Malaysia, 3 Oct 2006 --

I’m not sure if I accrued good jungle karma from NOT killing all of the leeches that I pulled off my shoes, socks, and legs, or from NOT hitting the rat that was eating our food when I chucked the bottle of hand sanitizer at him (although I meant to hit him and karma is all about intention), but I felt like the luckiest girl in the world yesterday.

The plan was this: Andris and I had arrived at Taman Negara (literally “National Park” in Malay) in order to explore the world’s oldest rainforest. Unfortunately, the place is relatively touristy and everywhere you go people are trying to sell you guided tours that cost much, much more than our budget. We decided to do all of the activities that were possible without a guide, even though if you asked a guide, none of the activies were possible without a guide.

On our first day we did the Canopy Walk (us: RM 14, guide: 60), and trekked to Ear Cave (us: RM 4, guide: 80). The Canopy walk was really wonderful and fun. The Ear Cave expidition started with a boat trip and then an hour hike. We did our own cave exploration which involved squatting in mud, avoiding bats, and crawling through bat poop. There were hundreds of bats hanging so close to your face that you could pluck them from the roof, which, of course, I didn’t. It was awesome, though a bit scary, as I don’t really care for bats.

Our second day was more ambitious. We were going to hike 7 hours to a “hide” in the woods where you can watch nocturnal animals at a salt lick. The next morning we would hike back. With a guide, this expedition costs RM 230. We started early in the day, and it was a heck of a hike. I might almost say it was the hardest hike I’ve ever done. Between the hills, the mud, the leeches, and getting off trail once, it was rough. By the time we got to the hide (a simple cabin on stilts) we were so sweaty and smelled so foul that I felt badly for the loud group of Germans and one random American we found there, who had taken a boat in an hour previously (Taman Negara is next to a big river that you can hire people to take you up and down). Their plan was to boat in and hike out. Our new plan was to take the boat home after a night in the hide because doing that hike once in the trip was enough.

Occupants of hides are supposed to be quiet so they don’t scare away animals. Around 8pm, the Germans finally quited down - and this is when we got lucky. First, a tapir showed up. After he left, a group of jungle cattle came by. Andris and I had rented a high powered flashlight so would could see these animals really well, and it was really amazing. The rest of the night was a parade of more tapirs and cattle. Andris and I took turns staring out the window in case any other animals came through. I was hopeful that a jungle elephant might come by, since we had seen droppings on our way there, but we weren’t so lucky.

Half way through the night rats started running around in the rafters of the hide where we had all hung our food. I caught a big one red-handed eating our bread, which is when I chucked the hand sanitizer at him. This scared him away for about a minute, so I had to move the food into a backpack and hang it from some thinner twine. Once our bag was no longer a target, the rats moved on to a plastic bag belonging to the Germans. I was asleep at the time it happened, but a small rat climbed into the bag and got stuck. All of us were awakened by a rat frantically screaming to be freed from the plastic bag hanging from the rafters. The Germans didn’t know how to deal with it (much to my annoyance/entertainment) and let the rat scream until sunrise. Somehow, it freed itself a few hours later, though it ate all of their cookies and bread and left droppings and urine in their only food bag. I think the rat went in and then ate so much it couldn’t get out. Overall, it was pretty amusing.

When we woke up, we wished the Germans and the American good luck on the hike back, and then headed to the boat dock 2km away. They had told us it costs RM 120 to rent a boat (which is way too much), and we didn’t know how often boats came, so we were prepared to wait for hours and hope for a better deal than RM 120. When we arrived at the dock, to my amazement, there was already a guy with a boat who said he could take us back for RM 20 each! He also said we were incredibly lucky to see all of those animals the night before. Just before we left, a girl from the group of Germans showed up and said she had changed her mind about the hike. (As we found out later, all but two of the Germans and the American had given up on the hike at various points and went to the river to flag down boats) The three of us set off on the 40-minute ride back to our guest house, which was lovely in the perfect weather, and as a bonus we “shot the rapids” (RM 40 with a guide) on the way for free.

So this is why I felt like the luckiest girl in the world - We finished that amazing hike, saw lots of crazy jungle animals, and only spent RM45 each, instead of the RM 230 we would have with a guide. And I only had one leech successfully draw any blood! It was great.

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