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Published: October 27th 2009
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Following our easy week spent on the beach we decide to go Rambo style and head for the jungle. With the possibilities of encountering dangerous snakes, "small" big cats and flying squirrels amongst the many other species of wildlife it should be an exciting change.
0345am we are woken by our superb Kota Bahru guest house (ideal travellers guest house) host to taxi us to the train station to catch the Jungle Train to to Jerantut - jumping off point for T.N. We had promised to be awake on time but as Yoan and I were carrying on alone we felt it only right that we share a few beers with Marc. Finally hitting the hay at just before 1am we shouldve known that wed sleep through the alarm!
The train departs Kota Bahru at 0415 and arrives at around 1230ish in Jerantut. Taking a route through the jungle passing many villages and one quite random fish tank? Im really starting to enjoy train travel - maybe due to the price, 4 pound for an eight hour journey, but also the freedom to wander around, mingle with the locals and take in the scenery at ease. After arriving in
Jerantut we hang around for an hour or so then catch a bus to the jetty for the river boat to Kuala Tahan the area for accommodation in south of T.N national park. We find our lodgings at the Teresek view Motel and plan our next couple of days. The following morning we grab a good breakfast and some supplies for the 11km trek ahead of us out to Bumbun Kumbang where we plan to stay the night in a hide. On our way we are feasted upon by numerous leeches. We start by crossing the canopy walk at Kuala Tahan, the worlds longest at nearly 1/2km long. We get a birds eye view of one of the worlds oldest rainforests, nearly 130 million years old. We then head off into the jungle on our 5 hour trek to Bumbun Kumbang. The track is challenging with many streams to cross, umpteen embankments to scale and decline and not always an obvious path to follow, on the second day I took one comedy fall down one of the banks towards the stream somehow managing to land on my feet. After realising I was OK Yoan found this highly amusing.
At
one point we turn a corner to hear what might be our first encounter with some large wildlife......... it turns out to be one of the jungle villages watching a movie with the sound turned way up. Not what you expect to see out in the middle of nowhere, a tribe living under a bamboo / tarpaulin shelter with a 36inch wide-screen and a surround sound system. We arrive at the hide late afternoon and tuck in to whats left of our supplies of bread and jam, get comfy and wait. We are to believe at this particular hide you have the chance of seeing monkeys, gibbons, tapir and very rarely elephants. By the time night falls all we have seen are some fireflies buzzing around. Twice in the evening the Italian guy who joined us thought hed seen something in the distance, twice he was wrong. The next morning we catch a river boat back to Kuala Tahan to gets some much needed food before heading out to Gua Telinga (the bat cave). Should not be too bad, its only an 80m walk through the cave and hopefully as its the middle of the day the bats will be
asleep. Upon entry I realise I could not have been more wrong. The walk turned out to be a rope guided crawl, at one point literally lying down SAS style. Surrounded by bats flying within centimetres of my face the walls were covered in hundreds of them waiting to attack. Then the worst thing possible happens. The battery on my head torch dies! So now I can not see where Im going or how many bats are circling my head. Eventually seeing some light in the distance, one more section to cover. Water up to your thighs for 10m or so, doesn sound too far? Try it in the pitch black when you know your only fear is watching you waiting to strike. We escape, at last, we celebrate our survival and hike back to K. Tahan. for a long hot shower. The following morning at 8am we are on a bus back to Jerantut to get to Kuala Lumpur. Capital of Malaysia and the recovery place for my leg muscles and my nerves!
Bye for now.....
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ben
non-member comment
nice
BEN, its ben 2 !!!! how is it going my friend!!! nice blog buddy!!! you are doing an awesome trip !!! where are you actually?? Enjoy Asia and we keep in touch ( you ve got my email anyway ) see ya