Madagascar Field Trip (2 Aug-16 Aug, 2011)

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1 Madagascar Field Trip (2 Aug-16 Aug, 2011) Chiu Wing Tung, Ruby BSc (Environmental Science)

2 2 Aug Yay! The trip that I've been longing for began! It's great to meet our group mates and friends! Today we first took the plane from Hong Kong to Bangkok. I've never been to Thailand before, but we could not leave the airport in Bangkok. Anyway, we could see some birds when we had the landing on the runway in Bangkok, and the birds were actually very close to the runway. Is it the harmony between human and the nature, or will the birds get killed if they accidentally get into the engines or bump into the plane, and will this affect the flight safety? Well, I really don't know. But it's nice to have something to see when we waited for the procedure for taking the Madagascar flight. Then it was my first time to take the long distance flight, which was amazing! When we had arrived Madagascar airport, it seemed that the security there was quite serious, as we were not allowed to take photos there. It was nighttime, so we went to the hotel. It was quite cold at night but since there's hot water facility in the hotel, we took a bath before sleep. At the beginning, there was still some hot water, but then after a while only icy water came out, it was freezing. The electricity there was not stable, so suddenly all the light was off during the bath. My first interesting experience in Madagascar! We took the flight from Bangkok to Madagascar. Here we go! 1

3 3 Aug Today we woke up at around 7:30 am. Then we had breakfast with bread and butter and jam. We then went to the Lemurs' Park, which is a private park. The guide Mr Marc guided us around the park. We had seen lemurs like ring tailed lemur, mongoose lemur (I thought it was called Mango lemur because the guide pronounced like mango, but corrected after checking the guide book), brown lemur, black lemur... But among all the lemurs seen, I like the sifaka most because their movement was graceful, that's why they are called 'dancing lemur'. Maybe they knew that I am just a beginner for taking photos, they just stood in front of me to allow me to take some nice pictures. In addition, we had seen the nocturnal lemursgrey mouse lemurs and greater drawf lemurs, most of them were sleeping. We used the bottle with bamboo leaves and crickets to attract the grey mouse lemur to come closer. I think the mouse lemurs are more similar to mouse than primates in terms of the morphology. And it was quite agile though it was still morning. Inside the park, I also had the precious opportunity to see my favourite tortoises. We had seen 3 species of tortoises, sizes in ascending order: spider< hingeback< radiated. I saw a mainland kid who was climbing over the wall, and tried to get into the radiated tortoises habitat. The parents seemed very proud of this kid. That s the shame of Chinese! Hope that the tortoises would not be tortured like the starfish in Ocean Park touch pool. For lunch I had got shrimps+ vegetables+ rice + ugly mandarin papaya. There are similarities between our meals and lemurs: 1. Tomato 2. Carrot 3. Papaya. Then we headed to the Tsarasotra Lake, where we had bird watching there. We saw many dimorphic egrets, which are similar to HK's white egrets. At night we had the big meeting, our group's record was much lower than 東爺 's one, next time we would be more careful! 2 Let s move it move it! ~ ringtailed lemurs~ 在馬達加斯加翻牆的中國小孩 Hope that the tortoises are ok

4 4 Aug Today we woke up at 5 am because we needed to take the flight to Tulear and it took off at about 8 am. We went there to visit the botanic garden called Arboretum of Antsokay. Inside the park, we had seen the toxic plants and the guide said the remedy for the poison was planted nearby.we had also seen some radiated tortoises and a big eyed snake there. The pattern on the radiated tortoises is interesting because they are like stars on the back. There was solar panel there, first time for me to see use of green renewable energy there. (I have to say green renewable because I think livestock power and manpower could be kinds of renewable energies there.) Renewable energy! Spider Tortoises, hiding inside its shell. Smiling. You can t take a photo of me. Hahaha At night we had wild camping at Ranohira. We had a long walk to get to the campsite, carrying the huge backpacks. But it was amazing to have an owl waiting for us at the entrance of campsite. It is my first camping in my lifetime. After seeing so many stars on tortoises back, we could see a lot of real stars in the sky. I have never seen so many stars in the sky! We had the night walk nearby but not many special creatures were found. It was cold at night! 3 The sky with a lot of stars, Samantha s favorite =]

5 5 Aug After my first night wild camping in my life, we had breakfast in the campsite. The French bread was as hard as stone. We had bread and jam and butter. We had some hiking during the day. We could see some colorful birds, so it is worthwhile though exhausting. We saw some interesting stacks of rocks and some holes in the steep hills. Then later we were told that the stacks if rocks were markings telling people the way to the tomb and the holes were the place where the bones were temporarily placed. On the way we saw a scorpion, and some plants whose leaves are white and green in color. Then Deisi told us that this plant is poisonous and was once used by the kings and queens to kill the non Catholic. They put the poisonous plant leaves into the milk, if the one was real Catholic, they would not die, but then if the one was not Catholic or pretended to be Catholic, they would die. The kings and queens were so mean. On the top of the hill, we could see the beautiful scenery of farmlands below. At night we had camping again. Actually, the dinners at campsite were better than expected. Morning walk in Isalo 4

