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Published: August 21st 2006
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Monday 14th August Paul - Decided to see how my foot felt before deciding whether to go on the trek sooner or later... Up at 4:30am to grab quick showers before saying goodbye to our lovely hostel owner who has been very helpful. Caught a minivan to the train station where the local train would be leaving. Loads more Westerners were getting the train than I thought (there were about 20) and only a handful of locals at first.
The first thing Laura and I did was go straight back to sleep. Never one to miss a chance to have a quick nap, Laura slept like a baby. I was woken by Laura shaking me to look at the amazing scenery outside. The railway is literally straight through the jungle and I'm impressed at how it was built in the first place. By this time the train was full of the local muslims taking their kids places and taking their various goods to market. Outside was dense forests and occasional rivers bursting through cool mountain scenery. At one point there was lots of huge limestone hills shooting out of the ground which looked spectacular. It was good fun.
Holmsy got talking to some random girl sat next to him while me and Laura made kissy noises behind his back. Genius!
As the day dragged on it started to get quite hot so I stood near the door (where there was actually no door - just a place where you could jump off) and cooled off. Read for a while until, 12 hours after we had started, we pulled into a place called Jerantut and jumped off. We were the only people who would actually be spending a night here as everyone else was doing it the easy way and getting a bus straight to Teman Negara (the jungle) while we wanted to get the boat there in the morning.
Jerantut is a very small, sleepy town so we had a bit of trouble finding the hostel we wanted at first but a kind taxi driver stopped for us and pointed us in the right direction. An EXTREMELY camp guy gave us the keys to our room before shrieking and pinching the bum of another guy. We all exchanged strange looks.
Had tea and listened to a dull talk on the jungle that should have been
titled "Jungle tips for idiots". They spent most of the talk telling us to buy their tickets to Kuala Lumpar.... Brought some more mozzy repellant before heading off to bed.
Tuesday 15th August Paul - So got up as per usual and went down for breakfast, only the breakfast place was closed so we got some snacks instead. Got on a bus and travelled about 20mins to Temberling where we would catch our longtail boat to Teman Negara. Me and Laura got a couple of milkshakes from a shop and climbed aboard the boat.
Won't bore you too much with the journey as we've had many boat rides now. Nice scenery with the jungle but nothing too special. We did see a monkey in the tree though and lots of water buffalo. The "highlight" of the trip was me asking the boat guy if we could stop for a pee break to which I was the only one to get off the boat... some hilarious American decided this would be a great opportunity to woop and holla. So much for international relations.
Arrived at the port and everyone sat down to listen to a talk so
us 3 sneaked off as they started rattling on about trains to Kuala Lumpar... what the hell has that got to do with the jungle!? Walked around the VERY small village here and checked into a ok hostel that's cheap. Basically there is a small village on one side of the river and then the national park is on the other side. Obviously we are completely surrounded by jungle so it is very pretty here. Had dinner on the river on a floating cafe (complete with rocking motions when boats speed past) before getting a boat over to the other side of the river.
Had a look around the really expensive resort on the other side before walking through the campsite and into the jungle proper! Walked for a while before reaching the river and taking a few photos. Made our way back through the trail, stopping to look at gigantic (a big big love) ants and other insects. Lots of authentic jungle noises and huge vines crossing the path at all times. If this was just a crappy little trail near the campsite then the real jungle trek would be brilliant!
Anyway crossed back over the river after unsuccesfully looking for a monitor lizard. Ate tea at the floating restaurant and went to bed with the plan of going on the canopy walkway tomorrow and a trek up the mountain!
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Weezy
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The latest guessing game!
Hey guys. I'm sorry I have only just checked out your adventures! I hope Laura's legs have healed by now! And Pauly, I think your scratched limb should be entered into a guess the body part comp as I think it could be a very hairy thumb! I hope you're having an amazing time, it sounds like you are anyway! Bye for now xx