Welcome To The Jungle

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The Jungle

So you left us about to get on the boat to go into the jungle, and we did just that. We were taken two hours up the river to a small village on the outskirts of the Taman Negara Nationalo park (and home of tigers, elephants, tapiers and other delightful beasts) where we stayed in a varirty of disgusting hostels that i shall not bother you with the details of.
On our first day we went for a quick investigation into the jungle, along a canopy walkway among other things. And although it was nice to walk around the jungle - not something growing up in england has ever really prepared either of us for - we experienced nothing more exciting than the distant call of a monkey. Next day, knowing that this wopuld probably be the only time in with of our live's we were in the Malaysian jungle we decided to trek 11km into the jungle and stay at one of the park's huts. We came within sniffing distance of a tapier, saw the most amazing ant organisation you could ever concieve of, saw gibbons and monkeys, centipedes, fireflys and some kind of snake among other things. However no-one had warned us that the only bed provided was a rock hard wooden cot (sans matress or pillow) and spent one of the least comfortable nights of my life. We returned 30 hours after we left, muddy, bloody, exhausted, but happy. Ah, i haven't mention the leeches. Hundreds of the little buggers who will latch onto your shoe, climb up and up until they find flesh and then suck your blood until they've had enough. Alice especially was utterly horified with this prospet before we set off, but after a couple hours pulling leeches off our ankles with blood streaming down we quickly stopped being squeamish.
We left the jungle the next day and after an eventful coach ride (including being dumped on the sie of the road and told the coach that was gonna take us the rest of the way was 'that' direct and would be here at some point' we made it too...

The Cameron Highlands

Much less to report here. We only had one full day so we took one of those tourist excursion things and saw all the local stuff - strawberry plantation, tea growing, butterfly park, markets etc. We tried to go for a walk to a waterfall but got caught in such a heavy downpoor we had to get a taxi back. That was only a breif and convenient stop off though before we went to the beautiful...

Perinthian Islands

We spent 3 days doing very little on a tropical beach snorkeling, playing volleyball, reading and walking through the forest (we saw monitor lizards, iguanas and lots of geckos). We were pretty lazy, it was a holiday from our holiday; we were staying at a hostel that essentially had its own private beach and a nice restaurant (2.50 pounds a night).

Penang

We knew we had to get to Penang to get the train to Bangkok, but we had to get the bus leaving from the main land at 8pm. We got there in plenty of time only to be told we had to have booked it but we could get a different bus at 9.30pm from a town an hour away. There was no public transport there but some random shopkeeper offered to drive us there for RM50 (about 8 quid). We did it we got to Penang at 5.30am and were able by pure luck to check into a cheap hostel and spent the day wandering around the nice-enough town in the sweltering heat.
Today we get on the train and head north to Bangkok, exciting times.

Chris+Alice

p.s. 2 food stories for you
- in KL i was eating fried rice and picked out a piece of road gravel from my food. I got the owner's attention and said there was gravel in my food. His response was 'Ah, yes, sometimes there is gravel in the rice' and wandered off
- in George Town we got a local dessert called ABC, which consisted of ice-cream, flavoured ice, coconut milk, jelly, cherries, sweetcorn and kidney beans (?)

pps more photos as and when, i've put up a couple from last week

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