6 6 Aug Today we took a long distance ride to Ranomafana, and it was not comfortable because the way was so bumpy. The destination Ranomafana means hot water as "rano" means water, and "fana" means hot. It is said that there is hot spring there. But on the way we could not see any hot spring or steam coming out. We did see many herds of cows on the road. Unlike cows in HK, they walked to the buyers locations. It was spectacular! Cows in Madagascar, not just for eating, but also function as farmers helpers, as well as pulling carts. They have the hump like camel. We had seen some brown mouse lemurs, the difference in appearance between brown mouse lemurs and normal rodents should be the ratio of area of the eyes to face, just like cartoon drawing, if the ratio is larger, the more cute it is. I suppose that was the cause of difference in destiny between mouse lemurs and rodents. Finally, we had a nice hotel! There was a beautiful day gecko there. (I think it should be striped day gecko.) Then we did need to worry about being bitten by mosquitoes. But it seems that Sam was very afraid of mosquitoes that she still turned on her mosquito repelling machine, which emitted ambulance sound. I am used to the sound now. I wished the gecko would accidentally drop into my back and follow me to Hong Kong, such that it could eat all the mosquitoes in Ocean Park. 5

7 7 Aug Hurray! Here comes the real rainforest. I had done narration in Ocean Park's so called rainforest for 1.5 months but I think everything there was too artificial. Now I can really walk into the rainforest! Though it is winter now, there are still a few raindrops falling down. In the rainforest I have seen a lot of lemurs, including some bamboo lemurs and the brown lemur. I am clumsy in walking through the forest because it is slippery. But even falling down, it was not hurt at all, just like having a thick mat or thick blanket below. Also, the air is much fresher here than the capital. We can hear any birdcalls, but we can't see many birds. It is because the trees here are too dense. On the way we walk, we first see the secondary forest, and then we walk inside to see the primary forest. The trees in primary forest are amazingly tall! Ring tailed mongoose, came out because there was banana. 6

8 8 Aug Today we had got 9 hours of vehicles, during the ride the guide played some modern Malagasy music using the CD player in the car. Then we had the exciting boat trip which brought us to the other side of the river for camping. The river was shallow and we could see groups of cows walking across the river. Is it called schooling of cow? :) It was extremely unforgettable because I fell into the river before taking off the ship. =.= Fortunately, the luggage was not on the boat and only the lower part of my small backpack as well as my small pocket got wet. Thanks Xoni for rescuing my camera. Well, I should be glad that no expensive belongings got wet. After settling down in the tent, the kids in the village came out and played with us. They were extremely happy to see the foreigners and asked us to take pictures for them, maybe they rarely see the digital cameras. They didn t have high technology toys like PSP, NDS, but just plastic bottles will make them happy. Have they transcended from the mundane world? Or do their mind not polluted by the materialistic world because the country is still developing? We shall learn from them. BE HAPPY! ^ ^ They taught me the Malagasy language and I taught them Chinese and English. The common language between us was body language. It was fun to play with them. The dinner was unexpectedly tasty. How come the camping meals are often better? The river, with cows walking across it 7

9 9 Aug Today we woke up in the morning and we had breakfast by the beach. French bread again. ;( The kids there were very happy and they played with us. When we gave the bottles to them, they were like getting some precious gifts. They were so easily satisfied, unlike HK s princes and princesses. Then we took the exciting boat again, well, I gripped the 2 sides more tightly so I didn't fall this time. (Actually I am used to falling into river/ sea when taking boat ride since I played canoe in secondary school.)xd Then we headed to Baobab Avenue! It took a long way to there and the road was bumpy. The baobab trees were stunningly tall! It was said that the trees was thousands years old. But I can t see any creatures living on these trees. I bought a sculpture of the baobab tree and it could be more than a sculpture because it could function as bowling bottles. =D Bond bought the baobab fruit so everyone could taste it. It was like marshmallow, but not as good as I supposed. Afterwards, we went to Kirindy. Due to some error in arrangement, we had 3 people in 1 room. It was very cold at night. Fortunately, I had listened to my mum and brought a sleeping bag. Kids living in the village near our campsite. They taught me Malagasy language. 8

