Smoke from the many forest fires currently burning in the adjacent Indonesian state of Kalimantan has blanketed most of the island of Borneo, including the Malaysian state of Sarawak, where we are cycling. The thick haze overhead, and a strong recommendation from one of the hotel staff to wear an N-95 mask, has us feeling a little unsure as we depart Kuching. There is the immediate concern of our lungs, of course, but a more universal concern about the planet. After another summer of fires across North America and Europe, it’s disheartening to realize that tropical jungles are also extremely dry and burning. It honestly had not occurred to us until arriving here.

We cycle out of Kuching and, for better or worse, quickly acclimate to the smoke, heat and humidity. It’s a holiday so traffic is light. It’s a short 20 miles to Kampung Bako the village on the Tabo River where we hire a boat to take us to Bako National Park.

At the jetty, we are told that our bikes can’t fit on the small boat, so a kind security guard named Sebri offers to watch them overnight for us, stating solemnly that it is his duty. He asks for my What’s App contact information so he can provide updates on the bikes. Leaving the jetty, we speed down the dark brown river, lined with traditional wooden stilt houses belonging to the local fishing village.

Bako National Park is a peninsula jutting out into the South China Sea and only accessible by boat. It is home to probiscus monkeys, long-tailed macaques, flying lemurs, various kinds of venomous snakes and wild boars. Under normal circumstances, arrival by boat would showcase deep green jungle hillsides rising up from the sea. But today the park is shrouded in a grey haze. We are greeted by friendly park staff and eat a delicious lunch in the excellent canteen. We spend the afternoon hiking slowly and sweating profusely, catching glimpses of wildlife and listening to beautiful birdsong.

By late afternoon, we go to our bunk room, clean up in the communal showers and lie under the single fan. We can’t stop sweating. We return to the canteen for dinner, along with the 15 or 20 other people spending the night at the National Park. We order two bowls of rich and spicy laksa soup, an aromatic blend of shallots, garlic, ginger, lemongrass, fermented shrimp paste, coriander, cumin, tumeric and fresh chilies over vermicelli noodles and fresh shrimp. It’s delicious and makes us sweat even more.