12 April

Our clothes was not even a little bit drier…We gathered the clothes which needed to be washed when we returned to our guesthouse at Taman Negara. The bags were packed and everyone headed down for a breakfast of tee, toast and cookies. We grabbed the bags and continued with the last hour's trek to where our longboat was waiting to take us back. Along the way the flimsy boat raced through the rapids with no signs of distress, quite unexpected when you take into account it is a small wooden craft almost 10 m long with only a 15 hp engine propelling it forward! Along the river it is common sight to see fishing lines connected to almost any tree that could provide enough resistance not allowing a fish to escape. The fish here are on average 1 to 2 kg, although the record was a 68 kg monster! Fish here is abundant and most restaurants floating on the river (thing of a barge/houseboat) have a holding pen in the middle from which fish can be ordered by pointing out the one you want.

Before arriving at Taman Negara, we took a detour to do the Canopy walkway, a 450m long 45m high structure built from tree to tree. You start 20 m high and ascend until you reach the highest point of 45 m, the longest connection from two trees is 70m. I must also mention that the structure invariably consists of ladders with wooden planks laid upon them connected to each other, with cables running from tree to tree and the ropes connecting the ladders to the cables. Leanne with her fear of heights managed quite well without any signs of paralyzing fear!

After the lofty adventure we grounded ourselves with a visit to the aborigine village where we were shown the art of making fire with only a hole in the ground, a piece of wood with a hole in and a flax palm tree leaf pulled from side to side to cause friction and produce a coal which is later placed in a palm tree leaf with small fibers and blown to start a fire. The process took them a little longer than they had evidently expected with the flax breaking on three instances and the fatigue showing on their faces. After the prehistoric display, we were told that only men may make the fire in this way because it requires manly power. In reply to our question he stated that women make fire using rocks containing iron which is much easier and faster. The reply from Fabia was it takes 20 minutes for three men to make fire with the flax leaving them exhausted and only requires one woman to make fire with a stone in less than half the time.

After the visit we returned to our accommodation, washed our clothes - sitting on a concrete slab on the ground with a bucket between our knees - and hung them up to dry. No sooner had we finished washing the last bunch than it started raining. In a hurry all the clothing was retrieved, a makeshift line hung in our room and the clothes there upon to wait for sunnier days. We decided to stay another day to allow the clothes to fully dry and decide where we should go next.

That evening we enjoyed dinner with Fabia and her companion at one of the floating restaurants. Our discussions with them to a large extent shaped our decision to rather go to Perhentian Islands as they informed us that they had visited the Cameron Highlands and Taman Negara were very similar to that.