May 19-20, 1978 - Tahiti

Rented a car for two days to explore the island.  The weather completely cleared this morning to provide some spectacular views.  Met some people with a boat who had just sailed from New Zealand in 28 days.  We talked to them to find out how they did it.  There were just two of them, brother and sister.  In the evening we went to a dancing show at the Kai Ord Hotel.  It was people from a nearby village and not nearly as professional as we saw on Tahiti and, unfortunately, not as interesting.  In both cases the dancers took people from the audience and it is a terrible sight to see people trying to shake their hips and not making it.  The Tahitians do it so beautifully.

We drove to the Bali Hai Hotel and went out on their snorkel raft, the Liki Tiki.  Snorkeled for an hour and saw splendid coral.  Pretty fish, too, but the coral was the nicest I’ve seen.  Clams were florescent blue, purple and pink inside and buried in the coral.  When I swam by they would close up until only a strip of bright color showed.

Sat in the sun then showered, ate a whole pineapple and checked out of the hotel.  Drove back along some of the more scenic parts of the island to get a few more photos.

Note the flower in my hair; I went tropical.

Flew back to the Papiete airport to catch the Pan Am flight to LAX!

That's the end of this trip but just 6 months later we returned to Afghanistan and had more adventures.   If you have read this far I thank you for joining me as I told our story.


                                                                                                                                                               

May 18, 1978 - Tahiti

Up early to return the car, but first to check luggage at the airport while we visit the Island of Morea.   The car was $36 for 24 hours.  Caught the boat at 9:30 am for Morea, 10 miles and 1 hour away from Tahiti.  The sea was rough but all passengers survived.

Morea is spectacular and it cleared sufficiently that we had a good view of Cooks Bay as the boat pulled in.  We tried to locate a local-stay hotel but all were either closed or full so we settled for the Amio on the water in Cooks Bay.  Our room was $24/day with a big breakfast included.  We could even see a bit of bay though a crack between the other bungalows from our room.  A bay-front room was $80/night.  The hotel staff  were friendly and we enjoyed it.  They gave us bikes and we rode around a bit and watched the sunset at the Bali Hai Hotel sitting in a hammock.  

This is an ideal island.

May 17, 1978 (again) - Tahiti

Crossed the International Dateline so got to do Wednesday all over again.  Tahiti was rainy and overcast when we arrived at 6:30am.  We found a hotel and rented a car.  Everything is expensive.  Our hotel was the cheapest we could find - $12 – and it is a 10 minute walk to the water.  Rain cleared for a few minutes so we drove around the island.  It took all day, stopping to look at hotels.  The heavy rain didn’t make for good photography.  Rivers from the interior were overrunning their beds.  We saw a lovely sunset from the top of the Transcontinental Hotel.

In the evening we had an expensive pizza dinner.  No sign of Tahitian food; must be French food.  Afterwards we went to the Beachcomber Travel Lodge for a Tahitian dancing show. It was very professional and entertaining: grass skirts, flower head dresses and necklaces and two strategically placed shiny black coconut hulls.  Bryan observed that coconuts do come in different sizes.

May 1-17, 1978 - New Zealand

(My sister) Joyce and (her then husband) Peter, were waiting for us at the airport and took us to their sweet little home on a dairy farm.  We talked a lot, Joyce showed us her horse barn and Peter picked mushrooms for dinner.

Joyce is studying for her Master’s in Equine Reproduction in Christchurch.

That night we went to their weekly Canterbury film society film with them.

What a lovely 2 weeks.  Joyce is a warm hostess and excellent housekeeper – how much fun to watch my little sister keep her own home.  Bryan caught a cold and by the end of the 2nd week we had all caught it and recovered.  But that didn’t stop us from taking a 1-day drive to Akaron on the Banks Peninsula and a 4-day drive around the north and west of South island.  We had enormous amounts of rain but the tents didn’t leak too badly.

