Living in the middle of no where is addicting. I have found solitude and isolation to be surprisingly more exciting than a city stuffed full of millions of weird people on cell phones.
The clean air, the sounds of bugs and birds chirping as you wake up and go to sleep, the mystery of potentially undisturbed land by humans… this is what I came to see in Borneo and this is why I purposely went out of my way to stay in Danum Valley Conservation Area.
438 kilometres of virgin old growth jungle as dense and lush as far as the eye can see and breath-takingly beautiful as your little brain can imagine.
Danum Valley is a protected area from hunting, logging and all those other bad, bad things that us naughty humans tend to do. It is mainly used as a research area for scientists from all over the world but it is open for tourists who want to stare at technicolor centipedes and giant leaves bigger than your head. It doesn’t get any more real than this.
How can I describe this place to you? Magnificent? Awe Inspiring? It’s pretty much Jurassic Park in real life! The trees were higher and more solid than any concrete post I have ever seen, the animals more abundant than your average zoo and the leeches… well, that’s a whole different topic that I cringe at the thought of writing about.
I will say that having 5 disgusting worms suck your blood at one time was an annoyingly painful but small price to pay for the beautiful hikes and exciting animal sightings.
We were approached by friendly barking deer, hung out with prehistoric looking bearded pigs in a natural mud pit and stood under a Rambutan tree in the pouring rain as a mother orangutan fed unripe fruit to her baby.
Continue reading (Incl. Pic) at: Danum Valley: An Education
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