And so on to our next milestone - Taman Negara National Park, the oldest rainforest in the world - we're not quite sure how anyone knows this, but who are we to argue!!! For once a relatively painless journey and all organised from our hostel in the Cameron Highlands. A rather random drop off at a hotel for a change of bus and to have lunch left us a little confused, but on we went, until the next unplanned stop that is! This time to fill out our passes for the park. It was here that I took the opportunity to invest in a bumper sized bug spray as just about everyone we'd spoken to previously had mentioned the numerous leeches that inhabit the park. Nice. I wasn't taking any chances that's for sure!!! We eventually arrived at what will probably be the strangest place we'll stay in. Basically it was a massive house, we had our own bedrooms, but the bathrooms were on the other side of the corridor and there was a massive kitchen, where the staff made meals for all the guests to eat together. Oh and their were only 6 rooms, so there weren't exactly many of us! One minute we're in an ex-army camp the next a full on house with a family thrown in for free! It was however very spacious and clean, and having home cooked meals was a pleasant change. The lack of places to escape to meant that we got in an early night ready for our day in the rainforest!

After a very civilised breakfast we headed to our room to gear up for the first walk of the day. Now on purchasing the bug spray I was told to cover my shoes with it, but I wasn't taking any chances so I sprayed them, my socks and my legs! Add onto that the complete body covering of mosquito spray and I was good to go - now if that doesn't keep the leeches away I don't know what will!!! We headed down to the river that keeps the actual park separate from the guesthouses. Here we got in a boat where we met our guide for the morning. He explained that the first place we would be going was Bukit Terisek. A great place to view the forest from. On our way he explained the many plants and trees that we passed, and their purposes. Most involved helping with "male strength", and not that found in the biceps!! He had an amazing knowledge and could explain anything that we asked about. He also dug out insect larvae, poisonous spiders, bioluminescent mushrooms and many giant ants along the way. The walk to the lookout point was mostly flat and quite a pleasant walk - after the trek in the Thai jungle, this seemed much easier! I managed to acquire a rash on my arm along the way, which I was told was probably from a caterpillar (I didn't ask any further questions) and after being doused in tiger balm it soon cleared up. The lookout was lovely and showed how the river curves around the park and the sheer density of the forest.

From here we headed to one of the main attractions - the canopy walk. This is the longest canopy walkway in the world and stands 45m high and 510m long. We'd read loads about it and knew it was a must-do thing whilst there. We were told to keep our distance from one another using the markers and off we went. The only way to describe it is a plank of wood in rope netting suspended from trees, very wobbly and not all that secure! Still we managed to stop for a couple of photos and proudly strode on - until we both, yes both, got stung by a bee!!!! On returning to our guide we found out that due to the heat the rope handles are covered in sweat, which the bees then perch on to eat the salt (I know, gross) and we had both put our hands straight into their dinner!!! And there was me thinking I was free from worry now that I was a decent distance from the damn leeches...... After the obligatory tiger balm was applied the stinging soon subsided and we began our journey back. We'd only managed to see a squirrel and (what looked like) a chipmunk in the whole day, which was a little disappointing considering that just about everything from tigers to elephants live there. Still, just as we were walking back we spotted a family of wild boar grazing in some bushes - not exactly a defining moment, but hey! So far so good with the leeches......

We returned back to the pier for lunch on a floating restaurant - again not quite so glamourous, more just a kitchen with chairs and tables on planks of wood! An interesting menu with little or no description of it's options left us all playing lucky dip. We then proceeded to get our meal one at a time - when one had finished the next came out - how strange it will be to go back to all eating at once in England!

Our afternoon trip was by boat to Lata Berkoh where we were told we would be able to swim. Neither of our oarsmen spoke English so it was a rather quiet and non-informative journey. However we did manage to spot a fish eagle perched on a branch over the river. We'd only been on the boat 5 minutes when it started raining, great. We came to a rather abrupt stop as we hit the edge, and as there was no explanation, we took it this was our cue to get off. Luckily we weren't the only ones that had been left and we followed some Americans who still had their guide. This brought us to our next spotting of the day - a grass snake. How their guide even saw it is still beyond me as I could barely see it when it was a metre in front of me - as the photo clearly shows! When we finally arrived what we found was not a nice pleasant lake to swim in, this was more of a cascade-come-waterfall into the river. Hmm, swimming suddenly didn't seem so appealing, especially with the rather ominous climb over the rocks that led into the water. However after several others took the plunge I decided to join them and stripped off and jumped in. Very refreshing and nice to stop sweating for a minute or two! My dip came to an abrupt halt thanks to the shouts of "monitor lizard!!!" I think it's safe to say I've never moved so fast. Once safe from danger (!) I spent the next 15 minutes trying to spot the bloody thing on the bank opposite us - their camouflage is really quite effective! An uneventful trek back to our boat and back to the pier once more. Still managing to evade the leeches.......

Dinner was another family affair back at the house, but an undeniably good way of sampling the local foods. The special that night was fish in durian sauce. Apparently it's best to ease yourself into eating the durian fruit - described by our host as "a taste of heaven, but with the smell of hell"!!!!! A huge array of dishes though and all thoroughly tasty. After dinner we kitted ourselves out once more for our final excursion - a night safari on the back of a 4x4.

This began amusingly with our guide arriving perched on top of the car with a huge flashlight - but lacking a voice - this should be interesting! We all clambered in the back, cameras at the ready, eager to see what was in store for us after dark. Apparently only 2 weeks ago he'd found his group a tiger, as they're less intimidated by people in the dark - great!! Unfortunately our first sighting wasn't quite so exciting - a goat! More amusing was the guide trying to tell us he'd found something with no voice! We drove around for about 2.5 hours, and to our driver's credit, he tried every off road track to find us as much as possible. We saw a flying squirrel - quite elusive we were told - a leopard cat, a barn owl, many other sleeping birds and some wild boar. Not quite the epic tale we were hoping for and due to the extreme darkness not a single photo to show any of this. Not one of us could find a setting that enabled us to take a photo of anything more interesting than the night sky! Still, as the owner of our guesthouse said, some things are just meant to be remembered - not that we have a lot of choice but to agree with her ;o)

After a thoroughly exhausting day we headed back once more to pack up our things for an early getaway - this time onto the historical shores of Melaka.......