Blogs from Kuala Tahan, Pahang, Malaysia, Asia - page 3

After spending the night in Kota Bahru we took the early morning mail train along the 'Jungle Railway' - so called as it runs through the rainforest of Taman Negara National Park. As the sun rose spectacularly from the darkness, local folk frantically loaded the train with their goods for market - fruit, vegetables, even mattresses, thankfully no livestock. We managed to find some seats and got plenty of "what are those crazy white people doing on this train?" looks from the locals. This train was not fast. I don't think it even met the criteria for slow, maybe sub-slow. At times I could have walked along side and kept up. Not only was this train sub-slow, it stopped everywhere. Some stations were nothing more than a bench placed at the track side - no platforms, ... read more

the lion sleeps tonight, well there isn't any lions but there is tigers. However they are deep deep in the jungle and I will not have time to get into the deeps of the jungle so no worries about me being attacked. Before i go on, i feel like i should just straighten this out, i know that some blogs are missing from new Zealand and these will eventually appear but i want to have my blogs as up to date as possible as my parents are worried about me alone in Asia (arh bless) and have a feeling that i will get myself into some situation that only the British embassy can solve and as i don't have a phone i thought i should be as up to date as i can be, please remember ... read more

1st May Jumunjy Party! T (bar owner) asked if we would dress up as devils again for their party - well, of course, does a bear xxxx in the woods? oh yeah, we didnt need much encouragement to don the outfits once again for the grand finale. I had to overstay my Thai visa 3 days but wanted v much to go to T and Bim's party, as we love Jumunjy Bar! This time our numbers were depleted, no Satan I'm afraid, he was out on Koh Tao diving - totally unreliable is Satan, and there was only me and Shay! however, we recruited 2 angels (the outfits were still lying around, bit worse for wear around the house!), we got our friend Sam, and Duck - our lovely lovely gay mate from Sports Bar next ... read more

The bed was a raised platform of hard, widely spaced wooden slats. Ours was one of eight and they were all located in a concrete room about ten meters square, the roof was wood and tin and in one corner was the toilet. The toilet was filthy with mud and crawling with insects, the shower, such as it was, was fed from a tank in the roof and leaked, sending a constant stream of water down the concrete steps that grew mould, moss and harboured whole colony's of ants. One wall of this concrete box had a four meter slit in it which served as a window and the only means to view the outside world (it was here that we were forced to spend most of our time) and the whole structure was raised five ... read more

Hello! We are in Taman Negara National park the Eastern side of Malaysia, where we have spent two nights so far, plus a further one tonight before KL tomorrow morning. I never never been to a rainforest, and it is spectacular. The power of nature is evident in such abudance in the rainforest. As we found out yesterday.... We caught another minibus from the Cameron Highlands on Monday with our new friends Diana and Lisa an American and Australian respectively, after about 8 hours travelling and a short delay in a small town outside the park we arrived in the pouring rain, wanting to sit in the van a while longer because it was so wet. We were turfed out pretty quickly and left to find ourselves shelter. We stumbled upon a cheap hostel and decided ... read more