| Mad About Mountains |
| Mountains are among my favourite places of visit when I travel, partly because of the dramatic sceneries they have, and largely because of the huge amounnts of unique wildlife they tend to harbour. Fortunately, for many of us today, quite a number of the mountains are nowadays easily accessible, many a times due to tarmac road that lead al the way up to theit summits, hence rendering it hightly 'visitable'. For myself, I do not bother to conquer the summits of Mountains, but only attempt to go as high as there are good sceneries and of course interesting wildlife...a lazy climber in other sense... What makes most mountains, especially the ones in South-East Asia species are the various types of wildlife found there and nowhere else, having evolved isolated from other populations of its own species on that mountain or a certan range. Scientists term these as 'endemic species'. |
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| Tai Mo Shan, at 957 metres is the tallest mountain in Hong Kong, being located in the western New Territories, or about 400+ metres taller than the popularly visited Victoria's Peak on Hong Kong Island.(left) The view seen here is from an installation near the summit of this largely barren mountain. Much of it is cleared of the original vegetation, only to be replaced by grassy scrub and low bushes, instead of forests. Access can be reached by road from Tsuen Wan. The grassy vegetation at the summit areas are inhabited by warblers, parrotbills and buntings |
| A view of the summit of 1300 metres Fraser's Hill, which is in fact a mountain. From the highest point at the aptly named 'High Pines', One can see a vast stretch of the Titiwangsa Range, the main mountainous backbone of Peninsular Malaysia although this poor photo does not do justice to the magnificent views.The diverse birdlife of this 'hill' , hornbills, trogons,pittas to name a few have drawn large numbers of visiting birdwatchers, so much so that a 'bird race' is now annualy organised here. |
| (Above)On the road up Fraser's Hill, known as the 'Gap Road' which is long and winding as it cuts through mountain contours, one soon find this delightful colonial style establishment , the famous Gap Resthouse(Altitute 750 metres). |
| At 4093 metres above sea level, Mount Kinabalu of Sabah, Borneo is Malaysia's loftiest mountain and also one of South-East Asia's tallest, only to be exceeded by Myanmar's Hkabo Razi and Indonesia's Jayawijaya Range's mountains.Much of the time, this granite massif is enveloped by clouds and mists (Left) Stunted upper montane forest along Kinabalu's Summit trail. |
| (Left)On a clear day, the various peaks of the Kinabalu, including hte highest, Low's Peak and the distinctive twin Donkey Ears are exposed.The highest point can be reached by a well marked path that leads from the power station, which in turn is connected to HQ by a 4 km tarmac road. Mount Kinabalu (UNESCO site) is a treasure trove of biodiversity, providing home to one of Earth's most diverse concentration of plant species, with a estimated thousand species of orchids alone, not to mention numerous endemic birds/mammals, reptiles and countless insects species. |