Hunter and Gatherer (Day 72 of the World Trip)

November 15, 2019

The first night in the jungle was surprisingly good! It was a bit cold (it gets significantly colder at night. Brrr ^^) and we woke up briefly every hour, but sleeping was definitely possible! Yay ;-)

We woke up with the sunrise and the buzzing of bees next to my ear, and found Kong and Peng already busy cooking - breakfast <3 There was scrambled eggs with tomatoes - prepared in a bamboo tube over the campfire, rice (no surprises here ^^), oranges, cookies (<<333), and maybe something else that we can't remember right now :D It was really delicious and satisfying - we wouldn't go hungry on the trek ;-)

After breakfast, we packed everything together - cleaning up is much easier because we can just fold up the "plates", which are banana leaves, and throw them into the bushes, where ants and other animals can enjoy any leftover food - and then we set off again.

Since we spent the night down by the river, the day started with an ascent, which even Jonas almost complained about :p It would have been nice to walk straight ahead for a bit to warm up, but no :D Peng liked to emphasize that we chose the challenging trek on purpose and would avoid easy paths ;-)

On the way, we passed several fruit trees today, and Peng stopped each time to pick one of the exotic fruits from the tree for us to try. It was really cool! Sometimes he didn't know the English names of the fruits, and we don't know the German names either, but we took photos of course ^^ The first one, which looks a bit like star fruit, was super sour but somehow I really liked it. After that, there was a kind of dragon fruit and then a few red apple-like fruits.

The latter were hanging high up in the tree, so Peng threw stones at them to knock them down :D Lennard and Jonas also tried to throw, but they didn't come as close as Peng. Unfortunately, Peng was also unsuccessful, so we were denied the pleasure of tasting them ^^ [funnily enough, we later passed by the same tree where the fruits would have been easy to pick :D]

Peng was particularly excited when we found a coffee plant. He didn't know that it even existed in the jungle :O It should be mentioned that Peng has never done this 5-day tour before. Normally, he is responsible for the 3-day tour, but since the guide for the 5-day tour was already in the middle of a tour, it was now Peng's turn to face it ;-) That also explained why Kong, the local guide, was always walking ahead. Maybe Peng really had never walked this route before :D

By the way, I found a special flower really cool (see photos ;-) ) It's red and resembles a mushroom. The inside looks totally artificial, like plastic or something. At first, it is closed and then it opens for a while until it turns black. As you can guess from the color, this flower (which looks more like a mushroom to Jonas and me, but Peng claimed it was a flower and not a mushroom^^) is poisonous. Even animals don't dare to touch it ^^

We had our lunch break again in a small clearing with a "water spot". There was pork skin - not delicious for me because it was too fatty :p - and a vegetable soup. Besides ginger, there was a lot of banana fruit. According to Peng, bananas from the jungle are inedible for humans and cause diarrhea and stomach problems. So we ate the fruit itself, which is easy to digest and really tasty when cooked in the soup :) [Animals can eat the bananas from the jungle without any problems, so the villagers still pick the bananas and feed them to their animals :) ]

Since we didn't have deep plates to eat the soup, Kong made us spoons out of leaves again. Lennard also tried to make one. It requires a lot of dexterity, which makes it even more impressive that Kong can do it with his deformed hand! As Peng explained, every village child can make these spoons in their sleep :D

To serve the soup, which, like everything liquid (including coffee and tea in the morning), was cooked in a bamboo tube, a small hole was dug. Then the hole was covered with banana leaves in multiple layers, and then the soup was poured onto it, so that the hole in the ground could be used as a deep soup pot, protected by the leaves, and the soup wouldn't seep into the ground. Really clever!!! ;-)

After lunch, we continued on and arrived at a sleeping place around 4:30 p.m., which was not as "wild" anymore :D It was a large bamboo hut that 50 villagers and employees of our tour provider had built together. In addition to this raised hut, which can accommodate up to 20 people, there is also a "cooking tent" (also a bamboo hut but at ground level), a toilet house, and a table with benches - all built from tree trunks.

The hut is also located by the river, and the original idea was to install flowing water for the toilet and a shower house using bamboo pipes, but due to the unpredictability of the rain and the steep terrain, the project was abandoned. So the toilet is a "self-flushing" one, just like we know it from Chiang Mai^^

Jonas and I went to the river for our first stop, where a small bamboo pipe made it easier to refill our water bottles and the cooking pot (in the bamboo hut, we had real dishes that we used for cooking) with water. Armed with a piece of soap, which we used because we had sweated a lot in the past two days, it was time for a "shower". It wasn't easy, but we managed to do it without falling into the water :D :D

Back at the hut, we were basically just waiting for dinner. By the way, we naturally offered to help with the preparation, but Peng and Kong were already an experienced team of two and didn't let us near the stove/fire :D But we were allowed to sit there, much to the delight of the men, who got to add more firewood over and over again ;-)

For dinner, we had tomato sauce from the first day, soup, and rice - as always, but delicious. After that, Peng took out a 500ml bottle of clear liquid: corn whiskey. Each of us was served a little bit of it, and whoaa :D :D That stuff burned both in the throat and in the stomach, and I was immediately drunk after my portion :p

To the amusement of Jonas, I spent the rest of the evening slightly tipsy, observing the events around me ;-) For example, the remaining meat was grilled over the fire so that we could take it with us for the next few days. I can't describe it well with words, but it was always super interesting to see the constructions Kong and Peng built to cook the food!

For example, you take a stick and split it in the middle (like splitting a log with an axe). Then the meat is inserted into this slit and the end is tied with some strong plant, so that the meat stays in place. After that, you find Y-shaped sticks (or make them yourself), place them over the fire, and place the "meat skewer" on top.

What I find so impressive about this is that the cooking equipment or utensil itself doesn't burn, even though everything is made of flammable materials (wood or bamboo) :O So cool!!! :)

Shortly before bedtime, Peng took Lennard on a hunt for water creatures, while Jonas and I went to sleep. Kong had spread play mats, which are actually used for babies, in the hut. A mosquito net was also stretched over it - very practical and very comfortable :)

Although my back, neck, shoulder, and hip hurt in every position (in addition to the sore muscles in my thighs and calves), I managed to fall asleep before Lennard and Peng returned from their hunt with small fish that they fried and ate, along with a net full of small crabs.

Day 2 was accomplished ;-)