This phase of our journey started with a mammoth day of travelling. After a ferry trip from Redang where I thought I would throw up several times and endured Clout taking numerous pictures of me, we arrived back at the ever-depressing Terengganu. A short taxi ride found us at the bus stop. In order to get to Taman Negara rainforest (deep in the heart of Malaysia) we had to make our way back up the East Coast to Khota Bharu, then to a train station that took us to Jerantut, where we would get a boat deep into the rainforest. Sounds simple enough, but it cerainly wasn't. We arrived at the Terengganu bus station and tried asking where we could get a bus to Khota Bharu (about 3 hours away). The reception we got from the various people in ticket booths was unfriendly to say the least. We finally got pointed towards a certain bus, which it turned out left for Khota Bharu in an hour. Perfect. The bus was already half-full with locals and as we were about to join them, we realised we hadn't eaten all day and this was a 3 hour trip. Clout duly ran to a local food court to grab two take-away rice dishes, and I nervously lingered near the doors of the bus. I waited there for about 20 minutes and every single local on that bus stared out of the windows at me the entire time, some laughing (unpleasantly). The only reason we can think for this is that I was wearing shorts, but it was also stiflingly hot and I was already sweating enough without changing into jeans. Anyway, the bus had now started to fill up with locals at an alarming rate and there was no way I was going to board it and attempt to save a seat when I was already on the hostile end of the people. Clout eventually returned and we quickly ate our rice, at which point several locals began to openly laugh at us. We were beginning to get irritated by the hostility of the locals, but proceeded to board the bus. By now, all seats were full, so we had to stand in the aisles with other locals. The bus was boiling and as we looked around, every single person was openly staring at us. This went on for a few minutes, by which point we were both hot, uncomfortable, claustrophobic and angry. A quick whispered conversation later and we left the bus and began looking for a taxi, which cost twice as much but was still cheap and, more importantly, we would have space and be free from local hostility.
Everywhere we have been in Asia so far, we have been surrounded by taxis, all of them beeping and shouting to get anyone's attention. But this one time when we had abandoned the bus of a thousand frowns, there wasn't a taxi in sight. When a man approached us and asked us if we wanted to be driven anyway, we asked how much to Khota Bharu and he offered 150 Ringgit (about 30 quid). This was a fair price and we were keen to get going, so we agreed. As we followed him down the road we began to suspect that he wasn't a taxi driver. Our suspicions were confirmed when he led us to a battered white car, we couldn't even work out what make of car it was. No matter though, he seemed friendly enough and it was a cheap journey, so we loaded our bags in the boot and climbed into his piece of junk car. It stank inside the car and there were no seatbelts, but our relief at not being on the bus was considerable, and we were in high spirits for the first time that day. Not as happy as the driver, however, who seemed thrilled that he had two Westerners in his car who were paying him to drive for a few hours. We had all the windows open, and every time we stopped at traffic lights he would shout happily at neighbouring cars, we could only pick out the words 'Khota Bharu' and the price we had agreed to pay him. This continued in the petrol station, where he broadcast to all around where he was going and how much he was being paid. It was amusing, and even cute. It was obviously a huge amount of money to him, and he tried to speak to us several times in an excited voice, but the language barrier was a bit of a problem.
The happy car journey continued, and we were about half an hour from Khota Bharu. Our driver had calmed down a bit, but was still humming happily and occassionally shouting out of window at passers-by. Suddenly, a car pulled out from a side street in front of us. Our driver slammed on the brakes but being the piece of junk his car was, we skidded a lot and hit the car in front with considerable impact. Luckily, we were all ok (we hadn't had seatbelts), but we were a bit shaken up. There was an angry exchange with the driver in front, who just shrugged a lot and then drove off. It seemed there was no insurance and nothing that could be done. Our driver tried to drive on but there was a sound of scraping metal. We all got out of the car and realised that the entire front part of his car was hanging off and not looking too good. The driver looked devastated, but when Clout offered to help he pointed to an approaching bus and told us to get on it. We grabbed our bags and jumped on the bus. As we pulled away we looked out of the window and saw the poor man trying to push the front of his car back on, just for it to fall to the ground again. Oh dear.
We finally arrived in Khota Bharu bus station, then caught a taxi to the train station. By this time it was getting dark, so we bought some food and settled down to wait a couple of hours for the train. When it turned up, we were pleasantly surprised by how normal and comfortable it was, after expecting horrendous conditions in economy class (only tickets left, sniff).The train journey was 5 hours and we weren't expecting to arrive in Jerantut until 1am, so we settled down to try and sleep through most of the journey.
