't really go with any specific purchases in mind, or you will end up really frustrated. And if you find something you really like, and you haven't seen something similar in 10 other shops already, you should probably buy it right then, because if you decide to mull it over and come back later, you probably won't be able to figure out where you found it. Unfortunately Julie and I went to look for souvenirs but also to<i> find</i> knives. She had previously been to what seemed like the only knife shop in the whole market, but had lost the little business card indicating its location and thus we had to go off her vague memory of the location. Eventually we found it, thankfully. I bought myself a pretty knife and a small machete...to use in the forest of course! There were so many options for food that Julie and I had to walk around looking for 15 minutes until we finally just committed to splitting some quail eggs over easy and spring rolls with watermelon and mango for dessert! After we ate we sort of slowed down quite a bit and it was starting to get crowded so we called it a day and headed back to the hotel for a rest.<br />
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my new weapons!</div>
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We left the hotel at around 8pm to go to the Sky Bar. We stopped for dinner along the way at a place that sold only mysterious noodle dishes. the place we wanted to go (which had more choices) had no available tables. At this place you could have your noodles dry or with broth, you could have three different shapes/sizes of rice noodles or egg noodles, but your choices ended there. No matter what, your bowl of noodles came with a mysterious assortment of meat and/or fish products. I really don't know how else to classify these. I think I've described fish balls on this blog before, well there was one fish ball (like a meatball made with mystery fish parts), and various other shapes of similar things, compressed ground up something. There was also a few dumpling-looking things, but those weren't great either. I avoided most of this and ate the noodles, the bean sprouts and the few real slices of chicken and bits of ground pork. After that we headed to the State Tower (2nd tallest building in Thailand) and went up to the Sky Bar. There is a dress code; basically for women it is just "no ugly flip flops." Upon reaching the 63rd floor we were ushered onto a terrace and ordered drinks. We paid an arm and a leg, but for just one drink and the view it is worth it, plus they give you free pistachios (yum) and olives (yuck) to snack on. After we finished our drinks we headed over to the other part of the bar, which had a better view. There were tons of foreigners and it was really odd to hear so many Americans speaking. Being in Bangkok has actually been sort of a (reverse) culture shock. Its weird seeing and hearing so many "farangs." I guess it is going to be REALLY weird to go back to the States and see them EVERYWHERE.<br />
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Today was the most exciting of our trip to Bangkok. We got here Thursday evening and I spent pretty much all of Friday at the immigration office extending my visa. When I got back to the hotel I ate dinner at Pizza Hut alone because Julie was still busy getting tattooed for over 5 hours. So she had a long day too. Tomorrow morning we are going to have a relaxing morning and leave here around 11am. It has been a good trip, but 3 days in Bangkok is enough, I am ready to go back to the park.<br />
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This was a cool ice cream thing I got the other night. They pour the liquid ice cream onto a really cold surface and then mix in two goodies of your choice (white chocolate chips and brownies for me). They spread it into a thin layer as it freezes and then they scrape it up in little rolls and put it in a bowl and decorate it for you. Yum!</div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03302242455097334019noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2413768746571491187.post-50411805756505187102013-06-20T04:37:00.001-07:002013-06-20T04:37:46.593-07:00Back to Bangkok, but more importantly: elephants!!!Well, it has been a rainy, awful, unproductive week. Unproductive because of the rain. However, there were a few highlights. One being dinner last night. I went out to "Moo Kata" with Jackie (grad student who did her dissertation research here two years ago and is here for a visit) her assistant Josh, Jambee (the neighbor of the old house) her daughter, and Bon (woman who works at the park convenience store). This is a kind of buffet that is adapted from Korean Barbecue. There is a bowl of hot coals and a little metal device sits on top. A picture is the best way to describe it.<br />
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So you cook like leafy greens and glass noodles in the broth on the perimeter and grill meat and seafood on top. You use different sauces to spice it up before you eat it. It is a really fun way to go out with friends. Its nice because it takes a while and you sort of just eat and cook slowly as you go. Afterward we went to Swensen's for ice cream. It was my first time going here, and apparently it is an American company but I have never heard of it.<br />
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I woke up this morning, and it wasn't raining, which was a good sign, but the sky looked awful. We had been stuck in the past two days due to nonstop rain, so we went out anyway. We had just hung the loudseaker when it started raining, so we gave up and packed it in. It rained on and off in the early morning. The rangers said the forecast wouldn't improve for a few more days, so we made a last minute decision to come to Bangkok this weekend rather than next to renew my visa. We decided to take the southern exit of the park to get to Bangkok this time to try it out. It takes longer to get to the southern entrance. When we got there, we parked and waited for a vehicle to exit the park and hitchhiked a ride to a nearby city to catch the bus. This was my first hitchhiking experience. I am really amazed at Thai people's helpfulness and generosity. Whether it be to give strangers a ride or to insist on carrying something for someone, they always want to help (sometimes to the point of being annoying). We took a minibus from Nakon Nayok to Bangkok, which was just over an hour-long trip, better than the three hour ride from Pak Chong, but all in all, with driving to the entrance and hitchhiking it really wasn't a much faster experience. It was about half the price though. People here tend to suggest minibuses as a better option, and they are usually more expensive, but I actually find them a more uncomfortable experience than regular buses. The capacity is 16 people and let me tell you, usually all 16 seats are full. There is no storage space for bags, so you sit there like a sardine with your bag on your lap. It is unpleasant. We finally made it to our hotel in Bangkok around 4:00 and were absolutely starving. We ate a late lunch or early dinner at the Tesco Lotus cafeteria and will probably go to the night market for a snack later on.<br />
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The best part of the day though, was seeing three elephants in broad daylight on our way out of the park! There were two females and a baby. It was pretty awesome and I got some great photos because the lighting was much better than last time. They weren;t in much of a hurry so we had plenty of time to take photos, and I went a little overboard.<br />
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And proof I was actually with them and didn't just find these photos on the internet or something. Don't mind the crazy, wind-blown, open window hair.</div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03302242455097334019noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2413768746571491187.post-17888879446394547542013-06-16T04:35:00.001-07:002013-06-16T04:35:08.838-07:00boring weekend<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Sunset over the reservoir Saturday night.</div>
