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Published: September 26th 2005
Tree Roots
What more do you want?We left Fathers guest house on mass, at 8am - travelled through the Malaysian countryside for 3 hours and arrived at the station ready to catch the jungle train (killing time trying the local snacks).
The train was comfortable but very hot and humid, and the scenery speeding past was excellent. There was jungle of all calibre on the other side of our window which everyone watched like a nature program on TV.
After 4 sweaty hours the train pulled into Jerentut station - we jumped off (although we thought we might have to jump at speed when it appeared it wasn't going to stop). We found someone loitering on the platform who looked as if we were meant to follow him, so did - the right choice.
There were 7 of us travelling together now and all got on well, a mix of French, English, Irish and Canadian.
We arrived at the guest house in Taman Negara at around 6pm and immediately set about negotiations - for watching the Belgian Grand Prix. After securing the telly for later we had a very necessary shower.
The guest house at which we stayed was the 'Travellers home'
Pretty Cloud
'My what a pretty Cumulo-Nimbus you are' (www.travellershome.com.my), a family run place owned by a Swiss/Malaysian couple. The evening meal was v. good (malaysio-swiss?) - set around a large dining table in the outside courtyard. We were also joined for dinner by the local guests - praying mantis, huge grasshopper, hawk sized moths and other large beasties!
The guest house was laid out as a large private home with bedrooms as twin or double options. With the meals being a group affair, rooms like staying with relatives and the kitchen having a communal feel (you could help yourself to snacks, tea, coffee and cold drinks throughout the day) it's an atmosphere you'll either love or hate. We felt comfortable - and it was clean, cool (air con throughout) and friendly. It cost 50rm a day - about £7.50 - and that included evening meal and breakfast, both v. good.
On the second day we all decided to go on the canopy walk through the rainforest. This was very good - walking across over half a kilometre of suspended platforms at the height of the rainforest canopy. Although as mentioned by many others we didn't see any animals - lots of insects though. To get there
Kid on Train
Gill trying to take arty piccies the home lent us motor bikes - for free! In keeping with our 'luck', after half a mile the bike we were riding got a fast puncture. After bracing ourselves for a severe case of gravel rash we wobbled to the road side, and then got given a shit scooter with back to front gears.
After the canopy we found a swimming hole about 40 minutes walk through the jungle (still no animals) and stayed there for about 3 hours - it was lovely.
That evening we chilled in front of the big screen TV and watched the Incredibles (v good film), ate another fine evening meal and sat around while some of the others went for a night safari (still no animals - but maybe because of the large animal eating spider they saw)!
The next day ended up as our fun day. We hired a couple of boats to take us up to the 'waterfall' (it turned out to be rocks, rapids and pools but still very good). It took 40 minutes to get up there, but the river went through some fantastic rainforest. After setting a bad example of skinny dipping - and getting
the other couple we were with to follow (I have the pictures Fiona and Ross!) - we swam for over 4 hours. That night we said goodbye to Ross and Fiona as they were leaving to go back to the Cameron Highlands early the next morning, and were then entertained by Ally and a local 'jammin' on guitars.
The next day was our last here, and not even full as we had to catch the train at 2am. We filled this last day with a visit to the bat cave (no seriously - real bats - loads of em) and another visit to the swimming hole to wash off the bat shit. We left the guest house at 11.30pm to get the overnight train to the Thai border. In the morning we first said goodbye to Dawn and Ally, and then to Julie as we headed off for Ko Pha-Ngan - and the infamous FULL MOON PARTY.
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