I slept well during the night despite the heat within this guesthouse room. In the latter part of the night it actually got cool enough for a t-shirt to be barely comfortable. Mosquitoes weren't an issue for some odd reason, but maybe I should credit my roommates for that.

By 9:30 I was on my way to Lata Berkoh – a waterfall that was part of the river. It was 8.5 km away. Once again within an hour I was soaked dripping in sweat. I could have taken a boat up to the falls for at least 1 part of 4 of RM 80 but decided to hike because I wanted to see a monitor lizard. I was only able to see one at the waterfall area. It was about 3 feet long and almost got away before I was able to take its picture.

The hike up there was pretty good but energy exhausting. There were two streams I had to cross. In order to do these two I had to take off my shoes and wade across. The first one only got shin deep but it was also the place I slipped as I was barefooted and slammed on my butt.

On the way up and down the trail, I attracted a total of 5 leeches. Two of which got on my shoes, one on my sock making it's way through, another attached itself above my ankle but didn't draw blood and the last one was also above my ankle and had sucked a few drops of blood leaving a small scar. This last one was truly hanging on for dear life as I, with panic, flicked the bloodsucker from my flesh. However it didn't come off with the first flick of my finger. I calmed myself and gave another with all of my might and still it didn't fly, but it did with my next punishing blow that could have dented the side of a car with as much concentration I put into it.

These leeches are like stealthy inchworms that have heat detection and act like mosquitoes to make a meal from your blood. The one that had attached and sucked was my second one actually. The first was the one that attached and didn't draw blood. Upon seeing its attachment to me, I kind of freaked out flicking it as hard as I could. After about 10 flicks it came off. As I did this, I could feel the slight irritation of it holding on to me as its only concern in order to survive. At the same time I somehow got a giant ant stuck into my hand. Of course this made me freak out even more as it had one of its mandibles stuck in my palm and was not able to get loose. I tried shaking it off several times but it didn't work until I flicked it off using my left hand. The whole episode would have been quite amusing if I could have gotten it on video.

The whole trip took a total of 4 hours up and 3 on the return, 2 rice lunch meals that I toted, an energy bar (my last) from the US and, several liters of water – thanks to my iodine tablets. Also somehow in my trekking, I bruised the side of my left foot. It was not bad. I came back, ate at a riverboat restaurant (I promise you, these restaurants don't have an inkling of romance in them:-), took a long cold, clean, and refreshing shower, along with laundry, and reading before falling asleep (no I didn't read and fall asleep in the shower, but would have been nice).