Got up early the last day to get to the airport at 6:45 which was a chore since we had taken Peter and Joyce out to say good bye. Our plane turned back twice off the runway because of a faulty navigational system.  (I guess everyone is being more careful since that Korean jet was shot at and landed in the USSR a few weeks ago.)  We didn’t get off to Aukland until about 10 but Joyce and Peter had gone back home so we just wandered about the airport.

Aukland is a big city but still retains some of its lovely old buildings.  In fact, even the McDonalds is in a renovated, elaborate old building downtown.  It is school holidays now and I’m sure it must be the prettiest and most popular McDonalds in the world.

We took a ferry to a town across the harbor and back and just strolled around all day – the weather cleared perfectly and it was even warm, a nice change after South Island.

Caught the 11pm flight to Tahiti – Air NZ again – a good flight but almost full so no room to stretch out on a DC10.

Apr. 25-30, 1978 - Australia

Slept on the plane – a Quantas 707 – arriving early to a rainy Sydney.  Airport formalities went smoothly and although it was 6am they could book us in a hotel and deliver us to the door.  We stayed in Kings Cross.  The hotel had a nice double bed so we checked in and slept for a few more hours, this time stretched out flat, rather than airplane sleeping position
Spent a pleasant week in Sydney – we liked it more each day.  Saw several movies – they have one theater with 7 cinemas!  We saw Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Annie Hall and Looking for Mr. Goodbar.  All were good in my opinion except the last.  Annie Hall was the best movie I had seen in ages, perhaps because I hadn’t seen one in at least 3 years.

We learned the bus system but enjoyed walking. One day we walked around the Sydney Opera House and the Botanic Gardens which made a pleasant day. 

Ate at McDonalds and bought glasses to replace my stolen pair.  (We were so desperate to see movies that I actually watched the first two without glasses until the pair I ordered came in.)

 We took a harbor tour and an all-day bus tour to see some sweet Koalas.

 

On May 1st we got up early and flew to Christchurch, NZ.

Apr. 24, 1978 - Indonesia

We don’t leave until tonight so we are just loafing around by the pool.  We had to check out of our room at 1 and don’t have anything else to do until dinner.

At five we took the hotel bus into town with the German couple and had dinner and then went to Denpasar for a temple festival.  There were many Balinese going in too, with their elaborate gifts of fruit in artistically made leaf baskets.  Someone on the bus removed my glasses from my purse so I only had sunglasses which made viewing of people in the dark temple difficult.  We sat around a bit watching the families with their kids in their best temple clothes.  Some of the younger children had western dress but the young people and teenagers and adults all had on sarongs.  The boys generally wear levis or slacks during the day but obviously for temple the dress is traditional.

 We caught a share taxi back to the hotel for our bags and then to the airport.

Apr. 23, 1978 - Indonesia

Spent a lazy day in the sun, reading and indulged in another coconut oil massage.  In the evening we went to a local fire dance ceremony.  It was like a Christmas play at a church – everyone got to participate and then put it on in front of family, friends and guests.  The guests (us) paid a small entry fee and got chairs but everyone else just stood behind to watch.  There was a good community – family feeling.  There was an improvised stage in a courtyard with painted backdrops and light was provided by two naked light bulbs swarming with insects.  To change the lighting someone just reached up through the insects and unscrewed the bulb.

First came a group of young boys – maybe eight to late teens who sat in the corner near us.  They were dressed in identical skirts and head wraps.  They sang a monkey song with great relish – all but one sang rapidly “chuck-a chuck-a chuck-a” and he sang the basic rhythm – a monotone two-beat moan.  There were certain subtleties that I probably missed but everyone enjoyed it, especially the boys.  Sometimes the tempo would get faster and they would practically fly off where they were sitting cross-legged in the dirt.