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Well, luckily I finished the previous post about the playback early Friday night because at 9pm the electricity went out. I was confused because it wasn't even raining yet, but it must have been windy or stormy elsewhere in the park. Today we saw the damage along the road, lots of fallen branches and trees had been swept to the side of the road. So, since we were blessed to go a whole two weeks without a power outage, mother nature decided to be a real bitch and give us the worst one yet this time. Since there was nothing to do Friday night in the dark, I went to bed early and woke up at 7:30 Saturday morning for an early run before it got too hot. Yeah, that didn't happen. I realized once I was up that the electricity had not been restored in the night, and you know what that means, no water either. So, no showers, which definitely meant no running, since even the shortest slowest of runs here make me sweat buckets. I wasn't tired though so I didn't go back to bed, and instead spent the morning reading. We had planned to go to the store that afternoon, but as we had no idea when we would have a functioning refrigerator, we didn't think it wise to go buy a bunch of perishable food. So I sat and read, and read a different book, then switched back to the first. And so the day went. It was incredibly boring, and unfortunately also hot. I also for some reason had a swarm of fruit flies following me all day so I spent most of the day inside rather than on the porch because the swarm wasn't quite as big inside. Maybe I smelled like fruit?<br />
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My journal entry from Saturday reads a little something like this:<br />
13.5 hours and counting, its a record!<br />
Almost 16 hours. Ugh. Bored.<br />
Now its almost 3, hot as hell, and going on 18 hours without power.<br />
These fruit flies won't leave me alone! I want to kill them all!<br />
I AM IN A TERRIBLE MOOD<br />
The power better come back soon or I might starve.<br />
19 hours.<br />
20 hours: I'm going to fall over and die of boredom.<br />
20:15 hours it came back on...but for how long...?<br />
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So, that was dramatic. Oops. I lucked out though because the power did stay on when it finally came back at 5:15 and I was able to get a short run in and make a hot dinner of rice and corn. I went to bed early because I had a video chat date with Jane in the morning.<br />
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Sunday I got up at 6am and video chatted with Jane, which was great. I got to hear all about her awesome Euro-trip and about her first week living in East Lansing, where she starts med school Monday! I laid in bed for a while after that, not quite tired enough to fall back asleep but not motivated enough to get up and run yet. I finally got myself out the door for a nice 3 mile run at about 8:45. When I got back I showered and had some breakfast and then Julie and I left for Pak Chong at around 10:30. It was a lovely (but hot) day again today. Unfortunately the days when its sunny and nice out here are the hottest ones, so I actually prefer rainy days to nice ones. I also think I have solved the mystery of why one arm is tanner than the other: its the arm that hangs out of the car window when we drive to Pak Chong, which is an hour long drive and it always seems to be sunny when we go. Its ridiculous and I need to figure out how to even that out. Anyway, since we went earlyish to town we didn't go to the market since it doesn't open until 3, so we just got everything we needed at Tesco. The big tragedy of the day was that Tesco had ZERO banana muffins today, which are like my staple snack. I normally eat at least two a day. I was super bummed. I bought extra cereal instead, which is a pricey substitute. I also bought half a roasted chicken with sticky rice which I ate half of when I got home and saved the other half. It was delicious. We stopped for mangoes on the way home which was a little tricky because most of the stands had green, unripe ones unfortunately, we eventually found a stand selling very ripe ones, so I hope they don't go bad to quickly. Anyway, that was the boring and hot weekend but tomorrow we will try another playback experiment so hopefully that is successful.<br />
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Oh, and happy Father's Day to the best dad in the world!! :)</div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03302242455097334019noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2413768746571491187.post-56349874031792350582013-06-14T06:10:00.000-07:002013-06-14T06:23:18.226-07:00playback!Well today we finally got to do a playback! Hooray! Julie said it was the first playback experiment done on these gibbons in 25 years! Apparently, the third time really is a charm. We tried the playback with W Tuesday, and lost the gibbons after a very long inter-group meeting (W pretty much has an inter-group meeting every day, apparently they like telling their neighbors to get off their lawn). Wednesday it rained so that doesn't count as an attempt. Thursday they spent the whole day all the way on the opposite side of their territory from where we set the loudspeaker for the playback. Today, was just right, finally.<br />
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A little side note about the playback experiment:<br />
I don't think I've explained it before. This experiment is the reason for all the rope setting. So, we have set ropes between territories so we can hoist up a loud speaker very high for the playbacks. The higher the better so that it can be heard from very far. So, since we did W today I will explain using them. We set up a loudspeaker in the S territory which borders W. It cannot be in the overlap of the territories or else W could go all the way to the speaker when they hear it, which would be bad because they need to be tricked into thinking this is a real situation, not a weird human machine making noise. We orient the speaker toward the W territory, and when W is close enough to hear (about 200 or less meters) we can start the playback. This is why it is so hard, because the gibbon territories can be like 400x500meters, so its hard to ensure they are in the right place at the right time. We want to see how gibbons react when their neighbors sing a predator song (stimuli recorded from a previous encounter with the fake leopard model). So we will do three tests per group, the predator song, a regular duet, and a control (probably a bird song) and see how the gibbon's reaction differs. So we play S's predator song to W and see what W does, and if W responds with their own song, we record that. If W displays behavior like rushing toward the song, scanning the ground, increased vigilance or cautious behavior like carrying the baby more or even just increased grooming or decreased distance between group members (grooming is a way for primates to de-stress), this may indicate that they understand the meaning of the neighboring group's predator song. That is the important part, because Julie is studying communication between gibbons in the broader context of understanding the evolution of communication and eventually language in the primate lineage. So, voila! Hopefully that makes enough sense.<br />
