in the rainforest, ii

feeding fish can be therapeutic. not when there are two of them in a little bowl, but where two thousand arrive, thrashing about in unison, leaping out of water to swallow morsels strewn about at random. they came as i stood at the banks of the taman negara river, an incredibly long, meandering body of water that cut through a 4000-square-kilometre wide rainforest. thousands of them, each over a foot-long. feeding them for twelve whole minutes, i felt a lot like god. around me, the boatmen stood, watching in silence.

monitor lizards have little that is therapeutic about them. at 8 am, they lie on riverbanks, sunning themselves, huge animals with forked tongues testing the air before them. they're slow, until you decide to annoy them. given my history of infuriating people, i knew it was only a matter of time. when they attack, the thing to do is drop your bags and run. they rarely follow. the thai eat them, i was told. better them than us, i replied.

spiders rule large swathes of rainforest. they spin little whorl-worlds, capturing the air between massive tree trunks and spreading their legs apart, hanging guard. below them, russians, americans, australians and japanese tourists stream past, looking down. all failing to notice the spiderlords above. one can hardly blame the insects, in their innocence, for flying in to die...