Into the Woods. No. Into the Jungle. MULUUUUU

Brellowgirl
Apr 14, 2016
13 min read

3.30.16

Our plane pretty much landed in the middle of the jungle. It was a beautiful decent and then we hit the ground. There were probably only 10-15 people on my flight and I read Eat, Pray, Love most of the flight.

There's a little roller thing that serves as baggage claim but my bag doesn't come out with all the others and my chest was pounding the whole time thinking they had lost my stuff. 5.5 months and I haven't gotten my bag misplaced once. Everybody cleared out until there was just me and one other guy who hadn't gotten his bag either so we both waited. Eventually our bags came out along with all the bananas and other fruit that was brought over to the jungle from the city.

A little old man was waiting for me right outside the airport door with a paper sign that read 'sasandra pax 1' I trust my gut and assume it's me. I throw my pack into the bed of the truck and realize the guy who was also waiting for his luggage was right behind me. He hasn't booked a bed anywhere so he comes along. His name is Frederick, a Peruvian with Swiss nationality. He runs his own small IT company out of Berlin and likes to spend his time traveling. Sweet life, huh?

Not even two minutes later, uncle's truck pulls up in front of Mulu River Lodge. I don't even remember where I called to book my bed but I hop out anyways and go to the reception counter where uncle follows. I then realize he's the owner (along with his wife Urind). A bed costs me 35MR, about $8.75, although a bit pricey for Malay standards this includes breakfast and the good company of jungle wildlife.

Urind shows us to the dorm room which is one giant room with a bunch of beds, all single (not bunks). I quickly pick a bed and make my day bag so I can carpe diem my way out of there. Frederick does the same and we walk over to the park office together.

The river lodge is perfect because it's literally a 30 second walk to the park entrance. You have to cross an awesome suspension bridge too. I picked this place so I wouldn't waste time getting to and from the park and so I wouldn't have to depend on anybody taking me there.

We pay our park fee of 30MR and find out that in 30 minutes time we can join a tour of Deer and Lang caves. These are the caves I've come to Mulu for and I want to see them immediately. I know my camera hasn't been charged for a few days and I'm nervous but I decide to risk it anyways. I quickly run back to my hostel, stick in my contacts and run back just in time for the tour to leave.

We hike through the jungle (by hike I mean walk on a well marked boardwalk) and our guide points out weird jungle creatures. Skinks, lizards, lantern bugs (which look like mini bug rhinoceroses), weird plants and all that good stuff. Then it starts to rain. Then it starts to pour. Something about taking a trip to the jungle made me forget that I'd be in the middle of a tropical rainforest and yeah, it would probably rain. I don't mind the rain but I was thoroughly worried about my camera. I stuck it in its case which I then stuck in my bag and closed it tight hoping for the best.

After about a 45 minute walk we made it to Lang cave. It was beautiful. I mean, as beautiful as caves get. I tried to set my camera to manual and practice taking shots the way Oscar taught me but the group was moving fast and I didn't have many places to set the camera down and I couldn't hold the camera still enough.

Deer cave was close by and by far my favorite of the two. It had a huge two openings that poured light into the darkness and created this eerie feeling while walking through. I started hyperventilating when we first entered the cave and my camera battery started flashing telling me it was slowly losing life. I had a WHOLE cave to take pictures of and my battery was going to fail me. I silently cursed the cannon battery gods and tried to shut my camera off after every picture to conserve some juice. My phone had plenty of battery but my 5 doesn't do anything justice and I wasn't happy with the pictures I was getting with it.

We made it through the caves seeing some pretty interesting stuff. Blind catfish, blind white crabs, giant cave crickets, weird cockroaches, small bats and birds that had fallen and died and were being decomposed rather quickly by some creepy crawly friends etc.

If you've never been in a cave that's home to bats then you've probably never smelled guano-bat shit. It's disgusting. I'm queasy just writing about it. The paths in the caves are marked and concrete or raised platforms but all around you there's heaps and piles of tons and tons of guano. All kinds of bugs live in the guano and feed on its nutrients. It almost looks like black soil and it feels that way too (no, don't know from experience). It makes me think about things that live in shit. Other people's shit. Relationships in particular. People who inflict their pain on others. People that settle because they don't think they deserve better. People who are treated badly and continue to live that way. How do these bugs put up with living in bat poop??? ANYWAYS…

We finally leave the caves and I'm ecstatic to say that although my battery did die somewhere in the cave, every time I turned it on to get a quick picture it would turn on for me for one shot then die again. God was on my side.

We made our way back to the seating area where we hung out until dusk. Around 6pm we started to see some action. Bats flying out of Deer cave twisting like strands of dna. Not in one continuous stream but groups of thousands every minute or so. When they flew right above us you could hear the power of their wings flapping.

