Made a wise decision (in my opinion) and pulled the plug on my jungle adventure. Made the trek back out of the jungle and made it safely back to the guesthouse (it was a little dicey at a couple spots). Thankful to be intact and in one piece.
- The Decision.
- Packing Up
- Back through the Jungle
- Out of the Jungle!
- Back to Guesthouse
- Resting
- Sleep
- Vibe Check
- Feedback
Photo Gallery: https://pics.mattichan.com/-uwc097
The Decision.
Woke up, or rather, couldn’t roll around anymore and there was enough light to finally just get up and walk around at 6am. Wandered around a bit around camp while the two guides were still passed out (I exited through the little hole I had created in my side of the plastic).
Sat on a rock for a bit and contemplated life, the cruise and whether I wanted to continue on in the jungle for a lot longer.
As I sat there, noticed some movement in the trees across the riverbank and went back to grab my camera (once again through my plastic hole).
After a couple hours, my guides woke up as well, and started breakfast and packing up for the day.
Once Ahmat got up, I headed over after awhile and told him I was thinking of pulling the plug. Asked him what options there were at the guesthouse, if there was anything over there to do, and whether they would even have space for me to be there since it wasn’t the original plan.
He said that at a minimum, we could always just pitch the tent at the guesthouse if there were other guests and I didn’t have enough space for my own room.
After some more discussion, it turns out that we got SUPER lucky yesterday with wildlife as well, and saw a ton. To see tigers and the bigger animals, we’d have to go a LOT deeper into the jungle anyway (like a week or two), so I’m not sure I would even miss much by leaving early.
Packing Up
As the guides packed up, I wandered around capturing some interesting birdlife having their morning breakfast as well. Also saw one of the biggest butterflies I’ve ever seen, as well as a tiny one that landed on one of the guides.
Back through the Jungle
We started back through the jungle and up and down more branches and hills, definitely wise to get out, cause I’m not sure I’d have made it after a couple extra days in the jungle.
We did see a bunch of insects as we trekked through the jungle as well, taking only a couple short rests. As we stopped to rest at the top of one particular hill, we encountered some more thomas leaf monkeys.
We also encountered a TON of these insects climbing together on a couple huge leafs. Amazing.
We heard some more orangutan’s fighting (or talking), but it sounded like it was coming from back up a hill, and we were all carrying a lot of stuff, so we kept going.
Out of the Jungle!
We finally made it out of the jungle, and made it to the road. We stopped under an awning and I wasn’t sure what was going on, because the guides just took all their stuff off and sat down on the concrete.
After a bit, they told me that we were waiting to hitch hike and see if we could jump onto a bed of any of pickup trucks that were coming along to grab a lift back to town. A tiny bit sketchy, but oh well, I’ve definitely done it before in other countries.
After 15 minutes of random cars passing by, we finally decided to just go walk back to the town. As we traversed up and down the hill, we saw a few more monkeys (creating some baby monkeys), and then also a fuzzy caterpillar that was very different from the woolly’s that I grew up with.
Back to Guesthouse
We got back to the gate of the National Park, and Ahmat started talking to the ranger at the gate, and then grabbed a moped nearby and was like, we can borrow this and go back to the guesthouse. I wasn’t sure if it was wise, not because I’m afraid of the moped (I’ve been on a fair number in Taiwan, and drove a little moped around Missouri for a couple years when I didn’t have a car), but because we also all had like 30 lbs of stuff on our backs and there wasn’t a ton of room on the scooter.
He insisted though, so I loaded onto the back with all the equipment, not having a handhold at all, and just trying not to lean back at all (lest I just fall back off the moped).
As we went up and down the hills, we ended up stopping at the bottom of the hill and Ahmat said something was wrong with the bike. He tried to restart it, and there wasn’t anything working to turn the engine back on, but then I asked if there was gas, and he checked and there wasn’t any gas left. He turned to the woman at a nearby little hut and just grabbed a bottle of blue stuff, and poured the bottle into the gas tank and tried starting the engine a couple times.
It finally started running, and as we started to drive back, I realized that there were those bottles of blue liquid EVERYWHERE. Really fascinating, and I assume he went back and paid her later (or just know each other).
When we got back, there was a little bit of an inquisition, and Josef, the owner was super concerned that something had happened in the jungle and wanted to get to the bottom of it. I assured him nothing bad had happened, just a little slip and didn’t want to continue. After a bit, they finally relented and let me get back to the guest room and we settled in.
Ended up grabbing a little bit of lunch after, and refueled after taking a shower to at least clean up a bit.
There was a little bit of controversy after as well, as the guide came up and told me that they were refusing to pay him his salary for the whole week, even though I had already pre-paid for the whole thing. I talked with the owner, and explained that everyone should still get what they agreed to, since I had paid everything up front anyway, not sure if it was all a smokescreen, but gave them a little bit of cash anyway as a tip, and they eventually settled up. I assume they all squared it away, but it was a lot of conversation in Indonesian that I didn’t understand.
Resting
Ended up resting for a bit, editing and loading photos, and then was getting ready to get back to the main area for Dinner, when all of a sudden, a huge storm came. As I was contemplating just running over in the rain, the power went out. I figured they wouldn’t be able to cook, so I waited for a couple hours for the power to come back, just hoping that it would come back soon.
Finally around 8:30pm, the power came back on, and I headed over to the dining area. As I got there though, there wasn’t anyone around, so I just ended up heading back and eating some of the leftover snacks from the jungle trek as my dinner.
Sleep
Ended up spending the evening just listening to the rain and doing some more editing. It was a good thing I had both power banks fully charged, as the power went in and out a couple times as well.
Didn’t hear a ton of other noise as the storm was pretty loud though. Probably a combination of the rain and how tired I was, but slept pretty well.
Vibe Check
2 parts joy – thankfully made it out of the jungle
3 parts sadness – so tired, and power going out and no dinner was kinda hard
Feedback
Leave a comment or question if you have any thoughts! Anything you want to know about as we go around the world? Any things you want to share as feedback, or any images that particularly spoke to you. I’ll try to read all of them as time permits!
Matti 
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