Hunting Adventure at Triange, Pahang - Part 3

Hi Everyone

Part 3 of Triang's FS hunt.

It was Saturday, 4th of December 2010, my last day for hunting. Was hoping that it would not rain, but...well no control over the weather and it rained and rain and rain.. the type of long life rain that you know will continue the whole day.

Would rain stop hardcore Fs hunters? The answer is obviously, No.

I put on a thick T-shirt, a track jacket and a hooded rain coat coupled with a cap. ken was also adequately dressed to hunt in the rain, though his dressing was more basic. We left home at about 7.30am, not on a motor bike but in Ken's 2.7 litre spanking white SUV. I suggested to Ken to go to Triang river to check out the possibility of big FS and we were there in less than 10 minutes. The river isn't like what we SG people are used to. Over in Triang, we needed to drive through the palm oil plantation to reach the edge of a river. It was there that I learnt that the torns on the palm tree branches are poisonous and next time I am at Megatron side of P#, I would avoid the oil palm tree as it had this dangerous looking torns ready to poke.

When we were at the edge of the river, we immediately spotted a small spot with FS potential. I was mindful that there were many holes about 4 inches in diameter all over the muddy ground. ken confrmed that they were snake holes. There was also no indication where the river starts as the edge was covered by vegatations and don know why I kept imagining a big crocodile jumping out and biting us even though ken said there was no crocodile. We were able to catch a few Fs but there were not the big ones we were after. Well, now at least I know that the river bank does not neccessarily produce large FS. ken parked the car facing land in case the tide rushes in ....but well we left safely, no flood, no snake bite, no crocodile and no big FS..only rain and more rain.

We left the river and look at people's vegetable/fruit plot. They do to a certain extend look alike and look like the picture below (which was where FS No. 2 was caught). They also had some unfamiliar vegetable for which the leaves does have FS residing inside.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
We then drove about and decided that the single storey abandoned house with primary school leaves at the broken fence hold some Fs potential. Yes, there were some Fs but not really big ones. Suffice to say, the mosquitoes were plentiful too. Just as I was about to give up as it was raining quite heavily, Ken pointed to 2 primary school leaves and yes....clearly that is a male Fs sleeping there. FS No. 4 was accordingly caught.

FS No. 4 is an ML sized Fs but appeared slow and the legs not sticky. However my months of experience tells me it was due to the weather. We then headed for home about 9.30am. By then Ken's white SUV had become brown from the rain and mud.

The morning and afternoon were spent with our respective families sight seeing. When our families were at home in the evening due to rain, we set off for round 2. We headed straight for the abandoned house. I looked high and low but the elusive big FS was nowhere to be found. It did not matter that it rained the whole day, was cold and wet and was still raining.

I hunted outside the fence whereas ken went inside the house...all in vain. I decided to bend down and flip at each and every leaf, a tough task as almost all the leaves were wet. Just then, Ken called for me and I knew he had found another big one. It was the natural reaction to call for support in case the precious big one escape. However I could not find him.

I called out for him and realised that he was opposite the abandoned house. He was across a big drain at err... a rubbish dump..a small rubbish dump (not smelly) where people left old sofa and if I remember correctly a fan and some car parts. The drain, a proper cement drain was about 1 metres deep and about 1 metres to jump accross. I decided to walk across via the cement beam and was safely accross. This place had a short coconut tree, many dragon plant and other plants and it was very messy...perfect for FS. Well the call for me was not to tell me about any big FS but to tell me he was there. Anyway, we hunted and caught a couple of small male. Then Ken's eagle eye spotted two dragon plant leaf sticking together and he declared "quite big". It was however across the drain and Ken remained there while I walk across the drain and across the rubbish dump. The leaves of the dragon plant which I know as Drascina (not sure of spelling) are long leaves and this FS nest were two leaves stuck near the middle, not at the edge. It was therefore a real challenge for Ken to lean over across the drain to hold the leaves, for me to cut and shorten the leaves while standing on a coconut tree branch. We did not want this FS to escape. When the leaves were shortened, I used the net Mrs Exspiderking gave me to catch this fella and viola....FS No.5 was caught.

By then it was about 6.00pm, cold and dark and alas it was time to go home.

We caught a total of 5 FS this 2 days.

The biggest is FS No. 1, now confirmed to be a giant. FS No. 5 is the second largest, a very big ML like Valtor's size and the third biggest is FS No. 2.

It was a very fruitful hunting trip for me. In SG, I don think I can get 5 good size FS in 2 days. Most importantly, I had the company of Triang's Golden hands, Ken. During the hunt, I was in FS heaven and I look foward to going to Triang to hunt again.

Your ExSpiderKing
Randy

*** Contributed by ExSpiderKing ***

Hunting Adventure at Triange, Pahang - Part 2

Hi Everyone

Continuation of the Triang FS hunting trip....

There are many many small FS spots to try. Almost every spot had FS. We did catch some FS in the other spots but there were not big enough, probably SL at most. What deterred us were, once again the mosquitoes. Very fierce, aggressive and by the thousands. It was the mosquitoes that determine the length of our hunt, we expect to get something big in minutes...or else run off to escape mosquitoes.

