My Electric Postcard

Tibet 1.10 - Epilogue - Feeling the need to stop being selfish with the memories.

2011-06-03T14:06:00.000-07:00

On June 11th, 2009, I left Chicago for China and my wonderful trip to Tibet. A trip that was chronicled here on my travelblog. Now, some two years later, I'm feeling the need to wrap up my telling of the adventures of this trip so I can begin to use this blog for its intended purpose. There are many stories from Tibet that never made it onto my blog, but only one that is currently prepared, and I would be remiss if I failed to share it with the rest of the world.

Anyway, before I begin this story, I must say that the last two years have flown by and I have missed many opportunities to share blog-worthy events. Completing my first marathon, a trip to Edinburgh Scotland for IMC9, another trip to Edinburgh (but this time in Texas) for my first job interview. Instead of having these events scream by as if they were images I glimpsed from a moving train, never to be viewed again, I am feeling the need to blog again, if just to keep a snapshot of the moment for posterity. But I first must conclude my Tibetan trip properly. Enjoy.

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Tibet 1.10 - My 4th of July - July 4, 2009

American Independence Day, and I didn’t even realize it until later. But today was a good day. After a full day of being a tourist, and Jun’s overnight in a military hospital, I decided I needed to go out at least once to collect while I was in Lhasa. Jun said that this habitat was the most likely to have mushrooms, so I figured I’d give it a shot. The other draw of course was that it was supposed to be near this monastery outside of Lhasa. Later I learned that it was female monastery. I wondered if this bore any relation to a convent. Wouldn’t that mean that men were forbidden? Well it appeared that I didn’t need to worry.
After many turns and much searching for the monastery, including asking a Tibetan pilgrim for directions who proceeded to ignore us (clearly one of the many individuals who resented the Chinese presence in Tibet) we finally found the right road. A long, winding, steep, dirt road that led up a ravine toward the monastery. Along the way we passed yaks and goats that belonged to the monastery, but we also started to notice that the landscape became progressively greener. A good sign.
Finally we arrived at the monastery. It seems pretty remote and deserted, except there was one woman with a mask over her face typical of Tibetan style. She noticed us but continued about her business. Again I felt like I was a bit of an intruder, but Jun seems impervious to such insecurity. I’m glad for it too, because her confidence gave me the courage to follow her and Susan into the monastery for some tea.
Given that there were few mushrooms, the day for me seemed as if it was a bust. But the experience at the monastery was one of the most memorable of the whole trip. I was kind of bashful being a white dude going into a female Tibetan monastery, but Jun was so nonchalant I felt compelled to follow. Once inside, I had to stoop through some doorways and stumble over random steps that would be a code violation in the US. Stopping to take a photo of some prayer wheels I briefly lost track of Susan and Jun. Slightly panicked by the sudden exposure to observing women decked out in their long and vibrant burgundy-red robes I scrambled to catch up with my female compadres. It’s hard to explain, but I felt as if their gender that I felt shielded me from being a blasphemous intruder into this sanctuary. Like I was going into an exclusive club but, “Hey, it’s OK! They’re members and I’m with them.” Admittedly my paranoia was foolish, but I have to admit that in retrospect it was also amusing.
I caught up with Susan and Jun in the monastery kitchen and sat down with them to have some tea. Their tea was the best! But they also had various snacks about and knowing me, I need to have a nosh with my tea. Right in front of me were these pastry like things. These pear shaped dough-balls that were more pointy, brown overall, but died red on the top. I was encouraged to try one and did so willingly, picking one up and taking a bite out of the top as if it were an apple. Susan and Jun did not expect me to use this tactic to eat it, but, to me, it seemed like the obvious method. Anyway, the expression on my face after that first bite must of been hilarious cause Susan just went off laughing. Suffice to say, the taste wasn’t great... actually it was quite disappointing. It was basically a giant butter ball made with barley flower. I’m not sure if they cooked it in any way, and the butteriness of the item was actually rather rancid. Anyway, I took a few more bites to cover my displeasure before giving up on the thing. Fortunately the tea was so good that I didn’t mind accepting a couple more cups to wash down the remains of my barley butter ball.
After the lovely tea, we took some quick pictures of the place which was quite beautiful with some amusing decor. Old fashioned, western-made wallpaper lined the ceiling. Something one might find in their eccentric great aunts house. Wallpaper that hadn’t been changed in over 40-50 years. Faded colors of candy-cane designs and hearts containing scenes of rabbits having tea, girls with parasols, and other Alice in Wonderland inspired visions. That kinda wallpaper. The women that were working in the kitchen at that time seemed to warm up to the idea of having their picture taken as well. This was amusing as not just an hour earlier, Susan tried to have her picture taken with a group of the “nuns” as she was pressing plants. However, just as our driver raised the camera to take the shot, they all turned away at the last moment. I guess this was simply bashful reaction, and not some sort of formal aversion given the eventual opening up of the women from the kitchen.
Anyway, that was such a nice and memorable visit. Afterwards, we continued on down the hill and collected a few more times. Again, there wasn’t much in the way of fungi as it was the dry season for Lhasa.

We later learned that instead of flying back to Kunming, Jun decided that we all drive back in one big caravan. I groaned at the thought because I was not looking forward to the loooong trip back by car. Bumpy dusty roads, white-knuckled roads along cliff sides with 1000+ foot drops and no railing. My underwear is riding up on me now just thinking about sitting in those linoleum seats for hours on end. However, there were a number of eventful moments on the ride back. Early on we were delayed because a landslide had blocked part of the road. The army later came with a bulldozer to fix the road. We also came across a Tibetan Wolf. I failed to get a picture of him, but I’m glad I didn’t get my camera out because I would likely have taken a photo of the still alive but eviscerated sheep. Apparently we had interrupted the wolf’s kill. Hopefully it came back later to finish off the poor creature. But not after we spent, in my opinion, waaaay too much time gawking at the disturbing sight of a suffering animal. Naw, that image is seared in my mind. I didn’t need to get out my camera for that.
Suffice to say, we made it back to Kunming alive and well. I spent the next few days wrapping up my specimens to be shipped back to the Field Museum. I then left for Beijing to visit the Microbiology Institute and examine some Calostoma collections. I was surprised to meet up with my friend Ryan Kepler who was there for the summer looking for his Cordycepts. His advisor, Joey Spatafora, showed up the day after I arrived and I had a blast visiting the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven with him for my last day in China.

All in all it was a fantastic trip. The kind that makes me wonder how I got so lucky as to find such an incredible occupation.

Best not to question too much, and just make sure to enjoy the ride. Underwear wedgies and all!

Andy....

Tibet 1.9 - Lhasa at last - June 3rd 2009

2010-02-17T17:52:00.000-08:00

FYI: click on any photo to view it in more detail.

Three weeks after leaving Kunming and a few small misadventures, we arrived in Lhasa. I have been reading Peter Hopkirk’s book Trespassers on the Roof of the World and I couldn’t help but put myself in the shoes of many of the western explorers Hopkirk writes about. Almost all of the western travelers in Hopkirk’s book never made it to this enigmatic city. It remained a mystery to the western world until Francis Fitzgerald “invaded” the city on a diplomatic mission involving a british arsenal and several thousand soldiers in 1904. This was all under the guise of establishing free trade with the Tibetans, but it was actually fueled by the paranoia of assumed (falsely it would be revealed) diplomatic ties between Russia and Lhasa and that such a conspiracy would put Russian soldiers perilously close to British India in mysterious lands just to the north. The sad truth however is that the Tibetans were (are) a tragically private people seemingly on the point of xenophobia and that they gave no one, British or Russian, access to their country. The level of secrecy was so high that brutal punishments were carried out for failure to successfully turn away outsiders. Such punishments extended to those hired to assist these intruders to travel in Tibet, wittingly or otherwise.
Some of these stories reveal a savage culture that existed in Tibetan society. This seems to sharply contradict all the similar reports of their friendly and inquisitive nature, which is a side to their culture that I myself have experienced. But now that I’m in Lhasa, I can sort of begin to understand some of the paranoia they had about permitting access to foreigners. Other than the Potala (The Dali Lama’s palace), the Jorkam, and a few other Tibetan buddhist monuments and monasteries, Lhasa is pretty much a Chinese city now. There was a lot of modern businesses and restaurants in Lhasa, all run by ethnic Chinese. Of course, as throughout Tibet and much of China, there was a considerable military presence. That and there seemed to be a lot of begging and pan-handling happening. Open destitution seems to me to be a contradiction to the ideals of what is supposed to be a communist country. However, assuming my understanding of Tibet’s history is accurate, it seems that economically the people are no worse off, and perhaps its arguable that the standard of living for the average Tibetan has increased under Chinese dominion. Still, it seems there is plenty more that could be done to improve the livelihood the the Tibetan people, thought I must admit, my experience and knowledge of their situation is way too limited to make any real authoritative assessment.

There is plenty of Tibetan culture to enjoy in Lhasa, especially in the old town. The Jorkam is one of the holiest temples in Tibetan buddhism and with the number of pilgrims packing the place it is easy to see why. For a westerner like me, it costs around 90 yuan (about 15$) to get in, but there are lines of Tibetan pilgrims that wander in freely, to pray and prostrate at the numerous shrines in the building and give small denominations. This was part of the charm of visiting such a site. Sue, Jackie and I all went to the Jorkam to see this site, and it was a little uncomfortable rubbing and bumping up against all the other Tibetans in the dark cavernous confines of the Jorkam. There are no electrical lights or windows with access to sunlight in the Temple. Predominantly lit by yak butter candles and what little light filters in through the atrium from the upper levels the Jorkam is relatively cool and cave-like, a little stuffy and slightly claustrophobic..... OK for some it would be very claustrophobic, but it was fascinating nonetheless. We did feel like intruders in a sense, with all the pilgrims staring at the out-of-place westerners. But I just needed to remind myself that we did buy our tickets from the monks of the temple, and that although the Tibetans are a deeply religious people who are protective of their believes, this is not to say they are inhospitable. On the contrary, as I’ve come to learn, they are actually quite open and willing to share their culture and religion to those that were respectful and interested.

