"Welcome to the Jungle, Part 2"

Canopy walk

Danum Valley Borneo Rainforest Lodge: We headed west to the Danum Valley, a 438 square kilometer of virgin forest, undisturbed from the logging and oil plantations destroying parts of Sabah.  As a result, it prides itself in its rich flora and fauna and it surely did not disappoint. We arrived just in time for a school session and lunch before we got decked out in our jungle trekking gear, leech socks included. The leeches continued to love Sam, but with each leech discovery the freak out became less and less.  By the end of our Danum Valley stay, most of us were able to flick the leech off of us without too much hysteria.  Within minutes of starting, Rafael, our guide, had led us straight to a wild orangutan to catch her building her bed of branches for the night.  It was quite the sight as we dodged unworthy branches falling to the ground.  After a yummy buffet, we finished the night in an open air truck for our night safari ride.  With a seriously powerful flash light we were able to see flying squirrels, bearded pigs, mouse deer (smallest deer in the world) and the slow loris.  The bearded pig was definitely a crowd favorite :) The following morning we hit the canopy walk to be at eye level with the red leaf monkeys and hornbills.  I never thought I would find myself loving a morning nature walk but it truly is a fabulous way to start the day, even before breakfast!  Our day continued with a tubing adventure in the late afternoon.  As I rounded the first corner, the current picked up and sent me into an enormous wooden tree in the water.  I thought I survived with just a wounded bottom but looked down and it had also popped my inner tube.  Luckily, our guide Rafael was happy to swim the river, so he passed his tube down my way. As we turned the next corner, we came upon fifteen monkeys enjoying a little beach party within feet of us.  They didn't seem to mind the party crashers as they didn't look up from the delicious fresh water.  Our tubing afternoon concluded with our guide leading us in a rendition of John Denver's "Country Road" song remixed for the Danum Valley--"Country roads, take me home, to the place I belong, Danum Valley, mountain daddy, take me home, country roads".  Nothing like a John Denver classic to finish off a beautiful day :) The night safari walk introduced us to even more new animals--the tree frog, cricket frog, Sandbar deer and the leopard cat!

Caving

Mulu National Park: We crossed the border into the Malay state of Sarawak to visit the Mulu National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site famous for its incredible caves and mountainous rainforest setting.  We spent our first afternoon enjoying the pool, relaxation and traditional dance performances.  We woke up the following morning ready for an action filled day! We began the morning in a new form of transport for this trip, the longboat, which made our first stop at the Penan village.  One of the last nomadic tribes in the world, the Penan village welcomed us as we learned more about their culture and visited their craft market.  Sam made the only purchase of the day--choosing a traditional Penan wooden blowpipe with accompanying darts (fortunately not poisonous!).  In the morning we journeyed through the Wind Cave and the Clearwater Cave, topped off with a swim in the freezing cold clearwater lake outside the cave.  Feeling completely rejuvenated, we couldn't pass up the world's longest canopy walk! We had not filled our quota of stalagtites or stalagmites for the day, so continued on to Langs Cave and the Deer Cave.  The true excitement for the day came when we reached the Deer Cave, the largest cave passageway in the world.  I can only imagine the force of water that tumbled through these enormous boulder to form this movie set of a cave.  Home to over 3 million bats, the ceiling of the cave is entirely covered with  the smelly creatures and the floor covers itself in their guano. As you walk deeper into the cave and the smell gets even worse, you reach the "Garden of Eden", an area with deep green vegetation due to a slight hole in the roof of the cave.  As you turn around to head back to the opening, the profile of Abraham Lincoln has been identified in the cave wall, said to be guarding the back entrance.  We emerged from the cave just in time to see over one million bats depart the cave in a choreographed pattern in search of food.  The constant stream of bats from the cave lasted at least 20 minutes--truly an amazing spectacle!

Batang Ai Hilton Longhouse: After a nights stay and amazing seafood dinner in Kuching (the king prawns we ate had been taken out of the sea 30 minutes earlier), we started our journey to our first longhouse and encounter with the Iban tribe.  Formerly known as the sea dayaks, the Iban our famous for the practice of headhunting.  Our guide assured as that the practice of headhunting officially ended 100 years ago, although he could not confirm when it unoffically ended.  Although our accomodations were quite nice, we spent our first full day visiting the Iban village longhouse.  Built on stilts, this particular longhouse provided a home to 37 families.  Upon our arrival we were greeted with a traditional Iban dance and a generous portion of both rice wine and whiskey! The generosity continued as we were welcomed into the chief's home for lunch to dine on local delicacies--jungle greens, bamboo chicken and pineapple. Yum and yum! An Iban visit wouldn't be complete without a blowpipe demonstration.  I impressed the locals with both my deadly aim and force--even with two darts at once :)