I am in a tropical jungle—exhausted, dehydrated, and lost. My clothes are soaked with sweat and droplets from the trees. My legs are sore from constantly climbing up and down, and my brain is foggy, borderline hallucinating from the heat and fatigue. To make things worse, the sun is about to set—and I still can’t find my way out.
How did I end up here?!
It all started after I crossed the Brunei River to Kampong Ayer( A water village) and had lunch. My goal for the day was to climb Bukit Saeh, a nearby mountain.
For the past few days of my trip in Brunei, the heat had been relentless, and I was desperate to find a cooler place—anywhere but another museum. I haven’t climb mountain in a while, but I felt like I have energy to spare. So I just start to check the nearest option.
Among the nearby mountain trails, Bukit Saeh had the highest ratings. That was good enough for me, and I like to be flexible.
Turns out, not reading the actual reviews and relying only on ratings was one of my biggest mistakes.
I saw a colorful gate when I arrived at the entrance of the trail. Nice—seemed like a good sign. A few workers sat nearby at booths, drinking water. A trail map was posted to the side, showing several routes and checkpoints. I snapped a pic of the map—it might come in handy later.
At the time, I didn’t plan on following a specific path. The distances didn’t seem that great on the map, and I figured a few kilometers of hiking wouldn’t be a big deal. After all, I trusted my endurance from past hikes.
I was so wrong.
