BORNEO DIARY 
24/02/2002
It's strange typing this journal with a family of Orangutangs looking over your shoulder. I feel quite at home with them and despite the odd problem, they are far more hospitable, gentle, welcoming and accepting than the humans I've met on my travels. They haven't tried to rob me, swindle me, undress me, throw me in a pit or unrinate on me. Well, actually Barbara did urinate on me earlier, but it wasn't malicious urination.
Tried to explain (with signs) to Laura that she is not my kind of primate, but she responded by sitting on me and sucking my foot, so either she didn't get the message or foot-sucking is Orangutang for "lets just be friends".
I also feel very safe George and his friends, they bring food, I can sleep safely at night and they listen to my conversation. I might stay a while.
23/02/2002
Spent today picking insects off the others and eating them, after a parasite has lived on an Orangutang for a while it develops a unique taste. Laura is spending a lot of time with me, I am worried she has a crush.
22/02/2002
I feel surprisingly at home among the Orangutangs, I slept in a tree so near them I could hear the large male breathing. I followed some E-Mail advice (Thanks Paul) and tried to gain their trust by helping pick off the insects crawling on their fur and then eating them. It seemed to work and I can sense a growing feeling of family between us. One tried to open my backpack earlier, when I tried to explain personal property to him I found out just how strong Orangutangs and was thrown bodily through the air. Fortunately I landed softly on one of the infants.
I've given some of them names to help me identify them. The large, arrogant male with the odd ears I am calling George , the fat, twitchy female is Laura and her offspring (I think they might be twins) are Jenna and Barbara, the one who sits all day is Abraham and the old one with staring eyes is Ronald. I can't decide what to call the one with the grey, tufty beard that the others avoid.
21/02/2002
Covered a decent distance yesterday, the jungle is dense here and everything moves or crawls or bites.
The natives seem to have given up following me, they were around me until about half and hour ago when I came across this-
I heard their voices raise, they seemed disturbed or frightened or something, then they were gone. Maybe they realised I was pretty angry with them for their treatment of me and could turn on them any minute. Probably just as well they gave up the chase before my patience ran out. Or maybe the family of agitated Orangutangs put them off, I'll never know for sure.
I am typing this quite near a large female and her young, they seem quite apathetic toward me, but my knowledge of Orangutangs begins and ends with the two "Every Which Way.." Clint Eastwood films and I suspect Clyde's behaviour was not typical of his species. If anyone knows any good tips for befriending Orangutangs, please E-mail me. I'm pretty sure they are vegetarian, which is more than I could say for the natives I met.
20/02/2002
I'm lost. Can't seem to get back to the river, it must be near. Can't seem to retrace my steps without getting even more lost. And the natives won't leave me alone, I saw one of them at first light hiding behind a tree, and he was wearing my hat.
I'm going to walk as much as I can today and try to make some distance between me and last week's events. Saw some proboscis monkeys above me just now, and some of the flora around me is stunning (see pic below). Although being lost is potentially a life threatening problem, I love the challenge of not knowing whats around the next corner. Except in the jungle, there are no corners, which is, of course, even better.
Also- thanks to Matthias Gietl for the advise on auto-screening my E-Mail for spam and thanks to Jenny for the advise on "getting my ass out of the jungle".
19/02/2002
For some reason, the Genie Excellent Content Award people got in touch this morning and told me how excellent my site is. Not sure if this is a real award or not, but thanks anyway.
If anyone else would like to put my site forward for an award, please feel free. I'd love to win something that they have to deliver to me in person, especially if the first prize was food or medical supplies.
I get a lot of spam E-Mail, it can be very irritating getting E-Mail "you must read to the end" about pyramid selling schemes when you are fighting for your life in the rainforest and every E-Mail takes precious battery life.
I climbed down to see the natives yesterday, they were much more welcoming. At first they laughed a lot and from what little I could pick up they were making referance to the pit/urine events. I have the greatest of respect for the culture and life these people lead, so put aside my petty anger and tried to smile and seem non-threatening. I tried showing them some websites about Borneo, which was fine until they clicked on a banner ad.
After I climbed out of the pit again and washed the urine off, I decided to leave the natives alone and I am setting off to find the river again.
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