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Wooden long boats
look great but after a couple of hours very uncomfortable the lion sleeps tonight, well there isn't any lions but there is tigers. However they are deep deep in the jungle and I will not have time to get into the deeps of the jungle so no worries about me being attacked.
Before i go on, i feel like i should just straighten this out, i know that some blogs are missing from new Zealand and these will eventually appear but i want to have my blogs as up to date as possible as my parents are worried about me alone in Asia (arh bless) and have a feeling that i will get myself into some situation that only the British embassy can solve and as i don't have a phone i thought i should be as up to date as i can be, please remember though that I'm traveling and lazy so it will never be totally updated, but even though I'm missing, it can be presumed I'm having fun.
Anyway on to my near death experience, only joking!
So to get to Taman Negara from KL is a whole day thing, getting the bus at 7.30am, minibus and Boat and finally arriving at Kuala Tahan at 5.30. The buses
were ok and then we got into the long boats, when i first got on i loved the boat i felt that i was in the discovery channel sitting in the boat getting the views of the oldest surviving rainforest but after 4 hours in the boat very uncomfortable, i couldn't wait to get out and straighten my legs. I wasn't staying in the national park but a small village just across the river called Kuala Tahan as the accommodation is cheaper as usual i was totally unprepared and arrived having no one to stay, and as it was Malaysian school holidays most of the cheaper accommodation was booked up so i ended up having to stay in a expensive dorm but at least i had a bed. That night i was so tired so after having dinner at one of the floating restaurants, i headed back to the dorm to sort out my next days activities, i decided that i could face the jungle without a guide so some preparation was needed.
The next day i got up bright and early and took the river taxi over to the the mighty Taman Negara, first stop was the Canopy walk.
It is a walkway 45m over the forest floor which is basically a plank of wood held in place by ropes and is the longest of its kind in the world. When i arrived i was greeted by 100s of people which was a surprize as the walk to it which was only an km and a half but scrambling through the jungle felt a lot longer, i met no one and felt that i was alone in the jungle. so i went to pay my fee to pay the walkway which was estimated to be a 2-3hr wait great but luckily for me the guide felt sorry for me on my own so let me go straight on up, I was delighted.
The next on my list was to go to Gua Telinga (ear cave) and this one was quite a walk to the cave and this time i was alone, there was no one around. The cave is basically a limestone cave which is home to the roundleaf bat, dusky fruit bat, giant toad and black striped frog, whip spider and basically every insect known to man. So i finally arrive at the mouth of the cave and
boy was it a challenging walk especially as it is so damn hot when i see the sign
"For those visitors who are over-sized, it is advisable NOT to enter Gua Telinga as you may have difficulty to crawl through the narrow passages and get stuck inside !!!
I was thrown for a moment, i refuse to call myself oversized but compare to Malaysians i am and i am alone but my stubbornness won the day i am not oversized and i dived right in - it was tight in places, very tight and the bats were not making it easy for me as they seemed to be using my head as a target but i made it through luckily just in time as my torch starting to give out, i was proud of my achievement but i was a absolute mess, basically i was covered in bat crap - time to head back to the hostel as i was stinking. getting down was not as easy as walking up and realized that my shoes are not suitable for hiking and ended up on my arse more than one hundred times at least. I finally made it to the
jetty with a few bruise and my split lip has now reopened when i realized i had been attacked by a wild animal. LEECHES, I'm not usually bothered my creepy crawlies but leeches sucking on my blood are not something i love, so after doing a freaked out dance for about a second i pulled the two of them out and to my shame all i could think of was revenge so i stood on them so they couldn't attack again when blood came spurting out of them - my blood, it wasn't pleasant i can tell you.
So i finally got on the boat and headed back to the hostels trying to ignore the looks from the other passengers, i knew i smelt of bat. after getting cleaned up and grabbing some dinner, i just chilled with other backpackers until late as another traveling day tomorrow - next destination Cameron Highlands
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