While we were riding around, we were chased by this pair of goose.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


 
It was not very macho for two matured man and a child to be fleeing from 2 goose who were hell bent on pecking our legs. On the other hand, we could not be seen fighting with goose, right? Anyway, we did not wait to find out whether their bites were painful or not. I also don know my insurance coverage include bite from goose

During our happy ride, there was an active exchange of FS ideas. Ken's belief is that a gostun pao must gostun 3 times and move forward to fight...that would be a good fighter. Also the under belly of the FS must be darker in colour. Ken and I both agree that FS are normally found at the outside of any wooded area and never inside. His reasoning is that FS is a 'tame' spider and not a wild one. There would also be curious stare from people whenever we hunt. Some thought we were there to steal fruit. We often explain in Hokkien, liak Huay ler (catch FS). Liak Huay Ler is readily understood by them and they would smile or offer suggestions on where to get the best FS. They speak mainly Hokkien. It helped that there is an 8 year old boy with us as they think the FS is meant for the boy, instead of us, adults.
 
Ken then suggested that we go back to the plot behind his house (as we happen to ride near his house). I thought to myself, why? This plot only have small FS, why waste time? Anyway, we hunted there and I followed his advice to look at the Pandan leaves. There was a row of pandan leaf between the papaya trees and the sugar cane trees. I flip over the leaves not expecting much.

There were 2 leaves that stick out prominently. I thought, ayah, this type wont have FS one and just flip it. But to my surprise, there was quite a big FS sleeping between the leaf and continued to sleep despite the leaf being separated. I gently closed the leaves back and again, decision time. This time I decided to use my NTUC plastic bag, fold both leaves in the bag and FS No. 2 was caught.

By now I have 2 FS and naturally wanted more. We again tried other spots. In total we tried about 10 spots and they look almost the same like that shown below.

FS No. 3 was caught also from pandan leaves but from another vegetable plot. This time the FS nest was at the top of the pandan patch. Again the NTUC bag with my lucky scissors saved the day and FS No. 3 was caught.

By now it was about 0930am and we went back home to admire our catch. We had a total of about 12 male FS and naturally FS No. 1, No.2 and No. 3 had their individual boxes. The others proved unsuitable and were released at the front portion of his house where there is a small vegetable plot.

(to be continued)

*** Contributed by ExSpiderKing ***

Hunting Adventure at Triange, Pahang - Part 1

Hi Everyone

I travelled 358 kilometres to Triang, Pahang, caught 5 very very good sized Fs and is now safely home with my 5 foreign talents.
I was there from 02/12/10 to 05/12/10 with my family to visit my friend Ken and his family. Here is a photo of err... a sign post that says Triang.
 

I stayed with Ken, a very good friend of close to 20 years, ken. He is Triang's exspiderking as well as Triang's version of Golden hands.

On 02/12/10 evening was my first FS hunt. We took a small motorbike to a small plot about 300 metres from where we stayed. It was a small garden with sugar cane, pandan leaves, some unknown vegatables and lots of mosquitos. Ken used the traditional kop method and caught 3 rather small FS. Alamak, all the way here just to catch Fs of this size????. Ken assured me that there would be bigger ones and that we would hunt early tomorow morning.

03/12/10: 7.30am, ken and his 8 year old son was ready to hunt. We took the small motorbike and went to small spots around his neighbbourhood, ken, like me had not hunted for more than 30 years. The environment is totally different from SG. Over in SG, I would look for CB leaves, but there, they don even have CB leaves. They had an Fs environment perhaps like what SG was 50 years ago...small houses with small plots of land and all sorts of vegatables and fruits. The drains does not have any cement base and was at best loosely dug. These plots were often overwhelmed with very fierce battalions of mosquitos, by the thousands. As we rode in the nice morning fresh air, I was fascinated by the number of swallow birds flying about, stray dogs lazily walking, birds chirping, in particular Or Pek (magpie) birds, see Kar Chua and snakes too. We were essentially in a small town deep in Pahang where everyone knows each other or are related to each other.

Anyway, the first FS of considerable size, FS No. 1 was caught at this plot of land:-
 

We were there about 8.10am. I was not mentally prepared for the aggreesive mosquitos who were biting every inch of my body. This was despite havin sprayed generously the best repellant Beach Road army goods store could offer. Then ken gave a shout to me, big one, big one. Hidden at the right side of the tree ..about 2 metres were some hidden dumbcane leaves. I looked into the leaves and was shocked to see such big arms stretching out and the Fs actually staring, no..glaring at me. It was BIG. Then my months of Fs experience comes in handy, decision time ...to use a NTUC plastic bag, Bro Ura's giant ziplock bag or a flexible soft long net bag Mrs Exspiderking gave me. I chose the net and cut the leaves in the net. FS No.1 was accordingly caught.

When FS no. 1 was walking in the net, I could not believe my eyes, here was a Fs bigger than any that I have caught and it was in my net. I managed to transfer it safely to my plastic container. Ken looked at the Fs and proclaimed that it was quite big and something he was use to. This was the first of my 5 FS. It was caught at the spot as shown in the picture above.

Then we happily proceed to our next spot.....

(to be continued)

*** Contributed by ExSpiderKing ***