During the first few days in the jungle, the guides showed us how to build a traditional raised shelter (see other section), and how to forage for food. Below you will see some samples of the kinds of food you can eat in a typical rainforest in Asia.

First off, you can see the inner soft cores, where the green outer is cut off, of Ratan (very abundant in the rainforest) which you can eat for very basic nutrition. It has the consistency of a raw parsnip and tastes like slightly sweeter balsa wood. The stems can also be chopped (the green reed-like stems in the picture) and tipped releasing a semi-bitter solution that is quite drinkable.

Next you can see large broadleaves folded to make a egg-tight cone where a foraged egg is cracked into and cooked on a fire. Certainly smoky, but very clever.

Finally, the best immediate source of drinking water is found from vines. They harbor a lot of sweet solution which flows out incredibly easily by just tipping the stem and can almost be sucked like a straw -very delicious and a real-life saver. There are typically two types of common vine found here. The one you can drink from has a redder color of grain but either way, when you slit a vine and a white or milky sap comes out, then you certainly leave it alone.

See the clips below. One of the vine, and the other greener stem of the Rattan.