The following is an article from Christine Davies, winner of the first prize in the UK's Independent Online Edition travel writing competition, where she describes her encounter with an angry ape in a rainforest in Borneo:
Apart from the unforgettable occasion when, trapped by a closed border crossing, I had to spend the night in a Thai brothel, the only time I regretted fleeing work and kin was when threatened by a large, angry ape in Borneo. He was protecting his family and we were in the way. I was forced to consider whether this was the proper place for a middle-aged single mother from south London.
It started with early retirement and an invitation to a party in Singapore. I accepted the invitation and set out three months earlier with a backpack. I loved every single day of my experience, but much of Malaysia and Thailand seemed to make life easy for the backpacker.
Even the National Parks had been tamed by mass tourism. It was in Kelantan, the most northern state of West Malaysia, remote and alcohol free, that, with the clarity of enforced sobriety, it hit me. Once I'd had my fill of the wonderful food in the night market of Kota Baru, and of sharing a hut with brightly coloured frogs in the tropic.
Apart from the unforgettable occasion when, trapped by a closed border crossing, I had to spend the night in a Thai brothel, the only time I regretted fleeing work and kin was when threatened by a large, angry ape in Borneo. He was protecting his family and we were in the way. I was forced to consider whether this was the proper place for a middle-aged single mother from south London.
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