I met a girl from our group and we sat together to watch the spectacle. Her name was Caroline (her Chinese name which I can't pronounce means 'snow', isn't that sweet?) and it was her first time traveling alone. She was a bit younger than me but super funny and we got on really well. We watched the bats for a while then started the long walk back to the park HQ. She introduced me and Frederick to a friend she had been on a tour with earlier, Idris. Idris is from Singapore and he's been to Sabah a few times before to dive. He decided to try something different and come out to the jungle this time.

The four of us walk back together in the darkness, me and Caroline following close behind the guys because they both have the kind of proper torches one should have when trekking through the jungle (obviously me and Caroline don't). Caroline and I talk about common interests and she asks me one of my favorite questions that foreigners ask- are college parties in America really like they are in the movies? I went to Rutgers, yes, they pretty much are. We talk about American tv shows and our favorite celebrities. We gush over Blake Lively and I find out how to make her freak out...can anyone say "Ryan Reynolds"?

On the way back we see giant stick bugs, more lantern bugs and giant snails (like the size of my outstretched palm). I try to follow close behind and not to look down because I really don't want to know if there are giant lizards or snakes on the boardwalk. The jungle surrounds us on both sides and although I love the adrenaline and sense of adventure I feel a bit claustrophobic. By this time it's pouring out again and I just want to get back to HQ. I move up to the front and talk to Idris for a bit.

Idris asks me why I'm here when I'm "afraid of everything". We're supposed to do something that scares us every day. I've been trying to follow this rule when I remember to. It has opened up my mind and pushed me out of my comfort zone. Things I would have walked away from or said "no" immediately to I am now considering. I think it has made me a more accepting, adventurous and overall fun person. The living in the jungle thing though... I think I've filled my quota for the week.

We make it back alive and go to the cafe in the park for dinner to nom and wait out the rain. Caroline is staying in the park and Fredrick and I are very close by but Idris has a 1.5km bike ride to his hostel and it's practically a monsoon outside.

We all eat and talk and every few seconds I feel something crawl on my skin. 9 out of 10 times its a fat spider with an egg sac the size of Texas. The bugs here are ridiculous. If this doesn't prepare me for camping nothing will.

An hour of talking and my body begins to shut down. I don't know what's been going on but I feel tired during the day without having done much. By the end of the day I feel spent. It's probably because I've been eating rice or fried noodles for breakfast, lunch and dinner or because my diet was mainly fruits, veg and fish at home and these past five months have been a diet of "see-food" (I "see food" and eat it. Not quite in line with being a pescatarian).

We exchange what's app numbers and fb's and bid each other goodnight.

When Frederick and I get back to the River Lodge our roommates (who are mostly older folks) are all sleeping already. Tiptoeing into the room in the dark I decide is a bad idea just in case a snake has made its way into the room (never can be too cautious) so I turn on my phone light and grab my shower stuff. Traveling has made me a PRO at doing things in the dark. Braiding my hair, changing, putting on my contacts, packing my bags, it's all child's play now. In the evenings it gets a bit chilly, nothing crazy and I'm sure the rain cools everything down significantly but nonetheless there's a cool breeze. Then I turn on the tap and remember I'm on cold showers for the next few days. Sigh. Sucks having to wash long hair in cold water. In and out and into bed. A very hard bed at that. All is well though and I fall asleep fast.

Not so fast. I wake up to pee around 5:30am and can't go back to bed. Sleeping in the middle of the jungle is like sleeping in the middle of the desert. There are so many creepy noises in the middle of the night. Most are coming from right outside my hostel near the river. I can hear shrieking and I think it's from monkeys, I hear dogs howling, lots of crickets, chirping from geckos, loud cicadas, frogs croaking, I think I hear chickens but I don't know who would bother with chickens out here unless for eggs. (I find out the day after that the neighbor does indeed have chickens LOL). I just heard a boat go through the water. It's 6am now and I guess my body thinks it's time to get up because that's what I've been doing the past two days. I refuse, I'm on vacation, and fall back asleep.

I wake up to rustling and realize the last person has just left the room. It's 8:30 so I spring out of bed, throw on some clothes, brush and get outside for breakfast before it's too late. Uncle greets me good morning and brings me out a tray with four finger bananas. I prepare a coffee for myself and sit down with the book Dwayne gave me, Eat Pray Love. I really do love this book. Some of my friends associate my journey with this book and although I've watched the movie I've never picked up the read. Reading about Liz's experience does resonate with me even though I haven't been through a divorce myself. I do, however, empathize with her and understand exactly the way she feels when she talks about her experiences in various situations. I feel like they mirror my own sometimes and that I'm reading about myself through the words of a stranger.

