Nyt se sitten iski - dementia! Mä olen jo jonkin aikaa ollut kipeän tietoinen siitä että muisti ei enää pelaa kuin teini-ikäisellä. Tänään sain siitä todistuksen kun tapasin tutun ihmisen sattumalta rautakaupassa ja olin ihan varma siitä kuka hän on. Enkä yhtään tajunnut että tuttu toki mutta ei todellakaan se ihminen joksi häntä kuvittelin. Onneksi ei ollut kukaan tuttu daami! Silti jäi vähän nolo olo sillä aikani pohdittuani perihämäläiseen tapaan tajusin vasta nyt (12 tuntia myöhemmin) kenet tapasin. Siis muistan missä ja koska ja paljon muutakin mutta se nimi, se nimi... Voisin ilmoittaa tapaamani henkilön ja olettamani henkilön johonkin "tapaa kaksoisolentosi"-kisaan. Niin on sama olemus, puhetapa ja jututkin.
( look-alike... )

 
 Valokuvatorstai

I thought I have teased you enough with my Borneo stories but I'm a mean person and will continue, at least once! Today I took care of my plants and because of the pitcherplant I remembered one more thing from Borneo. The worlds biggest flower! 
 

Gomantong caves offer a unique nesting place for about one million (!) swiflets. A countless number of bats spend their time in the caves too. The place is amazing and the caves are huge. The cave's floor was really slippery because it was filled with birds and bats poo and you can not even imagine the smell! 

 

Blue-eared Kingfisher


I have to admit that this time I wasn't focused on birds as much as I could. I had my binoculars and a small camera with me but Borneo had so many things to see that you could not know in which direction you should look. Birds, flowers, snakes, insects, proboscis monkeys, orang-utans, lizards, squirrels, civet...

My new bug gallery is published now!   ENJOY!!!
 
 

One of the most wanted creatures for me to see in Borneo was orang-utan, "the man of the forest". Of course I would love to see wild apes in the rainforest but that didn't quite come true. These orang-utans come from Sepilok, it's a rehabililation centre. Its task is to return orang-utans back to the forest. Some of them are orphans (if twins appeared the weaker baby was often abandoned) or been pets. These apes are used to humans and they have to learn how to survive in the jungle. They are free to go but food is given as far as they realise that they can find better fruits etc. from the jungle.

 I thought that climbing up to Mount Kinabalu was hard only for me but check this!

It was time to wake up and continue. I slept one hour. However, I didn't feel tired and what amazed me the most was that I didn't feel any pain in my muscles! After breakfast we went out. The sky was clear and stars shined, the temperature was pleasant for Finns (+7 Celsius). Two people of our group had bad symptoms of mountain sickness and they had to abort their climb at this point. 

 

Poring treetop canopy walkway is truly not boring. The walkway is built on the treetop 40 meters above the ground. The path gives you an orang-utan point of view from the heights of the rainforest.

 

I survived. I'm back home feeling happy but a bit tired. The journey from Borneo to my home took 32 hours! I need some sleep. My thighs have been quite sore after climbing but slowly the pain is fading away. Perhaps I should stretch a little before going to bed. That pose looks just perfect for my needs...

I DID IT! 

I'm back in the base camp. There is a small chance that you will see my photos some day. I have still 3300 meters until I'm down from here. Maybe I will not die here.

3300 meters over the sea level. I'm in a mountain cabin. I will probably die here. Tomorrow I should climb up to the summit of Mount Kinabalu. 800 meters still to go. I will probably die here. The path is crazy, a mild stair in Pispala was nothing. At 3 am. we will continue our trip. I will probably die here...

P.S. Greetings from Minna and Tapio too!

Everything is in the package - the passport included. See you!

On Thursday, early in the morning I should be ready at Helsinki Airport. I have three days left to pack all in my small suitcase and backpack. I think I have all I'll need. Malaria pills, yellow fever vaccination, trekking poles and boots, enough memory cards for the camera, binoculars, the bird guidebook of south-east Asia, orang-utan baits, a machete. The testament has been written, tank is cleaned and fish fed, flowers watered. Did I forget something?

THREE DAYS TO GO!!!

I visited my doctor today. First of all I wanted an answer to my question about the number of estimated years to come. When is it the right time to call vultures? But it seems that vultures have to wait for some years before they can recycle my dead body. A female vampire sucked my blood and analysed what kind of stuff flowed inside my veins. It was red.
The doctor was pleased when I told that 17.3 kg (38.1 lbs.) including the lost blood had disappeared since April 2007. In fact he said I'm a healthy man. Wow, for the first time ever I had a "healthy" label in my papers. I almost liked him.

Secondly I needed an expert's medical opinion about my chances to climb up 4100 metres high mountain and survive. He didn't refuse my try. It makes me wonder if there are vultures in Borneo! Hah, I checked and found six species according to my bird guidebook. The doctor gave me also pills in purpose to prevent malaria. He gave me "Malarone" pills. I'm somewhat disappointed because "Lariam" pills gave me cool hallucinations when I ate them in Brazil. This new medicine is claimed not to have so bad side effects. Blaah, what's the point then?

You can laugh now, I bought those sticks! I still think Nordic walking looks stupid and ridiculous! It's amazing how many different kinds of sticks there are. I also learned that there are sticks and there are poles. Mine are Hi-Tech Titanium Telescopic Treckking Poles for higher altitudes and mountains! That is something different. Now I can practise my walking with those things and not become a laughing-stock. In fact I had to try them and spent two hours climbing a slalom hill nearby my home. It was quite fun and nobody laugh at me (it was dark and there was nobody else).

My scale gives me the weight which is now 14.3 kg (31.5 lbs.) less than it was last April when I started this lifetime (?) long period of weight watching. I'm proud of myself. I have also noticed that stair climbing can be addictive. Yesterday I had to go there again and I did 2000 steps up and down without feeling myself too exhausted. When I woke up in the morning I didn't feel any painful muscles this time. When I compare my feelings after the first stair climbing last Saturday, I felt big development happened.



I thought that maybe I should buy a Nordic walking sticks. Although it looks really stupid, it's an effective way to do exercise. Sticks also help a lot when coming downhill from the mountain.

1550 and some extra steps today! Did it five times, climbed them up and down. It's amazing how rapidly your body can adjust to physical stress. I found some new muscles (in my front thighs) but my lungs worked much better than yesterday. I think I will be a familiar sight on those stairs, meet you there if you happen to be in Tampere! Oh, I heard a story that's probably true. In Tampere there's such a custom that those mothers whom are pregnant and the estimated date of child's birth has gone over, they go to those stairs for climbing them and if I understood it right, climbing should start birth(?). I wouldn't want to be in the middle of those stairs when it happens! I haven't seen any pregnant women there yet, but should I learn midwife skills just in case!!! I also realised that other people might think when they see a roundish person climbing there in the darkness, that there goes another desperate mother...

One should not observe news. There have been some troubles in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), for the first time in ten years. That's so typical, my travel to Borneo will go via Kuala Lumpur. :(