Pictorial blogs on some of the interesting caves I have visited around Southeast Asia. On some blogs I have included photos taken over the years.
Although this blog was only born in 2011, I have now included older posts from my Multiply blog which closed in March 2013. This includes articles I have written. I am now also adding news relating to caves I have a particular interest in.
See my website on Caves of Malaysia.
There is/was a nice secluded valley on Gunung Lanno's south side. Gunung Lanno is a big limestone hill in Perak, south of Ipoh. So I was shocked in May 2014 to see smoke coming from the valley, so went to have a look. And to my horror and disgust, I saw the valley had been converted into a rubbish dump. The only 'good' thing was that the trees were absolutely full of egrets - it was early evening.
The dump is cicled in orange -
Google Earth images from 2008, 2010, 2012, 2015, showing the changes in the surroundings and also the valley
The dump
The dump attracts plenty of birds, particularly egrets (you can also see them in the trees in the first 2 dump photos above)
They are Cattle Egrets (Bubulcus ibis). Their colours become more brownish/ orangish during breeding season (breeding plumage). Thanks to Andy Paul for the ID.
A strange article appeared on 24 Dec 2014 in the Tuoi Tre News about the discovery of Vietnam's first lava tube cave. The title "Southeast Asia's longest volcanic cave discovered in Vietnam" is OK, but the article goes on to say that "A group of Vietnamese and Japanese scientists have announced the discovery of the first volcanic cave system in Vietnam, one part of which is considered the longest such feature in Southeast Asia. The discovery was made in Krong No District in the Central Highlands province of Dak Nong by experts from the general department and the Japan Caving Association after seven years of research".
What the article really means is that they are the first lava tubes to be found in Dak Nong province, not in Vietnam. Prior to this article, the longest lava cave in Vietnam is Hang Doi 1 Km 123, at 437 m, found in 2013. According to the article, 12 caves were found and 3 were surveyed, the longest being 1055 m.
See the above link for the full article and photos.
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The next day a better article appeared in Thanh Nien News on 25 Dec, "Record volcanic cave system discovered in central Vietnam". Although it still said "The recent discovery represents the first volcanic cave system ever found in Vietnam." and "scientists have conducted detailed surveys of three caves--the largest of which measures over a kilometer in length and several thousands of meters in width." I think the width might be a mistake!
Malaysian snail among hundreds of species to become extinct as a result of fishing, logging, mining, agriculture and other activities to satisfy our growing appetite for resources.
Humble snails are no match for the might and indifference of the global cement industry. So it has proved for the now extinct Plectostoma sciaphilum, a rather beautiful snail that lived only on a single limestone hill in Peninsular Malaysia. A cement company blew up the entire hill and all remaining molluscs with it. All that is left of its former habitat is a big hole in the ground filled with water.
Its extinction was highlighted by the global environment network IUCN when it launched a major new study showing that 22,413 out of its 76,199 assessed species are threatened with extinction.
The neighbouring isolated hills are being quarried by Malaysian multinational YTL, owner of Wessex Water, where snails such as the bizarrely-shaped Hypselostoma elephas are in critical danger.
While attention is often drawn to iconic species threatened with extinction – the IUCN report highlights the vulnerability of the Pacific bluefin tuna among others – it also chose the demise of the tiny snail as an example of the damage being done by the extractive industry.
According to the IUCN: “The future of several other species in the region is uncertain for similar reasons. Whilst some mining companies are starting to take the necessary steps to reduce impact, IUCN is urging stronger commitment to prevent further extinctions.”
IUCN’s intervention comes just weeks after Guardian Sustainable Business revealed that another snail was at risk in Malaysia. The mollusc, recently discovered living on an isolated limestone hill called Gunung Kanthan in the northwest of Peninsular Malaysia, was named Charopa lafargei after Lafarge in a bid to prevent the global and aggregates giant from decimating it. The IUCN says this snail is critically endangered and that the “continued existence of the species will depend in large part on the actions of the company.”
Tony Whitten, Fauna & Flora International’s Asia regional director, says the humble snail should not be seen as any less important than iconic species. “Snails have a marketing problem because they are small and in general are considered joke animals because they are slow and slimy,” he says.
“But they have beautiful shapes and colours and on a personal level I abhor the idea of extinctions when it results from deliberate ignorance. A species is a species and we are morally bound to protect them. When I ask people why they think snails are less worthy, they don’t really have an answer.
