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Published: September 25th 2007
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After decending the hills of the Cameron Highlands and taking off a few layers, we were back in the heat of Malaysia. After a day of travelling we reached Tamara Negara, which has the world's oldest tropical rainforest. It covers 1,677 square miles of jungle and the park contains lots of different animals, insects and plant communities (Mark was not very interested in the latter!)
As we arrived at the park quite late a lot of the accommodation was full but we eventually managed to find somewhere to stay even though it was quite expensive and had the worst designed bathroom ever, who builds a shower over the toilet? Oh well at least it killed two birds with one stone!
The night we arrived we decided to do a night safari with two really nice people we had met on the bus down. I think our expectations were a bit high as we sat in the truck with a group of people waiting to see some animals, a lion maybe or a tiger!? As we sat and drove down a road (not really the heart of the jungle we assumed!) in the two hours we sat there we saw
a cat, two birds, a raccoon type thing and the smallest snake in the world. We are unsure of the exact names of these animals as our tour guide didn't really explain. He sat on the front of the truck with a big flash light which apparently temporarily blinds the animals, nice!
The next day we got up early and joined a group of people and headed into the rainforest. After walking for a while we reached the canopy walk, which is the tallest in the world. This consisted of six bridges suspended above the trees, there was no looking down! We were told to keep ten metres apart and not to jump or swing when on it , there was no chance of that as it was actually quite scary and we were glad to be on solid ground again.
Our next challenge was to climb Bukit Teresik a hill about 344m up to see some amazing views of the rainforest. Mark and I not being the fittest of the fit struggled up the hill, Mark had a good tactic of getting a rest on the way up by pretending to be interested in looking at the
big ants..... he didn't fool me! We eventually managed to reach the top, although very sweaty and exhausted and were able to see the view of the forest.
That evening we met up with the two people we had met on our bus and another couple we had met in the Cameron Highlands. The owner of the restaurant said that at 10:00pm we would be able to buy beer, well worth hanging on for then even though we had to get up early the next day. As 10:00pm passed and still no beer one of the people we were with asked someone in the restaurant if we could have a beer, who replied they didn't sell it. The guy who had told us in the first place said to us to hang on, this beer seemed to be top secret. A guy eventually turned up with a bag full of beer, the lights were dimmed and we were told to move away from the doorway. As we sat in near darkness and drank our beer it felt that we were doing something really wrong!
The next day we got up early to catch a taxi with two of
the people we had met to a bus station an hour away. The taxi did not turn up at 6:45am as we had arranged and even after phoning them we were still unsure whether they would show up. After waiting still no taxi. Another option was to get the boat which would mean waiting around when we got off for a mini bus. We eventually found out about a public bus which was a lot cheaper and would take us to the bus station where we could get a bus to Kuala Lumpur. At 10am we caught the bus after waiting around all morning. On the bus Mark suddenly started looking a bit concerned and then panicked as he realised that he had left behind the purse belt which contained all our bank cards, our passports and money. As i shouted "stop the bus" the bus came to a halt and we got off with our bags and suddenly realised we were in the middle of nowhere. Mark throw his bag down, had a slight bit of rage and said a few swear words and then we started walking back. After walking for a bit with our backpacks and seeing
a sign back to Tamara Negara we realised it was going to take us hours to get back, our bags were heavy and it was very hot. We eventually came across a row of food places and went in to ask if there was anywhere we could get a taxi from. The guy replied no and offered to take us on his motorbike. As we had two very heavy bags we said we were unable to, he thought about it for a while and then told us to wait there. After a few minutes the guy returned with a car and took us back to where we were staying and luckily we managed to get all our stuff back safely, our only problem now was how to catch our bus. The guy where we were staying said a taxi would not come out to us (I wish someone had told us this this morning!) and they asked the guy who had bought us back if he wanted to take us for 100 RM. He said to hang on as it wasn't his car and then returned and told us he would take us to the bus station. After picking up
his dad on the way we sped to the bus station and manage to make our bus and headed off to KL!!!!
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kimberley
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bacon sarnies!
wild boar, warbatons thick sliced, ketchup! you missing bacon sarnies on a sunday morning yet?!!! x