The reason that sprang to mind was the skull-like shape just up and right of the center of this photo. It's actually just the way the sun in breaking through the jungle canopy to illuminate that one spot on this cave exit, but it does look like a disembodied head!
Quite why these three bats chose this spot I've no idea. But apparently, every evening they'd head out to feast in the jungle and then return here again at dawn. Home, sweet home!
In the photo below we'd progressed further into the cave and were about to lose sight of the mighty entrance we'd passed through. You can see a set of wooden stairs to the right of the frame. The movement of the torch held by the man behind the railing hints at the exposure length. Since I didn't have a tripod I must have braced my camera against a rock formation or another railing.
It was here that I made a mistake I was to repeat several times in the caves - I stepped off the path. The material on the floor in front of me is tens of thousands of years accumulation of bat and swiftlet droppings - a big steaming pile of bat shit! I didn't realize that till I stepped off the path and my foot started to sink into this soft, gooey material. As I said, I made that same mistake several times!
The photo below is a view of one of the entrances to Clearwater Cave. You can get an idea of the scale by noticing how tiny the 3~4 foot wide concrete footpath, stairs and railing in the lower right corner.
The answer is in the photo below. At some point in this boat's history the owners obviously decided to do away with the advanced steering system and replace it with a manual one. I really didn't think about it at the time but looking back now I think these guys managed to scrape together enough money to buy a derelict hull and bolt a new(ish) outboard to it. Hey Presto - people will now pay us to ferry them up and down river!