The Bat Cave

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February 1st:

Semi-recovered from the previous day's long trek, we decided to go to Gua Telinga (the Bat cave) which was supposedly a 2 hour hike each way. We set out early so we could catch the afternoon bus out of the jungle. After breakfast we took the ferry across the river and started on our trek. The sign said it was 2.8 km to the cave, but we were skeptical. The first part was also a really long, really steep section that made it feel longer than it was and had us worrying that if the whole trail was like this, we might not make the bus. We went as fast as we could, which really wasn't very fast, but luckily the trail flattened out after two hills. It took about an hour to get to the cave so everything was going smoothly. We put on our lights and headed in. After a few steps inside the cave, Cara was having second thoughts due to the tightness, slipperiness, and awful smell (which was bat crap). Trevor, with his weasley ways, tricked her into going further inside. On hands and knees, we crawled through water and lots of bat crap, and five minutes in we reached the bats. The only reason Cara didn't turn around is that she didn't want to be alone and Trevor convinced her once again to keep going, but she was pretty freaked out. Trevor explained that they were fruit bats and totally harmless - of course, he had no clue if that was true, but it worked. As you can see from the picture, the bats were quite small and according to Trevor, "cute". There were hundreds of them hanging from the ceiling, making their squeaky bat sounds, and wiggling their ears...plus there were several flying around as well, coming quite close to our heads. Trevor once again assured Cara that they have excellent radar vision and wouldn't run into us.

Deep in the caves, we found ourselves sliding on our stomachs, using the bat crap as lubricant to get through the tight spaces between rocks, which worked quite well, but was really disgusting. Cara was quite clausterphobic at this point and very disturbed by the bats all around her head, but Trevor helped her along and convinced her it was better to keep going versus turn around since we were over halfway to the other end of the tunnel.

At one point, we were crawling through the 2-3 inches of water and saw some pretty good sized fish and possibly an eel or snake (Trevor thankfully didn't tell Cara about the eel/snake until after we were out of the tunnel). It took about an hour to get through to the other end of the bat cave and despite how freaked out Cara was, she was really proud of herself and was very glad that she did it.

Now, still covered in bat crap, we raced back along the trail. While waiting for the ferry to pick us up, we washed ourselves in the river like the locals. The ferry driver seemed impressed (or amused) by this and took us on a scenic route back. We grabbed a quick lunch and hopped on the local bus to Jerantut. It was pretty uneventful but we sawa some water buffalo on the way.

NOTE TO FELLOW TRAVELERS:
Overall, a recommendation for future travellers to this area is to save your money, take the "local" bus from Jerantut to Kuala Tahan (the river trip was worth it one direction, but not worth the money both ways and the views were about the same). Also, there IS a public bus from KL to Jerantut although everyone you ask will tell you to purchase the bus ride from the tour company, which is twice the price. Resist the temptation to buy the many guided trip options when you arrive at Kuala Tahan (or before), find some friends, talk to the forest service folks, and hike it on your own to enjoy it at your own pace.

Once in Jerantut, we got a cheap place for the night since our bus to KL and then to the Cameron Highlands was not until the next morning. The town Jerantut was nothing very interesting, just a stopover on the way in or out of Taman Negara.

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Photos

Bats!
Notice the flying one right in front of the camera at the top of the picture!

Comments

[David]

how do we find these money saving options?
How do we find the public bus from KL to Jerantut and the next bus from Jerantut to Kuala Tahan?

[CaraTrev]

Bus options...
Sorry for the delayed response, we haven't been checking our blog much lately. I think the public bus option is much easier to find once you are in either Jerantut or Kuala Tahan. I don't know how to find it in KL, but the station we were taken to on the way back to KL was not one we had been to before so I think it's a matter of finding the right station to leave from. Unfortunately I don't remember the name of it but I would suggest asking around, not the tourism people, but other locals and such. They might know. We of course only found out on the return trip so that's not much help, but try asking other travelers you run into, that's how we found it on the way back.