Jungle view

After waiting more than an hour for a bus on Friday, I was hoping today would be better. Since there’s no fixed timetable for buses passing by the national park, I went to stand by the road about 20 minutes before the time that I’d arrived on Friday. It worked, the bus came after 15 minutes and, thankfully, although it was busy, it wasn’t full.

The journey was very slow. The roads wind through the mountains for several hours. There was a stop for lunch and then, shortly after, a stop for repairs. I think the driver had been nursing the bus along for quite a while as we’d been going very slowly and there was a big difference in speed after they’d fixed the bus.

I got off the bus at Sepilok and a pirate taxi – someone passing in their car – took me to the guest house. (There’s not a lot of transport options around here.) I’m staying in a wooden chalet build on stilts in a small pocket of forest. This is the view from the balcony. The lodge is next to a palm oil plantation and you can see some of the palm trees in the distance.