Taman Negara
It was with some sadness that we left the coolness of Cameron Highlands to head to Taman Negara National Park. The trip was scheduled for a five hour minibus journey followed by a two hour boat journey.
We departed in a reasonably roomy air-conditioned minivan with two other couples in relative comfort. However, as we are finding is often the way in SE Asia, after an hour we pulled off the main road and were met by a much smaller van with no aircon and one too few seats that we were then crammed into for four hours. When we arrived at the boat jetty we were hot and a little fed up.
What awaited us though was an absolute treat. We travelled the rest of the way to the National Park in a long wooden boat cruising up a river with nothing but dense jungle on either side, a much more civilised mode of transport.
We arrived relaxed at our destination and set about trying to find a room for a couple of nights, we settled on hut a short walk out of the town.
After looking at the various options for tours and reading some travel advice we decided that we could navigate ourselves round the park on a jungle walk that incorporated a couple of peaks and the tree top walkway.
We set off early and were rewarded immediately with virtual solitude and a fine view from a hide of a deer wandering through a clearing. We were also lucky enough to see a family of wild boars spread across the path. It made us pause for a moment wondering how close we could get until they grunted off into the surrounding jungle - they certainly make a lot of noise. As we walked along there were numerous movements around us, often birds and squirrels but far more than we had seen in the Cameron Highlands.
We arrived at the walkway to find that, to David's relief, half of it was closed for repair which meant that we 'only' had 280 metres to negotiate. The views were good but it was with some relief for one of us when it was over.
We then carried on our hike in what was now an extremely warm day. The climb was steep and at times it felt unbearably hot, however greater unpleasantness was to follow. After we descended and the ground became more saturated we both had our first contact with leeches.
The little blighters lie on footpaths waiting to 'jump' or more accurately stretch themselves onto passing footwear before climbing up to and then through the socks and attaching themselves to the bottom of the leg. Once attached it takes persistent flicking to remove them, and as Jenny found out they are impervious to high pitched screaming and feet stamping. We both lost count of the number we removed and our socks were a bloody mess by the end of the walk.
The food we ate in Taman Negara was appalling. It seems that the Indian influence hasn't extended to this region, also the area seemed to be alcohol free. So an evening of poor food with no beer was not exactly brilliant.
Our adventures did not end there as when we arrived back at our hut we were confronted with a large frog in our room. At this point we cannot agree on exactly what happened so we will both put our version on the blog:
David's version:
I calmly collected the frog and placed him outside.
Jenny's version:
On seeing the frog I screamed and danced around on my toes in an extremely girly manner. David tentatively opened the door and confirmed that there was indeed a frog in the room. His suggestion that we leave it there to find its own way out was not met with enthusiasm so, picking up a bucket, he advanced again. Obviously being a frog, it simply jumped over the proffered bucket and further into the room. There then followed a series of attempts to usher it out of the door using a variety of implements including the aforementioned bucket and a flip flop. As the frog headed towards the door there were high pitched cries of 'freedom froggie, freedom.' I looked around to see where this had come from but only saw David there…I'm still laughing now.
Next stop KL, hopefully not taking any leeches with us.