After that a similar group of unmarried girls came in and sat in a group separate from but near to the boys.  They sang alternate songs with the boys to accompany two elaborately dressed and coifed young girls as they danced in a seeming trance.  This went on for about 20 minutes with the little girls falling over a few times and being righted by their mothers.  Then the priest brought them out of the trance with holy water and incense.

The second part of the program was a fire dance.  About 5 older men participated in this.  A coconut husk bonfire was lit in the center and the lights unscrewed.  Then the men, already deep in a trance, rushed through the flames and scattered the embers with their feet.  It was quite impressive with sparks flying everywhere, including the laps of those in the front rows.  They shuffled around in the embers and associates kept sweeping the embers back up in a pile only to be scattered again.  The trances became deeper and deeper and it was hard to tell what was happening.  The men had to be held up and restrained by assistants and then the priest took them out of their trance by various actions and potions.  A few threw up and wretched and others shook and trembled – all this accompanied in the dark by a chuck-a chuck- chuck-a sound of 30 or so voices.  Weird, to say the least.  At one point they sacrificed a chick by wringing it’s neck and drank it’s blood straight from the neck.  We were sitting quite close so not many people could see what was going on.  I don’t remember exactly how it ended but people started leaving.  I take back the part about it being like a play at church.

Apr. 22, 1978 - Indonesia

Spent all day in the sun and napped in the air conditioned room in the afternoon.  Bargained again for a bathing suit and got it and a matching sarong for $4.25 from ladies on the beach who had their wares wrapped in cloth and carried on their heads.  They are astute business ladies.

Here I am modeling my new purchase.

 At 5 we went to Kuta to eat some seafood – avocado and shrimp and lobster with garlic.

Apr. 21, 1978 - Indonesia

Joined a tour to the volcano Mt. Batur and the town of Kintamani at 4,500 feet and a few other places, including an artisan town of Ubud.  The tour was a bust, though, because the other people on the tour encouraged the sales people who pestered us at every stop to buy souvenirs.  They bargained loudly and bought lots of junk and generally spoiled the peaceful surroundings.  Too bad.

We stopped for 1 hour to see another Baron dance.  The light was good and Bryan could take pictures.  Although it was for tourists, children from the town watched it.  These dances are very much a part of their life.

Apr. 20, 1978 - Indonesia

Woke up to find ourselves on a beautiful Balinese beach – it had been too dark to see much when we arrived last night.  After breakfast we went for a swim in the ocean.  There were big waves and lots of surfers but unfortunately also a mean rip tide.  Some friendly surfers saw our distress and gave us a lift back in on their surfboards.

After such a harrowing experience we treated ourselves to a coconut oil massage from two ladies on the grass in front of our hotel. They charged us $1.25 for just under ½ hour.  Next time I’m going for the hour.  Stress relief – they have such strong hands.

We took the shuttle bus to the town of Kuta and drank a pineapple drink – but not as nice as at Lake Toba.  I tried to bargain for a swimsuit on the beach but ended up not buying anything.  We met the German couple from our river trip at Taman Nagara, Malaysia, who had just arrived last night too.  Saw a Balinese traditional dance and went to sleep in paradise..

Apr. 18-19, 1978 - Indonesia

Jakarta is hot and DIRTY.  Fortunately the Australian Embassy will give us a visa in a day so we went to the Garuda office and booked the next flight out tomorrow.  It leaves at 7pm. 

We napped during the hottest part of the day – this is as hot as Bangkok but maybe that’s because big cities always seem hotter.  We’re right on the equator: sunrise 6am, sunset 6pm.  In the evening we went to find dinner at a restaurant recommended by by friends but it wasn’t open so we found our own, the Roda – worth going back to.  I had fried mee (Chinese noodles) and Bryan had chicken curry, hot and spicy.

We had only brought out a little bit of money because of the pickpocket stories we had heard.  The cokes were more expensive than we thought so we had to be careful about what we had for dinner.  Bryan’s chicken curry was 300 rps plus a bit extra for rice.  Bryan ate both pieces of chicken and was satisfied, except when the bill came it was for chicken curry – 600 rps.  “Oh yessir, one piece 300, 2 piece 600.”  Fortunately we had it with 55 rps to spare (12 cents).  Another case of paying for only what you eat – will we ever learn?