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So, the day didn't start out so lucky. Julie and I both slept through our alarms. At 5:30, we were supposed to leave at 5:45, I jumped up out of bed. I ran to the bathroom and peed and then I realized wait, Julie's light is off, shes not up either? Well at least it took the pressure off me. I knocked several times until she woke up and we both rushed to get ready. So we left late. When we got to where our rope was hung, Julie and Yun (our ranger assistant who lays in a hammock all day until we tell him to press play) hoisted the speaker into the tree and I set off to find W because we heard a male singing in that general direction. I found the singer, and as I had suspected based on the location of the sound, it was an inter-group meeting (IGM) between NOS and W. Wotan and the male of NOS chased each other a little. At one point, while the secondary NOS male had Wotan distracted, the primary NOS male approached Sari (W female) and William had to chase him off. William as I've mentioned before is the son of Wotan, but not of Sari, so he has no reason to disperse, and is in all practical purposes a secondary male. However, before William chased him away, while he was approaching, the NOS male was kind enough to drop a huge load of watery shit right above me. I jumped out of the way just in time and only my bag and the microphone got splattered. Usually when the gibbons go to the bathroom they start to pee, then poop afterward (solidly). So you have a nice warning, you see the stream of pee, which you can usually dodge and if not its not that gross, and then you have a nice warning and have already moved before the poo bomb drops. In the case of diarrhea, apparently this system breaks down and you barely know whats coming until its splattered all over the ground, especially on a day after it has rained and the splatters hitting the leaves on the way down just sound like rain drops. Anyway, sorry for the gross detail, but almost being shit on was a pretty big part of my morning.<br />
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When the IGM was finally over the gibbons were in a great place for the playback, so we walkie-talkied Yun and told him to press play. Well, he was taking a bathroom break, great. So we missed our first chance. About 10 or so minutes later the gibbons had moved really close to the river, and therefore really close to the speaker which was just on the other side. So we decided, now or never. We started the playback. As soon as the song could be heard the gibbons looked straight in that direction and Wotan immediately took off toward the sound. Sari (and William) hung around for a minute but followed shortly after. I was following Sari and doing scans on her while Julie followed Wotan. We are just taking data on the mating pair, but William displayed basically the same behaviors throughout the playback as Wotan did, besides his initial reluctance to rush toward the speaker. Conveniently, they spent most of the two hour scan in the trees right at the edge of the river, allowing Julie and I to stand on the bridge to watch them. They were really high in the trees though, so looking up at the bright sky for that long was a struggle. Every 5 minutes for two hours we collected data on their position (sit, lay, hang, move in or between trees), their behavior (scanning, moving, resting, grooming, etc.) their height in the tree, the distance between the male and female, their gazes (looking at speaker, ground, sky etc), whether the baby was on or off mom, and we recorded every move on our GPS. It was intense, but successful! They spent a lot of time scanning, looking at the ground, toward the speaker, trying to find the S gibbons in the canopy to the left of the speaker. They also groomed, but still scanned while doing so. They didn't respond with their own disturbed song, but in fact the N group nearby did, which was cool! So after the two hour scan was over, we triumphantly headed back home, and it was only 10:30. A successful day in the field and done before 11am!<br />
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Yesterday, although a complete bust for the playback, was also a cool day. I saw a bunch of different wildlife! We saw a huge water monitor lizard out of the water, unfortunately it ran so fast I didn't get a picture. They look really goofy when they run though. We saw a bunch of macaques. We were completely surrounded at one point, and momentarily lost the gibbons because of their racket. Macaques are cool though because they actually hang out on the ground some of the time, and they live in much bigger groups, so there is usually more social stuff going on (which is what I'm more interested in than vocalizations). So I got to see a lot of play fighting and chasing. We also came across a teeny green pit viper. Julie stood next to it for about 10 minutes and didn't notice it. It wasn't until she started walking away and I was following her that I saw it moving away quietly. It froze once it knew we had noticed it, which allowed us ample picture taking opportunities. The pit vipers really aren't aggressive at all, they mostly just want to blend in and not be noticed. It was very pretty, it almost had a light blue sheen on its sides, different from the last one I saw. To top it off, at night a porcupine was hanging out in front of the porch, and I finally had the opportunity to get a photo!<br />
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Pig tailed macaque-found while trying to locate gibbons. Darn.</div>
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The pond on W is starting to fill up after Wednesday's rain. Rainy season!</div>
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It used to be just mud.</div>
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Cool fungus!</div>
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Tiny pit viper. Less than an inch in diameter.</div>
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Macaques are always moving, so it is hard to get non-blurry pictures.</div>
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Malayan porcupine!</div>
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Woke up late this morning, but still had to take time to photograph this pretty sunrise outside my window!</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03302242455097334019noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2413768746571491187.post-77249193953193559752013-06-11T21:53:00.004-07:002013-06-12T03:33:56.401-07:00jungle funkSo, apparently people are actually reading this. At least several people in the past few days have said, oh I'm enjoying your blog and all the pictures etc. So that's always nice to hear. I'm trying to make sure I get at least a few pictures in every post, so its not so boring, which is why I haven't been doing as many posts lately. Basically, I've shown you about a hundred gibbon pictures, and to be honest seeing new things worth sharing is becoming less and less common. So, you could say we're falling into a routine, and I think its only worth it to share the really interesting things from here on out. That being said, today is an unfortunate day off because it was pouring rain all morning. So I'm bored, and have a couple of random things I'd like to ramble about for a few minutes if that is alright with you.<br />
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Number one, I keep thinking about, but forgetting to explain the meaning behind this blog's URL: jungle funk. This term was first introduced to me by my professor Chris Schmitt at the La Suerte field school in Costa Rica. He used it to describe the lovely aroma that all of your clothing (and probably you yourself) will acquire after a few weeks in the field. At La Suerte, we came to understand the meaning of this term very quickly. When after two days I decided "oh its time to wash some of my clothes!" I was clearly an amateur. As it turns out, when you have to wash your clothes by hand, wring all the water you possibly can out of them, and then hang them to dry in an environment whose humidity is pretty much maxed out, your clothes aren't going to dry. So after waiting 3-4 days for my clothes to finally dry, I realized they smelled worse than they had before I'd washed them. Hello jungle funk! In my mere four weeks in Costa Rica, jungle funk came to encompass everything that was gross and uncomfortable that we were experiencing due to the nastiness of our climate; stinky clothes, a mysterious rash covering 1/3 of my body, "swamp ass" (visible-through-your-pants butt sweat), mud and mosquitoes everywhere, a damp pillow from my sweat. So I figured ok, this is what its like doing field work in tropical places. So I showed up in Thailand VERY prepared. I came with all sorts of waterproof stuff, thin clothes that would dry fast, fungal creams, anti-itch steroid creams, powder and vaseline to prevent chafing, etc. Well, to be honest I've barely used this stuff here. Khao Yai is a very cushy field site I have to say. So, when the PI of the project arrived and was surprised at my adaptability and patience at our slightly inconvenient living situation, what he didn't know was that as long as I have dry, clean smelling clothes and no rashes to speak of, I am content.<br />
