Spring Break 2007 --- Bali, Indonesia

Spencer and I headed down to Bali for Spring Break. We had an amazing time – I’m still trying to catch up on my sleep!

We were fortunate enough to be able to stay with Jeff, a friend of Spencer’s friend who has lived on Bali for 18 years. He let us crash in his fantastic pool house, took us out to amazing restaurants, and pointed us in the direction of the best surfing beaches. (the real house is too the right of the pool house, out of the photo.)

There is even a secret underwater tunnel connecting one arm of the pool to the other!!!

The second day we headed to the north side of the island to dive the US T Liberty, which was sunk very close to shore in the 1940’s by Japanese torpedoes. It was so close, in fact, that the bungalow we stayed in was probably 400m meters from the wreck. The sea life around the ship was fantastic, the water clear and warm.

...I didn't take any pictures diving, but this is the view from the bungalow looking away from the beach, this is one of the many active volcanoes on Bali.

The next day we explored the interior of the island along narrow winding roads through wet rainforests and rice terraces. We passed many little villages, all surrounded by a thick wall and many temples. There are thousands and thousands of temples on the island – every extended family or village has at least 3! The Balinese are almost all Hindu, but their own variety of Hindu, with mountain gods and ocean demons.

Many wear their traditional religious clothing - sarongs and waist ties, the men wear special folded headbands, and the women carry everything balanced on their heads.

A misty road at the top of one of Bali's active volcanoes.

...rice terraces. The scenery was kind of like Hawaii-meets-Vietnam

..."pack the cattle in the truck and lets get outta here!"

Spencer and I explored Ubud, a village taken over by artisans (the hub of the hippies who came in the 70’s and never left…) – the place was a maze of temples and sidewalks snaking in and out of rice fields and forests so intense they grew up the sides of walls. Wood carving was big there, as well as batik and painting.

...trees growing out of walls

...the walkway to a little place to eat that serves great gado gado.

...Balinese washing in a sacred spring in the middle of town. This was the view from the gado gado place.

Held prisoner in Ubud!

...everything is lush and green, even the steps

...every community was walled and everyone had very elaborate entrance ways similar to this.

...this is the entranceway for the homestay we stayed at in Ubud.

...we hunted for this market in Ubud for an hour, ended up getting lost and walking through rice paddies!

...a gateway into the jungle on our way to Ubud.

The following day we headed back down to Denpasar to hit the surf. Following Jeff’s suggestions, we headed out to Dreamland Beach, a humble, secluded little patch of sand surrounded by tall cliffs. A few bamboo and reed bungalows and places to eat were built up the sides of the cliff and dozens of shaggy-haired, pink-nosed people wandered around. We wasted no time renting boards - the waves were steep and pretty big I used a short board, a whole different game than Great Lakes surfing! Once I got the hang of duck diving, though, it was great. I LOVE SURFING.

We surfed for 2 days at Dreamland, and stayed at an amazing reed bungalow built up the side of the next cliff. This is the view form our room high up the cliff.

...this is the way UP the side of the cliff to get back to the road. We stayed in a bungalow similar to the one behind Spencer.

We went out with Jeff our last night and had stuffed ourselves at a Korean Barbecue, tried barbecued cows tongue and interesting fish dishes, and met some of the locals. Our final morning we woke up too early and surfed at Kuta Beach, rented long boards and surfed the slush. I almost didn’t get on the plane to come back to Thailand!


...a scary ride for ducks

Thailand Wildlife! on a recent trip to Khao Yai National Park

Pigtailed macaque scavange for tourist handouts (bad people!)

hand-sized millipead threatens breakfast!

Tree snake - "only a little poisonous"...and his fangs are in the back so he has a hard time getting a solid bite...

Science Fair!
My students have been working very hard since January on their science fair projects. Here are some of them...

UNEXPECTED VACATION TO CHIANG MAI

A recent outbreak of Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease at my school caused us to close down for 4 days. When the announcement was made last period on Thursday all the kids went wild and I went out and bought a ticket for the next overnight train to Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai is the biggest town in Northern Thailand, gateway to all kinds of outdoor adventures, and I hadn’t been there yet!