To kill time the next morning until it was time to pick up the visa at 2:00 we took a bus to fisherman’s wharf – we sweated unbelievable amounts and smelled the fish and looked at the tourist and marine supply stalls.  After taking more buses we ended at a shopping center and saw a fine selection of Indonesian products. – hand painted batik fabrics were selling at $100 a piece. however.  We fell in love with the ratan work.

At two exactly we picked up our visas for Australia and then went to our hotel for the bags and then by taxi to the airport.  We hoped to get stand-by for a 4:30 flight but that had been canceled so we are waiting for the 7:00 flight.  Good ol’Garuda.  We had been warned.

Garuda was late but we arrived in Bali to find a bus waiting for us.  We had reserved our room at the Legian Beach Hotel recommended by friends in Jakarta.  We got a big air conditioned room with a 4-poster double bed and ratan furniture for $18.  Heaven.

Apr. 16-17, 1978 - Indonesia

Happy birthday to my sister, Joyce.  Sunday is the mail boat’s day off and for a fee they take anyone who wants around the island on an all-day sail.  We paid our $1.75 and were treated to a full day’s tour in the sun.  We left around 10am and returned at 8, tired, sunburned and happy.  On board they cooked lunch and dinner was over a charcoal fire.  We stopped at an old Batak village and swam in a hot spring – well swam isn’t exactly the word – put our toes in is more correct.  Then we swam in the lake where the hot spring, now a warm spring, joined it.  Sunset was memorable and the rain waited until we were snug in our rooms after dinner.

The next day our friends Ira and Rifka decided to stay on at Lake Toba for a few more days but we left by the early ferry to Parapat and caught the 750 rup. bus for Medan.   This bus trip was more uncomfortable than the one coming up, if possible, due to cramming as many people as possible in any empty space.  The police actually caught and fined the conductor who was riding on the roof – served him right.  Bryan actually had someone sitting on his lap part of the time.  

In Medan we were let off in front of the Garuda airlines office and we booked the next flight to Jakarta leaving at 4:30pm.  No problem and we landed in Jakarta at dark.

Friends had given us the name of the Bethel Hotel across from the Bali International and since the taxi driver didn’t know the first he took us to the second.  After some searching we located it at the back of a church – a lovely clean guest house and they had a room with a fan for $12.  That’s cheap for Jakarta and includes breakfast and all the ice water you can drink.

Garuda had given us a box dinner of fried rice so we just sluiced and went to bed.

Apr. 15, 1978 - Indonesia

Up at sunrise for a wash in the lake.  We weren’t alone and it was quite a toothbrushing, lathering group.  Breakfast of a banana pancake and then a hike along the lake.  Many people were staying in traditional Batak houses consisting of a large room covered with a distinctive roof and standing on poles.

 

Lake Toba traditional houses

The front “triangle” is elaborately carved and painted in black, white and brown.  Those houses were nice but due to the small windows don’t have the view our room has.

In the afternoon we napped and read and drank pineapple coolers at the Carolina Hotel.   They have electricity and a blender, unlike our hotel, and for 30 cents will put a big hunk of pineapple in the blender and pulverize it into thick juice – mmmm. 

In the evening we went to a pig roast.  Some people who came on the bus with us bought a pig (we all chipped in) and then roasted it.  We stuffed ourselves – about 15 of us – and there was enough left over for the hotel owner’s family and friends.  The pig was stuffed with pineapples, bananas, potatoes and onions and roasted on a spit over a charcoal fire.

