Belitung overview

Below are some bird eye view photographs of Belitung taken from the plane. As can be seen, Belitung still have large forested areas around.

Below are photographs of various hills on Belitung. 

Sadly, there are large areas of forest cleared for tin mining too.

Our worse enemy was the rain clouds.

We went to Belitung at the wrong timing, all 3 days spent there were rainy days. The locals told us it had been raining for days already.

Many cryptocoryne habitats were flooded. There were some which my explorer friend dared to enter to search for cryptocorynes, not being afraid of whatever bacteria, leeches, etc lurking in the flooded streams and river.

However, there were also other flooded streams which we confirmed with the locals that cryptocorynes could be found but we were not able to enter as the water level had raised by more than a man's height with fast flowing current. A snake was seen swimming in this river too, the risk was just too high to undertake.

Jakarta to Belitung flight, buy one get one free!

I went for a 3D3N free and easy cryptocoryne hunting trip to Pulau Belitung with my explorer friend over the last weekend. This was my first visit to this island but not for my explorer friend. He had visited this island 20 over years ago when he was involved in butterfly research back then.

We took a Thursday night flight from Singapore to Jakarta, stayed over on the benches outside Jakarta's domestic airport, and took the Friday early morning flight to Belitung (Tanjung Pandan Airport). Our dinner was a A&W fast food meal each that night. 

 

The original flight details were as follows:

Flight No: SJ50

Departure: 0620 from Jakarta

Arrival: 0710 to Tanjung Pandan

The actual flight details were as follows instead:

Flight 1:

Flight No: SJ50

Departure: 0620 from Jakarta
Arrival: 0800 to Jakarta

We obtained a really good deal of "buy 1 get 1 free" from Sriwijaya Air for our flight to Belitung. As the plane was touching down during our 1st flight, it suddenly increased altitude again and made a turn back to Jakarta, stating that there was a problem with the braking system which prevented the plane from landing at Tanjung Pandan airport which had a short runway. Luckily I took some photographs of the invocation card details from Lion Air (our flight from Singapore to Jakarta) which kept me occupied during the journey back to Jakarta.

At 0920hrs, we finally managed to board another plane of an older model, possibly more than 30 years old according to my friend, which nevertheless successfully landed at Belitung at 1015hrs.

Cryptocorynes on Belitung, here I come!

Another dream, cryptocoryne dream

I was tired and fell asleep. When I woke up, I found myself in the forest again, walking down a valley to a stream.

I was searching again, for another dream cryptocoryne.

There were many aroids around, some possibly lagenandra (?), but no cryptocorynes.

I reached the upper stream portion where the water became shallower but clearer.

Suddenly...

Again, before I could start to search for the spathes, these horrific images appeared.

I woke up in cold sweat. The images below, ever so vivid, are still very clear in my mind....

A cryptocoryne pilgrimage

I had a dream. I was walking in a forest. I was searching.

I found a dried up sandy stream and followed it.

The stream became more rocky, I was alone, venturing deeper into the forest.

The scene changed suddenly, I was standing beside a small river now.

I thought the plants with large leaves along the river were Cryptocoryne ciliata...

... but there were not...

The scene changed again. I was walking along a small trail in the forest now. I could see these pretty plants along the way.

I walked along the river beside the path.

I thought I saw cryptocorynes but I was wrong again.

Suddenly I found myself climbing up a forest slope. This can't be the right path to locate cryptocorynes. I finally reached the top. There was a rocky stream, with coarse sandy infill.

I could not believe my eyes.

These looked like cryptocorynes.

There are!

Emersed cryptocorynes too! Are there spathes for me to confirm what I think these are?

 

Some horrific images suddenly filled my mind!

I woke up from the dream. I could however still see the images below clearly in my mind ...

Ati-Udayan - an ayurvedic medicinal plant

According to the ayurvedic doctor, Ati-Udayan is used in treatment for many types of illnesses, including but not limited to fever, cough, malaria, liver problems, etc. The raw dried rhizomes shown above is considered as a poison and should not be directly consumed without additional preparation. They should first be boiled in milk for a period of time, before they are being dried again and pounded into powder form. The powder can then be consumed by dissolving half a tea spoon of it in hot water. These Ati-Udayan rhizomes are now commonly being imported from India.

In case you have not guessed yet, Ati-Udayan is the Sri Lanka Sinhala name for Cryptocorynes.