16. September 2001 11:10
by Rene Pallesen
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Believe it or not, I still have quite a few friends in Denmark. I would like to put photos of all of them here - unfortunately I do not have photos of all of them. If you are one of my friends and your photo is not on this page then please do not despair - I still consider you a friend, and maybe, the next time I go to Denmark, I shall have photos of you all!
Here is one of my best friends in Denmark. This photo was taken quite a while ago, before I came to Australia.
Kenneth is now living here in Sydney, on the beautiful Manly beach - only about a half hour away from me. Kenneth came to stay with me a few months ago. He was trying out a new job, and actually came back! He is going to give Australia a go, to see if he likes it like I do. No more biting winters, lots of warmth and sunshine, beautiful mountains and bush to explore... and I think he has discovered, there are lots of friends to make - especially the pretty fun-going ones with two legs and a skirt! *smile*
He is actually a pretty good cook. Whist he stayed in my apartment for a couple of months, he cooked pot roast with gorgonzola sauce, and also gave a wonderful 3-course dinner for a small group of friends here. About two years after I arrived in Australia, I returned to Denmark for a visit. On the day I arrived in Denmark, he threw together a party for me!
Here is Ester, another one of my friends.
She is a fashion designer and paints some wonderful paintings.
Naturally at parties, there was quite a large amount of beer being consuRepeater Stations | The Competitors | Helicopter | Jungle Around Us | The Village | 
The Wildlife in Borneo . . .The jungles in Borneo are really dense, dark and humid.
You will find that some of the photos look as though they have been over-exposed, but in reality, it is just the humidity in the air.
I have a photo of this at home - Glen enlarged it for me, and framed it!
Don't ask me why - I think I look rather wasted there.
Glen and I tried to race through the jungle.
The climb to the top of the mountain is rated as a 1.5 hour climb... Glen and I have done it in 26 minutes... actually I was confident that I could do it in less than 20 and so I did!
I held the record of taking 17 minutes to race to the top of Mt Silam, covering a distance of approx 4 kilometres through the jungle, up a mountain.
I was getting really fit (My girlfriend was proud of me).
This photo shows how dense and dark the jungle can be. It was so humid there... no, not because I hadn't cleaned my lenses.
You can see how muddy it is in the jungle - I became quite dirty after many trips into the jungle.
I think these trees are just as big as the Californian Redwoods. They might not be as old, but definitely just as big.
This was taken with a 300mm lens, from 1.5 metres.
The most amazing thing about them, is when they are scared, the curl up into little "marbles".
It looks like a small bug, but it is actually at least 7cm long, which is actually quite big.
I noticed in Borneo, most of the insects there were huge.
The wingspan of the brown moth was about 15cm wide - huge!
They are mostly active at night, which is quite common for creatures in the jungle.
A couple of the girls stationed in the jungles, was stationed here. Not a wise decision, considering these girls were paranoid about the insects.
(Note: in the photo below, I still had conjunctivitis) I had the red eyes for most of the trip.
Big and beautiful, don't you think? You can see how big the black moth is compared to the size of the telephone.
These plants were kind of special because each branch split into two, so by the end of it, they formed a hexagonal pattern.
Below, are plants known as the "pitcher" plant.
The pitcher plants are meat-eating plants - you have watch out not to fall into them because they will swallow you whole.
If you just believed that, you are very gullible! *laugh*
The pitcher plant, like other carnivorous plants, feed on insects.
They have sweet-smelling nectar that attract the unsuspecting insect to it.
When the insect lands, it finds the surface slippery and fall straight into the “pitcher”, where the plants juices drowns it and is digested by the plant.
You may have heard of other type of carnivorous plants such as the Venus Fly Trap, and the Sundew plants.
Yes, you see me holding the snake with a leaf.
It was a poisonous snake, and I was worried about it's venom getting on my skin.
For example a puff adder, contact with the venom numbs the skin.
I was not familiar with the snakes in Borneo, and was not about to risk it.
The tarantella was sitting inside the catering tent hunting.
Everyone was looking at it and admiring it, which was pretty amazing, considering I know many people who would willingly kill a spider in sight.
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Created: 7 Dec 2001
15. August 2000 10:42
by Rene Pallesen
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Ecochallenge ( Sabah 2000 )
28. July 2001 10:51
by Rene Pallesen
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28. July 2001 10:50
by Rene Pallesen
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There is a monastry on Mt Popa - a hill located 50km away from Bagan.
When I was there, it was a cloudy day.
I ran into a woman selling petrified wood - quite silly really, considering the place was covered with it.
They must think tourists are stupid! *laugh* I managed to pick up a couple of small pieces to take back with me.
As you can see, there are stacks of them around.
And no... this is not a tombstone.
This is actually a road sign.
You would be surprised how big some of these pieces are - this piece below was actually about a me" border="0"> |  |  | |  | | Arrival | Silam / Jungle Ops | Repeater Stations | The Competitors | Helicopter | Jungle Around Us | The Village |
Repeater Stations . . .
Here, you see Paul and I transporting some of the repeater stations by air.
From Silam, we flew down to DFVC. We stayed there for three days before going back to Silam.
I am at one of the repeater sites. Here, the top of one of the mountains was cleared, so we could safely land a helicopter there.
Oh... did I forget to mention that I almost chopped one of my fingers in half at the repeater site?
On top of my infected eye, I had another thing for the medical team to look at. The fingernail had been chopped in half and there was not much I could do about it except clean it up and try to avoid infections. The medical team was great there... they were extremely good.
We had a few problems with some of the communications gear.
