Travel allows us to reinvent ourselves again and again. We sincerely open our eyes and hearts and change. When you travel with your eyes and mind, you realize you're not the same person you were at home. I used to realize that the journey had changed. The scenery, the adventures, the people I met were the places where I was not at all; everything right.
This idea that the journey changes is stuck, and last year I decided to develop the idea. I started writing the funny things that happened when I traveled. As an ecotourism development professional, I visit some very cool places, often before I discover or are ready for tourists. The results can be fun, such as a home of times when the local hotel was not suitable for tourists! Or for the time when I had the opportunity to understand how pleasant or its components are a real tourist attraction when I was given the opportunity to visit the Gomantong Cave in the northeastern part of Borneo with a large number of birds and bats.
Caves such as Gomantong are home to thousands of small birds. Their nests are made of saliva mixed with feathers and other nesting materials and are of great value in the bird's nest soup. The nest can reach more than $ 500US per kilogram, so it is important to regulate the collection so that the harvest no longer occurs. The Gomantong Cave was described by the world's wildlife as one of the world's best-managed poultry caves.
The Gomantong Cave is also a popular tourist attraction. This is a unique chance to see how the bird nest industry works and watch the cave's delicate ecosystem. I have always enjoyed new bird species and bats, so it wasn't hard to convince me to visit the Gomantong Cave on my route.
The stop of the visitor center explained the complexity of harvesting the nest and the risks that people climbed on the fragile rattan ladders and the highest paths of the cave. After a quick stop we went to visit the Sumud Hitam or the Black Nest Cave. It is a large cave, 30 meters wide and 100 meters high with raised walkways to facilitate walking. I soon realized I was underestimating the adventure. The short walk that sees the cave would be one of the longest walks in my life.
I stepped into the cave, gaggling into the guano ammonia fumes of the bat, penetrating the flaming air, and felt my foot slipping to the thousands of bat and bird gathered feces. Wearing open-toed sandals could be a good choice for the morning, but the cavern was made on the unstable foundation. In the corner of my eyes, I got the red flash on the ground. A closer inspection of the flashlight shows that the earth lived hundreds of cockroaches. I wanted it not to be seen.
Saat, a guide from Borneo EcoTours, pointed out that there are rats who eat insects and snakes who eat rats. Very healthy ecosystem, but not exactly what I expected in one of Borneo's latest ecotourism attractions. "Interesting, but somewhat uncomfortable," said Saad, holding her shirt around her neck. – If you look up, keep your mouth closed. Wise words I realized, knowing that the cave is home to hundreds of busy dwellings that flew every day in search of food.
When I entered the cave, I did not expect to have held my rear end in the bat faeces and cockroaches for years. With her hand she offered her hand to keep me straight; he probably pointed out somewhat more correctly that the trip would be short if it fell off. We went to the cave for a sight that would have taken the breath if you didn't.
The walls of the cave sweep more than 100 meters (300 feet) and sunlight flows from the upper holes; he looked like a scene from the lost barge Raiders. Swiftlets jumped from their nests to the forest looking for their own food. The bats were moving in the darkened corners of the cave. Ladders and routes are idle, waiting for the next nesting season, when trained collectors risk their lives to gather their heads. Overall, it was a stunning sight, and I'm glad I didn't miss it despite the danger of getting there.
I thought there was a lesson in this experience. As for my trip to the Gomantong Cave, you may need to end up with a little inconvenience, keep your mouth, the risk to the back, and pass through some feces. However, if you are convinced of your vision, you will be rewarded.
So I kept my vision and collected the best stories in a book recently published by Trafford Publishing of Victoria, BC, and I did not want to see the list of attractions and restaurants. Travel can transform people and communities where they live. Sharing stories like visiting the Gomantong Cave will let you know that if you travel with an open mind and an open heart, change is inevitable.
Many people feel that some of their dreams have been left out of work and family responsibilities. People who strive to remove the dust of their childhood dreams and take a new direction often create the necessary spark during a travel adventure. I found a new direction in life from the journey, and I think others too!
Source by Carol Patterson