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Published: February 11th 2009
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Taman Negara
Jungle is massive! This has potential to be quite a long blog, as Malaysia has turned into a little bit of an unexpected treat. We thought we would more or less be passing through Malaysia, en-route to Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. However, we have now been in Malaysia for 7 days so far, and we love it. Its a beautiful country aesthetically, the people are all very friendly and smiley, and the food is great. We have been to a few different places, and each has been very different from the last, yet just as amazing. Its a country that seems to be over-looked in this region - and we are guilty of it also - but we would highly recommend it to everyone heading in this direction.
7th February 2009
Waaaay back when we were in Kuala Lumpur.....we woke at 0715 for a long day of convoluted travelling. We were heading for Taman Negara, a 130 million year old primary rainforest - the oldest in the world according to local lore. Our journey began with a 2 and a half hour transfer to a small town called Jerantut. Despite the lengthy journey, the views were spectacular, these would be the first of
Taman Negara
Daniel on the tree-top canopy walk many over the coming few days. From here, after a 2 hour stop over and some lunch, we took another 30 minute bus trip to a jetty to catch our long boat, for the 3 hour journey along the Tembeling River. This was a fun way of travelling and well worth the numb-bum! During the boat ride we saw monkeys playing in the overhanging trees and flying fish jumping in unison! We had decided not book accommodation ahead of arriving in the small river side village of Kuala Tahan, and so when we arrived we went in search of a guest-house. It's out of season at the minute here, which is great, and so we found a cool little room complete with walls covered in children's paintings and murals. Kuala Tahan is the village facing the forest, on opposing banks of the river. The village consists of a few guest houses, a few riverboat restaurants and not a great deal else - it's really nice. We had dinner on the river, and relaxed taking in the scenery and sounds of the jungle.
8th February 2009
We set our alarm early, but evidently the journey into the jungle had taken
Taman Negara
Kuala Tahan at dusk more out of us than we had thought, and so we slept in later than planned! Once we had woken, we had a hearty breakfast, and caught the river taxi for the 30second trip across to the National Park. We decided against taking a tour, and so set off on our own on the 1 mile trek into the jungle, towards the Canopy Walk - the worlds longest. This part of the trek was fairly easy going - we saw more monkeys! - and we made our way in good time. The 45 metre high canopy walk was great fun, and well worth the £1 entry fee. The views were great, and being above the tree canopies was very cool. We ate our energy replenishing snacks (biscuits and chocolate bars!) and set off towards Bukit Terisik; a trail that leads toward the top of a hill. This proved much tougher, and in the near 30 degree heat was very tough going. We reached the top though, very sweaty, and ready to sit and admire the views across the top of the forest. However, a giant wasp had very different ideas, and we lasted around 3 minutes before being chased away!!
Taman Negara
From sleeping in this.... It was the size of a bird, we promise....!! We followed the trail for another mile or so toward Lubok Simpon, which is a swimming hole, where we had a cooling little paddle. At times during these treks, it felt as if we were the only people in the forest, we would walk for 30 minutes without seeing another person. This was really nice, but also a little scary as you're never really sure if you're still going the correct way...All in all we walked, and climbed for around 4 hours and so headed back for an afternoon nap. When we woke, we were rightly famished, and ate a sickening amount of food; fresh fish, beef, rice and noodles. All of it was delicious! We had also met a group of people during our little adventure, and so finished the evening with a beer. Daniel even found some football to watch!!
9th February 2009
Unfortunately our time here was short, and had to end. We had booked our journey out and were on an 8am bus, heading for the Cameron Highlands, another days travel away. The Cameron Highlands are 1829 metres above sea-level, and is an area that produces
60% of the fruit and vegetables for Malaysia and Singapore. Its also home to Tea-plantations and strawberry fields. Because of the altitude, the climate here is very different (average temp is 23 degrees) and it rains heavily every day for a couple of hours. We arrived at 1500, after another stunningly beautiful journey, winding up and around the hills, down into the valleys, and with views of mountain after mountain. We checked into our 'barrack' style accommodation, and tucked straight into some tea and scones, a local specialty! We spent the evening enjoying the relaxed atmosphere and the stunning scenery.
10th February 2009
The alarm went off at 9am, but we didn't really need it today. This is in part due to being able to hear everything going on outside our corrugated iron roof, and part due to excitedness! We had again decided against a paid tour, so jumped on a local bus and headed for the nearest tea-plantation. The bus dropped us off on the main road linking the main towns, meaning we would walk the remaining 4km to the Sungai Palas Boh Tea Estate. Again, excuse the lack of superlatives, but it was a truly stunning route.
Cameron Highlands
Overlooking the tea plantations Winding paths/roads overlooking the vast tea-plantations and fruit farms, with a perfect (albeit short lived!) blue sky. It was spectacular, and meant the walk flew by. We arrived at the plantation and took the 6 minute tour of the factory (which was actually very interesting, and just about in tune with our concentration spans), and then sat on the terrace overlooking the rows and rows of tea plants, drinking tea and eating a fresh strawberry tart. You could never tire of this view. We started the walk back (uphill this time!) and declined kind offers of a lift from passing cars - we were walking off our scones and tarts! We had hoped to then pick our own strawberries, but we were out of luck so jumped on a passing bus back to our town, Tanah Rata. In the afternoon the daily downpour arrived, and it was a big one today, but with a cup of tea listening to the rain is very relaxing still. The rain didn't last long, but the thunder and spectacular lightning continued on long into the night! One of the stark contrasts to the hustle bustle cities we've visited is the fresh air up here,
Cameron Highlands
Hayley + tea = happy girl! its a very nice change and something that is quite hard to find. We're really sad that our time here was so short.
11th February 2009
We are now in transit; we are making our way towards Krabi, in Thailand, and it's not a straight forward route. We are currently on an Island on the west coast of Malaysia called Penang, from where we will catch a bus or two onwards in the morning. We thought our journey thus far would have been a smooth 6 hour bus commute. However. 4 hours in we were aware of everybody else getting off the bus.....after some investigating, it turned out that the bus terminated at Butterworth, and we actually needed to catch a ferry for the final leg! Sounds obvious now!! Anyway, we arrived, we have booked our bus/es for Thailand, and we are building ourselves up for our first curry since India! All is well.
Thailand is pencilled in as our 'down time' - all 5 days of it! As we have spent time in the country previously, we are using it as a stop off before heading into Cambodia, and also a chance to improve our impressive T-Shirt
Cameron Highlands
The long and winding road... suntans!
Its great hearing from everyone. Hope the snow is clearing and everyone is getting back to normal.
Miss you all
Love
H and D
xxx
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thax
wow gud to hear that...im malaysian so im quite hapy when u said that u luv malaysia...actually u should go to east malaysia..it is also beautiful over there..bye