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The aforementioned "swamp ass" of La Suerte</div>
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However, in the face off between Khao Yai and La Suerte there are a few preferable aspects to the latter. One: our cook Rosie, the food may have seemed a little heavy on the carb side, and perhaps a little weird sometimes, but at least someone else was making it for you, and it was generally good. Two: dogs, dogs make EVERYTHING better. Three: capuchins, gibbons are great, but I think I'm still slightly more in love with the adorable capuchins of La Suerte. Advantages of Khao Yai include a washing machine, less humidity, mosquitoes that are under control (though leeches are a different story), and it gets cool enough at night to not sweat through my sheets. So, lesson learned: every field site, every forest, is different but I am still thinking coming over prepared was a better call than coming under prepared.<br />
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Okay, so now that you know why I named my blog "jungle funk" and how its actually a pretty inappropriate description of anything here other than my dirty running clothes, here are some other random thoughts I have forgotten to share. There is a tree in the forest that smells like marshmallows! What a great creation by mother nature. Julie and I don't actually know what kind of tree or plant it is, or what it looks like, but every once in a while you are walking along and bam, you look around expecting to be near a bakery or something based on the super sweet smell permeating the air. Marshmallow is a good description of the smell, but also for some reason angel food cake pops into my brain as well when I smell it. This of course makes me think of grandma Ginny and her delicious angel food cake. I am looking forward to many baked goods a la Nancy and Ginny upon my return...<br />
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Also, in the forest I have been seeing increasingly impressive looking spiders. It makes me nervous that I am eventually going to walk straight into a web and get a huge spider stuck on my face. I've had a few close encounters. The other day I walked face first straight into a web, fortunately I don't think it was occupied. The web sure was sticky. It was all over my hair and face and took a few minutes to pick off, and even longer to get the creepy feeling of imaginary spiders crawling all over my body to disappear. YUCK.<br />
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huge spider, body over an inch long</div>
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The other day I saw another awesome scorpion in the road. Dead this time unfortunately, but I did get a picture! You can't really see how green they are from these pictures. Maybe because it was dead and its color had faded, or its just the lighting of the picture. But if you google "Khao Yai scorpion" you'll see some cool pictures!<br />
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I guess I should stop rambling now. I've filled up almost my whole morning with Skyping and writing this, so I would say I have killed time successfully. I got to four-way Skype tri-internationally with Alaina, Katie (USA) and Elsie (South Korea) early this morning, and then with Nathan a little bit later. Lucky me! I suppose I'll make lunch soon and then spend the afternoon entering some data and reading on the porch. Until next time something interesting happens...<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03302242455097334019noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2413768746571491187.post-44940714964499346902013-06-08T07:13:00.000-07:002013-06-08T07:13:03.437-07:00monogamy? HA!Well, for a long time people (even scientists!) looked at pair bonded birds and gibbons and thought "oh how sweet, they're monogamous! If these creatures can do it, surely humans can too!" Well, the more you know. As it turns out, when scientists dug a little deeper, watched a little closer, they realized "Wow! These animals aren't quite so lovingly devoted to their mates as we would like to think." It isn't the fairy tale, and there are evolutionary reasons WHY. Monogamous social systems evolved in most cases because there were pathetically helpless infants who needed care from not one, but two, parents (although its hard to say if that's the case with gibbons because the males don't really do much, besides play with the infants, but that's a different debate). However, there is a difference between a social system and a mating system. As it turns out, lots of socially monogamous species also participate in extra-pair copulations; this is known as a mixed reproductive strategy. Its like insurance. If you happen to be mated with a male who isn't of the highest genetic quality, but is still maybe a good partner or father, you might benefit by mating with a better, neighboring male but staying with your current mate. As for males, they aren't constrained by gestation, lactation and infant carrying, so technically they could go out and mate all they want with whoever they want (which many male primates do), but in doing so they risk leaving their own mate unattended to possibly do the same. So, its a tricky business, and thus extra-pair copulations are rare, but they do happen.<br />
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I just so happened to be lucky enough to witness one today. YEAH! It was in fact the first copulation I have witnessed here, and it just happened to be an adulterous one. What a lucky day! (Though I can't say the same for Chinda and Chu...) So, here's how it happened. Julie and I had just stumbled across A, hooray! because we wanted to do the python with them. I briefly saw Chu (A male) but then he disappeared. Then we saw more white individuals and were like crap is this the C group? But no, because we did see Chu, who is black and all of C is white, so we knew A had to be there too. It turned out to be an intergroup encounter at the border of C and A. We hadn't been with them a minute before we saw Chao (C male) and Andromeda (A female) mating. WOAH! Chinda (C female) and Chu (A male) were nowhere in sight, but the C juvenile was hanging around. Chao and Andromeda proceeded to copulate 4 times (bummer I didn't get my camera out in time!) before finally moving apart. Chu showed up again not long after and we followed him and Andromeda for the rest of the day.<br />
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Shortly after reuniting Andromeda attempted to initiate a duet, but just ended up doing three lonely great calls while Chu seemed to give her the silent treatment. (I do not presume to know what the gibbons are thinking, this is simply my anthropomorphic interpretation of what was going on, don't take it too seriously). So, a little bit later Chu and Andromeda started a duet, together this time, but as soon as Andromeda gave her first great call: silence. Zip, zilch, nada. More silent treatment from Chu. Let me tell you, a great call without a male reply is like peanut butter without jelly, it just isn't right. About ten minutes later they tried again. This time, they got past the first great call at least, but even then, no male replies for the first two great calls, then the next three were a VERY half hearted reply, and finally he gave a reply to the next two, and on the last, nothing, again. Well, this just seemed too coincidental. Males LOVE to sing, and they never miss that many replies in one duet. It seemed like Chu was holding a bit of a grudge. After a while he got over it though and they spent most of the late morning happily grooming each other. This is really boring for us as it is just: "Ok your turn," groom for 5 minutes, "My turn," groom for 5 minutes, "your turn," etc. So, we sat bored while they groomed and ate some fruit and acted really boring. They were too high in the trees to do the python. When they finally did move they went back to where the C group was and we can't do the python when there are two group present, because then we would record two groups singing at once. It was interesting to see how they behaved at this meeting though. Andromeda was suddenly shy and kept her distance while Chu made sure to stay between Andromeda and the C group at all times.<br />
