The jungle

Last night after a torrential downpour we went on a night safari. A sort of Defender pickup with 2 seats for 4 each up high with your head about 2 feet over roof of vehicle. Out guide had a strong spotlight. He had hoped to show us the 1000kg , 2 meter high "GAO" (phonetic) . We saw a huge porcupine, lots of deer and a huge bat. It was beautiful to be in the pitch black, all the sounds of the jungle. This place is so relaxing. This morning we met the guide again at 5am. After donning gators tbat we wore inside our shoes and rubbing a small vile of "medicine" they made us buy onto our shoes (DET) to ward off leaches, we then walked 2km into the forest to see the gibbons. The gibbon sanctuary is across the island where they rehab gibbons to put them back into the wild. We knew it was a long shot as the rain and fog makes them less active as the wet leaves make it harder for them to grab the branches. The path was dark and flooded, we jumped from rock to rock in our already wet shoes (another story from yesterday I have not gotten to). Eventually we stopped by a 400yr old tree. We could hear and barely see some thrashing of branches and I saw one gibbon climbing down a branch, but that was it. Our guide said we were unlucky and they offered us tongi again tomorrow but we need to move on- the big city awaits.