Outside of the Jorkam there were also many pilgrims showing their reverence and devotion in two ways. First, prostrating involves starting from a standing position they kneel down to their hands and knees, then they slide their hands forward touching their stomachs and forehead to the ground. They would then reverse this motion until they were again at a standing position. How many times they would end up doing this, or what the significance of such an action was, I do not know. However the level of devotion to prostrating was evident in the sophistication of the gear which involved special padding or “shoes” for the hands, which would aid in the sliding movement. The second display of reverence involved walking in a clockwise direction around the Jorkam. Tibetan’s walked clockwise around all buddhist structures such as stupas and even the Potala. The clockwise direction seems to have some significance as well since that is the direction in which they spin their prayer wheels. Unfortunately I’m again ignorant as to what this significance means. Perhaps this needs to be the subject of a future blog....

In Lhasa we managed to do a bit of shopping. I was looking for some Tibetan quilts/tapestries and some prayer flags. We found the tapestries at this artisans collective on the eastern end of the old town. They also had a number of other crafts for sale at the place, supposedly all created by local Tibetans using traditional methods. The benefit of shopping at this place was that all the proceeds went back to the Tibetan communities. Sue scored the biggest, paying a nice sum for this beautiful Tibetan rug. She (and almost myself) was sold on the fact that these rugs were made from 100% Yak wool, which by nature is supposedly more dirt and stain proof, and retains the dyes better than regular sheep wool.

Anyway, this was our first day to play tourist. Unfortunately it had to come at Jun’s expense. Apparently an injury she suffered about a month prior in Vietnam had become infected. As a result, she had to receive antibiotics by IV at a local military hospital that day. Despite this unfortunate turn to our trip, it was nice to have a day without work. Honestly, I hadn’t planned on doing much work around Lhasa, since the area was all alpine desert where the chance of finding mushrooms was very slim to none. But gladly, I decided to go out the next day. That ended up being another memorable experience to my trip... despite my making only one collection.

Andy....

Tibet 1.8 - The Mystic Valley (July 1 2009)

2009-10-26T15:57:00.000-07:00

I love the forested parts of Tibet. Here we are so high, the forest looks like it is on fire with all the clouds clinging to the mountains like smoke. Yesterday we landed next to a beautiful alpine lake. The lake is fed by glacial waters and as a result is completely turquoise in color. On the lake is a small island on which sits a buddhist temple. Prior to our arrival, Jun referred to this area as a hidden treasure. Well hidden it is no longer. They (the Chinese government) has expanded and paved the roads, built a parking lot for cars and tour buses, and are building a large visitors center in order to charge tourist who come into the area. From what I can tell, admission to the area is pretty much limited to visiting the temple on the island, yet from what I understand, newly built footbridges too the island.

Anyway, we are staying at a ‘resort’ of sorts. I share a little cottage with Jun, Jackie and Sue. There is a nice front porch where we can hang out on and watch all the pigs and piglets rooting in the surrounding yard.

Today we ended up collecting in a place that I like to call the mystical valley. To get there we had to go down a dirt road that was restricted by a gate. We had to wake up the guard who was fast asleep in a windowless shack. It was kind of amusing as we could hear him fumbling in the dark of his little hut for some clothes only to stumble groggy, hair a mess, into the daylight, to let a few American and Chinese scientists through his gate. Despite the inconvenience to him, he seemed quite amicable. Probably the most action he would see all day from his relatively remote corner of China.

As we drove I noticed what seemed to be many new buildings that I assumed represent the increasing prosperity among the Tibetan people. I can only imagine that it is compensation from the Chinese government for the commercialization of the lake area. I feel safe in this assumptions since I noticed that the frequency of new homes dropped off the farther into the valley, and from the lake, we traveled. As we drove the stone Tibetan homes were less frequent as the communities were built up with the traditional rustic log-cabin type structure.

The the farther we got into the valley, the more remote the setting and more breathtaking the scenery became. The valley stretch off in either direction, fading into the distance behind a mist of clouds and rain. The river that wound through the valley, and the one that fed our lake, was the same beautiful turquoise like the lake. On the opposite side of the valley you could see the white cascades of a massive waterfall that, even from a distance, trembled with a roar you could feel in you chest. Though it was the clouds and rain overcast the valley you could still make out the shadowy peaks that silhouetted through the mists. As these were the immediate peaks that shown through the low-lying mists, I imagined that on the ridge behind loomed even larger and more ominous mountains.

Part of the mystical quality of this valley was the feeling of being in a place that few outsiders experience. We drove as far as we could into this valley with our vehicles. There was no road after this, though we knew the valley

and the Tibetan communities that lived there continued on. Many of these communities live entirely off the land and their livestock. Yaks, horses, pigs and other livestock roam the land freely. One amusing moment was when a yak started following Jun. She didn’t know what to do, or why the animal was following her, but decided to keep moving. The yak, perhaps recognizing it’s mistake, soon left her alone. Later on we noticed something that might explain the animal’s bizarre behavior. While we were eating lunch a Tibetan woman was chatting with and luring her yaks back to her home. They seemed to be like puppies or dogs following their master. I noticed she was wearing red and wondered if the yaks had become imprinted to the color. Until Jun came to the valley with her red jacket, the Tibetan woman’s sweater was really the only thing in the valley that was that color. Anyway, an amusing episode to say the least.

Since there was so much livestock around the meadow, the place seemed heavily grazed. Not unlike every other place in this part of the world where people depend upon their animals for subsistence. However, that didn’t stop there from being numerous species of Primula, Ranunculus and other herbacious flowers carpeting the ground. Toward the edges of the valley, the forest creeped into the meadow with, fur and spruce trees. This is where I started to look for fungi and found some nice stuff. An Inocybe, a few Amanitas, and a nice Gymnopus collection. I’m particularly interested in the Gymnopus I’ve been finding considering it was the topic of my master’s thesis. I like to see if any of the species I’ve been collecting add up to something new.

The day was interspersed with rain. There were some buzzkill moments when we lost our other mycologist, Feng, in the woods. Apparently he did not realize, that when we stopped briefly on the drive back to look at the plants that it was supposed to be short. We ended up losing track of him in the rain and cold for about an hour. He turned up though, and on the way back found a monster Leccinum. Obviously this turns and old addage on it's head into, “No bad deed goes unrewarded.”

Later, the sun ended up coming out and we made yet another stop where there were no fungi. So I ended up assisting the botanists and ended up collecting what Jun tells me is a new plant species.... Go figure! Glad I could help.

I loved this place. It was definitely one of the more enchanting moments of my trip....

Cheers,
Andy...

Tibet 1.7 - When they stick their tongue out at you... (July 30)

2009-10-21T11:51:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was in Bayi, which I guess is the second largest city in Xizang. Our group was walking to lunch and I noticed an elderly Tibetan woman walking in the same direction, spinning her prayer wheel and glancing at me. Many of the places we’ve been have not been opened up to tourists other than Chinese, so me and my western colleagues have been the recipients of many a curious stare. This made me uneasy until I learned that all I had to do was smile and give a nod or a wave. Such a simple gesture seemed to break through the awkward barriers of uneasiness and insecurity as the locals responded eagerly in kind. From perplexed to enchanted, almost every Tibetan returned a big ol’ grin and waved back. I was told Tibetans were friendly, but experiencing it is something else. I can only imagine that they must have been told the same thing about westerners.

Anyway, I did the same trick with the woman on the street, but her response was quite new to me. She stuck her tongue out at me! Now, it wasn’t your typical “nya-nya, na-nya-nya” type tongue, but more of the tongue-depressor type tongue.... (Sorry, that’s the best visual I could come up with.) If I wasn’t reading Peter Hopkirk’s “Trespassers on the Roof of the World”, I wouldn’t quite know what to make of this. Apparently, the sticking out of the tongue in this fashion is a traditional greeting in Tibet. After the woman did this, it did take me a little time to process it and I found myself thinking about it at lunch. In the end, I felt rather touched to have experience such and interaction.

“An old Tibetan woman stuck her tongue out at me in greeting.”

How many people can say that?

Tibet 1.6 - It’s good to be a Ph.D.

2009-09-30T19:00:00.000-07:00

One of the luxuries I’ve been able to enjoy on the trip is the fact that I’ve been given my own room at every location we’ve been. A few months ago I would not have gotten this treatment, and to be honest, didn’t quite expect it now. My understanding is that it comes with the addition of a few extra letters to my name, and the fact that with these letters you are essentially promoted to another class of citizen here in China.
Anyway, I wanted to introduce the team:

Jun Wen - Smithsonian Curator, botanist, and organizer of the trip. Rick Ree described her as a “Force of Nature”. That almost sums her up.

Sue Lutz - Jun’s assistant from the Smithsonian.

Jackie Van De Viere - U of Ill. at Chicago/Field Museum graduate student. Working on systematics of Primula.

Nie Ze-Long - Associate Professor, Kunming Institute of Botany. One of the co-organizers of the trip.

Xie Lie - Postdoc in botany and KIB. Also did a 1 year postdoc with Jun at the Smithsonian and was one of the people to pick me up at the airport.

Yang Fusheng - Associate Professor, Institute of Botany Beijing. Nice guy, but don’t know much about him.

Niu Yong - Ph.D. student in botany, KIB. Nice guy. Good with photography. Accompanied Jackie on some of her previous fieldwork in China.

Li Gudong - One of the youngest graduate students. Masters student in botany at KIB. Has been given the task of booking our rooms and coordinating our meals at each stop. I wonder if he had gotten stuck with this job because he’s the ‘rookie’ so-to-speak.

Feng Bang - Ph.D. student in mycology at KIB. He has an interest in ectomycorrhizal fungi (who doesn’t?). He has also helped me to identify some of the fungi we’ve collected. Found a gynormous Leccinum (see picture).

