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Published: April 22nd 2008
I am now being a beach bum on an island with the clearest, most beautiful water I have ever seen in my entire life. But back track a few days and I was sleeping in a cave. with bats....
We got up to set out on our 3 day journey into the oldest rainforest in the world-Tamen Nagara. We was me, the 2 Canadian guys I had met on the bus, one Canadian girl and a Danish guy. We were to be guided by an insane jungle man named "mon". Set with my jungle hat and their Bob Marley gear, we got to the bench where we were told to meet Mon. While waiting for him to wake up, another crazy jungle man decides to lecture us on cave ettiquette. He just kept repeatedly telling us "don't sh*t in the cave" "don't pee in the cave". apparently it would disturb the spirits and smell bad. i ofcourse had a giggle fit and couldnt control myself, but due to all the substances this guy had consumed at 9am, he did not seem to notice! finally our guide decided to wake up and pack us up. We had to carry our own sleeping mat, sleeping bag and share all the food. luckily i had a can of mutton in my bag just in case i starved. ew gross. we headed out and after a few hours getting permits and all that nonsense, we took our boat into the rainforest.
within a few minutes of hiking, i had my first profound thought of the trip. Leech love is not love. ever. leeches were everywhere. every time you stopped to look at your feet, their were leeches crawling in and out of your shoes. it was so nasty. one of the guys had a leech stuck on his thigh that he couldnt get off so he had to just wait until the leech was full of blood and gave up. that was the first of many special leech relationships on the trip. i got attacked by many but my leech radar was on and i only got sucked on by one and it was in between my toes. we were taking a rest sitting on a giant log and i had decided to remove my shoes. i was surprised to find my sock completely red and my shoe filled with my blood! yuck! i got the sucker off luckily. so it was confirmed-leech love is not love, ever!
after about 6 hours of hiking, we were told to start collecting branches for a fire at night. finding dry branches in a rainy rainforest is not the easiest of tasks!! we collected a bunch, but Mon made the guys carry actual entire trees! we dragged the branches and trees until we arrived at our new home for the night. a cave. with bats. getting the trees into the task was not so easy, being that it wasn't even easy to climb in without anything. we made it inside and let me tell you-this was no ordinary cave. this was a 7 star super special cave. it was enormous!! we set up our 'beds', made a fire, watched mon cook dinner and just hung out! it was awesome although i was terrified of the bats. luckily when we had gone to sleep, the bats were hanging out in another area of our cave although i am pretty sure they ventured near us while we were sleeping. some also saw a large wild cat in the cave, but i didnt. Jenna (the only other girl) and i broke the peeing in the cave rule. we decided it was worth risking disturbing the spirits to avoid squatting over leeches. so-i am sorry spirits, but i really had no choice. it was a fun night in the cave, but not full of restful sleep. cave grounds are really really hard and the mat didn't help too much. the next day we got up and trekked for another few hours before arriving at a river. we got to swim for a bit, have some lunch and just hang out away from the leeches. we collectively made the decision to leave the jungle that night since otherwise we would have a full day of nothing before we could venture out to the islands. sleeping in the cave was so much cooler than anything else wouldve been that we felt happy with our trip and figured it was beach time. we headed back to the main jungley area where we would spend the next night and had to finish paying our guide. the 2 guys i was with didnt have enough Malaysian money and there was no atm. we had been scrounging around and ended up paying him in Canadian dollars, Thai bhat, singapore dollars and Chinese Yuan. we still were a little short but he forgave us. we had saved just enough to get some water (we had been drinking boiled river water and it was gross) and dinner. our dinner consisted of one entree shared between 3 of us! when we left, we had 60 cents malaysian which is actually on 20 cents american! i spent it on 6 tiny pieces of chocolate at a gas station when we knew we were heading to an ATM!
The next morning we got up to head to the islands! a zillion hours in a van and 1 insane hour in a boat and we arrived at the island early evening. this place is gorgeous! i am staying in a little hut on the hill that has a fan but no lights! it is really only a bed and mosquito net! it is really relaxed here and it is great! the first night, i went to go to sleep and i found a chicken on my porch! a huge one! i tried to get a picture but it ran away! i think it was maybe there because i had disturbed the spirits by peeing in the cave.
last night we saw the most horrible movie at a nearby restaurant. it was so bad that i can't even tell you what it was about because i dont know. i did have a wonderful mars bar milkshake though! today i am heading out on a snorkling journey and hoping to see some sea turtles!
ok i think that is all for now. sorry no pics-the internet costs too much and the water is just too pretty to stay away!!!! see you all soon!
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upset spirit
non-member comment
no no no pee pee pee
so you just had to give the golden shower in my spirit cave??? really?? really? its o.k. i pee in the cave all the time we just don't like the locals thinking they can pee anywhere they want you know we can't just go around tinkeling all over eachother!!! we had a bat guana on your hair to repay you anyways.. i hope the sea turtles are painted with easter egg dye.. that would be cool.. and the chicken was scared of your chicken dance thats why she ran away from you... you know demi moore pays good money to have leeches suck her stomach and ashton too so you should be happy that they sucked you for free cause reallly what would a leech do with money anywayz? if i was i leech with dinero i would go to the blood bank and make a withdraw?? or maybe i'd just drink whiskey and bite my own tongue and absorb the blood from that?? mmm yummy have fun in the sea and jungle and in jersey.... love you deary like i was a old lady who says deary hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahauhuuhuhuhuhuuhhuuhuhuhhrrrrleeee some like it hot....