In the Jungle (A-weema-weh, A-weema-weh....)

Hey Everyone!

As I'm writing this we have less than 5 days until we're back on Canadian soil. It's unbelievable how fast the last 11 months have gone, and especially the last 4. This year has lived up to what we hoped it would be and more. However, in saying that, we're absolutely dying to get back to friends, family, familiar smells, our mom's cooking, and to stop living out of our backpacks (which are in need of a professional cleaning!).

So, I thought I would update you all on our jungle trip in Borneo. We spent 6 days wrestling giant lizards, fighting off scorpions, and at war with an invading tribe. Okay... not quite. The trip, however, was nothing short of an adventure, and definitely something we'll never forget.

Day 0:

After a 3 hour flight from Bangkok we caught a night bus to Sandakan. We had heard horror stories about bus rides in Malaysia being packed, freezing (they love their air), and ridiculously fast on very dangerous/curvy roads. The ride definitely lived up to it's reputation. We spent 5 hours being tossed from side-to-side as the bus wound around mountains. I got up to use the toilet at one point and ended up sitting in a local man's lap. I don't know if he was more surprised or I was! Needless to say, after about hour 4, Andrew and I were both pretty sick.

We got dropped off at the side of the road and told (most people in Malaysia speak perfect English) to walk towards a dimly-lit building in the distance. We grabbed our bags and walked towards the building about 100 meters before about a dozen dogs (or more) started barking and walking towards us. Scary! We were about to start walking (running!) away when we heard "hello?" Luckily someone at the hostel was sitting outside and waiting for us - with his large pack of dogs, apparently!

Day 1:

After a great sleep at the hostel and a really good breakfast, Andrew and I headed to The Sepiloc Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre. Borneo is one of the only places in the world with a healthy population of Orangutans. The problem is, however, that logging and plantations have ruined their natural habitat. There's also a problem with people (usually farmers) stealing baby Orangutans or trying to take care of them after their mothers have been killed. Obviously the animals can not be domesticated and end up having serious mental and physical problems. The Rehabilitation Centre basically rescues the babies and puts them in a "natural" environment while slowly training them to be able to survive in the wild alone. Anyway, it's actually a really neat program and you can really see that the animals are benefiting from it. Andrew and I spent the morning watching about 12 orangutans (and lots of monkeys as well) playing, eating, and socializing. I know everyone says this, but it's really amazing how human-like they are. Even their facial expressions are so familiar. I think they knew we were watching though because some of them were showing off a bit. One little guy did about 30 somersaults around a platform for no apparent reason. It was pretty cute. Anyway, the whole experience was definitely positive and eye-opening.

After lunch we took a 1 1/2 hour bus ride, and then a 1 hour boat ride to get to Base Camp. The camp was more-or-less a camping area for people wanting to get out and see nature. The camp had toilets, running-ish water from 2 big tanks that you could use to flush toilets or bathe, and about 5 or 6 cabins that housed about 8 people each. Everything was pretty rustic but for some reason it didn't matter since we were in the middle of the jungle. The staff at the camp was really helpful and knowledgeable. We didn't see too much wildlife in camp besides a few wild pigs, a monitor lizard, and a community of Macaque monkeys that were obsessed with invading camp and stealing stuff from the cabins. They would seriously plan an ambush every couple of hours. Andrew and I thought it was pretty funny until they stole our peanuts - which, by the way, were stuffed in the side of my backpack with about 5 other things.

We got to bed early on the first night since we were leaving pretty early in the morning to go on the 2nd part of our jungle trip.

Day 2 - Day 4

After breakfast we loaded up our "gear" (drinking water, rope, first aid, a change of clothes, mosquito spray, some pots, some rice, etc.) and headed out into the jungle with a guide and another couple from the UK. We followed the edge of a lake about a kilometer or so, until we found a good camping area. After finding all our necessary "equipment" we started building our shelter. After about 3 hours of pounding sticks, tying ropes, and wondering what the heck we had gotten ourselves into, we finished! The shelter was actually pretty cozy. There were 5 separate "stretchers" each fitted with their own mosquito nets, and a big tarp to protect us from the rain. It felt like such an accomplishment to get it built!

After we finished our shelter we were all pretty hungry and ready for lunch. When we signed up for the camping trip we were told that there would be no "frills" and we would be in charge of catching, collecting, and cooking all of our meals. I think we all sort of went into it thinking they were just trying to scare us and that we'd end up getting pretty good food. Well, we were definitely wrong! After a lunch and dinner of instant noodles we decided that the next day we were going to find some real food!