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When we got back I told the project PI about it and he said something along the lines of "Oh Andromeda, she mates with everyone!" Apparently she is not only the oldest gibbon in the study site but also the most notoriously promiscuous. She was in fact one of the first examples published of extra-pair copulations in gibbons. Way back in 1992 (See <a href="http://anthro.siu.edu/reichard/reichard_ethology_95.pdf">http://anthro.siu.edu/reichard/reichard_ethology_95.pdf</a>). Shes still whoring it up over 20 years later, even though her last surviving offspring was born like 15 years ago and she certainly won't be making any new baby gibbons by mating with her neighbors (shes <i>that</i> old).<br />
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We also saw a barking deer (and scared it into barking and fleeing), and a cool lizard who blended in wonderfully with the leaf litter. We also saw an awesome spider with an X marked right in the middle of her web like "Insects land here!" So, it was a great day!<br />
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Andromeda</div>
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little froggy from the other day</div>
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"bugs land here!"</div>
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the lovely creator of the web</div>
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trouble in paradise? </div>
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do you see the lizard?</div>
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there he is!</div>
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huge caterpillar</div>
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grooming solves any problem!</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03302242455097334019noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2413768746571491187.post-79512061893821849882013-06-04T07:49:00.000-07:002013-06-04T08:02:48.562-07:00creative energySo, I find myself feeling a little bit wound up lately. I've been having trouble sleeping because my mind is full of thoughts and images that just want to explode out of me. I think I have a lot of creative energy built up inside me with no way to release it. Every day I get so see such beautiful things: dazzling lightning storms, fluttering butterflies, sunrises and sunsets, the way the sun peeks through the trees early in the morning so just little shafts of light are visible, deer that walk right up to me on the porch and say hello, gibbons that glide effortlessly through the canopy, moss covered rocks, trees with huge buttresses. All these things and more are giving me a jittery hand that wants a brush and a canvas. Since I don't really have any other creative talents, besides painting, I'm sort of at a loss. I can't write poetry. I'm not great at drawing, and find it a little boring so I always rush. I'm so desperate that I bought the back-to-school pack of Oreos at the store just because they came with free colored pencils! So, I'm stumped. I suppose taking and sharing photos will help though, so that is what I'll do.<br />
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Early morning on NOS territory</div>
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NOS main male relaxing</div>
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translucent mushrooms</div>
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rainy season is slowly making its mark</div>
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me and HUGE tree</div>
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butterfly wing</div>
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Those pretty photos are from Monday and Tuesday in the field. Monday we followed the NOS group, which is a huge group: black female+white infant, white main male, 2 black secondary males, 2 white juveniles. So that was interesting. We went to Pak Chong in the afternoon for groceries and to buy our new rope setting device. We thought we were getting a bow and arrows, but no. Julie's bird watching guide friend has a friend, whose uncle makes these weapons for shooting fish. They are basically like a sling shot and a cross bow mixed together and shaped like a rifle. Its interesting. We were skeptical at first, but after seeing it in action we decided it was perfect. There are little metal spears (we had the pointed ends cut off so they wouldn't get embedded in the tree if we missed, and so we wouldn't accidentally kill anything). The spear is locked into place at the end of the "gun" shaft, and then you pull the sling shot part around and hook it onto the little spear. The spear is tied to a bunch of fishing line which is wound around a little piece of PVC at the end of the tip of the "gun." When you pull the trigger, the spear is released with the fishing line attached, so you can pull in the fish you've gotten. So, we spent Tuesday morning setting ropes with this new device. Instead of impaling fish, we aimed for branches and slung the fishing line over them which we then replaced with rope. The only tricky thing is when the spear gets stuck in branches. We broke the line a few times yanking on it, and lost a few spears this way. Overall though, this thing works really well, and is pretty awesome. Julie has been pondering what kind of reaction she is going to get at customs when she returns to France with a knife, a machete, a (broken) crossbow, and now this thing, in her luggage. The other event of the day was that one lucky leech got to absolutely feast on my back today while we set the ropes in the first tree. I was adjusting my shirt and felt him and heard him fall off. He was VERY fat. It wasn't until we got back 3 hours later though that I realized the damage. I was still bleeding after my shower and my sports bra and shirt were nicely bloodied. </div>
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weaponry (AKA new device for setting ropes)<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji2AFz6M_0FeEsDch00T7-k0ePrRBnPqU5MTfvItyQvF5QFK_-pxMTxPSII2Ke-5GxfpjzfNjk-cJX50ejcRXEwtgpygtMdm8WxcAEt21S3uYsiZsrzkM8UkilZ8voV-yZXD-Aj2fhkFHU/s1600/P1010764.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji2AFz6M_0FeEsDch00T7-k0ePrRBnPqU5MTfvItyQvF5QFK_-pxMTxPSII2Ke-5GxfpjzfNjk-cJX50ejcRXEwtgpygtMdm8WxcAEt21S3uYsiZsrzkM8UkilZ8voV-yZXD-Aj2fhkFHU/s400/P1010764.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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Julie: weapons expert</div>
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post leech attack carnage</div>
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still bleeding 3.5 hours after he fell off</div>
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Well, that's about it for now. Hopefully I can sleep tonight. No coffee today, and only 6 hours of sleep last night should make that possible. Who knows though, my mind is always racing at night.