Hu Yongfu - AKA ‘Rodney’ becuse he reminded us of Rodney Dangerfield. A bit of a jokester. He drives the little red Mitsubishi van that goes by the nickname ‘little red’. He’s also seems to be a bit of a cheapskate as he tries to get the other drivers to take all the luggage because it weighs down his car and reduces his gas milage.

Zhang Xiaopeng - Drives the white Toyota van which has become the “support vehicle” that carries most of our luggage and the botany supplies. He’s also a bit fond of barley wine as he ended up purchasing 10 cases of it when getting supplies for the trip. This pissed Jun off to say the least.

Ma Hongqi - Driver of the silver Mitsubishi SUV. Seems to have problems with directions as earlier in the trip he was continuously making wrong turns. Once we started heading into Sichuan instead of Xi’zang (Tibet) because he went strait instead of crossing a bridge. That put us back by about an hour. He’s also ‘Muslim”. I put that in quotes because he doesn’t eat with us since most every meal has a pork dish, but I have seen him sit down at the dinner table to drink beer. That confuses me because I didn’t think drinking alcohol was permitted in Islam. Perhaps he practices a particular brand of islam where it is permitted.

Anyway, that’s the crew. An interesting bunch, and for the most part, we all seem to get along pretty well.

Andy...

Tibet 1.5 - Finally some real fungi... - June 27th

2009-09-23T20:35:00.000-07:00

Sorry it’s been a while since my last report. After our stop in Markam we were in Bomi. There the fungal collections picked up quite a bit. I’ve also somewhat intensified my attempt at video documenting. I’m fortunate that my new Macbook Pro has the capacity to handle all the photos and video that I’ve been collecting. It’s becoming a challenge to try and keep up with the management of my files, collect and describe fungi, and video document this trip. Sadly my attempts to keep a traditional scrapbook/journal of my trip has fallen by the wayside. I’ve even failed to collect one beer label to put in the book, though that’s not to say that I haven’t been drinking beer. At least I got a Tibetan sticker for the front of my journal. In retrospect, I guess I should be somewhat glad that collecting fungi hasn’t been all that intense. Otherwise I would not have been able to document the trip as much as I have.

But that seems to have changed as of yesterday. Right now I’m in Linzhi Xian (xian = county) and we are staying in the village of Lulang. Yesterday we went to a mixed terrestrial alpine forest, very much like what you’d find in N. America, and I was able to make close to 20 collections. I was able to get some spore prints from the few Laccaria specimens I collected, which made me happy. So the trip has picked up a bit for me on the scientific end. I’ll only have a few more days of being in this kind of habitat so we’ll have to see how many more collections I can make. In the meantime, I’m going to try to document the trip as well as I can.

Before arriving here in Linzhi we were in the town of Bomi for several days (June 21-23). An interesting town surrounded by tall, snow capped mountains. I’m amused by the inquisitive stares by all the locals. Westerners don’t come to this part of China. Most Tibetans have never seen the likes of people like me. I love their reactions whenever I stare back and suddenly smile and wave with a jolly “Hello!” Their first response is a somewhat startled surprise, but it is quickly followed by enthusiastic smiles and responses of “Hello” in kind. It’s always a revelation for me how much weight and power a simple gesture of friendship and respect can carry. I guess it also helps that the Tibetan people are unabashedly curious and friendly to begin with.

Today we visited a subtropical forest. There we were met by the other extreme of moisture that prevents mushrooms from fruiting. The coolest part about the trip was the old bridge that we had to cross. Apparently the path we used was an old road that would take you all the way to India. Besides the lack of fungi, the moisture provided optimal conditions for leeches. Sue got initiated finally. She’s seems sufficiently creeped out by the whole experience.

I realize that I haven’t introduced my colleagues on the trip. I’ll have to do that for the next installment.

Cheers,
andy...

Tibet 1.4 - Out of the Mekong (~ June 20th)

2009-08-30T16:44:00.000-07:00

Not without mishap, we made our way into Tibet (AKA Xizang). My god what a country! Most of my time has been spent in a car or watching my fellow scientists collecting plants along the side of the road. My disappointment of having collected only 6 specimens in the last 5 days has been sufficiently buffeted by the sheer awe of the landscape. I don’t believe I’ve seen or experienced a more naturally beautiful part of the world, and being from California where my youth was spent traveling in the Sierras and Yosemite, I have a decent basis for comparison. Traveling along these bumpy roads I’m constantly finding myself scrambling for my camera so I can take another shot of a beautiful mountaintop, a stupa with prayer flags silhouetted against a mountain range, or a beautifully decorated Tibetan home in a lush alpine valley. I hope that my pictures convey at least a fraction of what I’ve experienced in my travels. If you ever have the opportunity to visit Tibet, see what you can do to take the overland route. You will be spending plenty of time on dusty, dirty, bumpy roads, but if you enjoy the natural beauty of mountains, Tibet will definitely fill your heart and spark your imagination. No doubt.

Part of this country’s enchantment comes from the people. They add to the beauty of this land in such a profound way. Colorful, and not just figuratively. From their homes to their dress, they seem to be drawn to bright primary colors. Seems fitting since much of the landscape is primarily dusty and grey. Almost every local stares at us, seemingly transfixed with curiosity. The ones we’ve met have been very gracious, bold and bashful all at the same time. Just today we stopped at a spot to collect some plants and there were a couple men and women there selling herbs along the side of the road. Apparently, they sell these medicinal plants to the Chinese tourists that drive by. However, they were curious enough about what my botanist colleagues were doing and eventually wanted to help. A couple women helped Sue lay out and press the specimens, while Jun sent the guys out to help find and collect different plant species. In the end she ended up giving them about 30 yuan for their help, which is about what they would make in a day by selling their plants, or so I’m told. In dollar terms that's about $5. Seems like we were taking advantage of them, but in retrospect, they were very eager to help, and apparently earned their day's wages in the 30 minutes they spent with us. I like to think that we made their day more interesting, if not better. They certainly made ours.

Though I may whine a bit about not having found my precious mushrooms, I’m probably most chagrined by the fact that were beginning to enter a part of Tibet that has the potential to be prime mushroom country. There are tons of conifers, mostly consisting of Abies and Picea, but there have been some Pinus as well as Larix around. There are also plenty of Juniperus and other evergreen shrubby plants at the higher elevations so there’s got to be ectomycorhizal fungi about.

More later....
andy....

Tibet 1.3 - Onto Xizang... Almost... Maybe? (June 18-19)

2009-08-16T13:24:00.000-07:00

Yet another hitch in the trip. We are stuck at the boarder of Tibet waiting for the tourist visas we have to apply for in order to pass this particular boarder crossing. We have scientific permits, however we are crossing at a checkpoint intended for tourists. As a result the boarder guard wants us to get tourist permits. “Welcome to China.” As a result, we are sending someone back, with our passports, to get the tourist permits in one of region offices in some nearby city. You will notice that it doesn’t matter that your scientific permits are from a higher authority than where you get your tourist permits, you still have to pay your dues to the local powers that be.

On top of this we’ve had our fair share of car (and driver) issues. We started off with four vehicles, but one broke down in Shangrila, so now were down to 3 vehicles and one of these is having starting problems. This problem started in Shangrila, and was apparently fixed, but has since re-surfaced here at the border crossing. On top of that, there are clashing egos between the drivers when it comes to fixing the problem. The driver of the problematic car, is insisting on fixing the car himself and refuses to listen to another driver that claims to know what the problem is. There seems to be a lot of boasting about vehicle maintenance. Fortunately, the drivers seem to have resolved the problem yesterday and the car is now running. Jun was exasperated. Too many things have gone wrong this early in the trip.

Another somewhat amusing issue is that the driver of the troubled car has habitually been making wrong turns. We were trying to find a lake, near Shangrila, to collect by when we went down a wrong road while he was in the lead. There were a lot of turns and the mistake could have been forgiven, but unfortunately it wasn’t and isolated incident. When traveling from Shangrila the next day, he missed the bridge crossing the Yangzee, taking us to the boarder crossing with Sichuan instead of heading for Deqin. That probably set us back about an hour. Then when leaving Deqin for the Tibetian boarder the next day, he raced ahead and took a right, heading back toward Shangrila. Suffice to say, he’s no longer driving in front of the caravan.

In the meantime, were staying at a very ill-conceived resort style hotel in Yan Jing. They have nice amenities. Relaxing settings. I can see and hear the roaring (and murky) Mekong river out my window. The resort was built around some local hot-springs. Part of the problematic over-development of the region. Though this place can boast having natural hot springs, it is too remote of a location. You need a 4x4 to weave through the small village and undeveloped roads to get to this moderately palatial, yet eerily empty hotel. With the exception of perhaps one other family, we are the only ones here. Reminds me of The Shining.

Anyway, we should be getting our permits this morning. It’s been a relaxing stop and I think I’ve caught up with my photos and writing for now. I should be getting at my postcards soon, but who knows when the next post office will be.

Hope all of you are well...

Bisoux,
The Yak Whisperer...

Tibet 1.2 - Shangrila-Deqin (June 16-18)

2009-08-13T15:55:00.000-07:00

If only allowed one word to describe my trip thus far I would have to use exhilarating. In part due to the breathtaking beauty of a country in which I’ve only experienced a fraction of. It is also the white knuckle kind of exhilarating when you are traveling a few thousand vertical meters high, skirting along the side of a mountain on narrow two-lane roads that you share with massive construction vehicles and trucks. I find myself torn between the wonder of the beautiful countryside and the edge of the precipice from which our car is only traveling a few feet from.

Now I’m going to cheat and choose another word. Frustrating. I keep having to remind myself that I’m fortunate to have been invited on such and expedition, unfortunately, much of the trip has been an exercise in patience. I’m trying to avoid the feeling that I’m wasting my time here. Yes its great to be in Tibet to study fungi, and yes its nice to make acquaintances with other scientists, and to be experiencing one of the most enigmatic and wondrous places on earth, however at this point fungi collecting pales by far in contrast to the success of the botanical collecting. I’ve literally spent hours sitting or wandering around with nothing to do in the field because it’s too dry for mushrooms. However, the plant collecting is great cause many things are in flower right now. The first collecting site was beautiful. I felt as if I was in the Sierras. Lots of spruce and fir with some birch and even Larix. I’m sure the fungi collecting here is great during the right time of season. Right now it’s way too dry. Regardless, Jun has promised that we will find fungi in the wetter habitats of Tibet. I’m looking forward to that.

