Blogs from Taman Negara National Park, Pahang, Malaysia, Asia - page 8

Hardware is good. It expands your horizons, it empowers you, and spurs you into action: if you're lugging around a stove, a metal pot, an aluminum wok, a melamine bowl, spoons (3), a spatula and a knife, you'd better be using them. So, although I'd been reluctant to visit that most prominent of tourist destinations, the Taman Negara (lit. National Park) of "the world's oldest rainforest", the thought of gaming the system -- by showing up with enough food and gear to spend a couple of days in the jungle and avoid the infrastructure established to make sure you pay out the nose -- seemed attractive. I had been relegated to cooking boiled-water foods -- oatmeal, instant noodles with canned sardines, etc -- with a water heater during the 2 weeks spent in Melaka, and I ... read more

Today we left Kuala Lumpur and are on our way to Taman Negara National Park, a remote 130 million year ago jungle. We currently waiting for one to the many buses to take us there: 3 buses and a boat! We are staying at a hostel for 10RM/night. 1$ is approx 3.4RM...so very cheap! There we will do trekking, caving and swimmig in the river. The plane to KL was quite long. After fly to Sydney, we had an 8 hours flight o KL, which was delayed for 2 hours due to a mechanical air-con problem they discovered after we were already sitting in the plane. When we arrived in KL and my bag did not show up on the carousel. When i called Jet Star they didn't know where it was. So to say the ... read more

Trying to improve my blogs as have not made much effort so far! The last place we visited in Thailand was the island of Koh Phi Phi. It really is stunning. Pictures don't do it justice, we spent our four days here sunbathing and snorkelling. One of the highlights was a boat tour of the islands, visited monkey bay (self explanatory!) and other lovely beaches. Was lucky enough to have the chance to talk to one of the few Tsunami survivors left there. Phi Phi was hit hard and is still being re-built after most of the areas around the beach were destroyed. His story of lost friends was touching. After Koh Phi Phi we headed directly to Kuala Lumpur which involved a horrible 22 hour journey where I suffered from what I think was travel ... read more

We landed in Kuala Lumpur and my friend from college, Kim, met us at the train station. She has been working at various spots around the world since we graduated; initially she was in KL and is presently in Jakarta. I hadn’t seen her in two and a half years, so we both did a double take and had a spectacle of a reunion in the train station. She got us two free nights at the J.W. Marriott in downtown KL, and it was amazing having a western sized functioning bathroom again. When you are backpacking it is these small things that count. She took us out the first night for some fantastic Malay food on Jalan Alor, which is street vendor central. We had some fantastic eats, including spiced crab and stingray (a first for ... read more

Malaysia PART 1: "Malaysia Truly Asia!!" (Kuala Lumpur) Malaysia PART 2: Malaysia Truly Jungle! (Taman Negara) Malaysia PART 3: (Georgetown) Malaysia PART 4: Malaysia's Island Paradise (Langkawi) After yet another late night of craziness in Kuala Lumpur, Jenna, Brian and I opened our sleepy eyes at 9am on the morning of the 26th to pack up our bags and head downstairs to meet our driver for the day. Our destination - the Kuala Gandah Elephant Conservation Centre in Temerloh, followed by one night in the small town of Jerantut, before proceeding to Taman Negara, the world's oldest rainforest. As is the case in any country, your guide/driver can either make or break your trip, but with little to no control on selection, you always just have to cross your fingers and hope for the best. Luckily ... read more