Loyang-Loyang

Off to our second stop of the day (breakfast was first and rightfully so!) a guppy farm.  You've seen plenty of pictures of the concrete ponds so here are a few photos specific to the farm.

One of several bags that were packed for transport.

Sorting.  Endless sorting.  Males v Females.  All done by hand.  Well, by soup spoon...

3 guys were sorting fish, one at a time.

Yup, more ponds.

Collecting adult fish.  Notice the "algae water"  Farmers love the stuff.  Fish seem to, too.

Our final day breakfast.

I probably have mentioned that we had eater well on out trip.  Our final breakfast was a treat.  I still don't know what it was, but by now I had gotten down the pattern of the conversation.

Me "What is it?"
Wanlyn "Roti canai" (Or something like that)
Me  *Pause*
Me  "And what is that?"

The explanations were usually sufficient, but I did rely on them to want me of the spicier dishes.

Preparing the pancake like dish.  It's flung like a pizza to paper thin, then filled with whatever and folded shut.

The result: Yumminess.  Notice the coffee?  I loved the coffee.  3 in 1.  Fantastic stuff.  Raymond even sent me home with a bag.  Brenda loves it too.  I should have kept it a secret!   

Just a great Mother/Daughter photo.

The end of a very long day.

Our fishes.  They would spend the night at the house before going to the farm.  We sat around the table and shared pictures.  It was a nice wind down.

Collecting, Part 2

My camera had been clicking away all trip and I seem to have filled my data card at this point.  Fortunately we had plenty of room on Tim's (and it was waterproof)

I think Tim was having fun.

Te went downstream about 50 yards and into the forrest.
No grasses to deal with but a fair number of sticks and logs.

A soon to be collected stretch of river.

The loot.  Bards, rasboras, and catfish, oh my!

Clearing the seine.

Yes, Tim's in a hole.

More loot.

Seine operation is tricky, especially for us amateurs.
Fortunately our host were patient with us.

Yeah, I was having fun, too.

Imagine how many fish are in that river. 

Tim practicing the "poke and flip" technique of removing fish from a net.

It was starting to get late, so we gave our fish a water change and  we trekked back out of the forrest.

Collecting time!

I wish I had a GPS unit to know were we were.  I asked Raymond later and he pointed it out on a map, so I have a vague notion.

The setting.  We parked near a run down house with a bunch of guys milling about.  I think we were an oddity.

Tim, Mighty Collector of Fishes and his seine net.

I think he was standing there waiting for a net before we left the cars....

Our first location.

It wasn't the easiest netting in the grass.

Our first fish.  Oh, joy of joys, a half-beak!  

The untouched forrest.... at least by us.

As we had driven northeast to Kota Tinggi to visit the plant farms, we stopped at one of Malaysia's National Parks.  Unfortunately, the rangers on duty had left early and we couldn't get in.

Plant farming, the next generation.

Like many things we saw, this plant farm had a new, secondary location.  There are new restrictions on plants grown in soil (nematodes) so they are starting to grow above ground on trays in sterile substrates.

My favorite part is the Java Fern growing UNDER the tables.
 I've always said you could grow Java Fern in the dark...

Perhaps they are still experimenting with substrates.  This is a tray filled with chopped foam.
Re-useable and relatively easy to sterilize.  Clever.