I decide to dig into the fruit while I wait for uncle to make my breakfast but the second I pick up the stem to detach a banan two giant cockroaches scurry around the fruit and make their way under the tray. Frick, I hate roaches. I breathe slowly and lift the tray up, I only see one. I quickly put the tray down and step back. Uncle is right there with my breakfast laughing at me. He swipes them off the table and puts down my food. My savior.

I read and eat. A breakfast for champions! Two pieces of toast, some baked beans, a fried egg and a weenie. Glad I'm having bananas cause I've been getting leg cramps like I used to when I swam. I think it's the lack of potassium?

I refill my cup with tea and finish a few chapters of the book. When I look up, I see the sugar all settled at the bottom of my glass and I stir it up into a mini tornado and think about all that has happened in the past 5.5 months. My life feels like this, like a tornado. God is just up there stirring the sugar into it, his morning concoction. So many new friends, new places, new adventures, new feelings. I never thought I'd be here in the middle of a jungle, not last year, not last month, not even two weeks ago. Sometimes you just have to let go and see where life takes you. I dare you. Trust that it'll be alright, trust yourself, trust a higher being. Learn to love yourself, learn to challenge and conquer fears.

I told my new friends that I used to be the kind of person that always depended on somebody else. I remember having to call my boyfriend to go to the grocery store to pick up a small item with me because I didn't want to go alone and when he was busy and couldn't, I would call my friends. So much has changed since then yet there is still so much more to learn and grow and improve on. One day I'll be the best version of me that I can be and it'll be because of all of you, the people I've met along the way, telling me their stories and helping to shape my own. It'll be because of the places I've seen and the humble lifestyles I've come across. I wouldn't want it any other way.

Have I told you lately that this world works in very mysterious ways? Sing is a mysterious way. Not the verb, the proper noun. She's traveling by herself and she whirlwinded into my life by chance. I spent the day doing some non strenuous walks. By non strenuous I mean not physically taxing. However, they took quite the mental toll on me.

When I got back from my day out it was nice to eat quickly and get in bed early. I got nice and comfy and had juuust started reading my book when this girl walked into the dorm room and asked if I would accompany her back to her hostel down the road. I had walked past her hostel to get to the airport the other day and so I knew it was a 10 minute walk and I was already clean and not very keen on leaving the comfort of my bed. There was nobody else in the lodge so I agreed and changed and headed outside. I stuck on my flip flops and met her on the road. She had recruited a young couple with their kid also and at first I was annoyed thinking that I wasn’t good enough to walk her alone but then I found out they were staying at the same place she was so we all walked over together. Halfway through our very quiet and awkward walk the couple turned into the woods saying it was a shortcut…I didn’t have a proper flashlight and my phone was dying and I was wearing flipflops and the grass was high and muddy. I was not a happy camper. We waded through mud and darkness and I was so afraid of snakes until we finally got to their hostel. Sing had to pack up all her stuff so I waited outside for her and then we walked back the same way. When we got back to the lodge I washed my feet and was ready to climb back in bed when Sing asked if I was hungry. In fact, I had only eaten one meal all day to save money and I was pretty hungry… I instantly perked up and said mayyybe haha. She just so happened to have a Sarawak layered cake with her that she was willing to share. We went out to the dining area and shared the cake and talked. She ended up being a really cool girl and I was really impressed because she was going to be climbing the Pinnacles the next day which is supposedly a really difficult trek. You have to bring your own supply of food with you and so her backpack was filled with apples, tomatoes, cucumbers, so many liters of water and a kilo of rice haha! What a girl.

The lodge I’m staying at is run by two grandparents and their two grandchildren are always running around. The two girls are about 7 and 9 and really spunky. One of them isn’t shy at all and likes to practice her English with me. I spoil them with ice cream and convince them to sit with me and teach me some Malay words. Erika, the older one has a sharp mouth and her mind is too old for that of a kid’s. When we were walking back from the park (had to walk with them into the park to buy ice cream) we were being girls and freaking out because there were giant cicadas everywhere and they kept on flying into us and bouncing off. So gross. I didn’t get an ice cream for myself so she offered me some of hers and so I got down to her level and opened my mouth so I could just taste a bit of it and she responded with “oh my goodness, I have to feed you like a baby?!?!!” bahahah I died laughing after my initial shock. What a stinker. They were cute kids and we ended up being good friends by the time I left. When it was finally time to go they came with me to the airport to drop me off and Urind, their grandma gave me a beaded necklace and told me that I have to come back to Mulu. I’ll be back, one day. One day.

Much love,

Cas