We have been staying in Bedz KL, in a mixed dorm. The hostel has brilliant and refreshing cleanliness and a really nice social feel to it. There are cosy sofas and a plasma tv to sit and watch. I would definately recommend this hostel although it is fairly expensive at RM28 (roughly just less than 6 pounds a night). The only drawback is that the rooms are very cramped with no windows and when we were trying to rearrange and pack our backpacks I had to drag it into the corridor so that there was more floor space to manouvre around it.

We were up at 6am on Friday, rushing around trying to get ready. Mel was ready first and left to buy some milk from the seven 11 across the road. However she returned within a few minutes saying that our minibus was here to pick us up! We quickly finished getting ready, keeping everyone waiting for 10 minutes or so. See Brettley, dad, mum - its not just me that runs late!!! I apologised to everyone when I got on the minibus and said hi to everyone.

The minibus took us to Chinatown where we transferred to a bus. I was lucky and managed to get 2 seats to myself all the way. We arrived at Kuala Tembeling Jetty around 12 noon and were given info about the forth coming trip and the vouchers to use. The first voucher to use was to get some lunch at the small cafe next to the jetty. It was mainly local dishes to choose from. At 1:30pm we loaded our bags onto a long tail boat and 20 odd people got on! I was sure it was going to sink with the weight!!

Caz and Mel were seated together and I sat next to a French guy who was travelling alone called Florrin. He had been living in Australia for the past 9 months trying to learn and improve his English. His english was really good which made me feel really quite guilty that I couldnt say anything in French back! He did say however that he found my accent hard to interpret so for the next 3 hours on this tiny longtail boat there was a lot of pardon?! The boat was taking us upstream to our destination Taman Negara. Along the way Florin was pointing out animals to me at the riverside that I was grateful for as I didnt have my glasses on! We saw some Kingfisher and wild boar.

We arrived and were dropped at the floating restaurant where we would be having all our meals. The group then dispersed to their accommodation, the majority however going to the same place as us, Malaki Resort. This was back across ythe river to the otherside. There were some very steep steps up and thankfully there was a rail cart going up the side of the hill to take our bags. At reception we were given some ice cold towels to wipe our faces and hands and then a complimentary drink. I could get used to this! We were told to head down to the hostel to get our kep - great!! So we wandered through the resort, passing beautiful wooden chalets set in gorgeous landscaped grounds. The we spotted the sign for the hostel....a bland stone building became visible, set back slightly from everything else (probably so it was out of view!). We were shown to the room which we were to share with 2 Dutch girls. It smelled strongly of bleach which we later discovered was there to mask a strong wee smell! We placed our bags down and I went over to my bed. just as I was about to lie down I spotted a huge dead black insect on my pillow and calmly went to the door with it and flung it out! Next I spotted a great big tuft of black hair on the floor and tried to sweep that out the way too and finally realised that my bed was crawaling with ants.

The next horror was to go to the communal bathroom and find that the showers were basically a cold tap high up on the wall and the water flowed out exactly like a sink tap. It was ice cold.

We returned to the floating market for dinner which was rice from a big bucket and a local chicken dish. There was accompanied with a drink that tasted of flowers. We had been told to dress with long clothes and suitable footwear such as trainers with a flash light.

We got back on the boat and were taken to an entrance to the Taman Negara forest. We were to do a night jungle walk. Poor Caz and Mel only had wind up torches which was quite hilarious - they didnt stay bright for very long and everytime they wound them up, everyone turned round at the bizarre noice!

I stayed close to the guide at the front so that I could hear him but also be there in case I was attacked by something! We were shown a stick insect, then 2 that were mating, that the guide said was fairly unique to see. Apparently they stay like this for 3 days! I was pleased to catch it on camera. Then we were shown a grasshopper eating a spider - yay!! And then to my horror an even bigger spider - the eyes reflecting on thelight of all the torches. We were also shown a couple of scorpions on tree trunks and then the guide jumped off the track to highlight some giant ants, arrgh! As we were heading back, the guide stopped us all and said 'right lets have a leech check'. I had read in the lonelyplanet guide at Bedz KL that you had to beware of leeches because of the damp humid conditions in the forest but I think I had put it out my mind. Three people discovered leeches stuck to their ankles, one was theguide himself!! He calmly just pulled it off (ijm not sure your supposed to do that?) and did the same to the other two people! Blood was seeping through their socks. The guide said that you couldn't feel these leeches - they would just attach themselves to you shoes and then move up even up to your neck until they found flesh!!!

We returned back to our resort where a few of us grabbed a cold drink and chatted about all of our itineries. We met a younger couple from Brighton who had been to China which sounded amazing, the French guy, the Dutch girls, a Dutch couple and a couple from the Baltic state. What an interesting first day!

