We encountered a beautiful black widow that had just finished weaving its web, a couple of mating locusts, a large lizard busily scouting for food and a green bamboo snake snoozing in a tree. At one point, a river crab tried to scuttle onto a hiker's shoe.

Even though I'd wrapped myself in clothing to seal out any bugs, especially mosquitoes, I was still bitten by a golden ant that was larger than my fingernail.

It hurt. A lot!

In another palm forest, we found a murder victim — a tall tree we thought had been cut down by humans until Chen explained it'd recently been killed by competing trees.

It's a reminder of the law of the jungle, in which everything fights — in every sense — to survive.

We'd come to enjoy the beauty of a place that's ultimately the result of a battle, often to the death.