Tog Tan

The wooded areas of the Belum forest reserve is located in the valleys. The furthermost mountain is Thailand.


With reference to my comments about going to this place at this thread; Encanto Farms pics?
here is a round up of what happened;

I managed to have a 2 hrs sleep and started off my journey at 2.30 am. I reached the idyllic small town by the name of Grik early in the morning and realised that I am down with food poisoning! What luck...
I managed to meet up with my contact and we had tea and planned the day's activities. First thing was to visit the kampongs (villages) in that area and look for heirloom cultivars, then off to hunt for various plants in the countryside before staying on a lake fishing joint.

Heirloom Cultivars
The folks in this area are very good at keeping the heirloom cultivars and there were many of which I have not heard of. I was able to get 2 different types; Pisang Ambon (Bob! I did it!) which is the last Gros Michel cultivar sport that I have been trying to locate and the Pisang Lemak Manis.
Most of the 'naners here were planted in shady places such as in between rubber trees and they look optimum in condition as compared to those which were planted in the open. Many of the owners were elderly folks and were very hospitable and they didn't want to be paid for the pups which I took. However, I offered them some money for "teh" or tea money as we call it here. As it was already mid moring, I decided to leave for the hunting sites and probably come back another day to get the other cultivars.

Belum
This rainforest reserve is the oldest in M'sia according to the authorities. Since M'sia has the oldest rainforest in the world, thus Belum is the oldest anywhere.
The odd thing about this place is that the main forest is located in the valleys and the mountains around it are practically solid rock as can be seen along the roads which were blasted through the mountains. As the day wore on, my bad tummy got the worse for me and I was useless for the day in tracking. I stopped at a few places to get a closer look at the vegetation and they are very different from Central to South M'sia. Being in the northern area, it is very hot and dry and the exposed areas were predominantly solid rock. It has little to offer except ferns, bamboo and gingers. I did notice a musa sp at about 1,000 ft asl to about 2,000 ft asl. They were growing high up the cliffs sporadically and none were in fruit or bloom. I found a couple of juvenile plants on the lowest side and when I examined it closely, it is physically different from the other species found in M'sia. Can you imagine that at this point, I was already too weak to dig up this plant due to my bad tummy?

This is the musa sp I was talking about which i cannot ID


My chap insisted we go to another place known as Punchak as there are many plants there. As he was hungry, I stopped for lunch but I couldn't put anything down. I asked him what is the best way to get into the interiors of Belum and he says the only way is to go in by a 1 hr boat ride. Track 8 hrs by foot into the jungle and we will be there. But there's a catch; at this point, the army guarding the border will be there and if we are caught by them, we will be placed under police custody. Boy, I got so riled up by him I was really pissed. I guess it's my fault using a local guy and not the Orang Asli in this trip. The Orang Asli would know the exact location of the army and and we would have easily avoided them. After lunch, we went a couple more sites. Then I was really too weak to walk and decided to go back to KL and call it a day. I dropped by a Pharmacy and got some medication and took the long drive back. In all I was up 19 hrs with only 2 hrs of sleep, a bad tummy, no food for the fear of my gut giving up, many hours of driving and tracking.

Conclusion
I wouldn't call this trip fruitless. Firstly, I now know where to hunt for an abundance of heirloom cultivars and there's the musa sp which I need to study further. I will make another trip to this place but the next time, I will use the Orang Asli and will stay for at least 4 days.
Well, not everyday is a Sunday in plant hunting.

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Tog Tan has sadly suddenly passed away 6/16/09. We will miss you Tog Tan.

Simply Bananas

I enjoyed your adventure.

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Dalmatiansoap

Too bad that U had that stomac problem. Nice trip.

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Bob

You got 2 hours sleep? You must have been really tired to get all that in! Food poisoning, finding the holy grail, and a new (at least unidentified) species. My first impression was that it looked a bit like my "Burmese blue" that just developed a purplish tone to the upper P-stem but, I still haven't developed a trained eye for bananas yet. Well, your next adventure is pretty clear. Very exiting stuff. ......I'm saving my pennies, some day I'll get an adventure in.

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Tog Tan

Bob, I only got the 2 cultivars as they were the top on my priority list. I was saving space in my trunk for other plants later. I didn't realised I would be too screwed to do any collecting. I did see a plant of the Pisang Ambon there with bud and bloom and I can confirm it is the Gros Michel. So looks like by the time I can get all the Gros Michel stuff over to you, we are the only 2 guys in town with all of the Holy Grails!

The thing about this No ID musa is that the color of the p-stem and the texture of the upper surface of the leaf did not match any of the known M'sian species. The nearest I can place it is the Musa corneri, Holttum, which is an invalid taxa but I doubt it cos it's way out of its range. I will have to go back and find matured plants which are blooming and in fruit.

I hope you can make it here one day, I would love to take you to a place called Gua Musang (Civet Cat's Cave) which is another hardly explored place on the eastern side of the peninsular. It is so remote that we just have to bring extra petrol cos there's hardly any civilisation there for miles. The Musa gracilis var purple is found there.

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Tog Tan has sadly suddenly passed away 6/16/09. We will miss you Tog Tan.

Bob

I'm seriously planning on it. I need 5-6 hours sleep though. Maybe 4 if things are exciting. I'm already in training.....serious , last time I went on an adventure in the mountains I worked out with a personal trainer for 6 months for a 4 day trip to the mountains to hunt red stag..,,by day 4 I was praying for death to take me mercifully away!!!

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NotherNana

I really enjoyed reading of your trip. I hope to soon read the followup, and hope you're health is good the next one
Gino

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alpha010

Wonderful adventure Tog, BTW, You got grapefruits my friends grapefruits the size of my head. I would have been calling for my mommy after the rot gut!

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