“Some people may see species such as the bluefin tuna as being more important but that is only because we can identify with them because of their size and the fact we like to eat them.”
Whitten says the reason the cement industry has been able to escape scrutiny until now is because limestone is not considered a strategic mineral so regulation tends to be governed at a local level, and because the companies rarely need international financing. Cement is a basic commodity and margins are razor thin. Whitten says because companies focus on volume to maintain profits, they are unhappy to set aside protected areas within quarrying sites.
It is not only in Malaysia where snails and other species are at risk from the cement industry. “This is a global issue,” he says. “Wherever in the world limestone occurs it has a special fauna and flora but the problems are especially acute in countries such as China, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the US where you get isolated limestone hills.”
A common problem among cement mining companies, according to Whitten, is that environmental impact assessments they carry out are often of a poor quality and focus on birds and mammals and don’t give enough attention to limestone-associated species. The reports are not made public and cannot be scrutinised independently.
Worse still, Whitten says the cement industry has become fixated with trumpeting the restoration of sites they destroy, rather than taking a rational, proactive landscape approach which would include sustainable management and protection.
“No cement business has ever admitted the scale of the problem,” he says. “They tout their biodiversity pages in their websites and sustainability reports with pictures of ducks and frogs and children enjoying the wetlands created from the hills they remove. They give and receive prizes for their restoration work – but do not acknowledge what is being lost.”
The snail at Lafarge’s quarry was named after the company to make it pay attention to inconspicuous animals. “They would never have taken note of the snail unless the scientists had named it after them,” Whitten says. “Lafarge did not like it ... But the reality is I had been talking with them for 15 years and you get to the point where that discussion gets nowhere. This led Fauna & Flora International to resign from their international biodiversity panel. We are, though, having positive discussions with the local senior management.”
The IUCN’s Red List, the world’s most comprehensive information source on the global conservation status of plant, animal and fungi species, shows that Plectostoma sciaphilum is one of 901 species of the 76,199 assessed to have become extinct through fishing, logging, mining and agriculture.
The Guardian (UK) 17 Nov 2014 featured some of the world's most threatened species on the IUCN Red List report. Two of these are snails, found on limestone hills in Malaysia, which may be quarried to extinction.
The first is Charopa lafargei , which has Critically Endangered status, and is found at Gunung Kanthan in Perak. This hill is being quarried by Lafarge, after whom the snail was named. I have already posted many blogs about the quarrying of the hill and our fight to save the hill, caves, flora and fauna from destruction/extinction.
The second snail featured is Plectostoma sciaphilum. This is already thought to be extinct. It was known on Bukit Panching, near Kuantan in Pahang. This hill was totally destroyed some years ago, all that remains now is a lake.
Apparently the sex toys have been removed from Tham Phra Nang, at Railay beach near Ao Nang, Krabi, Thailand. See this report from 27 Oct 2014 'Krabi Cave Cleared of Sex Toys'. It says "clear the cave of hundreds of phallic-shaped wood carvings and sex toys".
However the Phuket Gazette - 'Hardwood only: sex toy found lodged in sacred cave' - suggests that only the silicone sex toys will be removed and the wooden phalluses will stay.
I blogged about the cave in 2008. I was back in Krabi in early Oct 2014 but I didn't go to the cave on that visit.
In recent years, I've seen statues of Buddha with blue hair in cave temples around Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia.
I've searched the internet to try and learn about the blue haired Buddha, but have found nothing factual.
Some reports say it represents the medicine Buddha. Another report says Tibetan Buddha statues have blue hair as the color of the vairocana jewel is blue.
Da Seng Ngan at Gunung Lanno has an upstairs room dedicated to the blue hair Buddha.
There is also a single statue with blue hair in the group of Buddhas in the main entrance area -
More photos of the upstairs Buddhas in 2014 -
Nam Loong Ngam at Gunung Layang Layang also has the blue haired Buddha :
Can anyone tell me the real meaning of the blue haired Buddha?
A very nice article on Mulu by Robin HANBURY-TENISON was published in the Daily Telegraph, 11 Oct,2014.
Malaysia's Gunung Mulu national park: revisiting one of the most
spectacular rainforests on earth.
Robin Hanbury-Tenison was on the first Mulu expedition in 1977, organised by the RGS and lasting 15 months. He published a book, "Mulu, the rain forest".