Thus far I’ve experience two cities in western Yunnan province that serve as introductions to the Tibetan as well as many of the other Western cultures of China. The cities and counties of Shangrila and Deqin were written up in the recent issue of National Geographic (2009, Vol 215, no. 5). The article does a nice job of describing the region and culture here. I’ve seen many of the features and photos in the article, from Mt. Kawagebo, to the giant Fortune Victory Prayer Wheel. The natural beauty of this place has been the most inspiring. Something I can really only sum up in pictures. That, I hope to have up on my picasa page soon.

Enough for now....

Tibet 1.1 - Chicago to Kunming (June 11-15)

2009-08-06T12:59:00.000-07:00

So after a nearly 26 hour trip from Chicago to Kunming China (5hrs to LA, 2.5 hrs in LA, 13hrs to Beijing, 3hrs in Beijing, 3hrs to Kunming), I was tired and stinky, but grateful to have finally arrived at my destination. I was met by Feng and Lei who picked me up at the airport. Feng is another mycologist who is a student of Zhu Yang. He will be the other mycologist joining on this trip. Lei is a botanist and a postdoc at the Kunming Institute which is hosting this expedition. He’s also a former postdoc of Jun Wen, the de-facto leader of our expedition from the Smithsonian. Considered a ‘force of nature’ by Rick Ree.

Along with our driver, we navigated through the streets of Kunming to find a bank where I could exchange some US currency for Chinese yuan. Kunming is a crowded city. Lots of chaotic traffic (that I’ll save a separate blog for) and lots of construction too. Apartment buildings from what I can gather. New building construction was lashed together by what looks like synthetic bamboo. Likely a form of metal rebar or something

Anyway, they took me to a great lunch just outside the north gate of the Kunming Botanical Institute. We ordered a ton of food that I couldn’t stop eating. The food on the flights over were lousy so having this meal really hit the spot. They then took me to my guest house and checked me into this nice suite. I also met the other Chicagoan, Jackie, who is a student of Rick Ree’s at the Field Museum. I told her we should meet up for a dinner and a beer after I cleaned up a bit and had a quick nap. That nap ended up lasting 4-5 hours and by the time I got up Jackie was already gone. Thankfully too, cause I was still tired and went back to bed.

My first day was mostly uneventful. Jackie went to mass and was surprised to hear that no one had bothered to contact either of us regarding the trip the whole day. I called Jei so I could send off an email to my parents and only then did I hear that they were sending the vehicles over that afternoon so we could load them. I was wondering how they were expecting to inform us other than driving up and announcing 'were here, now pack your luggage and put it in the truck since were not leaving until tomorrow.' Ah well. I finally met Jun when the vehicles came by to load some of our luggage. Up to that point, there seems to have been very little in terms of a set schedule. The only plan so far was to meet promptly at 7AM to put in our last bit of luggage into the vehicles before heading out to China’s ‘wild west’.

That night we got together with Fredrick for dinner, a french botanist doing his postdoc here. He’s been here 2 years and had a pretty good grasp of the language. We went with 2 more of his Chinese friends and lastly, Rosemary who is a mycology student from Camaroon studying Ganoderma. We had chinese hot pot that night for dinner. Delicious! The floating chilies on the boiling broth reminded me of an episode of "No Vacancy" where Bourdain visited a hot pot in Sichuan. Though my hot pot was just on the boarder of my spice tolerance, I doubt it was nearly as destructive as the hot pot on that episode. Fredrick even mentioned that he ordered the mild hot pot. I thanked him for that.

Anyway, I’m here. A new day has just started and I’m eager to move onto Tibet. I don’t have ready internet access, but from what I understand there should be internet bars to encounter along the way. My next destination is Shangri-La (AKA Zhongdian). You can read about this region in the latest issue of National Geographic (May 2009). I have the copy my dad gave with me on the trip. Something else to do if mushrooms are hard to come by.

Peace.
andy....

Tibet - Prologue

2009-08-05T20:49:00.000-07:00

Between June 11th and July 17th I was in China to join a botanical expedition as a mycologist. The project was funded by the MacArthur Foundation, not just to collect plants, but also to foster the education, exchange and discovery of the eastern Himalayan flora, specifically, Tibet.

I had intended to publish my adventures and experiences during the trip. Unfortunately, I was introduced to China’s restriction on free speech and was unable to access this blog during my entire stay there. However, there is always a work-around. Instead of publishing directly, I maintained a journal of parts of my trip on my computer, with the idea that I would publish them upon my return.

Anyway, I’m home now... Have been for several weeks. Of course on top of moving into a new apartment in a new city, getting up to date with the progress of the summer intern, taking off again for another conference, and many other distractions, it’s hard to find the time to settle down and get this blog published.

But sooner is always better, so check in over the next few weeks as I publish my accounts. I’ll publish them at about a rate of one a day or so. Just tune in now an again to check out the latest tale from my trip in Tibet.

Andy...

Bye-bye Worcester.

2009-06-08T16:58:00.000-07:00

Though I've been in Chicago for over a month, it's still not quite home. Not the way Worcester is... was... However that will change. But before it does, I have to pay the town that was my home for 7 years its proper respects. So I wrote this homage to Worcester to get it out of my system...

There will be a lot I will miss about Worcester. After seven years of living there I had grown familiar with the city. I developed a comfort level that is generally reserved for those places that you call home. That was probably the hardest tie to sever. The fact that I was leaving the place that I called home permanently.

There are many things to miss, but my most recent abode would be tops among those I would miss most. This, my home for the last 3+ years, was the Broad Meadow Brook Wildlife Sanctuary. I’ll miss shoveling snow and operating the snow blower, mowing lawns, hiking the trails and working with the volunteers, the bicycle rides to and from Clark, cooking a nice meal or brewing beer with a close friend or going "herbal" and watching a video with another.

I’ll also miss some of my favorite haunts. Blues, patio, and ziti with meatballs at Vincent’s, the gothic style, live music and pretzels at Nick’s, and the eclectic atmosphere and shows of Ralph’s. The Armsby Abby is a recent addition to Worcester and it quickly became a favorite of mine with its good food and its variety of beers on tap. Of course, Peppercorn’s quickly followed suit with a broader beer selection and made wings night with my colleagues more attractive. However, despite the greater variety, I would still order the BBC. One part of Worcester I have missed for a long time was the passing of the Bijou. It was a great aspect of Worcester, with its artistic/foreign cinema, cold beers and hot sandwiches. It was a tragedy when that place was shut down.

Of course I cannot forget my friends at Acoustic Java. There are so many wonderful people that work at and patronize the cafe. There was generally only one place I wanted to go to get away from the office. Even if I was not in the mood for a decaf, I would get one regardless. Some of the best flatbread pizza could be found at the Corner Grille. And my favorite breakfast was the spinach and feta ommlette with home fries from the Corner Lunch. Of course in the dead of winter, there was no better belly warmer than the mac n cheese with grilled veggies from Annie’s.

Many of my fondest memories come from the barbeques that I threw and friends that attended. One of my favorites, and biggest, was my farewell barbeque. I wish I had taken more pictures, but thanks to Tara and Steve, I have a few to share. These can be found on Picasa. They were taken later in the evening when most people had left, but are a nice memoir of the night. I also want to thank all the people who showed up. I’ll miss you all, and you all have a place to visit if you are ever in Chicago.

David, Manfred, Margit, Brian, Dimitris (x2), Alfredo, Camilo, Kristen, Danielle, Ingo, Patrica, Kirk, Paul, Cara, Sarah, Chris, Justin, Kelly, Jana, Ana, Elise, Monique, Tim, Kringle, Bethany, Addison, Tyanne, ___, ___, Dave, Erica, Sara, ____, Zach, Hamil, Tara, Steve, ... and Nomar of course.

Hugs and Kisses
Andy....

The Big Chicago Move

2009-04-30T19:20:00.000-07:00

Right now I'm in a Comfort Inn in Portage Indiana. Tomorrow I'll drive about 40 miles to begin my new life in Chicago. Yesterday I drove 11 hours from Worcester MA to Morgantown WV to visit my old Clark friend Evan. It was great to see him again, and I wish I could have stayed longer for more QT. Anyway, I want to thank him and his wife Rebecca and his awesome kid Cormack for hosting me. I hope I get the chance to repay the favor.

Today, I drove another 10 hours to get here. It feels strange to be at this point. Much of my life over the last 6-8 months has been building up to this new life. Yet, in the back of my mind, my life is still in Worcester, MA and that I'll be returning at some point. Later this weekend I hope to blog my homage to Worcester. A little celebratory salute for hosting me these last 7 years.

I had hoped to blog on my move sooner, but my time has been so limited. My last weekend in Worcester was filled with parties, packing and visits. David held a BBQ for me. It was good to have another get together with many of my friends and colleagues from school. I was floored by the Calostoma cake he got me. My friends Kristen and Danielle took me to brunch at Block 5 the next morning. That night I dropped my little buddy off with Camilo, Dimitris and Rishi. I hope he will be happy there for the next 3 months as I get settled in Chicago. The in-between time was filled with packing up my apartment. I'm amazed at how much stuff I've accumulated.

The last two days before the move was filled with more packing, scrambling and finishing my TA responsibilities. I tried to pick up my rental truck and trailer in the morning on Monday before I had to proctor an intro biology exam at 10. However, I found that I couldn't use my Visa to pay for the rental because there was a $500 security limit on the card. So after the practical, I had to go to the bank and get enough cash to pick up the trailer. That afternoon several friends came over to help me pack up the truck. I seemed to have plenty of room in the 16 foot truck until I filled it up on Tuesday night with my remaining possessions.

