We went to Taman Negara over Eid. There was barely any internet there, so no updates. The jungle was beautiful, far more dense than I’ve seen elsewhere, such as Mulu in Sarawak, and filled with gibbon cries, though we never saw one. We did spend some time at a hide and saw deer and what could have been tapir but were probably very large boar. And elephant tracks, and immense trees. Leeches too. On one day we hired a guide for a day walk – something nearly unprecedented, he said, as most people stay on the boardwalks or the boats. As such, the jungle trail was so overgrown and damaged by elephants and fallen trees that we lost the path. Out came the machete and he hacked us through the undergrowth as we frantically flicked (and later, simply crushed) the leeches off our ankles. That part of the walk had a surreal feel: hot, humid, pushing through thorns and wading through mud, grasping vines for support and clambering over fallen trees, while in the damp leaves long thin leeches waved around, shooting towards our feet. There was no sense of danger once the path was lost as the guide decided to stop looking for the path and instead head towards the river, so we always knew where we were, but it gave strange lightheaded intensity to the day.
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