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Published: December 7th 2006
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Rollin by the River
Our first day trekking into the jungle, this river hugs the 3.8km trail for quite a while. Very peaceful! After four days in the deep depths of the Taman-Negara national park, located in central Malaysia, the five us of emerged alive, and pretty healthy.
We took two bus connections from Kuala Lumpur north to the gateway city of the national park, and were ready for an adventure. After deciding that we hadn’t done too many exciting adventures thus far, we were all pretty excited about this jungle idea. Stopping at a local supermarket, we picked up enough food for the 3 nights we would be spending in the wilderness. While paying, the cashier wondered where we would be going for week or so that she thought the food should last us. We laughed and explained that we eat lots - probably more than she’s even seen anyone eat in her life. The food wasn’t diverse; we bought about 10 loaves of bread, a couple litres of peanut butter, jam, nutella, honey and combinations thereof. Canned meat and fruit were also included, as well as a couple bags of apples, carrots (night vision?) and some comfort snacks (the Pringles were a hit.)
We had booked a “high hide” before setting out. These shelters scattered throughout the park offer tourists
Roaming Roadblock
These Malaysian bovine are not afraid to mark their territory, several herd of cattle delayed our acess to Taman Negara. a chance to live amongst the flora and fauna of the jungle. The park ranger was surprised we wanted to stay for 3 full nights as that was very unusual (longer than normal apparently) but we insisted we were up for the challenge, even though it was monsoon season. We transferred all unnecessary gear into a storage locker at the park office, and were on our way into the unknown abyss… With a few hours of daylight remaining, we had to make sure not to dilly dally too much as we wanted to set up camp before the sun set. The jungle was very peaceful this time of day, many sounds echoed through the forest, and the setting sun pierced its thick canopy. We noticed some odd little inch worms all over the trails and thought nothing of it.
We arrived at the Bumbun Tabin hide ahead of schedule; thanks long legs! Taking our shoes off on the outer porch, we started noticing that our socks were a very strange mud colour… different than the mud we walked through… oh wait… that’s not mud at all, our socks are completely covered in blood! Quickly we discovered that leeches had
James is le Tired
Trekking in hot, humid weather and carrying several days supply of food, one tends to sweat! intercepted our team along the trails of the jungle, and they had done quite a bit of damage. Those “inch worms” were actually evil, dangerous, annoying bloodsucking leeches. Quickly we removed them all with our trusty pocket knives (as seen in Rambo) and the bleeding continued for several hours. The little buggers inject “anti-scabbing” stuff into you that prevents you from healing. We got through it, and were able to... laugh it off…
At night we sought shelter in the hide. Eating, reading, chatting took up most of our waking hours. As for sleeping, well that was a whole new experience. Aside from the ten fold increase in strange noises coming from the jungle, which we handled pretty well, the physical act of sleeping was almost impossible - for most of us. The beds were literally rock hard, and a few hours sleep was a great night. Jordan and I had weird “creatures” run across our bodies at night which was somewhat disturbing to say the least. Luckily on night two Ryan donated his mosquito net to the cause and I was quickly protected within its draped sanctuary of creaturelessness. I also set up a few creature traps… sticks
Team Canada - in the Jungle!
It was a nice hike into our "hide" - until we discovered the leech factor... and things blocking the doorway, and a row of empty water bottles lining the entrance to the hide, which would fall over and make noise if we were attacked. And no, nothing large ever came, and the traps were useless, but good peace of mind nonetheless.
During the daytime, most were scared to venture out of the hide for the threat of leech attack. Jordan, Ryan and I, however, got pumped up, armed ourselves with Swiss army knives and courage and headed into the danger zone. Trying to enjoy the sights, we were almost instantly distracted by the vile creatures. From every angle they began attaching themselves to their newfound lunch. We were forced to seek refuge on elevated logs and rocks, where we quickly and efficiently cut loose the enemy from our legs and socks and shoes. Before long we gave up, ran back to the hide, and ate peanut butter and jam sandwiches to drown our sorrows.
The next two days were spent gazing into the jungle, attempting to spot one of the many cool animals of the jungle. Highlights included: large mutated jungle ants, termites, huge spiders (my standards are low,) some cool birds, lizards/geckos,
Home Sweet Home
Tired, covered in leeches, we finally arive at our jungle "hide" which we would make home for several days. and squirrels. We weren’t too disappointed in not seeing tigers or any other large game, but it was most likely because we were quite loud in our shelter.
After three nights with almost no sleep, our sore dehydrated bodies were dragged back to the main river, and we caught a boat downstream to a small outpost where we caught a bus back to Kuala Lumpur. We then traveled for many many hours via train (my first railroad trip!) through Malaysia and back into Thailand. We're now heading up to Bangkok via train where we will soon meet up with our Mom and Sister. A few weeks later our Dad will be flying in for Christmas.
Lush Family - Thailand begins soon!
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Justin
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james just spent the last few days studying for exams and getting raped like usual...just read your blog and looked at your pics...im jealous. looks like it has been quite the adventure so far. cant wait to read more so keep posting. i look forward to hearing more stories. thanks JO