Taman Negara - into the rainforest

Another early start on 15th February to catch our minibus to Taman Negara. There was only us and a mother and daughter, so plenty of room to stretch out this time. We stopped along the way at Gua Musang for excellent roti (I do enjoy curry for breakfast!). The driver spotted a couple of elephants along the road who were being transported out of the national park to a rehabilitation centre, due to deforestation of their habitat. He was clearly upset about the whole thing and was close to tears. I could see what he meant, it was really sad to see them and we heard that the place they were being taken to doesn't have the best reputation either. About 10 minutes down the road we stopped at a petrol station for a toilet break and to swap vans and drivers with another party who were heading in the opposite direction. Soon after, we went through Jerantut, which bizarrely reminded me of Guildford. Lots of roundabouts and flowerbeds. A little further and we arrived at the Kuala Tembeling jetty to catch our boat into Kuala Tahan, right in the middle of the Taman Negara national park. After paying our park entrance and camera fees and having some lunch, we made our way down to the boat for the three hour journey.

The journey upstream was really lovely and not at all boring as I feared it might be. It was a long boat and we sat really low in the water, with the wind blowing through our hair, hands trailing in the water and reading and listening to music. Bliss. We saw water buffalo, monitor lizards and monkeys on the riverbank. And to think that we'd considered avoiding the boat altogether and taking a bus all the way.

Finally at our destination, we were dropped at a floating restaurant/travel agency on the river and we made our way over to the Nusa Village floating cafe to get our boat connection to where we were staying. It was only about another 15 minutes upriver and looked pretty smart from afar. In truth, the whole place needs an upgrade and the chalets reminded us of the Other's camp in Lost (excellent US TV series) AFTER the island moved in time. Not a good look. The staff were pretty friendly though, we witnessed out first of many shuffling waitresses and we were never asked to pay the listed boat fare on any of our many trips up and down the river. This was the first place we felt the need to put up the mosquito nets. Mind you, we didn't plan to spend a vast amount of time in our room. There would be lots of trekking to do.

The next morning we got the boat to drop us at the beach for the canopy walk which was amazing, if over a little quickly after the massive climb up to the entrance. It's basically a ladder walk suspended 40 or 50 feet above the jungle floor. We then walked the 1.5km (not 15km as per the doctored sign) along to Kuala Tehan for lunch. I can't properly describe how insanely hot it is here, we've been in pretty much 34 degree heat since hitting Thailand and Malaysia. And we're not sitting around a pool (well, not everyday) but walking up very steep hills. We went along to a night safari and saw millipedes, leaf and stick insects, fireflies, gloworms and we managed to spot a scorpion on the way back.



The next day we went on the canopy walk again - so good we had to do it twice and then we walked up to Bukit Terisek, a gruelling hour uphill trek, but really worth it for the view.

In the afternoon we signed up for a white water rafting trip (combined with a trip to the local Orang-Asli village - I wasn't that keen on the prospect after our experience in the Cameron Highlands). We knew that the white water rafting would be SO far from white water rafting, mainly because we weren't in a raft and there is no white water on the river. We all had the best time though; they take two boats out to speed on the river and we took turns to use oars and hands to soak the other crew. Imagine a flat paddle spraying up 100 litres of water onto you. But quite the funniest thing was that there were two german ladies on our boat who thought they were on the trip to the Orang-Asli village ONLY. The look on their faces when we got literally drenched was priceless. Imagine getting in the bath with all your clothes on. The bizarre thing was that when we did get to the village, they refused to come in because they intended on getting a refund on the way back.

The trip to the Bataq tribe was completely different to our previous Orang-Asli experience. We got to meet the chief (who was smoking some leaves from the jungle) and the chief's son did a demonstration of making fire using a bit of cotton, a strip of tree trunk (almost like balsa wood) and a stick, as well as another demonstration of the blowpipe. The main difference was there was much more interaction (with the chief and another tribe member - the women and the children were pretty shy) and information about the life of the camp. They 'bury' their dead by wrapping the body and securing them high up in the tree canopy. So it's not just falling coconuts you have to be wary of around here. The tribe do some trading with Kuala Tahan but are pretty much self sufficient; hunting, fishing and using the forest for all medicinal needs.

One day we chatted with an elderly American guy (think a grown-up Dude from the Big Lebowski) about the environment, conspiracies and oil. I hope I've still got a yearning to travel at that age (and can use the word 'man' in every sentence).

After three nights in this beautiful place, we boarded the boat downriver (the journey was an hour quicker) to make our way to Kuala Lumpur.