Back to Gopeng – Part I

Last week, a few of us went back to Gopeng for butterfly watching.  We stayed at Adeline’s Rest House and later move over to her ‘new and improved’ Adeline’s Villa.

The Rest House consists of wooden huts on stilts. They are simple, rustic and comfortable. That is me taking a rest under our hut.

The villa is catered more for those who want to enjoy nature without compromising urban comfort. The villas have attached bathroom, hot water and are air-conditioned !

  

View of the villas at night.

A new large and spacious kitchen that allows Adeline to cook up a storm.

A very spacious and bright dining area that can easily accommodate more than 50 pax.

Panoramic view of the  dining area with villas on the left.

The new common washroom with a cascading waterfall entrace ! 

The food at Adeline’s place is superb as usual.  I’ll let the photos do the talking :

Now is the Durian season and Adeline’s Rest House and Villa are surrounded by Durian trees. Every morning, we went looking for Durian and we had Durians during breakfast, tea and supper everyday !

Continue to Part II =>

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=> April 2009 Rajah Brooke’s trip - Gopeng
=> July 2009 Rafflesia trip - Gopeng

Gopeng - Rafflesia, Rajah Brooke’s Birdwing and Durians

Gopeng – Fraser’s Hill Trip , Jun 2009 Part 1/3

Last month I few of us went to Gopeng and Fraser’s Hill.

I wanted to go back to Gopeng to see the Rafflesia since I missed it the last time.  The other excuse for making yet another trip to Gopeng/FH is the promise of free durians by the Gopeng resort owner and bungalow care taker at Fraser’s Hill.

I am very pleased with this trip as I finally saw my first Rafflesia, saw more RBB than I have ever seen and had the tastiest, freshest and best durians !

Here goes the photos ..

Kwok Wai Marcus and I at the ‘resort’

To see the Rafflesia we had to hike 600ft up
Along the way we saw a wild Begonia 
a plant with bright purple underside
and a few RBB caterpillars

and finally Rafflesia cantleyi !!
Unfortunately one has past its life span and the other one will only open in a day or two :-(

as we moved on we saw many Rafflesia flower buds on a vine !

and finally one that just bloomed ! Yahoo !!

A close-up shot of the flower bud.

On the way back we stop by the the Rajah Brooke’s area.  There were even more RBBs than our previous trip !!!

The durians at Gopeng were great. We had kampong durians.  We also picked up a few on our night outing and had them for breakfast.

We also saw a few stick insects:

Stheneboea repudiosa eating the leaf of Asystasia gangetica.

A pair of Abrosoma festinatum doing their business – Sex and Food !

one with a bright blue lateral stripe.

and many frogs and toads

=> Go to Part 2/3 – “Butterflies of Gopeng”

Butterfly trip to Gopeng, Perak – Part I

I have always wanted to visit this place, especially after reading about the Rafflesia and Rajah Brooke’s Birdwing at Ulu Geroh in MNS Naturalist magazine.

Finally in mid Mar, 5 of us made our way to Gopeng. During our 2.5 days there we sighted 100+ species of butterflies ! This is definitely a 5-STAR location for butterfly watcher

Accommodation

We stayed at Rumah Rehat Adeline which is located at Kampung Geruntum, about 7 Km from the town of Gopeng. The place is located in a durian plantation and next to a large oil palm plantation.

Simon (right) and I in front of Rumah Rehat Adeline

This is our the hut we stayed in. It has fan, light and mattresses. It is simple and clean and that’s all we need for our trip.

For those who enjoy cold shower, they have outdoor shower area which is fantastic after a hot day out.


and that’s me having a shower before dinner !

Food

Our package includes 4 meals – breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper. The food here is one of the best and a friend commented it is many times better than what he had at Taman Negara.

All the food are prepared with the freshest ingredients and some prepared right in front of us. The picture below shows the cook preparing chicken soup in bamboo stick, one of many delicious dishes served.

Tou Fu with Petai and prawn

After a long hot day out chasing butterflies, nothing beats having hot delicious food waiting for you at the dining table.

Butterflies

The Rajah Brooke’s area is located 4 km away from where we stayed.

We have to cross a river to get there but on the first day, the bridge was submerged due to the heavy down pour the night before.

So we had to use the suspension bridge instead

Here is Simon checking out one of the tracks.

Simon and I outside the RBB/Rafflesia visitor center

Finally, I get to see RBB puddling, up close !

There were at least 50~60 of them spread over a 3 sqm area. What a spectacular sight !

A male RBB

The female RBB is very rare and does not puddle. They only feed on nectar and can usually be seen gliding high up at the canopy, feeding on bauhinia flowers. We were fortunate to see at least 4 of them feeding on wild Clerodendron about 10 feet above the ground.
 

 

continue in Part II