At last, proper jungle. It's only taken three jungle trecks to get the 
optimum cliche one, you know staying in the middle of the jungle in a hammock rather than a log cabin (it was a bit weird, with the mosquito net, kind of claustrophobic. I felt like I was a cup-a-soup), the kind of jungle where you have to shake out your shoes in the morning, the kind of jungle where you actually see, shock horror, animals.
But before that, obviously there's an element of weirdness.
We'd been recommended a place on Kinabatangan River and tried to find our way there on a bus. The bus driver said he knew where we wanted; we trusted him. He
dropped us off on the side of the road near the edge of the jungle and pointed to Batu Puteh, an unfeasibly village under the viaduct. Turns out we weren't where we wanted to be but we did find Mescot Community EcoTour programme, which was run by the villages late-teens and twenty-somethings to stop them moving to the Cities, which seemed to be all worthy (am I becoming a hippy? Orphanages? Community Programmes? If I look like I'm about to turn vegetarian can someone please hammer a steak through my heart?), so we signed up and spent that night in a homestay.
Then comes the jungle bit. Proper animals and exotic stuff. Crocodiles, monitor lizards, otters, hornbills, snakes, five different species of monkey but, let's be honest, if you're in Borneo there's only one thing that you want to see and it's big, tastes of jaffa cakes and doesn't have a tail. Get thee behind me macaques, and take your pigtails with you.
optimum cliche one, you know staying in the middle of the jungle in a hammock rather than a log cabin (it was a bit weird, with the mosquito net, kind of claustrophobic. I felt like I was a cup-a-soup), the kind of jungle where you have to shake out your shoes in the morning, the kind of jungle where you actually see, shock horror, animals.But before that, obviously there's an element of weirdness.
We'd been recommended a place on Kinabatangan River and tried to find our way there on a bus. The bus driver said he knew where we wanted; we trusted him. He
dropped us off on the side of the road near the edge of the jungle and pointed to Batu Puteh, an unfeasibly village under the viaduct. Turns out we weren't where we wanted to be but we did find Mescot Community EcoTour programme, which was run by the villages late-teens and twenty-somethings to stop them moving to the Cities, which seemed to be all worthy (am I becoming a hippy? Orphanages? Community Programmes? If I look like I'm about to turn vegetarian can someone please hammer a steak through my heart?), so we signed up and spent that night in a homestay.Then comes the jungle bit. Proper animals and exotic stuff. Crocodiles, monitor lizards, otters, hornbills, snakes, five different species of monkey but, let's be honest, if you're in Borneo there's only one thing that you want to see and it's big, tastes of jaffa cakes and doesn't have a tail. Get thee behind me macaques, and take your pigtails with you.
2 comments:
Where are they all hiding?
That bus driver knew what he was about.
My friend Mel has a great scar on her shin from the ONE time she didn't shake out her trousers (after weeks of there never being anything in there). A scorpion done stung her it did.
That photo is of a very beautiful place... I can't imagine being there! Amazing.
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