It felt pleasant to sit there and enjoy the nature. Pretty soon, though, I wanted to get out of there. I felt something wriggling across my fingers. It looked like a tiny purple worm, but it wasn’t. It was a baby leech! My family and I freaked out, but mom eventually banished the little vampire from my body for good. I had only gotten lucky. When we got back into our hotel room, dad found another baby leech, fat from his blood, stuck to his leg! Then there were two in his sock! How frightening! After minutes of screaming, we got them off. Woo, that was close!

We also went to a village. We learned a little bit about the local culture, Orang Asli, which means Original People, and practiced the local method of hunting. We blew darts from inside long sticks of bamboo. It was almost as silent as air. Normally, the darts were poisoned, but for demonstrations, they were not. The local people are very peaceful; they never had a single war in their 4,000 years of living in harmony. The tribe that we saw were descendants of local people from Papua New Guinea, Australia, and Indonesia. To me, the most interesting thing about them is that the women fished, but not with lines or nets. They fished with their hands! We said goodbye to the villagers in their language, climbed down to the riverbank, and boarded the boat. Then, without expecting it, our boat surfed up some rapids, and we got soaking wet. We were laughing and screaming joyfully with our companions, and it was really quite splendid.

Later that night, I was about to go back to our room to watch TV and eat pizza by myself, when we came out of the restaurant, and there, in the middle of the path, was a tapir. It seemed majestic. Its black hair, which covered the body, was white in the middle, such a white that it looked like powder. Its hair was short, and spiky. It had a very peculiar trunk, which was short and black, similar to an elephant’s. In the darkness of night, its eyes shined faintly, with big, round pupils. They appeared to have belonged to a puppy. It seemed to have jumped right out of a fairy tail, just like a peacock. Its ears and feet were very similar to the ears and feet of hippos. Weighing 550 – 660 pounds, you might think it was very big. Surprisingly, it only reached up to my chest, and was about 1 1/2 times as long as I am tall. Its outward appearance belied its true self. I was very surprised when I learned its true weight. I thought it was a baby! I found that its size had duped me, and that it was actually an adult male! I guess that what they say about books and covers is true!

Night Safari

Enjoying the Nature

Huge Leaf!

Scratching the tapir’s belly!

View of the jungle

Taman Nagara National Park Canopy Walk

The tapir tried to eat in the restaurant!

Dart Blowing