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Published: November 24th 2008
From Cameron Highlands, we decided to get deeper into the jungle and head to Taman Negara National Park in the center of peninsular Malaysia. We overpaid 95 RM to take an all day mini bus all around the country and quite out of the way, but we met the coolest old man and had the best driver. We met Clint, who shared our mini bus- he was 71 and a marine specialist in Hawaii. He was traveling with a kit of medication by himself and having the best time. Our driver, who was normally a tour guide, shared some great info with us on the way. We kept seeing logging trucks on the road and huge areas of forest that were destroyed. He shared with us that 70% of Malaysia's rainforest has already been destroyed and although there are some laws protecting the forest, money talks and the government just turns a blind eye to those who are destroying it for profit. It's truly sad and the people that profit the most from this are the corrupt government and the Western world. They plant palm plantations after destroying the forest in order to make money of the palm oil that can
be turned into natural gas. Now, that is not very healthy for the environment.
Well, we finally arrived in Kuala Tahan (the small city across the river from Taman Negara National Park) and I'm not sure what we were expecting, but things were pretty primitive. There was not much of a town, just some floating restaurants you could eat at and two mini marts. The first hostel we checked in to had a hornets nest in our room and holes in the mosquito nets! We sucked it up, knowing that we were in the jungle now and had a quiet first night in Taman Negara.
Ok here's your history lesson on Taman Negara...Everything about TN is big, the trees and especially the bugs! The timescale is also huge, it is 130 million years old and was the only rainforest in the world not to be affected by the Ice Age, therefore making it the oldest rainforest in the world.
The next day we switched to a hostel sans hornets and set off to do some jungle trekking. We had initially planned a 16Km hike all the back into the jungle, but it didn't last as long as
first planned. After about 800 meters I decided to turn back. Now I know this doesn’t initially sound like something I would do, but let me explain to you about leeches. Well, I had heard there were tons of leeches in the park and wore some thick socks (that I thought were leech proof) and even wore long pants in the humid heat of Malaysia. However, I didn't expect it to be as bad as it was. There were leeches everywhere. Within five minutes there was already one attached to my shoe we had to flick off. They aren't what you think either. They are really tiny and worm like. They sit on leaves with their heads sticking up waiting for something warm to walk by to attach to. They really look like small version of the poor unfortunate souls in the Little Mermaid. You know, the wormy people Ursula keeps in her lair. They were gross. After seeing so many of them I decided I was not having fun on this hike. I was not looking at the rainforest, I was looking at the ground trying to avoid the leeches that would try to attach to me. After a
panic attack after 1/2 hour of this, I decided to turn around and head back to the park entrance where I could be leech free. Jeff came with me and Chris carried on by himself.
When we got back to the park headquarters I removed my shoes to check for leeches and OF COURSE, there were three leeches in my shoe trying to make it through my sock. Then I found out that one little sucker had made it through my sock and onto my foot and was currently sucking my blood. I saw it for about a half second before I turned away and yelled at Jeff to get it off. It took a few good flicks for Jeff to get the thing off of me and then it crawled away full of my blood. My foot bled for about 10 minutes and finally stopped. Now I know leeches carry no diseases and they really don't hurt, but there is still something I do not like about them and therefore, I am officially scared of leeches. My decision to turn back early was only confirmed when Chris arrived a few hours later with leeches that had been on
Chris' leech friend
It's blurry but you can still tell what the leeches look likehis legs, stomach and back. I was happy I was safe at the headquarters. Plus, Jeff and I had meant a pretty cool Australian older couple and an American from Miami that we chatted up while he was gone.
That night, Eddie met us in Taman Negara ready for some hard core hiking. He showed up looking like the Malaysian Indiana Jones- hat and all. We decided to head out on a 4x4 night safari to see some animals and get further into the wilderness. The night before they did not see any animals on the safari, but we had some luck. We started by just seeing some small snakes and birds, but then we ended up with some pretty cool animal sightings. We saw tons of wild boars, but the coolest things we saw were leopard cats and civit cats. Leopard cats are actually a type of civit cat and are a bit bigger than a house cat, but look like miniature leopards. They are nocturnal and eat mostly birds and rodents. We were really lucky and we thought it was a great start to our jungle adventures.
Our final day in Taman Negara we decided to
get up early and hire a guide to take us to Gua Telinga (Ear Cave). We had heard great things about the cave hike and were excited to do it, minus the leech factor. Lynette, our new Miami friend, came along as well so the group of five of us set out. We took a boat down the main river of Taman Negara about 20 minutes to an aboriginal village in the middle of the jungle where we began our trek. We only hike about 30 minutes to the cave and then it was time to go in. We followed our guide, one by one, through the narrow entrance and into the cave. It was narrower than I liked, but I kept my cool. Once we got through some narrow beginning parts, the cave opened up and there were thousands of bats flying all around us. Plus, there were tons of bats just hanging around. There were times we were hiking through the cave and you would feel the floor turn to velvet and guess what? It was all bat guano! If you fell down, you would fall into a floor layered with velvety poop. I tried hard not to
slip, but I did manage to get some on my hands anyway. I didn't scratch my face after that, even with the three facial bug bites I had!
We also saw some crystals and a giant toad in the cave as well. The way out of the cave was a bit tricky. We had to climb through a small space and squeeze our bodies through. Our guide said "Don't go left, you'll get stuck and don't go right, you'll get stuck, go straight down the middle." We all followed his advice and got our booties through the space. It was a really cool experience and the highlight of Taman Negara. Eddie, Jeff, Chris and I lucked out with no leeches that day. (Probably because I sprayed my clothes, shoes, two pairs of socks, and whole body with heavy deet bug spray!) Lynette, the Miamian, was not so lucky and had two before the day was finished.
After our cave adventure, we headed to the park headquarters to do a canopy walk. This canopy walk is the larges in SE Asia and is about 45 minutes worth of hanging bridges over the rainforest canopy. We had some great views
of the river and the tops of the trees. The bridges would shake and twist when you walked on them and you had to be about 30 feet apart from each other or else walking was impossible. It was really fun and we were exhausted after all of that. This was at 1pm- we still had the whole day ahead of us!
Of course, Eddie never shows up unprepared. In a town that doesn't sell alcohol, Eddie managed to bring a bottle of rum so we had a few glasses that afternoon and a great nap. We spent the rest of the day watching monkeys swing from trees on the porch of our hostel and just sitting out and watching the sights and sounds of the forest go by. It was a great couple days out in the wilderness (minus the leeches), but we were ready to head back to Kuala Lumpur for a few days. We stayed at Eddie's house for two nights, even though he snores, and enjoyed the big city for a few days before heading off to Borneo.
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