Getting covered in bat shit in the jungle 2

Eager to escape our effeminate enclosure, we set off into the jungle that afternoon for more macho pursuits. A 1 and 1/2 hour trek through rainforest followed by a canopy walk fit the bill perfectly. The canopy walk was around 30 metres above the jungle floor, over flimsey bits of wood laid over a laddder of sorts. This was all held in place by a hell of a lot of rope, which in turn was tied to some really old trees. With my explorer hat on, I imagined I was Indiana Jones walking over the rope bridge in the Temple of Doom (far removed from the Graham Norton of our dorm).

Bats in the bat cave

The next day we decided to go to Goa Telinga, which is a small, dark, cramped cave filled with bats. Ever mindful of the dangers of leeches, every precaution was taken. Long sleeve t-shirts and trousers were worn, and to avoid the threat of leeches at ankle-level, personal dignity took a blow as trousers were tucked into socks. Luckily Flo and Marcus had brought head torches, so we could actually see where we were going in the cave. This turned out to be especially helpful considering that there was bat shit everywhere, which made everything really slippy, and also meant I spent a fair amount of time losing my balance and rolling around getting covered in the stuff. It was a pretty weird experience with thousands of bats hanging in the cave around us. Occasionally you hear a load of fluttering and then before you'd even seen it, you'd feel the beating of air past your face as a bat flew right past you.

On a jungle trek

On the way back to the hostel, Marcus somehow managed to get a leech in his sock, which gave him a hell of a bite before being turned to mush. The rest of us, owing to complete over-protection and layers of mosquito spray, managed to stay bite-free. Stupidly, the guys all listend to me when I told them that, contrary to what it specifically said on our tickets, we didn't actually need to reconfirm our return journey to Jerantut for the next day. I'm still certain that that's what the guy said at the meeting. Anyway, my error was to be revealed when we turned up to catch our minibus at 8 the next morning.

Getting covered in bat shit in the jungle 2

Jerantut, Malaysia