We basically spent the next 3 days learning to fish like the locals do. We would first catch bait or shrimp using a big fishing net that you have to throw while standing in the middle of the lake with mud up to our knees! Then we would tie the bait to the end of a string attached to a 2 L pop bottle and throw it out into the lake and hope that something would bite. It was the most exhausting thing in the world!

The first day that we went fishing we all decided to walk about 2 kilometers to a channel where our guide said we could get a lot of fish. We spent most of the day walking, fishing, and walking some more. We only caught around 2-3 small fish and a few shrimp! As difficult as it was, and as tired as we were, we had an absolute blast! I spent most of my time screaming actually, but hey, it was still fun. The couple we were with were absolutely hilarious and such fun.

So, we didn't really eat more than rice, a few small fish, shrimp, and some ferns for the first 2 days, but on the last day I caught a HUGE catfish. Andrew thinks he caught it - but I'm almost positive it was my 2 L pop bottle. Anyway, I'll give Andrew the credit for going out into the water and actually picking it up!

Doesn't look like Tara is going to finish this, so I'll take over here. I DID catch the fish. I walked across the waist high mud lake to get a bottle that was swimming around. One of the worst things I have had to do on this trip. Anyway, it was delicious. We stuffed ourselves with food that day, as the guide had caught some large prawns as well.

The next morning we had to head back to camp. However much fun we had, it was definitely one of those places that you were more than ready to leave. The normal package just does 2 nights in the base camp. We did those, plus 3 nights in a jungle camp. When I asked the guide what is the longest anyone stays in the jungle he said 3 nights. I asked him if many people do that... he said "No, you are the first." Apparently a lot of people leave after the first night.

Back at base camp we spent the day relaxing and talking with other people there. I played a game of soccer with the guides in the pouring rain; Tara played some cards with some other travelers. We met some really nice people there, including a few couples that were also going to be diving with us the next week.

One thing Tara didn't touch on was the massive amount of monkeys in the area. We saw three types of monkeys and in total we probably saw over 200 monkeys. They were everywhere: on the shores of the lake, the river, and around the base camp. Sometimes a little to close for comfort.

At one point when we were fishing, I was walking around the lake to retrieve a bottle. I heard something rustling in the trees so I crouched down to get a better look. I then saw a long tail walking along the jungle floor, and I first thought it was some kind of cat. As they got closer I saw that they were long-tail macaques. For some reason, no one bothered to tell us that they were aggressive. Anyway, one of them saw me and they all ran back through the trees. Or so I thought. Faster than I could realize what was happening, two macaques bounded out towards me, their hair standing on end, chests puffed out, and teeth bared.

One was quite small, but the other was a full grown macaque. From my years of elk ranching/black bear guiding/wilderness survival training I thought the best thing to do would be to try to look really big, yell, and charge at the monkey... then maybe try to hit it with something. It worked with larger animals... Unfortunately the yelling didn't work and the larger monkey charged me, stopping only about two meters away. I thought it was going to jump on me or something... was going through in my head all the things Tara was telling me you could catch from a monkey. I did some more yelling, slowly retreating, and was feeling the ground to try to find a stick. I got about 6 meters back and the monkey charged again, this time stopping only one meter in front of me. Either my yelling finally worked, or the monkey thought he had proved his point, and allowed me to retreat back further this time. I walked back to the camp from there, and Tara ran up to me thinking I had been bit by a snake or something. So, if anyone should be stuck in this situation... actually just stay away from the macaques. Or carry a stick around to hit them with.

So, to sum up, this is all the cool stuff we saw/did in the jungle:

Saw:
long-tail macaques
proboscis monkeys
silver leaf monkeys
crocodiles
water monitors
wild pigs
a civet cat
black scorpions
numerous spiders/tarantulas
kingfishers
centipedes and millipedes
two types of snakes
bats

Did:
Caught fish using a net and also with pop bottle floats
Collected jungle plants to eat
Drank water from a vine
Bathed/Swam in murky and muddy lakes which at some points of the year contain crocodiles
Saw the most amazingly starry night I have ever seen
Attempted to Tarzan across a small and very dirty stream... didn't go so well, but we got it on video.
Went on numerous treks/boat rides to find wildlife


Needless to say, it was a really great time and one of the best parts of the trip. Tara now thinks she might be ready to go on Survivor. This might just be the last post until we get home, but you never know. Take care everyone,

-Andrew and Tara