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Published: March 18th 2007
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Tanam Negara
After our few days in the laid back Malaysian capital we decided we were in need of some action and thought a 3 day jungle trek through the oldest rainforest in the world was a good choice.
So after a fairly arduous round about trip we landed in a tiny town, where we met a few other travellers who were planning the same trip the following day, an Aussie named Trent and a Spaniard called Xabi. We all checked out the local market for some weather proof gear as we were really not prepared for one of the wettest places in the world! Alan was in luck finding a decent set of waterproofs but unfortunately all I could find to fit was a flashers mack and matching hat!
The following day we were up bright early for the 1 hour bus journey and 40 minute boat ride down river to the start of the national park. Here we were greeted on one side by a 5 star forest resort and on the other a humble little settlement with a few wooden floating restaurants known as the ‘town’ where we managed to get some basic accommodation with
plenty of noisy insects to share with. That night we checked out one of the floating restaurants and we had the pleasure of watching Chelsea claw back a two goal deficit in miraculous fashion against Everton - Not a good end to the evening.
We were up around 7am to meet our guide and the rest of our group (we were joined by an elderly German couple) at the Park HQ and there we had to fill in various forms to say if we got lost it was our own fault and what items of clothing and supplies we were taking into the park. After that was dealt with, there was a two hour boat journey into the heart of the rainforest. A perfect chance to grab some sleep before the walk began.
Well we started the walk and it wasn’t long before we noticed the thousands of leeches waiting on the forest floor to feast on our blood. We had heard that there would be leeches but didn’t really comprehend just how many there would be. Looking at some of the lengths my fellow trekkers had taken to protect themselves from the leeches including Alan’s homemade leech
proof socks (plastic bags round his feet tucked into long trousers). I started to worry that my choice of no protection what so ever, just trainers and shorts probably wasn’t the best decision I ever made.
Well the walking was good fun but quite hard going, the rain was coming down which made the forest floor very muddy and slippery. It was not long before one of the German couple had taken a tumble head first into fallen trees and bushes. About 15 minutes later he had found the 5 leeches feeding on his stomach. Not a nice sight. It wasn’t till much later on after fighting the leeches off for the majority of day that AIan discovered one had breached his plastic bags and had grown 10 times in size. So far the sight of my exposed hairy legs seemed to have put the leeches off!
As the sun was close to setting, we arrived at our night’s accommodation - a huge old bat cave. Packed with thousands of noisy bats (and the odd snake) we stood whilst they flew (or crashed) into our heads. We found a quite area and made camp for the night.
Before
cooking dinner, the group went for a wash in the nearby stream. It did seem fairly surreal climbing over tree trunks and dodging leeches in just my boxer shorts. Nothing in any of my travels so far could have prepared me for what was about to happen next- Whilst washing the bat poo from my face, I turned around and less than a meter away from me was the elderly German couple completely naked washing each other... shocked I just didn’t know what to do or where to look.
After being the only one to go all day without any leech bites, it was my turn as I arrived back to the cave to find two leeches dangling from my foot, nothing a lighter couldn’t sort out.
The following day was much of the same jungle trekking but we stayed overnight in a purpose built ‘hide’ next to a salt lick where many animals come to feed during the night. Due to being fairly tired and not having enough patience the most we really saw were a few birds and fire flies.
On the way back we stopped at a local tribe’s settlement (home to some quality afro’s)
where we were shown the art of making fire and hunting ‘local style’ with the use of a dart and blow pipe. Instead of shooting monkeys like the locals we all had our turn at aiming at some stuffed animals used for target practice in the village. We then took a slight detour to the canopy walk suspended 50 metres above the ground where it is easier to spot the birdlife as well the masses of gibbons. This brought us to the end our trek.
After saying our thanks and goodbyes to our guide and group we jumped on the first bus back to Kuala Lumpur to change and get an overnighter to the Thai border for our relaxing stint on the beach for Christmas and New Year....Happy Days...
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