We're in the jungle, staying in a hide sitting on the back bench with 2 fellow Americans, and 3 enthusiastic retired men from England who have taken up the hobby as bird watchers. We're all quietly watching the dried up salt lake below us for sightings of tigers, monkeys, boars, possibly elephants and some other crazy animals I've never even heard of. The sun is beginning to set and the cicadas are screaming. Our walk here was intense and exciting. It started with a steady climb upwards, beside a tribal village still living very primitively in grass huts, to some massive trees, along carpets of leaves, around a bend with a large animal growling and then running off before we could see it-a tiger maybe? Probably not but it was exciting and scary all at the same time. Then we came to a cave that we crawled through to many rooms and 1000s of sleeping bats. We seemed to disturb several of them and sent them flying above our heads-sending a few screams out of Brian and laughs out of me in reaction. We continued on and I enjoyed observing the giant leaves, seeds, flowers and small insects covering the forest floor.
After hiking back the next morning we enjoyed the small town of Tasman Negara, took a long nap and ate often on the floating barge restaurants in the river. We befriended Michael, who lived in the small hut next to us and spent the entire day in his company. I read many of his short stories and we talked about everything from religion to war. Michael is a 65 year old man from England who spends most of his year in a small hut in SE Asia writing and enjoying the simple things of life. I love making friends with people from all over the world and realizing that it doesn't matter how old you are or where you're from-we all have much in common and something to share and teach each other. The conversations we shared with Michael left me inspired and as we waved good-bye to him from the window of our bus the next morning I hoped that we would see him again.
