Flora and Fauna

Yesterday we decided to go on an organized tour of Mount Kinabalu Park (where the tallest mountain in Southeast Asia is) and to Poring Hot Springs for a dip in hot springs and a rainforest canopy tour.

First off, I'm sick. I got Chase's cold and so I slept almost all of the 2 hour journey to the Hot Springs. We first stopped off at a village. And here's a cool pic from the village market. They love their salted fish.



Next we arrived at the hot springs only to find it super packed with Malays on vacation. It's the end of Ramadan and a couple of nights ago was Eid-Il-fitr so there's no school for a week. There was no way to even maneuvre around to get in. So we hiked to the canopy tour which was packed as well. We waiting in line to get on the bridges you walk across for almost 1 hour!

Here's Chase and I on the first leg of the canopy.



It was beautiful but we didn't see any wildlife except for butterflies and insects. At the end of our hike we were told that some Raffelsias were blooming near by. The Raffelsia is the world's largest single flower (it can be up to 1 meter in diameter) that grows primarily in Borneo and some parts of Indonesia, the Phillipines, and sometimes in Thailand. We paid a hefty fee to enter this family's "private land" and we saw these two beauties.



The Raffelsia is actually a parasitic flower. It gets its energy from the decaying matter on the rainforest floor. And supposedly it's supposed to smell like rotting flesh. The two we saw were only 40-50 cm in diameter but still the largest flower I've ever seen.


We stopped by the Kinabalu Park and got a tour of some of the rare flora of Borneo including rare orchids. This one pops up on the illegal flower market for 1500 Ringits a plant.



Then we saw the Santa Claus orchid, known for it's uncanny resemblance to St. Nick's beard. Here's a picture of me with the orchid. Chase says I look like one of Santa's elves.



On the way home we saw some great rainbow streaks in the clouds. I have never seen anything so beautiful, reds, greens, neon colors, purples, blues, and yellow. We have no idea what caused this strange phenomenon, but I hope you can get an idea of how spectacular it was through these pictures.

Today we are going to the Nature Reserve at the hotel to view the Orang Utans. I am thrilled!