Now, sitting here in room 122 in Portage Indiana, I'm ready to move on to my new life in Chicago working at the Chicago Botanical Garden.

Do'n the Du, Try'n the Tri.

2008-05-17T09:26:00.000-07:00

So several months ago I decided to be bold and do a triathlon. I asked around to see if anyone would like to join me and my friend Ian stepped up. I'm not sure what made me so ambitious, especially considering that I already had a lot on my plate, but I'm glad I did cause it was a blast! I have a little photo diary of the events on Picasa. Go ahead and check them out.

Training for the triathlon was important. First, I needed to know I could swim 1/4 mile. I wasn't so worried about the 11.8 mile bike or the 3.1 mile run, cause I had done those distances before. Just never at once. So first order of business was to make sure I could push myself through the water for 10-15 minutes straight. In the Clark University pool, a 1/4 mile equates to about 8 laps. I started off for 4 laps the first week, then planned to add a lap each additional week. After about 3 weeks I got fit enough to where I could easily swim 10 laps. Mind you, this is more doggy paddling/breast stroke rather than actual crawl technique. I'm still having problems doing more than 1.5 laps in a pool with the crawl.

Ian noticed that there was another race about 2 weeks prior to our triathlon that looked like fun. This one was called the Rockbuster Offroad Duathlon in Ashland State Park and was on April 27th. Both Ian and I had been going Mt. Biking to get in shape, and this looked right up our alley. It starts with a 1.8 mile trail run, then 5.6 miles mt. biking, then finishes with another 1.8 mile run. I had initially backed out of doing this cause I didn't feel ready or that I had the time. Ian talked me back in, and I'm glad he did. It really helped prepare me for the triathlon, mentally as well as physically. Now I new what to expect from a race. I also found it interesting that my body wasn't completely exhausted immediately after the race. It wasn't until later in the afternoon when my energy level tanked. Anyway, my times are below out of 80 people.

Bib Full Name Category
104 Wilson, Andy Males 35-39

Run : 1.8 Bike : 5.5 Run : 1.8 Overall
Cat Ov Time Cat Ov Time Cat Ov Time Ov Time
9 38 13:33 24 6 29:36 9 37 16:05 32 59:14

The triathlon itself was held in Hopkington State Park. Called the New England Season Opener, it was held just northwest of where we did the Rockbuster Duathlon in Ashland State Park. The race was on May 11th which, as you know by now, was Mother's Day. Early on I had decided that I wanted I [heart] Mom inked alongside the bib number on my arm. Fortunately, the woman who was doing the marking was into the idea. For simplicity, I just had her put MOM inside a heart. It worked out pretty good I think. How about that for a belated Mother's Day gift Mom? Part of the fun of these races is comparing your times with those of others. For the triathlon, they actually timed our transitions which was cool. I think I did much better switching to and from the bike than when I did the Rockbuster. What was amazing to both Ian and I was that some of the top competitors were able to transition in as little as 40 seconds. It made sense to me when Ian said the transitions were called "the fourth event".

By looking at my times for each event, I could easily tell that while I was good at the bike and decent at the run, I completely sucked at the swim. The water was soooo cold. Every time I put my head in the water, I ran out of breath. I basically had to do a breast stroke about 90% of the swim. Pretty much explains my lousy time. Out of 231 contenders, I ranked 204 in the swim. But I was good enough in the bike and the run to place 122 overall. No overall top 50% that I was shooting for, but it was my first tri.... (get it? tri vs. try?). Whatever. My results are below.

Place No. Name  Hometown
===== ===== =====  ============
122 299 ANDY WILSON WORCESTER MA

Final Div/Tot Div
======= ======= ======
1:19:58 12/21 M3539

Rank Swim Tran1 Rank Bike Tran2 Rank Run
==== ===== ===== ==== ===== ===== ==== =====
204 14:05 2:25 92 39:38 1:41 105 22:09

Another fun thing was viewing the professional photogs of me in action. The ones from the Rockbuster, when I had a beard, were pretty impressive. I looked intimidating. You can check the best ones out on my Picasa site. I totally didn't recognize myself in the pictures they took for the triathlon. I thought the pictures were of someone else until I noticed the clothes were mine. One of the perks of training for something like this is that you develop a whole different body image. Not the scrawny kid I used to be anymore. ;)

So now Ian and I are discussing doing an Olympic Triathlon as a relay with this other guy Ben. Ian will swim, I'll bike, and Ben will run. We don't know what/when we're going to do it yet, but it sounds like another fun goal to shoot for.

Anyway, that's my latest blogventure.

As always,
Luv n stuff..
andy...

Malaysia 3.3 - Photo journal: December 2007.

2008-01-07T16:50:00.000-08:00

Hey y'all,

So if you go to my Picasa site HERE, you can gander at a few of my photos from Malaysia.

Brian and Eileen have even better photos HERE.

... and Cathie's are just plain killer!

While I have your attention, you can check out some of my friend's blog sites on the bottom right.
Andy out....

Malaysia 3.2 - Hang on to yer wallet!

2007-12-20T06:45:00.000-08:00

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – OK, so I guess when traveling you have to experience a few bumps in the road right?

About a week ago my computer started dying. For some reason it wasn’t re-charging. I basically used it until the battery ran down and I thought that would be the end of it for the rest of my trip. Well, I don’t know what happened since then, but given that I’m using it now, something got fixed. Perhaps it’s more likely I was screwing something up, but whatever.

Comparatively more serious was loosing my wallet at the Park Royale Hotel during the Asian Mycological Conference. Word to the wise, don’t wear cheap ass shorts from Target with shallow pockets, stuff them with an oversized designer wallet then sit down on a over-stuffed lobby chair. It’s going to squirt out of that pocket like you’re stepping on a tube of toothpaste. I didn’t know I had lost it until 2 hours later. Luckily the myco-gods were smiling on me since some kind person turned it in to the reception desk. Perhaps that person has some sort of Jeckle and Hyde complex, because someone also happened to withdraw about $160 from my checking account (about all that was in there at the time) within the 2 hour time span that the wallet was gone.

Despite these minor (in retrospect) bumps, this trip has been awesome. My enthusiasm for this part of my Malaysian adventure is definitely mushroom inspired. I know the mycologists and non-mycologists are reading that last sentence two entirely different ways. Regardless, the collecting in Sabah with Brian and Cathie was great. On the Sunday after the AMC, we flew into Kota Kinabalu and checked into the Casuarina Hotel. An OK hotel near the airport, but suited us just fine with the beachside bar/restaurant just down the block. Nice cold Carlsberg to welcome us to Borneo. I also got off this cool picture of Cathie. Both Brian and I thought it worked well with the Singapore Sling in the foreground and the islands and Casuarina trees in the background. I told her she would get a lot of grad students applying to her program if she put it up on here faculty profile page.

My friend Mark from KK met us later that day. Mark is great! He basically volunteered to chauffer us around KK and even up the mountain to Mt. Kinabalu National Park where he also arranged accommodations for us. The place we stayed at had a gorgeous view of Mt. Kinabalu as seen from the included picture.

In exchange for his generosity, he got the opportunity to observe mycologists at work on the mountain and see what we do collecting mushrooms. Unfortunately, I think he was a little disappointed. One could easily imagine that if 3 people traveled half-way around the world to collect fungus, then they should be collecting something mind-blowing and earth shattering. Something that might have a profound effect on humanity...

Nope...

We made no long treck into dense uninhabitable jungle.
We didn’t collect giant charasmatic megafauna (nor megamycota as the case is).

We just collected lots of numerous, small, and in my opinion, gorgeous fungi that were simply waiting for us to marvel at them. Actually, we didn’t get more than 10 meters along the path and into the forest before we started going "ohhh" and "awww" and all the neat little fungi we were finding. Not the adventure Mark was hoping for it seemed. Towards the end though, I think he was getting a little more into it. In retrospect, mycology only manages to capture the attention of scant few individuals. A bit disappointing considering how incredibly important these things are. Perhaps we mycoprophets will someday be recognized for the gospel we preach...

My apologies to you atheists for that analogy.

Regardless, even though Mark’s experience was questionable, ours was great! First off, I was very glad to meet up with Ahmad and the other FRC crew, Rusli, Nurdin and Musuari. I had previously copied his cell phone number down incorrectlyand I had no way of getting in contact with him. I’m glad I had made arrangements to meet up with him at the entrance to the park because there he was, awaiting the arrival of my jolly little band of mycogeeks.

The fruiting on Mt. Kinabalu was great for the Mycenas. Brian I think was quite happy. I was happy to again find Calostoma fruiting, but I still didn’t find the C. insignis that Taylor Lockwood photographed. Cathie also found a Calostoma, but it wasn’t either Taylor’s C. insignis nor the species I had collected, but something else entirely. I asked Cathie to take me to it the next day. We ended up going the wrong direction in terms of finding Cathie’s Calostoma, but the right direction in finding Calostoma in general. I found two more 1st time collections. One I believe to be C. brookei and the other C. retisporium, which I think is also the species I had collected 7 months ago on this mountain. However, this population was on a different trail and consisted of around 60-70 fruiting bodies. I spent nearly 30 minutes photographing, collecting soil samples, and gathering the fruiting bodies around this one tree. Ahmad found another 5-6 fruiting a few feet away. I left those there. Then, after walking further up the trial, Brian and I noticed yet another population that was spread on the forest floor among the rattans and consisted of perhaps 50 fruitings. I figure that if I am going to continue ecological studies of Calostoma, this will definitely have to be a study site.

Anyway, we bid adieu to Mark along with Pete and Erin from the Field Museum who met up with us on the mountain, and headed on down the south side to Sepilok and the FRC. The facilities at the FRC are ideal for field mycology. I think even Brian and Cathie were a bit impressed. The plant pathology lab has large ovens that can be used as dryers, microscopes, and even facilities for culturing such as a sterile hood and autoclave (thought their operational status is unknown).