Apr. 14, 1978 - Indonesia

Took a 12:30 ferry to the island of Samosir in the middle of Lake Toba.  The island is 300 square miles in the center of a caldera.  The sides of the crater are sheer and the island is mountainous in the center – truly beautiful.  The closest village is Tuk Tuk and we found a small “losman” or pension.  For $1.25 we got a room with 2 beds, a desk and a beautiful view of the lake and the crater walls across it.  The shower and bath were the lake and the toilet was an outhouse – but it was idyllic.  What a great place!  Food was well made and cheap.  It was like camping and the Batak people are terribly friendly.  The woman who ran our guest house, Poppy, took an instant liking to Ira and his black beard and couldn’t keep her hands off him.  She was quite a character but in her own words, “all talk, no action.” 

Lake Toba with Ira and Rifka

That night we went to another cultural show at the Carolina Hotel.  More of same except with a talk explaining Batak traditions.  There was a blind mandolin player who gave quite a show – an old man who played solos holding his instrument behind his back to play it while grinning an enormous grin.

Apr. 13, 1978 - Indonesia

Up early the next morning, thanks to Bryan’s new beeper alarm watch he bought in Singapore, to catch our flight to Medan in Sumatra.  In the waiting room we ran into Rifka and Ira Tuch, the Canadian couple we liked at Taman Nagara.  They had been held up in Kuala Lampur and were in transit on our flight to Medan.  We caught up on each other’s activities and the ½ hour flight went quickly despite the fact that we got no breakfast.  In Medan we went straight to the bus station to catch a bus to Parapet on Lake Toba.  Our taxi driver assured us that the mini buses were better and faster so we took his advice and paid our 1000 rupea each ($2.75) and got on the bus.  For ½ hour it was crowded but tight and all right.  Then they told us to get out and combined our bus with some other tourists.  We squeezed in and went off.  Then after about an hour we stopped again and were told to get on another bus.  No one questioned it and our mini drove off.

 Here I am trying to keep an eye on our luggage to be sure it was loaded on our packed bus.

We waited and waited and finally amazing numbers of people were squeezed on.  The bus had no window glass and was really just benches across where they stuffed 6 people.  Foreigners were so much bigger than the Indonesians that 6 foreigners is at least one too many.  We fought and yelled and finally drove off, stopping to take on a large load of wood – and more people!  The "conductor" rode on a ladder outside.  Poor him – it started to rain hard.  We pulled down the canvas over the windows but still got soaked.  The only thing that made me happy was to know that he was wetter.  The avarice is amazing; he would endure  that just to sell another seat.

We finally arrived in beautiful Parapet and it was worth the discomfort.  We discovered that our first mini bus had sold us out and the normal bus ride should be 750 ($1.80) straight through.  We were taken.

Fortunately for our frayed nerves and tired bottoms we found a beautiful lakeside hotel. They only had a family room available which we shared with Ira and Rifka.  The lake is clear and a swim was welcome.  The bathroom didn’t have a shower, but the sluice tub had cool water and buckets to ladle it over you – very nice.

We had an enormous Chinese dinner in Parapet that night and then went to see a cultural show at the Parapet Hotel for free.  They sang traditional Batak songs which had a distinct Spanish flavor and danced a slow step traditional Batak dance where the hand movements are stylized and sedate.  Afterward the audience was invited to join in and Rifka and I did.  I was amazed how much I enjoyed it: I miss my dance group in Addis Ababa.  I didn’t want to stop.  The lead singer took an instant liking for Rifka and presented her with flowers and asked her to stay.

Apr. 12, 1978 - Malaysia

We decided to go around the island to Batu Ferringhi (Foreigner’s Mile) where the good beaches are.  After a stately breakfast overlooking the ocean, we caught the bus.  We got off at the Casuarina Hotel where the Wescotts stay and checked out the beach.  The hotel is lovely but the water was very polluted.  Rather than swim we decided to hire rubber air mats from the hotel and float on the water.  We floated and sunned for a while and then caught another bus for a small town further up the road.  It started to rain so after a quick look around we took the bus back to Georgetown.

