Hey All!
I just got out of. the jungle... Taman Negara. I had a great hike into the middle of the national park where we (3 of us along with 5 others who had also reserved bunks) slept one night listening to the wild animals outside drinking, chasing and killing or at least injuring each other. Good thing we were about 20' up on stilts(see picture). It was a strenuous 6 hour hike in. The next morning most of the others hopped on a longboat at the river.. but there wasn't enough room and two of us could wait for another boat in an hour or hike back on a shorter trail. Myself and another decided to do the hike back as originally planned. We boiled some water for a liquid breakfast and some more for drinking on the way back and headed out. It was shorter but a much more difficult hike. We made it in very very good time - 4 hours instead of the estimated 6 hours. We only had one leech that made it to blood sucking stage and I'm happy to say it wasn't on me despite
more leeches making the attempt (I caught about 4 inching their way up - made a little video too). These aren't like the leeches I grew up with in the lakes of Alberta; they are litle spaghetti strands that reach out from the underside of leaves and from sticks on the ground to catch on as you walk by. they inchworm themselves to an opportune location before becoming engorging themselves on your blood. As for the hike, I've never sweated so much in my life. Others were quite jealous that I had a dry shirt and shorts to change in to. Even better that I had a towel as there was well water with a rudimentary shower; did that ever feel good! When I got back to the park entrance on the second day I had 7 ice teas and later found a place selling cans of beer (illegally) to top it all off.
We didn't see all that many animals. Wild Boar, Monkeys, Pheasant, Some kind of badger (Tamas???) and some large insects including a very large and poisonous looking centipede.
I´m not sure if I mentioned this already.. But I´m now toting around a Nokia N800 and it´s a great improvement over the previous one ( a slightly older model) that I had pickpocketed. I can now pop in the memory card from my camera directly and send you all pictures. I can also attach a keyboard much more easily so I can write more ( I´m sorry ;). It has a webcam as well.. But have to figure out what program to run on your end then maybe I can give a few live video tours if anyone is interested ?? Anywhere I have wifi I can video roam.. Which may limit me largely to Kentucky Fried Chicken stores.
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