Sometime before sunrise we started hearing noises in the great hall. I hoped it was just one person moving around who would soon go back to sleep but then more and more footsteps sounded. Some music started. It sounded like light Muslim rock, although these people are Christian. I knew we were not going to get any more sleep.

We reluctantly got up and put away our bed roll. It was barely light outside. We had hot tea and crackers for breakfast, again sitting on the floor of the dining room. I noticed this morning that my butt was very sore from the day before, especially the boat ride. I had to constantly shift my sitting position.

Tuai proved to have good judgment in many things. When we told him that Sooyau was going to take us on a hike, he laughed heartily as if we were in for something ominous but not fatal. We asked if Sooyau was "bagus" (good). He said Yes, and laughed again.

We had made plans to meet Sooyau at 8 a.m. but considering his state when we made the arrangements, I wasn't certain he would remember. But he did. At 8 sharp he showed up. It turns out the Sooyau's parents and a couple brothers live next door to Tuai. We went there for more drinks.

(Joan: That was when they started talking to each other and giving us funny looks. Finally Tuai said that we should wear shorts, not long pants--which we had put on thinking that would help with mosquitos. We felt a little foolish. We went back and changed. I tried to find our mosquito repellent and couldn't. We have carried that damn stuff on our bikes for about 1,500 miles now, and that was the first time we needed it. I made a mental note to throw it out the next time I saw it.)

We put our boots on and walked down to the river with Sooyau, his brother Johnny, his brother-in-law (?) Colony, and a 9-year-old boy named Badul, whose relationship to the rest is distant.

We got into Sooyau's longboat and went downstream about a kilometer to one of those very steep "docks." Even though the sun was out now, it had rained hard during the night so everything was wet including the steep dock. The dock wasn't a problem at all for the rest of the gang but we climbed it slowly. Every couple feet a board had been nailed above the rest to provide a purchase for your foot.

We walked across a deteriorating old four-door longhouse that appeared abandon, though I don't know this for sure. The trail started on the other side.

(Joan: I should mention that although this was a fishing/hiking expedition, I thought we were going pig hunting. Tuai had asked us if we wanted to, and Eric had said he would only hunt pigs with a camera. But we had left it open. I noticed the guys carrying some weird spear guns in addition to their fishing rod, and I thought we would use these guns to kill pigs. As we passed the longhouse, a pig showed up on the path beside it. I thought, This is It. Badul, the 9-year-old, held up his hand like a gun and pretended to shoot it. I got ready for them to really kill it. But it turns out the pig is a domestic one and wasn't on the menu that day. I didn't figure out we were on a fishing trip for another several minutes).

We didn't talk much during the hike. Badul, carried a small basket backpack and a fishing rod. One of the other guys also carried a small basket backpack. We carried a daypack with swimming suits and a camera.

Unfortunately the trail didn't go through any old-growth canopy style Borneo jungle. Apparently there's nothing like that anywhere near here anymore. The forest was a lot like you would find in Pennsylvania. I would guess the trees were between 30 and 40 years old. Regardless, it was a pleasant hike through a forest.

The first part we hiked along a creek, crossing it many times. We got used to getting our boots soaked. Then we climbed over two hills.

When we started climbing the hills Joan and I both felt like we were crippled. We kept slipping. The hills were very steep and the soil thin so we were constantly stepping on slippery wet tree roots. We could not feel the texture of the surfaces through the thick boots and the soles seemed to be coated with oil or something. The rest had no problem at all. Colony wore cheap flip-flops, Badul had tennisshoes five sizes to big and Sooyau had a light tennis shoes with rubber knobs on the bottom.

Going downhill was worse. One time I slipped and ended up in the weeds several feet from the path.

Sooyau waited for us at the top of the first hill. As I looked up at him, something about the view seemed unusual. I couldn't quite put my finger on it. The sun had come out and the morning was very clear. Behind him was a bright blue sky. (Though a heavy haze from forest fires blanketed nearby parts of Borneo, we were lucky to be in a pocket currently not affected.) It was a striking sight, like something from a movie.

When I reached the top I figured out what was unusual. On the other side of the peak, the trail immediately went down again every bit as steeply as it had come up. The ridge was like a folded piece of paper. There was no plateau or even lessening of the grade at the top.

The hills explained to me more about Bornean geography than anything else. Reaching the top of each hill was like reaching the top of a steeply pitched roof: it went down again just as steeply on the other side. I've never seen jagged, saw blade topography quite like this except in movies. Nothing was rounded. If we weren't walking in a river or creek, we were on a steep hill. No wonder there are no roads.

After about an hour of hiking we reached the waterfalls. We found three 10-foot falls separated by large beautiful pools. A 100-foot high cliff covered with moss and overhanging plants towered above the last pool. There were several small caves in the rocks and one large enough to walk in but only about 10 feet deep.

Badul went berserk. He was having the time of his life. I'm so glad he was there. I kept thinking, "This would be just about the most awesome place in the world for a kid." Badul seemed to know it. He never stopped smiling. At the time it didn't occur to us the maybe Badul should be in school.

The other three quickly went to work fishing. They brought with them three different methods for fishing: the fishing pole, a net, and two homemade fish guns.

The fishing guns were a little like pistol spear guns. The spear was about a foot long and made out of something a little thicker than hanger wire. One end was sharpened and barbed to penetrate the fish then hold it just like a fish hook. The other end had a small hole in it and a notch. The spear was attached to the pistol with about three feet of fishing line.

At the end of the pistol they had attached four sections from an inner tube. Each section had wire loop on the loose end. These worked like heavy duty rubber bands.

The spear was thread through a small hole at the end of the pistol and pushed in so that the hole at the back of the spear could be latched to a pin connected to the trigger.

An inner tube piece would be pulled back and the wire ring placed in a notch at the back of the spear. If they were hunting larger fish they pulled back more of the inner tube pieces.

The guns seemed ingenious but I was dubious about their effectiveness. The range could only be about two feet. The guys wore snorkeling masks (no snorkels though) and dove into the murky waters. Believe it or not it worked. They got four fish that way.

Next: Jungle Hike Part 2

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