Sunday, December 20, 2009

Abandoned Summit Village at Gunung Jagoi 09.12.18

Kampung Bung Jagoi is located very close to the highest point on Mount Jagoi. “Bung” in the Bidayuh language means top, peak or summit. Therefore, Bung Jagoi means Summit of Jagoi. This village has been uninhabited for a number of years. There is only one family left here, tending to their gardens and farm. Talked to a villager who still lived up here during my first visit and was told that they too will move eventually, leaving the place totally deserted.

See also:
1. Gunung Jagoi main post
2. Flora of Gunung Jagoi
3. Local fruits at Gunung Jagoi
4. Abandoned Summit Village at Gunung Jagoi (this one)

Kampung_Bung_Jagoi
So where have all the former inhabitants gone to? It is a long trek on foot up from the base of the mountain to this village, in this day and age who wants to do that? Therefore, they have all moved to new land at the base of the mountain living in much more modern houses with all the modern conveniences of good mobile phone reception and broadband internet access.

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There used to be electricity power here since there are power lines (no longer live). However, because they are at the top of the mountain, there is no source for fresh water except collected rain water.

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An abandoned house in very poor condition.

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Dayak homes in Sarawak often have a platform in front of their houses or long houses. In Bidayuh homes, this platform is called the tonyu (tanju in Iban) pronounced with a hard “k” sound at the end (this is how most words ending with a vowel are pronounced in Sarawak). The tonyu is where paddy, pepper and other crops are laid out to dry on woven mats.

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The tonyu on this nearly tumbled-down house is overgrown with mosses and lichen.

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This tonyu or platform is in very bad condition.

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A small clump of Dendrobium crumenatum and small ferns have established themselves here.

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Even though the village is no longer inhabited, census cards are still posted here every year as these houses still have owners and are registered with the government. Most of the owners come up every now and then to tend to their property. Every year, the dayak Gawai festival (harvest festival) is celebrated here. Gawai Antu (Ghost festival) is also celebrated here by the Jagoi Bidayuh tribe (this festival is only celebrated by certain Bidayuh tribes).

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Gunny sacks filled with paddy (old and rotted away, remaining only the husks) indicating some farmers still come up here to tend their farm lands and stay in their “abandoned” homes.

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Collected, chopped and stored firewood. I suppose gas cylinders are too heavy to lug all the way up here.

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This must be where the electricity meter used to be. The house no longer inhabited, it has been removed.

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Another abandoned house in very poor condition. Some of the owners clearly have not been back to check their property for a very long time.

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A stag horn fern hung from a water tank of an abandoned house.

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I was pleased to find this posted here. The program list or itinerary of a recently held workshop by the Sarawak Biodiversity Dept. On it was listed workshops to identify and catalogue useful plants and herbs. They also collected and prepared plants for an herbarium. Good that the government makes an effort to involve the Bidayuh community in such nature programs.

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I was NOT pleased to see this however. Discarded water bottles left behind by visitors. Why can’t they bring it back to dispose of them properly? Did their arms fall off at the end of the summit trek? Bring your own shit back!

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Rain water is collected into large storage tanks such as these.

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The flower of a bean called four-sided or four-angled beans. 

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A simple trellis made for four-angled bean plants.

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Four-angled beans. Very good stir fried with belacan or oyster sauce. Also very good in a simple stir fry with ikan bilis. May also be eaten as an ulam (boiled/steamed and eaten with a dipping sauce or sambal).

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Cats’ whiskers. This plant has medicinal values. Google it, pretty interesting stuff.

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Flowers of a pea species?

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There is still one family living here so there were some clothes hung out to dry.

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This round building is called a baruk. It is where village meetings are held. In the days of head-hunters, it was also used to smoke and dry the skulls of enemies. ;-)

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An old kerosene pressure lamp. You fill it with benzene or kerosene, light it and pump up the pressure and the “bulb” will flare up producing a very bright light.

For more photos of the entire trek, please visit my Flickr photoset (click here). sorry, flickr pro account expired!

Local fruits at Gunung Jagoi 09.12.18

A number of local tropical fruits are in season right now. At Jagoi, I saw many fruit trees that were laden with fruits. Fruits like mangosteen, langsat (lanzone), rambai, tampoi, durian and cempedak. The fruit season is actually coming down from its peak now with many durian trees having dropped their fruits and the road sides loaded with durian sellers. Rambutans are also in surplus as are langsat. Less common fruits such as rambai and tampoi usually appear late in the season, signalling the end of the fruit season.

See also:
1. Gunung Jagoi main post
2. Flora of Gunung Jagoi 
3. Local fruits at Gunung Jagoi (this one)
4. Abandoned Summit Village at Gunung Jagoi

Buah_rambai_1
Buah rambai or just rambai, is another Baccaurea species, same genus as tampoi and tampoi belimbing. Not too popular compared to langsat as it can be on the sour side.

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Inside each fruit are sections of fleshy white pulp surrounding a small seed, much like langsat but more juicy. They slightly on the sour side but when very ripe, can taste quite sweet too.

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A tree laden with “strings” of rambai fruits.