We got off at the bus depot and, although we were hot and tired, decided to see the sunset from Penang Hill, 3000 feet above the town by cable car.  It was a longer trip than we expected since the climb was steep and it took almost ½ hour to reach the top.  We had to change cars and track half way up because the strain of the climb would be too much for one cable.

The sunset was behind the clouds on the top but the air was cool and there was a lovely tea house and garden up there.   By the time we returned to the E&O we were ready to fall into bed.  But first we had an elegant  dinner in the hotel dining room.  I had chicken breast “Princess” and Bryan had sweet and sour shrimp.

Apr. 11, 1978 - Malaysia

Rushed from the train and caught the ferry for Penang, a 10 minute trip across the harbor.  We decided we needed a treat so we went to the E&O – a real step into the colonial past.  We couldn’t quite bring ourselves to take a 1st class room so we settled for 2nd best (and cheaper) which still included the swimming pool.  We checked out the tourist office and changed money and took a bicycle trishaw to the MAS airline office where we booked a flight to Sumatra for Thursday.  Our trishaw man was friendly and talkative and promised to give us “best rate” if we would let him give us a trishaw tour of Georgetown.  We said ok later and he peddled us back to the E&O.

The pool was great and refreshed us.  After a shower we met “our” trishaw and he took us on a delightful 3 hour tour, including the monkey gardens (botanical gardens) and an elaborate Chinese clan house.

Here I am in said trishaw in front of the Khoo Clan House in Penang.

The high point was a drive through the lighted stalls and stores at dusk in Chinatown.  At one point we said we wanted satay, the grilled chicken pieces on a skewer that you dip in spicy peanut sauce.  He took us to some outdoor stalls and waited while we ordered a plate.

The waiter brought a heaping fresh platter of skewered meat and we groaned and dug in.  That was a lot of meat.  Then as we were almost finished I noticed the man at the next table counting skewers. Woops, you only pay for what you eat and we weren’t expected to finish!  Our total count was embarrassing – at 8 cents a stick we paid a lot.  They must think we foreigners are gluttons and we didn’t even order rice.

Apr. 10, 1978 - Malaysia

Woke up to birds singing and fog covered hills outside our window – not much view but fresh cool air.  After breakfast we strolled around Frasier’s Hill golf course, checked out the ugly Merlin Hotel and went back to our pleasant manor, grateful it fit so well into the surroundings. By then the sun had come out and an incredible bouquet of large butterflies surrounded us.  It was possible to buy those same butterflies mounted on framed boards but we weren’t tempted.

Caught the 1 o’clock “down” bus which took us twisting and turning down the other side of the hill to a small town.  On the way down several women got on and they were dressed similarly in big straw hats and protective coverings on their arms and hands and scarves on their heads.  They carried a tool like a pole with a cone at the end, maybe 4 feet long and a broad shallow wood bowl, maybe 3 feet across.

They were quite cheerful and had been working all day.  One had some ducks.  I wish I’d been able to find out what they were picking/planting.

Our goal today is to catch the night train for Penang from Tanjong Malim.  We caught another bus to TM and arrived in time for a heavy tropical shower.  We almost got into the shelter of the train station in time and found out that the express for Butterworth would not be through until 12 midnight.  It was now 4:30 – what to do?  Nothing.  We strolled about a bit until it got dark and had a Chinese/Malay dinner in a small restaurant near the bus station.  At dark we went back to the train station.  It was very small with a few benches under an open sided shelter.  The neighborhood kids discovered a game called “stare at the waiting tourists” but soon tired of it (not soon enough, however.)  The light was too dim to read so we just sat.  We talked to two people at length.  One was a young man hoping to qualify for a government allotment of land to start a rubber grove.  He was well versed in the crops of Malaysia and explained in good but heavily accented English about the 3 different type of rubber tree root rot.  He was also amazingly well informed on Ethiopian politics.  The station master, and Indian-Malay, was also well informed on that subject. 