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03302242455097334019noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2413768746571491187.post-68528101540851872422013-06-01T06:24:00.001-07:002013-06-01T06:24:23.883-07:00the century eggWell, today was a day off so that Julie could write her proposal and so that we could meet the PI of the project. We were supposed to have lunch. Well, he came in, soaking wet from the field since he just HAD to see the gibbons first thing, at 1:30 pm and Julie was starving waiting on him. I was okay because I'd had a late breakfast. He walked around in his soggy field clothes in absolute shock and disbelief at the conditions we were living in. Julie and I just kept giving one another glances and little smiles because really, to us its not a big deal. Except maybe the no kitchen thing, and even that isn't really a problem now that we've adapted. Yeah, we have cold showers because the rangers are too lazy to fix the heater, yeah we do dishes in the bathroom sink, yeah I have a curtain for a wall, and yeah, we have no kitchen. Really though its not a big deal and (at this point) Julie and I figure its easier just to get along with what we have than to make a big fuss. To me, from what I've heard of at other fields sites, this is cushy, easy living. I mean, we have a washing machine with a centrifuge thing that gets our clothes almost dry for Pete's sake! Dr. Gibbon (I'll call him since I don't really want to mention his name while complaining about him...) had an absolute conniption. He took photos of my room, while my stinky running clothes from this morning hung up for everyone to see/smell, to show our Thai collaborator. He whined and said this was absolutely unacceptable before FINALLY pealing off his wet clothes and taking a shower. Then, he and Julie went to talk to the park chief about this. Julie shouted at me as she went out the door after him, "EAT EAT EAT!" as it was already two and apparently we were NOT going to be going to get lunch together. Poor Julie, I knew how hungry she was and at this point it was already 2:30. What is silly and annoying to me about all of this, is that Julie sent countless emails to Dr. Gibbon about this situation; how the research house was emptied and she was told we could no longer use it, how we were thrown into makeshift arrangements at the search and rescue center. He didn't seem so bothered by this until he arrived, quite unprepared despite Julie's warnings "you will have nowhere to sleep!"<br />
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Anyway, now I'm just mad because what came out of the meeting with the park chief is that a wall will be built, yay! No, not yay, because in fact two walls will be built. One to separate what is currently my area from the rescue center patient area (which rarely sees patients), which just fine. The other will cut my current living space in half so the Dr. Gibbon can sleep on the other side. GREAT. My stuff is jumbled around all over anyway, I'm living out of my suitcase. The only place for me to hang my clothes line is on that side of the "room". I am currently USING a lot of that space for my own stuff. So, with the creation of this new wall, I'll be living in 10x10 feet of space that is going to be stuffy as all get out. I actually LIKE my current curtain situation because it lets in so much breeze. So, I'm a little peeved. Dr. Gibbon is only going to be here for a month, does he really have to cut my room in half with a new WALL for his month-long stay?</div>
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End rant.</div>
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The only other thing that happened today was that I tasted my century egg. Google it please. Anyway, its a nasty preserved egg, and in Thailand they paint them pink. Julie made me get one at the market last week just to try.</div>
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Look at that pink egg looking all innocent like Easter.</div>
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Noooooope.</div>
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MAYBE if you like hard boiled eggs this is for you, but if you're a person disgusted by the smell of those, then century eggs are VERY far outside of your comfort zone. So, I decided that I didn't want to eat it cold. I think normally they are eaten in like soups or salads, but I didn't feel like ruining other good food for this. So, I just heated it up in some boiling water and pealed the shell off.</div>
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beautiful...</div>
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oh no, oh no.</div>
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not excited.</div>
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Well, once you peal off the shell, you realize that this thing stinks, not any stronger than a boiled egg, but its maybe more of a chemically smell. So like rotten egg smell plus toxic chemicals. Which isn't surprising consideri<span style="font-family: inherit;">ng how they're preserved: "</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 19.1875px;">in a mixture of clay, ash, salt, quicklime and rice hulls</span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 19.1875px;"> for several weeks to several months." Also, according to Wikipedia this chemical smell is probably an ammonia and </span></span><span style="line-height: 19.1875px;">sulfur</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 19.1875px;"> odor. Then you cut it open and see the nasty yolk which has sort of a creamy, frosting-like </span></span><span style="line-height: 19.1875px;">consistency</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 19.1875px;">.</span></span></span></div>
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Then, if you're me, you take the teensiest sliver of a bite possible and decide, well that was not for me! It leaves a chemical taste in your mouth too. So, the end. Probably won't be doing that again. Luckily if a Thai person ever tries to force me to eat this again I can say "oh I've already tried it and I don't like them that much". But don't be too turned off by my disgust. I honestly think if I liked hard boiled eggs I wouldn't have been so grossed out. The egg white has a jello-like texture, which isn't bad. The gooey yolk is weird though. I also shouldn't write it off so quickly, perhaps if prepared in a way that suits my taste I would like it a bit better.</div>
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So, tomorrow Julie will attempt to finish the proposal, I will check over it for her (since its in English and she's French). Hopefully, we will go to Pak Chong in the afternoon to get food and the bow we're going to use to set ropes with.</div>
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To finish, some pictures of butterflies! According to Julie, we will start to see more and more butterflies as time goes on. This is great because I was a bit disappointed when I first arrived to only see a few teeny brown ones. I thought, this is a tropical rainforest, there has to be more butterflies than this!</div>
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boring and brown...</div>
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until they fly! pretty blue!</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03302242455097334019noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2413768746571491187.post-83261183376253930012013-05-31T08:52:00.001-07:002013-05-31T08:52:29.583-07:00rainy season<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Well it looks like the rainy season is really starting to get underway. We were lucky enough to have not one, but two power outages since I last posted!</div>
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On Wednesday we did the Python experiment with W (finally!). It was especially fun to watch W today because the infant was starting to become independent. He was off mom for a good amount of their stationary time. Swinging from branches, scrambling around, playing with Wotan (dad). At one point, when Sari (mom) left the tree Wotan was in and took the infant with her, he hurried back as soon as she stopped to continue playing with his dad. That sure was cute. Gibbons are pretty good fathers, males tend to play with the juveniles more than the females, as far as I can tell. Maybe the females figure if they have to lug around the baby all day, then dad should have to play with it. We were just finishing up when it started to look like a storm was rolling in. It started off sunny, then it was a bit windy, then came thunder (still sunny), then finally the clouds rolled in. It started sprinkling just as we got back to the car and we showered and did laundry as fast as we could expecting a big storm. Well that didn't happen. It never happens when you're expecting it.<br />
