Malaysia  |
Kuala Lumpur | Taman Negara |
6th - 10th January 2006 - Taman Negara
6th/7th Jan 2006
We caught the night train from Singapore to Jerantut which is the hub for the national park. The journey was far nicer than the bus. The customs and immigration were easier and friendlier than the bus route. The train is more comfortable and there's even a cafe on board (no alcohol though). The only downside is that the airco was set too low and Jessica was a popsicle by the time we arrived in Jerantut. The train leaves at 21:05 and should arrive at 3:39. Malaysian are incredibly unreliable (contrast them with Singapore 's efficient public transport system). We arrived in Jerantut an hour and 3/4 late!!!! Sleep was hard to come by as there were no announcements and the train station names were few and far between leaving one to think that you were in the twilight zone ;-) We arrived in Jerantut, the hotel Sri Emas, picked us up as promised and we had our 2 hours sleep before waking up to catch the next ferry at 9am to Taman Negara (only 2 a day during the rainy season). A nice place, It's basic but very cheap and they can organise everything for you in Taman Negara as they're affiliated with them I believe. We had a 20 minute coach ride, 5 mins to go wee wee before an almost 3 hour boat trip to Kuala Tahan, the gateway to Taman Negara. The trip was great! We saw wild monkeys by the riverside very quickly and also some beautiful Kingfishers :-) The only real problem with these boats is that the cushions are nowhere near thick enough even with 2 of them and we had to change position often to avoid 'a pain in the arse'! Forgive my French ;-) It's been raining almost non-stop since we arrived. They don't call it a monsoon for nothing!!!
Jessica went to the Aboriginal village in the pouring rain. Not my scene really so I explored. I was also a bit grumpy after way too little sleep. I did find out that at the Rainforest resort they do have a small bar. The only one I found on the village side of the river ( Malaysia is a Muslim country).
It had been raining solidly all day and the chances of us doing the night walk were fading fast :-( Fortunately, as we were having dinner, the rain stopped and it stayed dry for long enough so that the walk went ahead. There were only the 2 of us so we got our own personal guide! Torch in hand we entered the National Park...... The guide was good and we spotted some Sambar deer, spiders, stick insects, some cute sleeping birds and as a grand finale a scorpion!!!! I even managed to find something that the guide couldn't identify. Have a look at the picture and let me know if you know what it is.
Sunday Jan 8th
It was still dry this morning and after a quick breakfast off we went for a canopy walk and hill climb. The canopy walk is the longest in the world at 530m and is 40m above the ground. The view was pretty good but we didn't see any animals other than birds and insects. The hill walk was slippery with mud and quite steep in places but worth the climb. We did try another walk but it was incredibly muddy and we met some other people who'd almost been eaten alive by leeches!
After this brush with death (you should have seen the poor girl's feet!) we did the night walk but this time during the day. We then had a beer as a reward. We stopped at the
Mutiara Taman Negara resort. Nice chalets here and it's the start for a lot of the walks. The beer was expensive, a 320ml of Royal Stout (marked as Guinness on the menu) was 21rm or 4.62Eur. Still, it tasted good :-) After dinner we had a couple more beers at the Rain Forest Resort on our/the village side of the river. The cost of our drinks combined was less than the cost at the Mutiara, only 20Rm for a Carlsberg and a Royal Stout.
Mon 9th Jan - Leech Attack!!!!
It rained in the night so we decided not to try one of the trails. We tried to catch a boat up the river but they were either too expensive to hire for just us or they would take too long. So we decided to do the swamp loop next to the Mutiara Resort. The loop is very badly signposted and we lost the trail once or twice and got worried. To make things worse, we started seeing leeches on our shoes and we had to stop every once in awhile to brush them off. They were very hard to brush off. We were very relieved when we made it back to civilization! We brushed off more leeches and went into the Tahan hide and removed items of clothing only to find more leeches, some of which had started to feast! See pictures. Jessica had some rather bad bites. The leeches use an anti-coagulant so that they can feed. This means that you can bleed profusely when you get rid of the little gits! I've finally found an animal I hate more than mosquito's!!!!
