This is the jungle at Bako National Park. There are many trails to hike.  We started out on one and found it went straight up the mountain, so we reversed directions on that trail for a different choice. We found one that was fairly flat and took it. They don't groom things like they do in the States.  There is a path, but you are still climbing over roots and rocks and branches

or through crevices. Could hear birds but didn't see any. They are at the top of the canopy. We came upon a group of Germans with a guide. Elder Przybyla decided to pass them so he stepped off the trail "one step" and he was attacked by a plant that threw all its branches around him. The branches were covered with thorns that drug into his flesh. The guides screamed for him to stand still and don't move. The more you move the more  they tighten.  The guides then picked them off one by one. He was a bloody mess. Moral: stay on the straight and narrow path.

There is a lot of wildlife there to see but you have to be there at special times of day to see them. But we saw this one kind of monkey called the Long-tailed Macaque. It has the big grey beard.

 A Wild Boar, and yes, that is the ocean in the back ground. We drove to the ticket office of the park, about 1 1/2 hrs from our apartment. Then you buy a boat ticket to take you to the Park. Then when you get there you have to wade though the ocean to the shore.

  This is a pretty big snake up in a tree over our heads.  They called it a Racer. I don't know what they eat, but he looks pretty healthy.

  The male monkey is up in the tree dropping this fruit down to the others. I don't know what kind of fruit it is. I watched one approach a lady and try  to get her back pack.  There was a little struggle and then the monkey walked away.
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  If ugly can be cute, then this baby is really cute.

It was hot this day. When you are out all day it's almost unbearable. In Kuching now it rains somewhere in the city every day. When it rains it floods the streets, but it does get cooler on rainy days. I prefer the rain. It usually rains really hard for a short while and then clears up.  Today it's raining all day. I bet there's a flood out there. We are finally getting  major repairs done in our apartment today, so we have been home bound for several hours.









This is the jelly fish that got left when the tide receded. It's the biggest one I've ever seen..

These are Kampung communities. They are almost always built along a river because they fish for a living. I don't quite understand the Kampungs yet. People here in the city are always going back to the Kampung for weeks at a time-sometimes longer. To visit family is one reason, but they stay so long. Haven't figured this whole cultural thing out yet.

More Kampung homes. This type of behavior is hard on the church, because leaders and members just take off and leave and go to the Kampung for weeks at a time. The branches loose  consistency. Some members just give up city life and move back there and then they are lost to the records of the Church and no one can find them.

This is the Sarawak River. You take a boat up the river to the mouth at the Ocean. That's where the Bako Park is located.

When you  fly into Kuching you can see the river winding all over the land. And you can see the Kampungs everywhere along the river.

I saw a sign that warned there were alligators in the river.

 On the way to Bako Park we stopped at these caves.  This is more or less just a Buddha's Shine. You don't go through the caves, but you can walk up these steps and there is Buddha sitting on the rock and there is a spring coming out of the rock. Don't know if it's natural or not.

Water under the cave.

 

Inside the cave. Unusual rock formations.

Must have been carved by water at some ancient time.

Wind Caves with bats all around us.

These are different caves, call Wind Caves. they gave us one tiny little light and sent into the pitch blackness.  They don't do much infrastructure like I said before. You are pretty much on your own.  In the blackness you can hear bats all around you.

The common Swiftlet also lives in here. This is the bird that they make the bird nest soup with. The bird uses its saliva to hold the leaves and other materials together. They separate the leaves and twigs out and save the saliva.  Who knew this was good to eat??? Some one very hungry, I think.