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Thursday was another day off since Julie had to go report that she was still in the country (something you ahve to do every 90 days) to the immigration office in Bangkok. I woke up and Skyped my parents, and sadly heard of the Wing's loss to Chicago. No more playoff hockey for my poor old dad. After that I had some coffee, instant of course. The coffee gave me an incredible burst of energy and put me in an excellent mood. I guess because I haven't had any in a few weeks? So I got busy with my laundry and cleaning my room. I started prepping for lunch; cutting up asparagus, rinsing my rice, etc., and literally as soon as the rice was in the rice cooker and I had pressed cook the power went out. THERE WASN'T EVEN A STORM!. Okay, there was some far off thunder and some clouds, but that's it. But it was enough to blow over a tree somewhere in the park onto the one pathetic electric line. The power was out for 9 hours. It was an incredibly boring day. When it got dark and I could no longer read I sat and watched far away lightning on the porch for almost an hour. Riveting stuff. Actually, it was nice. When I came in a bat came with me, so I had to open the door again and hope it would find its way out, it did. Not too long after I heard another noise. I went to the other side of my curtain wall, into the triage area of the search and rescue center and went to the source of the noise. There was a nice rat staring back at me from under some cabinets. So, at least I know my suspicions of something creeping around my desk and trash can at night were not just paranoia. It scurried away and I couldn't find it so I left it alone. Julie came home, and not too long after had her own run in with the rat. We worked together to try to chase it out the door. We may have been successful...Of course, at about 9, when it was time to go to sleep, the electricity came back on. I was so tempted to make some food, since all I'd eaten was PB&Js and yogurt for meals all day, but I just went to bed instead.<br />
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This morning we got up, despite an ominous forecast, and went to find the A group. We finally found them after much searching, and after listening to tons of OA duets. OA duets are really cool, but really loud. They're like a normal duet, except the interlude part is this really loud "oh-ah-oh-ah-oh-ah!" sound repeated over and over. It sounds sort of like a siren.<br />
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**Normal duet = introductory sequence (male + female), female great call, male reply, interlude(male + female), female great call, male reply, interlude, etc.<br />
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The cool thing about OA duets, besides their loudness, is that they are really contagious. Once one group sings an OA duet, all the other groups start. So, it was a loud morning, with lots of singing. We found A, and I finally got to meet Andromeda, (probably) the oldest gibbon in the Mo Singto study area. She's been the adult female in her territory since habituation began here in 1991. The A group was actually the first group habituated here. Julie says she is about 37-38 years old, which is ridiculous. I think a gibbon's life expectancy is about 30. She sure looks old, her wet fur from last night's rain didn't help her appearance. She's so old that she hasn't had a baby in years. Its just her and Chu; empty nesters. He is younger than she, and is certainly not helping his fitness by remaining with a barren old grandma. I wonder why he stays with her even though she can no longer improve his reproductive success. I guess they must have a very strong bond. We did our scan, which was easy (thanks for being old and slow moving!). We couldn't do the python experiment though, so we'll have to come back another day. Just as we were getting ready to leave, it started raining, and I mean RAINING. We made our way back as quick as we could, mostly staying on trails, slipping only a few times in the mud. We got laughed at by the people at the park restaurants when we emerged from the forest completely soaked. When we got back I learned that my dry bag indeed does work, and my pants are more waterproof than I thought because my notebook that was in my velcro pocket was dry! Of course when we got back we also learned the electricity had gone out again. The thunder and lightning was a bit scary. A few times the fluorescent bulbs in my room sparked and the switch wasn't even on so I'm not sure what that was about. Luckily power was back by 1:30 pm so I started our laundry and got my data entered into the computer. Tomorrow we aren't going into the field because the forecast looks bad, and because Julie wants to get her proposal done for her research here next year, and because its Saturday, which means tourists.<br />
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So here are some photos from today, none of the cute W baby from Wednesday because I forgot my SD card that day. Silly me.<br />
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A vine in the shape of a heart!</div>
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Andromeda</div>
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Chu</div>
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Chu grooming Andromeda</div>
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Andromeda looking ancient</div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03302242455097334019noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2413768746571491187.post-37994784307701377962013-05-28T04:12:00.001-07:002013-05-28T06:31:34.890-07:00rice cooker adventuresPart of each day here is dedicated to learning how to cook palatable meals using only a rice cooker and a device that boils water. This wouldn't be too difficult if I could have rice or ramen noodles for every meal without going insane. However, as a Western chick, I need some things like bread, (non-Asian) noodles, and most of all potatoes. Cooking meat also stumped me at first. Storing fresh meat is a whole different story, because the freezer is out of commission and our fridge has a rough time keeping things cold enough in this weather (a problem compounded by the power outages we have at least once a week). So fresh meat must be eaten ASAP, as I tragically learned this week. I had to throw away a whole chicken breast along with the rice I cooked it with when I realized that even after repeated rinsing and thorough cooking, the smell was not going to go away. I read some helpful hints on the internet on what people did to freshen meat before the days when throwing precious protein at the slightest sign of spoilage was an option for most Americans. So next time I'll try to revive my stinky chicken rather than throwing it out, and if all else fails cook it in some spicy curry to mask the smell... This may disgust normal people, but throwing out meat isn't really an option, and from what I've read I should be fine as long as its thoroughly cooked. So, I'm still learning, and I have confidence that if nothing else after five months in Thailand I will have learned how to be very resourceful and thrifty.<br />
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<b>Experiment 1: Rice cooker macaroni and cheese</b><br />
Original recipe: <a href="http://www.lynnskitchenadventures.com/2009/02/rice-cooker-macaroni-and-cheese.html">http://www.lynnskitchenadventures.com/2009/02/rice-cooker-macaroni-and-cheese.html</a><br />
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So, I couldn't find broth at the store, just little chicken flavor cubes; the instructions in Thai obviously. I also don't have a measuring cup and didn't think to buy one, so I had to guestimate on quantities. I just dissolved a cube in some hot water and hoped for the best. So, I'm not sure if with regular or properly prepared broth this recipe would be good, or if I'm just a purist and like to have my macaroni a certain way, but I am definitely not using broth to boil my noodles next time. It gave it TOO much flavor, and I don't think mac and cheese should taste like chicken soup...it should taste like CHEESE! So, noodles boiled in water next time. Also, there is no shredded cheese to speak of, so slices were the only option. Other than that, it was good. It doesn't look beautiful, because the cheese is white and because some of it stuck to the bottom of the cooker (the bane of my existence).<br />
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Voila!</div>
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<b>Experiment 2: Coconut and green curry "soup"</b><br />
