This was an interesting day! One last early morning cruise on the river to look for animals. Didn’t see much. Mostly birds, but we did see one more lonely orang utan sitting in a tree. They are solitary primates, one wonders how they perpetuate their species. Next stop was a bus ride to Gomantong Cave. This cave complex is huge, we visit one of them. It too is huge and full of 5 things. Birds, (more on them in a minute), bats, bat guano, huge centipedes, and cockroaches – gazillion of these!
First the birds: they are the birds that make the ingredients for “bird nest soup” so favored in Asia. These are little nests made entirely out of bird spit that are harvested three times a year, cleaned, packaged and sent to China. The picture is of one where that particular species incorporates feathers in the nest as well, (I doesn’t demand as much as the “pure spit” ones and has to be hand cleaned before shipping). Our guide, when asked if he has tried bird nest soup, admitted he never has since he knows how they are made and where they come from! Quite a delicacy we are told. You can see from the photo above that harvesting is very difficult and dangerous to say the least.
On to the bats: tons of them too. And guano that is meters thick everywhere! They don’t remove and sell it since it is so thick and soft, the baby birds, when learning to fly, frequently crash into the walls, allowing for a “pillowy” landing. BTW, that same guano is not thick and soft on the walkway, it is greasy and slippery, and creepy.
Centipedes: right out of a science fiction movie, big fast and everywhere.
Cockroaches: everywhere, every size, again, sensory overload. As interesting as it was to see the caves, we couldn’t wait to get out of there. Ugh!
This is where the guard lives, in the cave. This has to be the WORLD’S WORST JOB!! 100% humidity, bat guano dust permeates the air, cockroach carpet everywhere and hot as hell, wait, this is hell!
No comments:
Post a Comment