At 11:15 the 3rd class train went through but we decided to gamble and wait for the 2nd class train to see if we could get a sleeper.  Of course, that train was late and at 1am we staggered aboard to find all the sleeping berths full.  So we sat up until we arrived at Butterworth at 6am the next morning.  The joys of travel.

Apr. 9, 1978 - Malaysia

Tried to get an early start out of Taman Nagara Park but by the time everyone was breakfasted, packed and bills paid it was 10am.  The boat took 3 hours downstream and we only had to get out and walk once.  It went quickly because we had friends to talk to – the same group that came into camp with us.  Since there were 10 of us we had a long wait for rides once we reached "civilization."  A few people walked into town and we managed to get two taxis for the ½ hour bumpy ride to town.  The taxi left us at the taxi stand and we said good bye to the others.  We got a bite for lunch and then took a taxi to another town on a bigger road heading for Penang Island in the north. 

When we arrived at the train we found it was not all that big so immediately jumped on a bus for Raub, which looked bigger on the map.  The bus went through twisting mountain roads lined with thick vegetation.  It was very hot.

Raub was much bigger and even had cold cokes.  After one of those we inquired about buses to a town with a train station about 2 hours off.  We were informed by an extremely helpful and talkative taxi driver that no more taxis were leaving today (it was 4:30) and no more buses, but he would be glad to take us to Frasier’s Hill in his taxi where we would pass a much cooler night and enjoy the view from 5000 feet.  That sounded reasonable so we paid his high rate and decided to enjoy the trip.  We climbed and twisted for ½ hour until we came to the gate for the last 1000 feet.  The road, known as The Gap,  is so narrow that it is one way and changes direction each hour.  At seven we started climbing, past rushing waterfalls and the biggest tree ferns I’ve ever seen.  We arrived just as it was dark and went to an old lodge built in 1926 as a rest home for the Malay survivors of World War I.  It is now a hotel run by a Chinese family.

Our room was enormous with French windows overlooking a garden.  We had a Chinese meal big enough for 4 people (we still don’t know how to order Chinese food) and went to bed after a relaxing bath.

Apr. 7-8, 1978 - Malaysia

Took a hot, sweaty hike this morning and refreshed ourselves with a swim in the river.  Learned about tropical rain forests from a nature trail guide.  In the evening we went to a “hide” to look for wildlife but this park is not for wildlife viewing because it has so many tourists to scare away the animals.  Saw a wild pig family: mommy, daddy and babies.  The tame deer near the camp, however, were more interesting to watch than sitting still at a hide.  Some of the people spent the night in a hide but saw nothing.  The jungle sounds are fascinating, though.  There are supposed to be tiger and elephant here but the jungle is too thick to see much.

The Park Ranger had arranged a boat trip for us today.  (We called him the Park Arranger.)  We weren’t too excited because of our sweaty experience yesterday but we decided to go with a Canadian couple.  I’m awfully glad we did.  The river was low so a few times we had to push the small motor boat but mostly we cruised upstream.  After 1½ hours we got out and hiked 10 minutes to a series of rapids and pools.  Spent several hours there swimming, snorkeling and sunning.

This is Bryan demonstrating his vine swinging technique.

On the way back to camp we drifted without using the motor which enabled us to hear the bird calls and river rapids. Extremely pleasant.  Butterflies abound and flitted about us, landing on our clothes.  They particularly liked my tennis shoes.

The jungle is fascinating to drift through. Trees sprout ferns – they are called epiphytes – and take root high on the trunks of trees.  They take their nourishment from the decaying leaves that fall around their roots in their “host" tree – not from the tree itself.  Orchids are epiphytic and they are impressive in the high trees.

We got back around 3pm, slightly sunburned and tired but a shower revived us.  Sat on the porch and watched a monitor lizard about 1½ feet long browse around our porch.  It was very busy poking its little arms in the roots of trees looking for dinner.