At this point I hit the next big bump in this trip. The plan was to return to the FRC, spend the night at the Sepilok B and B, then head out the next day for Danum Valley. Danum Valley is a conservation area that has one of the largest areas of undisturbed Dipterocarp forests in Sabah. I think there was some confusion about permission. Ahmad called to let them know we were coming and was visibly disappointed when telling me that the said we couldn’t go. However, we were able to make lemons out of lemonade (sorry for the bad analogy), because we decided to go collecting in the Orangutan sanctuary. Yep, you heard right. And the mushrooms there were fruiting like mad! Marasmius galore! Brian also found some great bioluminescent Mycenas. One night he brought a couple home and put them on the stand between us. I swear they glowed as bright as the green light glows on my digital watch.

There weren’t many mycorrhizal fungi fruiting. It was pretty much all saprotrophic stuff, but it was everywhere. Anyway, after about 4 days of pretty intensive collecting, I think we were spent. Our last Friday was spent wrapping up specimens and seeing to shipping details. Brian and Cathie took in the Orangutan feeding at the Sanctuary. It was the first they saw of the primates even though we had collected in their living room. That night, the three of us finished off the last of the Black Label, and 18 year old Chivas that I got from Duty Free. All of it during a terrific tropical rainstorm.

That’s pretty much it for this part of my trip. Hope you enjoyed my ranting about mushrooms though most of you might only recognize them when they’re on your pizza.

I want to give big ups to Mark and the folks at FRC (Ahmad, Rusli, Nurdin, and Masuari). You helped Cathie, Brian and myself have a wonderful trip!

Peace out y’all
andy...

Malaysia Postcard 3.1 – No Hanky Panky Penang.

2007-12-09T16:32:00.000-08:00

Penang, Malaysia – So I’m here at the Asian Mycological Congress that is being held at the posh Park Royal Hotel. It’s good to be back in Malaysia. This signifies an end to what was a pretty challenging semester. To be honest, I can’t think of a better way to end it than on a beachside tropical resort, socializing with friends, both personal and professional, new and old, foreign and familiar.

This is my first trip to Penang and I’m glad I made it. My friend Cathy wasn’t so lucky. She was waylaid by storms in New York, ended up missing her flight out of Hong Kong and had to stay an extra 24hrs. I guess it wasn’t too bad since her airline fed her well and put her up in a hotel.

I had my own bumps in the road to get here. I flew out of Boston on a Thursday morning and went through Long Beach on my way to Oakland. Jet Blue however decided to ship my luggage from Long Beach to Salt Lake City. I arrived in OAK at around 3PM and my flight for Kuala Lumpur was going to leave out of San Francisco a little after midnight. I was slightly concerned about not getting my luggage. They ended up sending it back to Long Beach from SLC, then to Oakland. They told me they would then deliver it to SFO and I could pick it up there. In the meantime, I decided it might be prudent to try and get my seat for the flight before my luggage arrived. I figured once I got the seat reserved, I could then check in my luggage as soon as it arrived. Anyway, when I got to the counter, the China airlines attendant asked for my luggage ticket from JetBlue. Not thinking about needing it (which was dumb of me) I threw it away with the used ticket stub. She said all she needed was the number. Why? I’m still not sure, but hoping to get my seat, I figured I could get that luggage ID number from the person delivering it. I had the persons number, so while at the ticket counter, I dialed it. As soon as it started ringing, call waiting kicked in. It was the woman delivering my luggage. At that moment, she walked into the SFO international terminal, and wheeled my luggage up to the China Airlines ticket counter. Pretty wild eh? I’m soo lucky! I think there’s a pattern forming here. There’s been some crazy travel mishap occurring on each one of my Malaysian trips. I’m taking it as a good omen, cause the other trips were stellar!

And so far, this trip as gone pretty well. Although I’m not nearly as prepared as I was on previous trips. I hadn’t had the time to think through the packing too well, so I have many useless items as well as items I’ve been missing, but all I really need is food, sleep and a toothbrush and I think I’ll pull through. There was also this ominous message scraweled out in the cement down the street from the conference. I’m still trying to figure out it’s meaning. I doubt it was meant for me though. I’ll just keep telling myself that.

The layout of the conference has been pretty good. Some of the ceremonial stuff has been a bit disorganized. Some of the conference attendees have been a bit rude, talking during speeches and presentations. I had to shush some gentlemen in the back row of one of the talks. At least they got the hint. Besides these quirks, the symposiums have been going well. My talk was well received, but was more of an strait up evolution talk in a session geared towards phylogenies and taxonomy. Regardless, I feel I've gained a lot from my interactions with people here. I finally got to meet Roy Watling. Great guy! What a character, and a great legacy of mycological work in Asia, especially with mycorrhizal fungi. He’s been helpful in terms of giving me ideas for projects. One big proposal that has been on my mind is a fellowship with the Smithsonian.

The Smithsonian wants individuals to work on New World ecosystems and organisms, but they’re open to proposals from other countries. I’m strongly considering a proposal that juxtaposes New World and Asian tropical/sub-tropical Calostoma communities with Fagales. Since Malaysia/SE Asia is the epicenter of Fagales diversity, it seems like it would be rich topic for studying questions regarding co-evolution, biogeography and biodiversity. Right now the project seems a bit broad in its scope and I’ll most likely have to narrow it down for a 3-year proposal. Conferences like the one I’m at are ideal for networking. I’ve already discussed this with a number of people who seem willing to help out and have pointed me in directions that could potentially work well. Also, I’ve re-engaged the notion of working with Chuck Cannon in Xixuangbanna China, since he’s the guy who knows Fagales in this part of the world.

They’re feeding us like crazy! Great huge lunch buffets, nice coffee breaks with snacks. Last night was the conference banquet. They gave us a 7 course meal consisting of soup, seafood, satay... etc. There was a Wayang Kulit (shadow puppet) performance that was awesome. We had a lousy table (cause we were fashionably late), but if you moved to where you could see and hear you would have learned how Isaac Newton stole the theory of gravity from a Malaysian scientist. Of course the story was told jokingly. There were humorous (and corny) lines like the one after the apple (in this case durian) fell on Newton’s head, “An apple a day doesn’t always keep the doctor away.” Lots of dry British humor delivered with a Malaysian flair... Brilliant! Perhaps the accent made it funnier? The rest of the evening’s entertainment continued with traditional dances from different Malaysian cultures. Eileen was thrilled that they had a group doing some Bollywood themed performance. They went over the top though with a cheezy theme song for Malaysia’s 50th year of autonomy from British rule. The chorus is something like “Malaysia, Truly Asia”... eeek! Anyway, I used my new digital Cannon to take some film clips of the evenings entertainment. Perhaps I’ll put them on YouTube. If I do, I’ll let you know.

Another cool aspect of the conference is that they commissioned some batik artists to create some original artwork for the conference. It’s fun to watch them work. I never realized that the technique is so simple because the artwork can be sooooo beautiful. Check out some of the guys at work!

I ended up staying at a guesthouse around the corner from the resort. Instead of paying the $100 plus a night for a room, I’m splitting a room with Ryan Kepler from OSU and paying something around $20/night. The place was actually pretty nice and comfortable. However, it was slightly spoiled by the fact that the drainage pipe to the toilet developed a leak and was seeping sewage onto our bathroom floor. The smell was pretty gross. It took a little while to detect the cause of the smell because the bathroom floor also serves as the floor of the shower and has a drain in it. We didn’t recognize the brownish hue to the liquid on the floor until the second day... pretty ewwe eh?

Anyway, the conference has kept me busy and I haven’t had time to enjoy the resort and beach as much as I’d like, but I’ve still had an awesome time. Now that I know my way around a little, It would be nice to come back and experience it for real. Next I’m back in KL for a few days with Brian and Eileen before Brian, Cathy and I head off to Borneo for some collecting. More on that in the upcoming weeks.

Hope life is well with you and you’re all behaving accordingly.
Luvnstuff
Andy...

Postcards from Malaysia IV: The Borneo Blog.

2007-06-18T12:25:00.001-07:00

One of my concerns about traveling in Malaysia was the cost. Little did I know that the low cost airline, Air Asia, would for me re-define the meaning of... well... low cost airline. I had to get four flights to travel in Borneo, and the prices ranged from RM270 (<$90) to a low of RM$110 (<$30). That’s less than thirty bucks for a plane flight! Can you believe it?!?! Suffice to say I was pleased... but no one told me about the weight restrictions on these flights. At 23kg my luggage was well above the 15kg weight restriction they had for checked luggage. Since they charged for every kilo over the weight limit, I would have to pay an extra RM90/flight. That’s another RM360 for my Bornean travels (AKA another $100). Fortunately, they had a luggage storage counter. With an extra duffel bag I wisely packed in my luggage, I was able to store the extra 8kg of luggage for just RM10/day. I hoped this would be the last of my complications for Borneo.

First stop, visit Grand Perfect Sdn. Bhd. in Bintulu, Sarawak. The company works with the Forest Department of Sarawak to develop an environmentally stable source of paper and pulp though planting Acacia trees (http://www.plantedforestsproject.com/#). There I finally got to meet with Joannes Unggang who, along with Rob Stuebing, has been my main contact with the organization. Both help manage the department of conservation for Grand Perfect.

I had diner with Joannes (Rob was away) and two co-workers Jacinta Richards (who would be my guide for the visit), and Belden. They explained they appreciated having someone bring a new kind biological experience and perspective to their conservation work. Much of their work has been with zoologists studying vertebrates. These studies are useful as an indicator of forest health but at the same time it’s studying a small fraction of the overall ecosystem. However, they do what they can. Their job seems quite difficult considering their department has less than a dozen people and they have to evaluate the biodiversity of nearly 500K hectares of land that the government has allotted for the project.

The next day Jacinta Richards took me on a tour through the Acacia plantations and the Samarakan nursery. We walked through the Glen Forest trail, a half hour loop that took us about two hours because of all the friggin’ mushrooms. Marasmius, Amanita, “Ganoderma”, there was plenty to collect. This trail was in one of several untouched forest areas throughout the plantation. I wasn’t sure collecting would be much better with in the Acacia orchards, but yet I came across beautiful clusters of Thelephora and other fungi. As I learned about Grand Perfect's goals and toured just the small area around the nursery, there seemed to be so many opportunities worth exploring. So many ideas were swimming through my head during the visit. I’m really looking forward to my next one.