Saturday 22nd

Breakfast was at 8am so we got the boat across the river to the floating restaurant. There was a large group of Malai kids staying the dorm next to us and they had been really loud lastnight. It took quite a while to fall asleep. In fact the same group was very hyper and giggly the whole trip - reminding me a lot of the way younger people would go on in Japan.

Todays first activity was the Canopy walk up in the tree tops! I couldn't wait to do this. The guide said that the canopy conssited of 10 bridges in total, one of which was the longest in Malaysia. You can see a video of the walk at www.taman-negara.com

We had to walk 5m apart from each other at all times. Part way round the walk I spotted some monkeys in the tree swinging about. Once we'd finished, the French guy showed us a picture of a snake that had been at one of the platforms. I must have walked straight beside it, thankgoodness I didnt see it at the time! It was extremely humid despite the shade from the trees, everyone was sweating profusely! Our next activity was to trek up the Teresek Hill. I didnt realise that this was in the itinery. It was very hard work, climbing up using the tree roots for stability. There had been heavy down pour lastnight so the ground was very muddy too. After treking for maybe an hour and a half we reached a view point. We grabbed this opportunity to take a photograph at the sign. The view out across the rainforest was immense.

The guide now suggested we continue up to the highest point (something like 200metres above sea level). We set off and when i looked back realised that he was staying put to rest while we did it! This took another 20 minutes or so but was very satisfying to do it. Talkabout step aerobics - this was much more intense!!

The walk back down the hill was much easier of course and took less time. We got back on the boat and returned for lunch.

After lunch the next part to the itinery was to ride in a boat in the seven rapids, again upstream to the Orang Asli Tribal village. Our guide was mean - he warned us to wear clothes that we didnt mind getting wet because during the boat trip he was tipping the boat either side and letting loads of water to pour in and splash us! I wouldnt mind actually because it was a nice way to cool down but the water was brown! We arrived at the tribal settling. I was soaked through and had a towel wrapped around me. I wondered what these settlers must thing of tourists turning up everyday soaked! The guide reassured us that the tribe were happy for tourists to visit and knew why we turned up looking wet! This part of the trip was really interesting. We were allowed to look around at the handmade huts. Apparently it is the women who make these whilst the men go out and hunt. If the men are not happy with the hut they make one themselves. Only younger children sleep in the huts with their parent, teenagers sleep in seperate huts. In all of the huts, there were pots smoking away on fires. We were told that this is to help keep insects and mosquitoes away. Infact they believed in smoke so much to do this that we were told that they all smoke cigarettes and not to be alarmed if we spot a child walking around with one in its mouth!!

We spotted a massive spider hanging by its web in the air that really scared me but I didnt run away like i normally do so thats an improvement!! We were also told about the tribe's way of life. That they move settlement every 8-12 months. The reasons for this are when animals start to go scarce or when someone in the tribe dies. The tribe believes in spirits and so they take a deceased person into the jungle and build a platform up in the tree tops. Here they leave the body for the spirits with the belief that it is private. Likewise the jungle is used for medicine and for women who are giving birth (must be scary!).

We were given a demonstration by the chiefs sons on how the bamboo firing rods were made and the poisonous darts that were inserted inside it. The darts are made from merenty(?) wood and the end of the dart from pouli which is extremely soft wood which is sanded down with the use of a rough leaf to be moulded to allow the dart to shoot with great speed and low resistance. Ipo, a natural substance from sap is used to coat half of the dart - this is the poisonous part. We were then allowed to try shooting the darts at a straw board to test our skills. I decided to have a go a held this long bamboo shoot infront of me. I placed my mouth over the rubber end and blew quickly. Unfortunately i didnt hit the target but it was good fun and got a picture out of it. The guide showed us the stance that is used and how hunters generally are firing upwards into the trees at monkeys and other animals, not along the way in front. For this reason saw dust type material is placed into the shoot after the dart to ensure that the dart doesnt slide back down into the hunters throat!

We also watched a demonstration of how they start fire and then it was time to return to the boat to get wet again!

In the evening there was a big pour down again and there was an option to take part in the 4X4 night safari. We were pretty tired and didnt think there would be many animals out to see in the rain. So we opted to return to the hostel. That wasnt such a good option as our AC had broken and it was warmer in the room than outside. Because of this, all the insects were out in force and there were even more ants on my bed and dozens of mozzies in the room!

Today, the 23rd we awoke, got a quick cold shower and made our way over for breakfast. We returned on the boat to Tembeling Jetty, taking this time only 2 hours because we were riding with the current. We were given lunch again at the jetty and then did the final bus trip back to KL. We had all throughly enjoyed the trip. It was perhaps full of more outdoor activities than we had expected but it had tested all of us in different ways and I think we all felt quite satisifed.