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Buah cempedak is of the same family as jack fruit. These ripe fruits still on the tree have been visited by some forest mammals. Probably squirrels. The fruiting season is a great time for the wild animals to stock up their reserves for leaner times during the dry season. Then, they will have to depend on shoots, figs and other non-seasonal wild fruits.

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A fruit opened up by some other trekkers and left on the ground. The seeds of cempedak are also edible. They are cooked by boiling and then eaten plain, tasting a bit like potato.

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A fallen mangosteen.

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Mangosteen tree full of fruits, still green and unripe. They will start to turn dark and black when ready for picking.

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Not sure what species of fruit this is but it resembles a mango.

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A langsat tree full of fruits which are almost ready to be harvested.

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This is locally known as belimbing asam or sour star fruit. Used together with or in place of tamarind to provide a sour taste in dishes such as fish-head curry or asam fish (sour fish dish).

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Tampoi (Baccaurea macrocarpa) tree with fruits borne on the branches.

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A fallen tampoi fruit going bad.

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A small mound of discarded tampoi (Baccaurea macrocarpa) skin. Some locals probably climbed up the trees and collected the fruits and ate opened them on the spot. Must have been a big group cause that’s quite a lot of discarded fruit skin! Tampoi is also used for making tampoi tuak so that's probably what happened here (the edible pulp collected to be fermented).

For many more photos, please head to my flickr photoset (click here).

Flora of Gunung Jagoi 09.12.19

Here are some of the interesting plants we saw on our visit to Gunung or Mount Jagoi. Also see (clickable links):
1. Gunung Jagoi main post
2. Flora of Gunung Jagoi (this one)
3. Local fruits at Gunung Jagoi
4. Abandoned Summit Village at Gunung Jagoi


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A young and small Amorphophallus species with reddish leaflets. This structure is considered a single leaf with the leaflets spreading out at the top (think papaya leaf). Looks like it is top-heavy and all bent.

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Quite striking colors! The color without flash is a lot nicer and more accurate but it was too dark under the forest canopy to get a good picture without flash.

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Bromheadia finlaysoniana, a common kerangas ground orchid. They are also found growing in disturbed areas along road sides with sandy soil.

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Bulbophyllum cleistogamum.

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Bulbophyllum cleistogamum. I was very lucky to find one clump in flower, a fresh and new bloom too!

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Seed pod. Seems like Bulbophyllum cleistogamum is self-pollinating as all of the flowers on my own plants always turn into seed pods.

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An unopened bud on another Bulbophyllum cleistogamum clump.

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A small colony of Bulbophyllum cleistogamum growing on a broken trunk. I hope these stay here undisturbed.

Claderia_species_1
I have never seen this species of Claderia in flower before. This one is putting out what looks like a spike with some under-developed buds.

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More Claderia species. Quite abundant in some places. None were in flower unfortunately.

Dipterocarp_winged_fruits_1
There were many winged fruits that littered the ground all along the trail. They are the fruits of Dipterocarp trees. These were the largest Dipterocarp tree fruits that we came across. They were about 15-20cm in length. Dipterocarp trees are also called “emergent” species because they are huge and tall trees with crowns emerging high above those of other trees in the forest. This gives the effect of an uneven canopy.

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It’s been a while since they were sent spiralling down from the tree tops. The green structure coming out of the fruit is probably the radical.

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Winged fruits of two different Dipterocarp tree species. Dipterocarp means “two-winged fruits” but as you can see from the above photo, some species have more than two wings! In the Kuching area, Dipterocarps are most prominent in the mixed-Dipterocarp forests of Kubah National Park and the Santubong Peninsula.

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A fresh one! The round fruit is quite large, about the size of a large lime. Many Dipterocarp trees are highly valued for their hard wood such as kapur (Drybalanops spp.), keruing (Dipterocarpus spp.), meranti (Shorea spp.) and selangan batu (Shorea spp.). Meranti for example, is often used for building houses, posts, roof structures etc. Kapur and selangan batu also have many uses in the local house-building industry such as for making window and door frames etc.

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Another winged fruit of a different species.

Ginger_flower
This is the flower of a wild species of ginger. Some people eat the unopened flower.

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Diplocaulobium species. For the flower, search my Flickr.

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A tree trunk full of Bulbophyllum purpurascens.

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Hairgrass, a common species in opened, exposed areas with sandy soil.

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Large old trees such as this one play host to a multitude of epiphytes, insects and other flora and fauna. It’s like a little eco-system! Would be very interesting to comb through and study what lives on such old trees.

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Tree trunk totally covered with Coelogyne foerstermannii.

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A small species of terrestrial orchid, Peristylus species.

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The flowers are very small, less than 1cm across. Peristylus sp.

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The plant habit and leaves. It grows from an underground tuber buried in the sandy soil.

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Sun ferns (Dipteris conjugata) are another common occurrence in the summit area of many of Kuching’s mountains.

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Dipteris conjugata are also known as sun ferns because of the shape of the leaves.

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A new sun! New Dipteris conjugata leaf just opening up.

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A very large Tacca or bat-flower plant. Pity there was no flower.

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Very curious looking structures arising from the thick layer of humus on the cushy ground.

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Another photo of the peculiar structures, this time with flash. I think they’re some kind of fungus. They are soft and easily break apart.

For many more photos, please visit my Flickr photoset (click here).
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