One of my favorite Thai dishes. The awesome thing is that here you can make it really easily with various soup mixes. So I bought a carton of the coconut green curry sauce and just had to add my (questionable) chicken and broccoli and cook until everything was done! So easy and so tasty! The only drawback is that since I only have one appliance to work with I had to make the rice first, then the "soup" (quotations because I boiled it down so it was less soupy and more saucy). That makes things take longer. It was really good, and the strong flavor and spiciness masked any smell the chicken may have retained after cooking.<br />
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YUM! Spicy!</div>
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<b>Experiment 3: Sauteed asparagus and grilled ham and cheese</b></div>
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So, the actual experiment 3 was just going to be chicken cooked with rice with "Chicken Rice Sauce" over it, but as I mentioned earlier that stunk to high heaven, so I chucked it and had a PB&J for lunch. For dinner, I sauteed some asparagus in butter with chopped green onions and garlic, which was so delicious, but this rice cooker gets so hot I think the butter burned on the bottom. Anyway the bottom blackened which was hard to clean. I may buy some olive oil or something which may work better, but I'm not sure. The asparagus didn't burn though! I made a grilled ham and cheese sandwich to go with it and it was a great meal. Ham is a good meat option that won't go bad as fast as fresh meat. </div>
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<b>Experiment 4: Au Gratin potatoes with ham</b><br />
So this was the experiment I was most excited for, but most worried about failure. Since I didn't actually have a rice cooker recipe, just this recipe for Gratin Dauphinois (<a href="http://gratineeblog.com/2009/10/julia-childs-gratin-dauphinois/">http://gratineeblog.com/2009/10/julia-childs-gratin-dauphinois/</a>). I had read you can cook potatoes in a rice cooker, so I figured this was just taking boiled potatoes one step further.<br />
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I sliced the potatoes as thin as possible. Then I chopped up a green onion for flavor. I rubbed the bottom and sides of the cooker thoroughly with butter. I arranged a layer of potatoes in the bottom, added some bits of ham and only a teeny bit of cheese and sprinkled some green onions on as well as some garlic powder. Then I poured some (non-boiling but room temp) milk over it. I repeated this with a second layer, then put on the lid and pressed cook. I had to add more milk a few times so make sure the potatoes were submerged enough to be cooking. In the end it worked out really well, except for the sticking problem I can never solve. Hence the poor presentation on the plate... But my goodness what this lacks in aesthetics it makes up for in flavor. It was SO delicious, brought me back to Grenoble a little bit (though the people of the Dauphine region might be ashamed of this take on their specialty).<br />
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Bon Appetit!</div>
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<b>And an old favorite</b><br />
So, these were all my brave new attempts of the last few days. However, I should mention a staple that is pretty easy and simple that gets me though a lot of my days. Some variation on rice and vegetables. Rice and vegetables with sausage, or with scrambled eggs, or with ham, or with nothing. It's easy (except with eggs, the eggs have to be cooked first, adding a step), and filling and yummy. I usually use garlic powder, salt and butter for flavor, but the chicken and rice sauce I just bought would also be good. Chicken and rice sauce is a sweet, garlicy, gingery, sort of spicy brown sauce. It is put on the steamed chicken version of chicken and rice (the breakfast I'm always talking about). There is a different sauce for the fried chicken version.<br />
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Simple but yummy!</div>
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So, this is how I'm getting some variety into my diet, and making sure I have enough protein to survive intense mornings in the forest. My mom challenged me to make rice cooker pizza, mostly as a joke I think. But I told her she'd have to try it first before I waste a bunch of money on all the ingredients, which I'm sure will be difficult to find at the Tesco Lotus. So, not sure how interesting this post is to any of you, but perhaps if you ever find yourself forced to survive with only a rice cooker, you'll have a head start. As for myself, I've come a long way from the girl who got here and worried about how on Earth she'd even be able to cook the eggs she had bought.</div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03302242455097334019noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2413768746571491187.post-32465080094930971622013-05-27T06:38:00.000-07:002013-05-27T19:05:43.748-07:00ELEPHANT!The moment we've all been waiting for, or at least the moment I've been waiting for...I finally got to see a WILD Asian elephant! Julie and I were chatting on the porch when our ranger friend sped by on his motorbike shouting that there was an elephant on the road. The place he said it was was sort of far but we grabbed our cameras and jumped into the truck to go have a look. As we passed the viewpoint where the elephant was supposed to be we were beginning to lose hope and assume he'd gone back into the forest, but then a couple more curves down the winding road there he was! He was taking his sweet time in the middle of the road, munching on this and that. We took a bunch of pictures but eventually decided to pass him when he looked to be going back into the forest. We had to drive quite a ways to be able to turn around and head back. On the way back towards home we saw him again or another elephant, since the first looked to be going back in the forest, on the other side of the road. We snapped a few more shots and headed back slowly on the lookout for others. We didn't see any more elephants, but we did see a civet crossing the road and two porcupines! So it was an all around very successful night of animal watching!<br />
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The rest of the day was also very good. I was happy to be in the field again after three days off due to weather and the weekend. We followed the B group to try and redo the python experiment. We were about halfway through our scan when we heard the bark of a barking deer and Julie's face fell, seconds later I could see why. The gibbons immediately started up with a disturbed song sensing danger from the sound of the deer's alarm. So, we had to call it a day, once again. It was an interesting morning though, and I got to see just how pathetic Baak's (female of B) great call is. At one point it seemed that the male and female of B were in the middle of a fierce duel with the BD group to prove who could duet better. Unfortunately for both groups, they have equally pitiful sounding songs, and I had to hold my breath to keep from laughing a few times. A couple of times Baak screwed up her great calls so badly I didn't even know if I should record them. It was definitely a battle based more on quantity and rate of great calls produced than quality. Nonetheless, it was entertaining, and reminded me a little bit of a rap battle.<br />
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I experimented with potatoes in the rice cooker today. I think I will post about my various rice cooker adventures of this past week tomorrow. So for now, I will just reveal that whatever it is that I made today was delicious and very UN-Asian. I spent the afternoon working on Excel compiling some data for Julie, which was great because it kept me from being bored out of my wits. So today was a good day, in fact most days we go into the forest are good days. I haven't been posting on days we stay in, because there isn't much to mention. So you're probably getting an inaccurate level of cheerfulness coming from me. On the days that I am stuck here I feel bored and useless and lonely, so that is no picnic.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03302242455097334019noreply@blogger.com1