All Templed Out? A Walk on the Crawly Side

Since I was enjoying myself so much, I allotted an additional day in Siem Reap to splurge one last time on what ended up being the most fun day of my trip.  After temple trekking, there aren’t too many activities advertised to do, especially in town, so I started exploring other eco-tourism outings.  Through a random tripadvisor link, I happened upon a beautiful picture of a caterpillar.  So entranced, I read through the description and reviews

Dani Jump in his playground

(all of which were five stars).  It described a nature tour, led by Dani Jump of Bees Unlimited to explore the creatures and forest life of the Angkor Archaeological Park.  Through very prompt email correspondence, Dani and I arranged a tour that would depart from my hotel at 7am and return some time mid-afternoon.  At this point I was feeling pretty strapped for cash, but it was a private tour with a Cambodia nature expert so how could I resist?

The tour was $35 itself and $10 for the tuk tuk driver, which would have been waived if I had found another participant. 

Morning Wholesale Market

We started out in the wholesale market, bustling with the sale of morning produce, meat and seafood.  Large silver bowls with all kinds of wild market food lined narrow, muddy pathways.  It was difficult to squeeze past hagglers and peek into every stall while averting the dreaded sandal slop of mud, but interesting to experience busy morning life.  

We enjoyed noodles with a deep fried something or other for breakfast and then taste tested a few other goods as we walked.  Finally, we came upon an insect merchant and Dani urged me to try the big red ants that had been biting me just the day before.  Payback time.  As he is vegetarian, Dani didn’t partake, but he assured me they were sour.  Why? Red ants eat mango leaves so their bodies taste like a squirt of lime.  Delicious!  ...Really!

Hittin’ the Trail

Our tuk tuk driver dropped us off in a random area where no one else was walking around.  Dani and I got out and immediately started looking around.  He pointed out the host plants of the caterpillars we were looking for and long white tubes attached to tree trunks that housed stingless bees.  I found one of Thailand’s most common scary-looking spiders right off the bat, but Dani said that we’d find bigger ones later (bigger than that? I’m thinking)  After a while of coming up short on creepy crawlies, we happened upon a fisherman taking some fish out of his chain-lined net.  Thankfully, Dani knows Khmer and we could talk to

him.  He explained that he works in the fields and has five children.  We then asked about his prosthetic leg.  He said that he was working the in the fields one day when a landmine went off.  The leg was completely waterproof as he was going in and out of the lake with no problem.  We watched him cast his net a few more times and then thanked him for his time.

Back into the woods, we walked slowly, looking on and under leaves and dancing through termite-infested areas (there were many).  At one point, I wasn't dancing fast enough and one of them latched onto my toe. YEEEEOUCH! Stomping rapidly wouldn’t shake him – he was gripping hard with big pinchers.  I had to rip him off and keep going.  After a few steps, Dani had me check the toe and sure enough, a small stream of blood trailed from the bite point.  At least it wasn’t a leech. 

Before long, we came across the same spider as before but twice as large – the glorious Golden Orb, or also called the Wood Spider was alert in the center of her web, waiting for prey.  She may be one of the bigger spiders around but her man is just a tiny fraction of her size.  Dani asked if I was ready to hold it.  What!?  I didn’t feel ready, but once I saw her bumbling around on his arm, I realized that she was a clumsy mess, totally out of her element after being taken from her web.  The two red “fangs” weren’t even moving.  Ooook, I’m not getting out of it, so let’s have it.  What an experience.

This fear conquering continued with a rare find – the Whip Scorpion – and a big millipede.  The Whip Scorpion isn’t like other scorpions in that he doesn’t have a stinger.  We rescued him from some biting red ants and he chilled out on my arm for a photo shoot.   The millipedes we found were so interesting to watch as they coiled tightly in fear of the giant hands reaching down for them. 

All of these creepy crawlies were interesting to find and hold, but I was hoping for a few more caterpillars!  We found one interesting hairy one but it still wasn’t exotic in the way that I was hoping.  We were nearing the end of our trail and as we entered a clearing, Dani stopped and pointed at the ground.  Caterpillar poo!  We looked up high into a tree and tried to find where it was coming from. 

“There!  Do you see him?  Look where I’m pointing.”

I didn’t see him.  “What color is he?”

“Green!”

Of course. 

So how do we get to him if he’s ten feet above us?  Dani motioned to his driver friend and said something in Khmer.  The driver scampered up the tree and lowered the branches.  We gently broke off the small branch that the Luna Moth Caterpillar was laying on.  Incredible.  This chubby green fatty was so fun looking, and then his body turned and I got a good look at a very sci-fi looking face.  I had never seen a caterpillar this big!  It was an unexpected find in the eleventh hour and a perfect way to end our nature tour.  We enjoyed lunch while watching mischievous monkeys and listening to the rain fall in the woods.