10 10 Aug This morning we visited Kirindy. There were some very tall baobabs, and the fruit here was different from what we had seen in the Baobab Avenue. And the native people there have the special religion that they worship the sex organ, and we saw the enormous male sex organ sculpture on a tree. The guides took us to see the roosting place of the scope owl in the afternoon. Water in Kirindy was really precious, a guy suddenly didn t have water when he was having bath. Hahaha Anyway, we should all treasure the water resources. The lemurs didn t really live on those baobab trees, maybe because they were too tall and did not have many branches for climbing. We saw some chameleons during night walk. It was hard to take pictures of lemurs in nighttime. But I think my torch is good for looking for lemurs since it was not too bright Today is Yanny s birthday. She was so touched by the surprise! =] Scope owl in Kirindy 9

11 11 Aug Since they all said the coffee was excellent in Madagascar, I tried one cup of coffee during breakfast, and then, I took the malaria pills. Then I got stomachache for the whole day. I didn t have the appetite for the whole day. We went back to Baobab Avenue, I bought the baobab fruit for Ocean Park people to share. =] It is hairy, good for looking but not for eating. We went to a city called Antsirabe, which we had a stop there for lunch before. We had the walk in the afternoon. This place is even more modern than capital. Some people had done some change at the bank, but it took a long time. We went to a market, and bought some souvenirs for friends. No wildlife =.= I got serious stomachache. I don t want to eat much food originally, but the dinner was so delicious, so I still have the appetite to finish it. The hotel is good, first time to have TV in our room. Fever at night, and my roommate is helping me a lot. Church in Antsirabe, the most magnificent building I have ever seen in Madagascar. 10

12 12 Aug Today I had got serious tummyache and stomachache, but I would not stay in hotel anyway. I had no fever and less painful after taking Panadol. We went to the lake called Andraikiba Lake, and it was said that it was once the swimming pool for the royal people. Then we had a walk on the hill and field. We had seen the lateral water snake which moved very fast but still was caught by Dr Hau. Press conference after catching snake =] Swimming pool for kings and queens before We had seen the farmland for growing barley for beer. Last night some people tried the Malagasy Jolly Sandy and they said it was very sweet. Were they from this farmland? At night I had fever again, and tummyache, so I had decided to skip dinner, actually no sense of hunger at all. But I remembered the doctor in HK had told me to drink more 7 up or Sprit in order to prevent dehydration, so my dinner is a big bottle of 7 up. I think my roommate is very good, and honest. Feeling better despite of pain! 11

13 13 Aug We took a long way to the Andasibe. Wow, the hotel is extremely good!!! We 2 had our own hut, which was very cozy!!! But the drainage at the bathtub was clogged, so the water didn t go away. Then I found the guy in the reception and then he used a metal rod to fix the problem within a short period of time. Then we found that there were a gecko above in the toilet, and it would go away when we were in the toilet. =] We could hear the indri sound in the site, but could not find them. Then we went out and watched the birds, the green pigeons were so cute, if I saw them in HK, I would think that they must be dyed by human. There were some recreational facilities there, like table tennis, soccer machine and swing. We had a great time there. Boophis viridis 12

14 14 Aug We visited the Andasibe National Park in the morning, and saw some lemurs like the golden sifaka. We saw the big boa at the end of the morning walk. They all said the snake is wild, but would it stay in an easily visible place if it was wild? Deisi said the indri were monogamous, territory and have 8 12 babies(?), so they are different from true lemurs. In the afternoon, we played table tennis, and saw the blue pigeon, green pigeon. They were chubby; I did not know that there are so many different species of pigeons which are colorful before the trip. That night we had night safari. Great! The lemur must think SOYJOY not yummy, since I tried to use the banana flavor package to lure them out, but failed. I guessed lemur would like bananas, but not artificial flavor. We saw a lot of frogs, especially in our own night walk after the big group walk. Therefore, we needed to deal with the frog identification. Gosh, they all look the same for me! =.= Well, their eyes are so beautiful, just like wearing colour con. Green Pigeon, so beautiful, pity that I couldn t take the picture of blue pigeon 13

15 15 16 Aug It s the last day in Madagascar. We woke up at 7 am to put our luggage on car. Then after breakfast we had nothing to do so we tried to find the birds. I couldn t find the pigeons. We saw some Traveller s Palm, and some mynas, egrets on the way. We headed to the place for lunch, and we played with the flies after lunch in the restaurant. We were so mo liu. Then we went to the airport, and it was out last chance to spend the Malagasy money. I WILL MISS MADAGASCAR. Our plane from Madagascar to Bangkok was delayed for more than 1 hour, I had hoped that the plane from Bangkok to Hong Kong would not wait for us, but my wish didn t come true. The plane waited for us, I still needed to continue my intern on 17 Aug. Bye, Madagascar! Yanny got allergy after eating the flaming banana last night and became all red. Our luggage didn t come with us, what s the point of asking my luggage carrier, my bro, to come and help me?? The Madagascar trip was great! I have learnt more about species outside Hong Kong. Thanks Dr Hau for bringing me to Madagascar!!! 14