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The motorbike guy opened the sack and pulled out a glass jar. Some white fabric was stuffed in the top, and at the bottom a black shiny object. ‘A cobra’, he said. ‘I found it just over there.’ I could see the cobra breathing inside the jar – it’s abdomen expanding and contracting. Maybe I shouldn’t camp here..

Danger

In Malaysia the monkeys are walking across the power lines crossing the road, the giant lizards are scurrying off into the bushes as I pass, and the cobras are being caught in glass jars. I saw a big brown shiny snake slithering across the road – I almost ran it over. Although the landscape is more open with wider fields, it is seething with life. I am really in the tropics.

The border with Thailand is a ridge of mountains that pops up out of nothing – and it is steep. In the muggy heat of the middle of the day, the sweat was pouring off me as I inched up the pass. At the top, behind the tall grass and the trees, I caught glimpses of a beautiful plain with kaarst peaks rising vertically out of the flatness.

View over the plains

A rest day yesterday with a cyclist friend from Facebook – Terje, saw us paddle into the dark in Chet Cod Cave. It was dark. Shining the light to the cavern ceiling, we say the rows of bats hanging upside-down. It seemed to be raining – something from the bats maybe. 🙂