Another interesting aspect of Borneo is the culture. It is somewhat different from Western Malaysia. There are Malay people here practicing Islam, but as Joannes, Jacinta and Belden educated me on, most of the population of Sarawak is made up from different indigenous groups, many of which practice Christianity as well as anamism. One of the largest groups is Iban. They, along with many other Bornean indigenous groups, are known for their beautifully ornate tattoos. I’m told that it helps to identify a warriors body once the head had been taken... yikes! Seriously, head hunting is a long extinct practice in Sarawak, which is something my hosts are quick to point out.... Unfortunately my stay in Sarawak was short lived. After two great days, I had to move on. Thanks Joannes, Jacinta, and Belden for a great first trip! I hope to get back there soon. Next destination: the Forest Research Center in Sepilok, Sabah.

I was met at the airport by Farrah Effa Daud. She picked me up with her co-worker Kelvin and after a brief lunch we went to the FRC. Sabah is the state with the biggest ecotourism draw in all of Malaysia. From its undisturbed primary rainforests to it’s natural, bird filled caves, from the second highest peak in SE Asia to the coral seas along it’s coasts, Sabah is a haven for the adventure tourist. The natural areas of Sabah are large and under FRC manages forests that are not used for commercial ventures, either tourist or agricultural. Farrah was recently hired as the chief of the pathology department and with but a bachelor degree in microbiology. I got the impression she felt a little over her head. Again I was met with the situation where my knowledge and experience was greatly appreciated. I must admit that it is a good feeling being the one with the expertise.

Anyway Farrah took me to meet Robert Ong. He was the first person I ever contacted at FRC. His dry wit took me a little off guard, but soon I was able to catch up and we discussed my plans and how I might be able to help Farrah and contribute to the FRC. I stayed at the Sepilok B&B, which is just around the corner from the FRC and happens to be owned by Robert. I had a huge room in a separate bungalow all to myself, complete with aircon and satellite TV. Once I found out the kitchen sold Tiger beer, I began to wonder if there was much reason to leave. The FRC’s a Forest Discovery Center just down the street was enough to motivate from the B&B with it’s tropical arboretum. However, on top of this, about a kilometer down the road was the famous Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre. If that wasn’t enough, the FRC was also having their annual open house showing off their Herbarium, Entomology museum and library of wood from various tropical trees. I was grateful for my B&B’s Tiger beer at the end of the day.

After a day of visiting, I piled into the truck with Farrah and her 3 staff members: Ahmad, Nurdin and Rusli. They don’t paint the speed bumps in Sabah. Actually that’s not quite accurate, but it does somewhat explain what it feels like to be traveling down uneven, potholed roads at 100km/hour. It was a long, bouncy four-hour drive. But we made it to our destination... Mt Kinabalu.

Mt. Kinabalu is Malaysia’s first world heritage site. The wiki entry is pretty impressive in and of itself (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinabalu_National_Park). We stuck to the trails around the park headquarters and that was all we needed considering we found Calostoma. They were “over-ripe” specimens, but still they were a collection. In addition, it was a different species from the one that had already been documented there. Besides Calostoma, the collecting was beautiful, with Lactarius, Tylopilus, Amanita and a blue Inocybe (check it out Brandon!). I’ve got to come back!

Suffice to say I had my hands full with describing for the night. Fortunately I had Farrah and Ahmad to help take the edge off. With a little direction, they were describing away at their own collections. I took plenty of photo’s only a few of which are sampled here. What do you think?

Anyway, I had a great time and I’m hoping to return in December after the Asian Mycological Congress. There might be different, and fresher, specimens of Calostoma then. Farrah suggested going to other remote places such as Danum Valley where my fungus has been observed before, or even the more remote Maliau Basin.

Despite the hiccup at the beginning of the trip, my first experience of Borneo was fantastic. I can’t wait to return and explore more of this intriguing corner of the world.

“The world’s not smaller,
There’s just less in it...”
- Jack Sparrow, from that movie with the pirates in it.

After my experience, how can I possibly agree with that? Until my next adventure.

Love n’ Stuff
Andy...

Postcards From Malaysia III: The mushroom crew and “cheeky monkeys”.

2007-06-13T08:30:00.000-07:00

After a long flight it’s hard to do much else but take it easy. The Dukes of Hazard, the one with Jessica Simpson as Daisy Duke, was on HBO in my hotel room when I got to Malaysia. Every time I’m traveling down some twisted Malaysian highway I hear Willie Nelson singing that goofy theme song, “...Straight'nin' the curve... Flat'nin' the hills.”.

Those lyrics followed me all the way up to Fraser’s hill.

Fraser’s hill is named after some British recluse who lived in the mountains bordering Selangor and Pahang provinces. He had a mule and traded in tin. The local Bishop made a point of keeping track of him and when he failed to make his regular visit, he put out to search. Finding this area where Frazer apparently lived. It looked like like a good place to set up a regular outpost.Fraser never turned up... so the area was named after him.

The forest in the mountains around Fraser's Hill is thick with steep, sometimes plummeting, slopes. People have gone missing recently after wandering off marked trails. The forest around Fraser’s hill is nothing to trifle with. Just ask Fraser.

But sometimes one must veer from the trail a little to find what one seeks. (Why am I speaking in 3rd person?) Calostoma sarasinii was collected just off Pine Tree Trail by Dennis Desjaridin a few year back. In January 2006 I followed him to collect it again. It was my best collection of Calostoma in 2006, complete with gorgeous fruiting bodies and beautiful ectomycorrhizae. This trip I made an equally beautiful collection of C. berkleyiii from Ulu Bendul (at right). As a result I suspected C. sarasinii would be fruiting in Fraser’s Hill too. It was... but just 5 immature fruiting bodies. And much like Ulu Bendul’s soil cores for the past two collection, Fraser's Hill soil cores turned up a bust for Calostoma sarasinii root tips. Not exactly what I was hoping for, but I don’t consider Fraser’s hill a loss. I found bunches of Scleroderma, and an interesting bright yellow, fruity smelling, spongy, gasteroid thing. It has orange rhizomorphs. Could be some kind of truffle? I wasn't confident about any kind of determination I was making. In my recent meeting with Dr Lee Su See, she pointed me in the direction of Gautieria. Whatever it is, it's a pretty neat fungus.

One afternoon in Fraser's Hill, everyone was napping and I was awoken by some banging and bustling followed by Agnes’ giggles. I decided to check on the commotion. I entered the living room and Agnes just giggled and exclaimed, “monkey!” A little groggy, I was not sure what she was talking about, but then I looked out on the patio of the 3rd floor apartment to see this monkey sitting on the railing. Poor Agnes just wanted to photograph her boletes. Poor monkey was thinking he was going to get a snack. Apparently he had jumped onto the patio, startling Agnes and causing her to jump inside and close the sliding glass door. Thoughtlessly tearing the stalk from the cap, the monkey took a quick sniff of one of Agnes' specimens and we could tell he was expecting something more. “Sorry pal, that’s the best you’re going to get here.”

My trips into Western Malaysia’s forests have involved great company. Agnes has been an excellent host making all the arrangements and taking care of the logistics. Two other UM students have also accompanied. First there is Sumaiyah (simply referred to as “Sue”) who is studying Lentinus, and Hasnul who is studying and culturing polypores. Both are great, and I’m not just saying that because they laugh at my jokes... though that helps put me at ease when they do. Our driver is Kamarudin. He’s our Bo Duke. (Or is it Luke who drives the car?) We call him Encik Din (pronounced in-check din) which means “Mr. Din”. He’s great! Not just an excellent driver, but also takes an interest in the collecting and the safety of the UM students. He generally likes to accompany the students into the forest with his parang (Malaysian machete) and helps collect the challenging fungi (polypores on hardwood, mushrooms hidden behind prickly rataan). You can see him and Agnes in the rope bridge picture from the first postcard.

Life here in Malaysia is not all fungi fondling and fruitless root tip searching. After sampling a few hotels, I decided to try finding a more budget friendly guesthouse in downtown KL. The neighborhood called Bukit Bintang is also known as the Golden Triangle in KL. It is a little more upscale than the neighboring Chinatown, but maintains the color and cultural diversity of urban Kuala Lumpur. It’s also next to some crazy malls. The mall scene in Malaysia is way out of hand. Some of the malls here would make a casino in Las Vegas blush. Seriously, the Sunway Pyramid Mall has a pyramid with a giant sphinx overlooking the freeway! Another is big enough that a portion of the upper levels is an amusement park complete with a roller coaster. And that’s not even the largest mall in KL!

But I digress. In Bukit Bintang, I stumbled upon a swell place called Anjung KL Guesthouse. The place has nice private rooms with aircon, shared baths, email access, (very) simple breakfast and a nice communal area. Here I’ve met several other
mat sallehs from Great Brittan traveling through. I’ve spent the most time with Sarah and George. Sarah is on her way home from several months in Australia and George, I believe, is in the middle of his travels that have included Thailand and China... I think. Anyway, we ganged up one day to check out the Batu Caves, which is a religious site for Hindus. You can tell that the postcards they sell the Batu Caves in downtown KL are out of date because they don’t have the latest decoration... a towering golden statue of Krishna! There are also several monkeys hanging around there. The flyer at the guesthouse said "beware of the cheeky monkeys". What does 'cheeky' mean anyway? It's too funny of a word to take seriously. The cave is actually this cavernous opening in this limestone outcropping just 20 min outside of KL. I found out later that there is a much more extensive cave system that is open on the weekends. However we visited on a holiday weekend (the king’s birthday) so that part of the cave was closed. Apparently you also want to wear grungy clothes cause there is a good bit of crawling involved.