　
Arriving at Jerantut in the early hours, we were swooped upon by a man offering us a cheap hostel and eagerly took him up on his offer. A short ride later, we were settling into a room that was just big enough for the bed, and slept til the morning. The next day, we waited around for a while in Jernatut (which didn't seem to have much to offer tourists) and finally alighted our bus, which took us to a small jetty where we boarded a longboat to Taman Negara. The boat ride was 3 hours long, but very pleasant. We saw monitor lizards, wild boar, lots of birds and butterflies, and copious amounts of dense jungle. Before we knew it, we were in Khota Jharu. This is a small village by the river that offers access to the main gates into the rainforest of Taman Negara. There are several floating restaurants and shops from which we could get a boat taxi across the river into the rainforest. What we didn't anticipate was the immense struggle to find somewhere to stay. All hotels and hostels (and there weren't many) were full. We eventually found a hostel with a smelly room (complete with ghecko by my bed to keep guard), and set off to explore the area. As it happened, the hotel was fully booked the next night so we ended up wandering around the village for hours the next day until we found some little chalets deeper in the jungle. They were nice enough, but the next night we were woken by a loud rustling noise. Clout (although he wouldn't admit it) was quite scared when he shone the torch around our chalet and we saw a packet of biscuits moving quite animatedly. As we watched and debated what could be causing the rustling, a little pair of pink ears popped above the biscuits, and then disappeared again - cue more rustling. It seemed that a mouse had found its way into our food stores. As the man in this relationship, I got up and slowly approached the biscuits with a book, not quite knowing how I would use it to tackle the mouse. But by the time I plucked up the courage to look inside the wrapping, the mouse was long gone.
Accommodation issues aside, Taman Negara was a wonderful experience and is a beautiful place. The rainforest itself is amazing, and on our first day there we took a boat over to it and walked deep into its heart. There were huge, ancient trees and we had to climb over the massive roots to continue our path. Clout nearly trod on a huge monitor lizard at one point, and screamed like a girl, but then again they do look like crocodiles. We finally aririved at the famous canopy walkway, which is the longest and highest jungle walkway, at 45m high It was fun and quite scary, walking 15m apart along the thin walkway that seemed very high up and very wobbly indeed. The second day we paid for a trip called 'shoot the rapids', where a longboat takes you through several rapids that are 'fast and dangerous'. We sat in that boat for nearly an hour and both agreed that it was 'lame'. The final day in Taman Negara I managed to persuade Clout to come on an expedition into the local caves, led by a local guide This was an amazing experience. We passed a local village, known as the 'Oreng Agi' and as good as met with their tribal witch, who was carrying some of the tribe children and looked scary and refused to talk. Our guide then led us deeper into the jungle, where he pointed out many examples of wildlife that we would otherwise have missed. Finally, we arrived at the cave. Well, it didn't look like a cave; it looked like a small hole in the ground. Clout looked apprehensive and I regretted wearing a clean white vest. As we crawled into the cave it became pitch black, slippery and steep and we began to struggle to hole our torches as we progressed. We saw a giant frog, some shrimp and hundreds of bats, at close range. So close, we had to duck our heads to avoid disturbing the huge colonies on the cave ceiling. It was an amazing sight though, and crawling through the tiny spaces was a challenge. We emerged from the other side feeling rather proud of ourselves and very exhilarated.
　
We had a fantastic time in Taman Negara. Although we were disappointed not to see any tigers or elephants, we had great insight into the oldest rainforest in the world. We enjoyed time spent on the floating restaurants, playing cards and eating curry. We saw a huge rhino beetle dive bomb everyone on one of the floating restaurants, then get stuck in a ceiling fan. Finally, on our last night, we decided to go on a night safari, As night fell, we piled into the back of an open-top jeep with a number of other tourists We were then driven into the local palm-oil plantations, where nature 'comes to life' at night It was exciting hanging over the side of the jeep in the dark, watching our guide shine his high-power torch into the darkness to look for wildlife. However, after half an hour of no animals, we began to feel a bit disillusioned. The next half hour only showed some plain-looking birds, that our guide identified as 'black sparrows'. They were all sleeping. Not so exciting. Clout and I agreed that this would be on the same level as 'shoot the so-called rapids', and settled back into our seats to see out the ride. Things were about to change though, as our guide began to shout excitedly. He had spotted what he called a 'Coo-cat'. It turned out to be a type of leopard that is prevalent in central Malaysia. We watched the big cat run through the darkness, and our spirits rose. With new vigour, our guide proceeded to spot more of these wild cats, an assortment of birds, and at one point he even stopped the jeep, went running into the jungle and emerged with a small snake in his hand.
　
Taman Negara is an amazing place and we thoroughly enjoyed our time there, although we were starting to look forward to city life again. It was tie to get the night train to... SINGAPORE!!!