My top bunk on the train turned out to be more like the overhead storage compartment on an airplane – it even folded up and out of the way when not in use.

On Saturday I explored the city – visited a large beautiful Wat where an “off duty police officer” tried to con me into getting all of my clothes made at a really good tailor down the road – “on sale for the rest of your life if you go today!”

Chiang Mai is a very touristy city – definitely on the banana pancake trail. I even had a banana pancake! On Sunday I rented a $5 motorcycle and headed up the mountain to check out the famous temple perched on top - Doi Suthep Wat. Very beautiful, very golden – visited by hordes of Buddhists touting chrysanthemum flowers and incense. The view would have been beautiful if the smoke from extensive fires in Myanamar hadn’t blown over and filled the area.

I continued farther up the mountain to Doi Pui National Park and found myself very quickly in solitude (which felt so good – you are never very alone in Bangkok…). I went for a long hike to the peak of Doi Pui, through a beautiful pine forest. I continued wandering (no such thing as trail markers or maps) and found myself walking along a very narrow ridge with steep sides dropping down into two valleys far below.

Through the smoky air I occasionally caught glimpses to minority Northern Thai villages in both valleys. A very surreal spot. The path eventually went down down down into one of the valleys, but I never figured out where it was headed.

On Monday I hopped the local bus to the Thai Elephant Conservation Center just north of Lampang. It is the only center in Asia which rehabilitates elephants for free from anywhere in Thailand and allows them to live in the refuge for the rest of their lives (many live to be over 70).

I was thoroughly impressed. 15 elephants were being treated in the hospital from a variety of ailments – a landmine victim, an elephant with a toilet-bowl sized tumor on his leg from a gunshot wound, a few with diseases, and most with general malnutrition from negligent owners.

This elephant has a drip bag…they care for broken legs - nobody gets “put down” here for broken bones – tusk infections, expectant mothers.

Indeed, I saw the first artificially inseminated elephant baby, just 7 days old! He weighed 100 kg at birth and could walk within hours!

There is also a “show” component of the center where the elephants demonstrate their talents moving and stacking logs, playing musical instruments, and painting. A very neat place, considering that most elephant shows are like circus acts with the elephants doing degrading things to make money for their mahouts (owners).

Elephants are very sacred animals in Thailand and have been used for centuries to log forests and construct roads. Since logging has decreased dramatically in Thailand, many of the elephants and their mahouts are out of work. Many mahouts (who spend their whole lives caring for one elephant) can no longer feed or care for their animals and turn to abusive elephant shows or roaming around big cities looking for handouts.

There is a big drive to put these highly-trained elephants back to work as part of the eco-tourism industry. This center is a major player in the preservation of this endangered species. They also use all that elephant poop to make biogas and paper – pretty efficient!


ISLAND BIOGEOGRAPHY IN THE ANDAMAN SEA

At the end of February I was invited to help design a long-term post-tsunami revegetation survey on a tiny island in the Andaman Sea. I flew down to Phuket with Bryan, the owner of a really great outdoor education program up near Chiang Rai (he is setting up a satellite center on this island), and Adrian, a fellow biology teacher from Bangkok Patana. After a 2 hour car ride north and a 45 minute deafening longtail boat trip, we reached Ko Phra Tong – a tiny island which was devastated by the Tsunami. Houses were demolished, trees were uprooted, one woman was carried 1 km on the wave and dropped down…on TOP of a 5’X10’ water tower 30’ in the air! While the people who survived this tragedy may never recover, the vegetation is quickly gaining ground – primary succession species grabbing hold and filling in... We spent the long weekend eating excellent Thai food, swimming on the all-but-deserted beach, snorkeling on the tsunami-destroyed reef and tromping around the beach and forest brainstorming fieldwork areas for the students who will be coming to the center.

Adrian spent many years teaching biology in Phuket and new the names of most of the beach vegetation – so Bryan and I did a lot of learning while exploring. It was interesting to compare Ko Phra Tong island biogeography to Isle Royale/Slate island biogeography (Dr. Rebertus – once again, you are an amazing teacher!)