As for other interesting encounters at the guesthouse, I can't forget Mark: the well traveled gentleman from Sabah who introduced us to our first taste of durian, educated me on travel in Canada, and fed us delicious beef noodles from the chinese vendor down the street. I hope I get to meet up with him again the next time I get to KK.

That’s my latest summary. Next issue... Beautiful Borneo!

Luv n’ Stuff
&e...

Postcards from Malaysia II: Steamboat and the Amazing Ice Peanut.

2007-06-03T03:43:00.000-07:00

…Sounds like a couple comic book super heroes huh? Actually this episode is about dining in Malaysia. And there’s quite a bit to share.

Ethnically, Malaysia is quite diverse. Besides the local Malay culture there are also a number of Chinese and Indians located here. Probably due to the shared connections to British colonization, but it is an interesting mix. The cuisine in Malaysia also tends to be structured along these ethnic lines, making the dining experiences more varied than you would probably get in another Asian country.

First of all, lets start with the Malay food. What can I say about the Malay food? For Malay it is very much comfort food. Food that satisfies, makes one feel at home, familiar. Perhaps what hotdogs and beans for breakfast must be like to the Brits. It’s good but for an adventurous westerner such as myself, the everyday Malay fare is not as exciting as I would hope. First of all, Malay food is centered around fish. They curry fish, put little sardines in the rice and noodles, serve a chili paste that has a base of shrimp. I like fish, but it has to be freshl. Most Malay fish dishes however have a distinctly fishy smell. Not particularly enjoyable to the westerner. It’s not all bad however. Nasi goreng and mie goreng (fried rice and fried noodle dishes) are generally fish free and are on every menu in every Malay roadside shop you pass by. A variety of dishes are based on variations of these.

Most taste the same, but sometimes you can come to a place that is particularly good with frying their rice. Adding the appropriate combinations of spices and chilies. It can be truly excellent. There is also the chili sauce, or sos chili. Like ketchup it is bright red and adorns most restaurant tables, but the flavor is something different. Mostly made of sugar it is a sweet peppery concoction when added to the somewhat salty (perhaps MSG…) and seasoned nasi goreng, the dish is very tasty. That and a mango juice and you have a truly good lunch.

Speaking of drinks… there is the tea. Tea grows well here and they have some amazing tea based drinks. The best tea drink by far is teh tarik, which loosely translated is “pulled tea” or “stretched tea”. Basically a blend of strong tea and sweetened condensed milk, the tea is poured or “stretched” from a height while pulling the containers apart during pouring. Quite popular and definitively Malaysian, its combination of strong bitter tea and sweet creamy condensed milk is awesome. I’ve tried to reproduce it myself with highly questionable results.

Indian cuisine is also a style that’s popular. My first attempt at eating with my fingers was at a local Indian restaurant downtown. Looking for a vegetarian restaurant described in my book I just walked into this one place to be greeted by curious stares. This nice fellow named Alex asked if I wanted a plate or banana leaf. “Banana leaf” of course! Plates are so pasé... and no messy cleanup! A banana leaf, pile of rice, and I was ready to dine. There were dollops of some kind of “salad” one of green beans, another of potatoes and the last one of onions and cucumbers. On top of this, the waiter came around with these curry pots. I’m not sure what to call them but they’re like these little caddies, 3 pots connected to a handle, each with a different curry and ladles and you dish out some onto the rice. Then your set... oh, and everyone uses their fingers to eat with. Just mix a little curry with rice, squeeze it into a little ball and plop it into your mouth. Not to bad. My waiter said it was the first time he’d seen a white guy eat with his fingers. But for heavens sake use your right hand! Your left is supposed to be left for your “other business end”.

The best food I have had by far in Malaysia is the Chinese food. Of course, it helps when you have your own Chinese-Malaysian tour guides to guide you to the best places. The combination of sauces (garlic, ginger, chili, sugar, salt) on top of seafood (crab, shrimp, oysters) or other meats (pork, chicken, beef) and vegetables, is awesome. I love savory dishes. The combination of sweet, salty, sour, bitter, spicy flavors really motivates my pallet.

As my tour guides, Shin and her boyfriend “Fish” (actually his name is the Malaysian word for fish) has had the most influence it introducing me to food. Last trip they took me to The Night Vendors (an open court yard filled with tables and lines with independent food stands that serve everything from satay to noodle soup to desserts of all kinds.)and to amazing seafood close to the coast... a 40 minute drive out of KL. On this trip Shin took me someplace local where we had some nice clams in a chili sauce. There was also eel, crab, pork and some broccoli in this killer garlic sauce.

We topped it off with Ice Kacang (pronounced “ka-chang”). Also referred to as ABC, but somehow, on the last trip I got it in my head to call it “ice peanut”. When I told Shin I wanted an ice peanut again, she stared at me looking confused wondering, “what is this crazy mat salleh asking of me this time?” (Mat salleh is Malay for westerner, or in lay terms ‘honkey’.) I had to describe to her what I was thinking about, and she smiled. She knew what I wanted. 5 minutes later... behold... the glorious ICE PEANUT! Basically shaved ice with different flavors of syrup and coconut and condensed milk on top of different types of jellied and candied beans... no, I mean real beans, like kidney beans. Tastes good... actually it’s awesome.

Agnes has been my main Malaysian guide for this trip and she and Shin took me to meet up with Agnes’ fiancée, Tom, for a Steamboat dinner. Not a dinner ON a steamboat, but particular type of Chinese dining where raw foods such as seafood, vegetables, meats are added to a crock-pot on the table. The place we went to was predominantly seafood. Clams, mussels, shrimp, crab, fish, cuttlefish (octopus, squid, calamari) fish balls, fish noodles, fish cakes.. (basically all different types of fish pureed and shaped into different edible forms). It was all you can eat. Shin and Agnes were prodding me to eat more. At this place its not just about the quality, but also the quantity.

Did I mention how inexpensive it is to eat in Malaysia? It was RM18 for the Steamboat. Considering the exchange rate of more than three ringgit per dollar, that’s less than $6 for all you can eat seafood! I have frequently walked away from a typical Malaysian lunch or face stuffing Indian dinner paying only RM5. The beer unfortunately is about the same price as a beer in the US....

Oh well, can’t have everything.

Luv n’ stuff
Andy.

Postcards from Malaysia part 1: Stinkhorns and tigers and bureaucrats oh my!

2007-05-27T02:50:00.000-07:00

So it’s been over a week since I left on my trip so it’s about time I started doing this web log thing, or more unflatteringly referred to as blogging. Who came up with that name and why did they get to decide for everyone else?

So my trip to Malaysia was fairly enjoyable if long. Boston to Oakland was mostly uneventful, but left me with a tension headache when I arrive. Lunch, a quick nap, shower and ibuprofen cleared things up and allowed me to spend the night in the great company of mom, George and Nancy and their beautiful apartment in SF. The next day dear mum saw me off at SFO and I began the first leg to Incheon Airport outside Seoul Korea. I spent more than I wanted at the luxurious transit hotel there, but I must say 12 hours of rest for my layover was worth it. The next day I began my 6 hour trip to Kuala Lumpur, otherwise known as KL.

The Malaysians love their acronyms. I arrived at KLIA in fair shape, took the KLIA ekspress to KL sentral, then took a teksi to my hotel. All was well… until the next day.

I took the LRT to UM to meet up with Agnes so we could go to the EPU and pick up my permit to perform research in Malaysia. And it was not ready… simply put, it’s been mired in a bureaucratic mess.

I submitted my application over a month before the trip, however little did I know how many hands it had to pass through before it can get final approval. Since I had applied to do research in at least 4 different states, appropriate officials from each of these regions had to sign off before I could get approval to do any research anywhere. Not only this, but afterwards, I learned that final approval would be done by a committee and that this committee would not meet until June 7th….

“Hello? I’m leaving on June 15th…. It was all in my proposal… Ever think to bother filling me in on the apparent conflict?”… Of course not.

So onto plan B.

As an “unofficial scientific observer” I accompanied UM students to Endau Rompin. It’s one of the largest and oldest primary rainforests in Malaysia, if not in all of SE Asia. Apparently, Agnes (The UM student who’s serving as my guide) has found the fungus I’m studying, Calostoma, in Endau Rompin. However we were going to another part of the forest since the accommodations were completely booked at the first site. The place we were at is relatively remote. From KL it was a 4-5 hour road ride, then another 1.5-2 hours on dirt roads, a good 2/3rds of it through palm tree plantations that stretched as far as the eye could see. Apparently Malaysia is the largest palm oil producer in the world. The last 45 minutes or so was through the forest. Looking at the map you could see we were still just on the edge. We hadn’t penetrated the deep forest as there are not roads that go all the way in. Upon consideration I believe it’s best that way.

Anyway, no Calostoma was found (though there is this weird brown thing that only molecules can describe), but wow what a cool trip! There was plenty going on there with the beautiful insects (butterflies and giant Atlas beetles), reptiles/amphibians (good picts for mom), elephant signs, tiger tracts, awesome birds, monkeys…. And yes even some other cool fungi such as bright orange Agarics and glorious stinkhorns a little past their prime. Plenty of leeches too, I got nailed a few times. Though they weren’t as knarly as the mosquitoes. It’s been 3 days since I got back and I’m still counting the bites.

Now I’m back in KL, getting used to the pace of life. It’s hot and muggy, but surprisingly, not as bad as I thought it might be. Tomorrow we head out for a day trip south to a spot where I collected Calostoma last time. Again I’m going as and observer. ;’) Later next week I head back to Frasier’s Hill to check to see if any of my lovelies are fruiting there. Then it’s off to Borneo.

Oh and one more thing. Just so you know, the “American Dream” is alive and well on the far side of the world. I had breakfast at this Dunkin’ D in Incheon Airport in Korea. And while I went to the Kinokuniya bookstore at the upscale mall at the base of the Petronas Towers, I couldn’t help but wonder… then I turned the corner and there it was! Dunkin’ Donuts Kuala Lumpur…

...in all it’s glory.

More adventures to come!
Love n’ Stuff
Andy…