Paul and Glen were handling it, and at times I tried to assist.
The first few days had been really tough.
The top of Silam is covered in clouds for most of the afternoons, so the solar panels are quite useless. A survey of the conditions made prior to the race was useless.
If you ask any of the locals, they would have told us that the peak is always covered in clouds... but apparently no-one asked them!!!
We had problems keeping the generators running - they were using more power than predicted and there was no sun on the top of Silam to recharge the batteries.
The generator itself was a re-built petrol engine with a car alternator on it.
We basically tried to use a system where we used a jerry can, cut holes into it, and relied on the force of gravity to transport the fuel to the generator.
This design ended up working best for us.
Our helicopter pilot sitting on the side there, just grinning...
On the third day of the race, I hiked up the mountain three times. I was really tired and all I could think of was getting a bit of a rest and some food. I managed to get a bit once I got to Danum. In Danum I managed to get 6 hours sleep before someone woke me up and told me that the repeater had died in Silam... again all the cars had to leave in a convoy... so rush, rush to find my driver and managed (just) to get into the convoy!
The road to Danum closes at 6.30pm and all the cars had to go in the convoy.
The helicopter flew all of us to the top of the mountain, and waited there for us till we were finished. Glen quite often told the pilot, "You don't have to shut down, because we'll only be here for 5 minutes." Well... quite often, we were there for as long as an hour and half! (Don't worry, the pilot was sensible enough to shut down immediately... he got to know Glen very well.)
I went up there often make sure that it was still running. It is much better getting a helicopter to fly me up there so that I can bring some fuel with me !
Glen has mostly been on top of the mountain getting the generator back online.
We have to keep the generator running 24 hours per day until the end of the race.
On the third night after the race started, one of the repeaters went dead.
I had to hike up the mountain on the previous day as the generator had died.
I did not leave the mountain until it was dark, so I had to climb down through the jungle in the dark!
Fortunately I had my torch with me!
Paul later gave me strict instructions to make sure that I leave the mountain so that I could be back at HQ while there was still light!
I found out that I did not have any problems navigating at night... I even offered Paul to go back up when the repeater died!
Anyhow, we ended up having to send the airborne repeater up!
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Created: 7 Dec 2001
15. August 2000 10:41
by Rene Pallesen
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I saw the most interesting puppet show, known as the “Mandalay Marionettes”
There were 2 or 3 puppeteers out the front, with a live band of musicians.
Unfortunately, it was more of a show for the tourists, rather than the locals.
It cost 1,000 chats or US$2 per show.
28. July 2001 10:48
by Rene Pallesen
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When I initially arrived in Yangon / Rangoon, I wanted to fly up Bhamo - one of the bigger towns north of Burma. I also considered exploring Myitkyinã - a town further north of Bhamo.
My Lonely Planet guide indicated that the only border crossing into China was to the east of Bhamo. My initial plans to Burma also included exploration of western China. However, I was disappointed by the military turning me back, despite the fact that my Lonely Planet guide said I could cross into China at Ruili.
I decided instead to fly to Mandalay, not only because it was cheap to do so, but it saved me a 20-hour bus ride there from Yangon.
I heard about a song for sailors.
“To be a real sailor, the sailor would have to have been to Mandalay way upriver”
I quite liked Mandalay.
The photo below, is of Mandalay Hill.
During World War II (20 March 1945), the British and the Japanese fought one another to gain control of the position on this hill.
The photo to the left is taken from the hill itself facing east - as you can see, it has an aerial view of the whole city, and puts any oncoming enemies at a disadvantage. Control of Mandalay was important during the war, as the soldiers were able to set up artillery and attack anyone approaching the fortress.
This hill was of big strategic importance.
The building you see near the shrine is a monument to the British regiment who managed to take control of this hill from the Japanese.
At the eastern part of the delta, a lot of logging takes place. There was a train line built that used to cart all the trees/wood for export to Thailand.
The moat around the fortress is man-made.
Although man-made, comes from the local river.
The original fortress was burnt to the ground.
The whole fortress covered an area of 2.5 x 2.5 km
The design of Mandalay was quite colonial, and surprisingly, most of the streets were at 90º to one another.
Overall, I found Mandalay the most expensive city to travel to in Burma.
No matter what one does in Mandalay, be it explore Mandalay Hill or the city itself, the locals always had “special” foreigner prices. It really annoyed me.
I tried to use local currency as much as possible. However, FEC (Foreign Exchange Currency) was more valuable and worth more to the locals. FEC is also used in China, and one tries to use local currency as much as possible. Any item you buy has 2 prices - and obviously it is cheaper to use local currency than to use FEC.
I must admit, even Mandalay Hill was not that nice for the price I paid to explore it. It was also expensive just to go into the fortress.
Surprisingly, I could not find maps of the area that was not more that 40 years old.
28. July 2001 10:47
by Rene Pallesen
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Politics . . .
There is a lot of politics going on in Burma that an outsider should not get involved in - Burma is one of those countries where political opinions are best kept to oneself.
In Burma, use of the Internet and mobile phones is illegal. This is the government's way of controlling the information entering the country. Even access to equipment such as laptops is illegal - the country is so poor that many could not afford such a piece of equipment.
I saw many young women queueing for their rations. They were standing so close together that I thought they were lesbians! *laugh* The girls stand close together so another person cannot jump the queue by pushing in.
The girls here are very young, some have barely reached puberty and are doing some very hard work.
There is a lot of critique by Amnesty International, of Burma's use of young girls to provide maintenance for the roads.
