So I survived my visit to the rainforest! In spite of hundreds of warnings about tigers, elephants, giant mosquitoes and leeches I made it back to tell the tale with only a couple of bites as souvenirs...

The journey into the rainforest qas quite a journey in itself. After getting the bus to a little village called Kuala Tembeling you have to get a boat into the national park. In my head, i was expecting a nice little boat with a deck and bar and lots of seats and things but one look at the photos will reveal how wrong I was. Three hours practically lying down in a little outboard wasn't the most comfortable start to the trip but I have to admit it was a great way to enter the park. Travelling down the river there's nothing but jungle and maybe the odd monkey so you really feel like you're on an adventure!

After arriving and getting myself set up in a little dorm across the river from the park I joined a guided night walk through the jungle. Our guide took great delight in pointing out all the super-poisonous things you're surrounded by even within metres of the resort and, after spotting a foot-long millipede and poisonous snake directly above my head I quickly decided ignorance is bliss and looking up is not the way forward when walking around in the rainforest! In fact looking down is equally scary as all the huge ants come out at night and are really vicious. I got a few bites and got back to my room to discover quite a few more clamped onto the bottom of my trousers and shoes and very unwilling to let go.

The national park is absolutely huge - the size of Luxembourg I'm reliably informed by my Lonely Planet and has plenty of elephants, tigers and bears but sadly you have to trek for several days to even have a chance of seeing them. The guide took us to one of the hides overlooking a salt-lick to try and spot some deer but even they were hiding from us. It was amazing just sitting in the complete darkness waiting to see if anything would turn up and just watching the lightning and fireflies so I wasn't particularly disappointed that no big wildlife turned up on demand.

The next morning I was up early - not voluntarily, my room had incredibly thin walls and a very large collection of chickens outside who started crowing at about 5.30 and didn't stop all day - and headed off into the park. As long as you're back by 6pm you're allowed to wander off on your own and all the trails around park headquarters are really well signposted so even I managed to find my way to the Canopy Walkway. Again I think my expectations were a bit too high - I was imagining proper rope bridges but was faced with a series of ladders with planks laid over the top suspended by a few bits of rope. Luckily there was a queue of people behind me so I had no choice but to go across dspite being absolutely terrified and not enjoying the swinging at all. The views across the tops of the trees are amazing but unfortunately I was mostly too scared to appreciate them fully and spent most of the walk staring at the guy in front of me so I didn't get distracted by the huge drop!

Then it was on to Bukit Teresik, a hill with better and much less scary views across the rainforest. It was a pretty hot and sweaty climb but well worth it for the views and the sense of achievement on getting to the top. I had grand plans to take the scenic route back via a swimming hole but it had rained the whole night before and I very quickly found myself sinking in muddy puddles and getting my feet covered in leeches so made a hasty retreat back the way I had come! I got off very lightly though - only one leech bite and I didn't even notice it until I saw I crawling off looking very fat and smug so all the horror stories people have been feeding me seemed unfounded.

In the afternoon I went off on another boat to an Orang Asli village. The Orang Asli are the original inhabitants of Malaysia and there are loads of nomadic tribes living within the national park. The village I went to was very close to the park resort and village so they had quite a lot of contact with the outside world to buy modern clothes and materials but still seem to preserve the traditional way of life. I was a bit worried that it would be like going to the zoo and staring at a tourist attraction but I was lucky enough to be on my own with the guide so we were able to just wander round while the villagers got on with their day to day lives and the guide told me about their lifestyle.

Then they gave me a demo on firelighting and blowpipe hunting, both of which I was predictably rubbish at. I can safely say that I wouldn't survive very long in the jungle on my own!

And so that was it - a very short but very brave jungle adventure! The park is so huge there would have been plenty more to do and it would have been nice to get away from all the other visitors as there seemed to be a tour group going past every ten minutes or so so you can't really immerse yourself properly. But staying on the busy trails does have the advantage that someone else has usually come through before you to pick up all the leeches!

I think in a way I wouldn't have wanted to stay much longer as it's actually the most touristy place I've been so far. Malaysians don't seem to visit there, at least no-one I've spoken to has; it's almost all Europeans and so you can't get proper Malaysian food, everyone speaks English and everything's just a bit too easy compared with some of the other places I've been to. I was horrified at being offered a full English every morning!