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Published: August 7th 2007
I wanted to travel from Penang to Perhentian Islands. Unfortunately, for the first time, I had logistical problems and couldn't follow my travel plan as there was a school holiday in Malaysia and all buses were full for four next days. Luckily I had had lots of sun in Thailand so wasn't too sorry to miss those apparently fantastic islands.
I ended up going to Cameron Highlands instead. Not ideal, as the next stop after them would be Taman Negara - two trekking destinations one after another is a bit much no matter how into hiking you might be. Additionally it would be problematic to get the clothes washed in between, as I needed the same gear in both places.
One good thing in Malaysia is the comfortable traveling, i.e. the buses and minibuses are not nearly as cramped as they have been in other countries. There was only one girl, a Dutch called Will, in addition to me in the minivan to Cameron Highlands. Super-luxurious when used to the vehicles that don't move anywhere before every single seat is in use (and sometimes also the aisles between the seats where people sit on the plastic stools).
Cameron
Highlands is an old Hill Station founded by the British in the late 19th century. It lies at an altitude of 1800 metres, which makes the climate much cooler than elsewhere in the peninsular. In my mind the place sounded like a crossing of Central Highlands in Vietnam and Lake District in Britain. They grow garden vegetables and have tea plantations as in the former and rose gardens and tearooms for afternoon tea as in the latter place. Unfortunately, Central Highlands looses in charm to both places. The main town in the area, Tanah Rata, was quite a scruffy place, and finding a reasonable accommodation was a real challenge.
The school holiday had raised the hostel prices in some places sky high so Will and I decided to share the room. We went to see a number of places (a kind minivan driver was acting as a chauffer) and decided to take the fourth one, even if it was quite horrible, just because we didn't want to bother the driver anymore and it was cheapest one. Apparently it rains every afternoon in the Highlands so it's always a bit damp wherever you go - and you can smell that.
We couldn't find any restaurant that would have really appealed to us, but eventually chose one that made a good compromise. I'm still not very familiar with the Malaysian food and struggle to order food I really like. Rough Guide hasn't been too helpful, even if it has a section for a food vocabulary. I can never find the courses mentioned on the menus from the guidebook. After an early dinner we went back to the hotel to prepare ourselves for the following day. I had bought a map of the hill routes and was planning to do as much walking as possible before the rain would start.
The night was a total nightmare, however. The walls were paper thin and just as we had fallen asleep a big family entered the room next door talking nonstop with loud voices. We knocked the wall and that helped for a while. In the middle of the night they had an alarm clock ringing, which they didn't switch off for a half an hour. Then they started praying (Muslims), again with loud voices and for a very long time. By 6am both Will and I had made our minds -
she would leave the whole town and I would change the guesthouse.
After checking in to the new hotel - I needed to check three of them before I found an acceptable one (by then I had seen all reasonably priced places in the whole town I think) - and having breakfast I was finally ready for my walk. It was fairly strenuous climb in the jungle. From the top of the hill I could see the glimpse of the surrounding countryside, then another path took me down, again in the middle of the jungle where you can see only trees, roots and stones. I'd preferred something like in the Vietnamese Highlands where you walk on the top of hills and admire the scenery all the time. At least it wasn't crowded. I only met two other groups: a Malay family and a Western couple. The latter was a funny pair: the guy was obviously a hike-enthusiastic and the girl in the jungle for the first time. She was dressed totally unsuitably to the conditions and was complaining all the time. I hope he managed to drag her all the way to the top of hill - otherwise she
will probably do it never again.
After completing the first loop I had planned to have a tea break in the lovely place called Smokehouse - an old English Tudor style Hotel. As nothing seems to go right in this place there appeared to be big signs 'For Patrons only' by the gates. What a disappointment! As I wasn't exactly presentable after the muddy walk I decided not to try defying the order and continued directly to the second route.
It was a bit harder to find, starting from an Orang Asli village. Orang Aslis are aboriginal people of Peninsular Malaysia and are divided into three groups and numerous subgroups. The people I met in this village are Senois who look like Malays, speak English, wear western type of clothes and although living in simple huts on the hill have quite a few services like shops in their village. I guess most of them are working on the highland tea estates.
After reaching the top hill and descending a bit I lost the path. Instead there was a road and I figured out that I would eventually come to the town or close-by if I followed it.
Missing the path was actually a blessing as it started to rain - it would have been absolutely awful to be in the jungle while it was pouring down so heavily. I was soaked by the time I got back, in spite of the rain poncho I had on.
On the following morning I left early towards the Taman Negara National Park, which is one of the world’s oldest tropical rainforests. The trip was another long one, as I had chosen the option to take the Jungle Railway for a part of it. First I was taken to the railway station by a minivan. There I waited for an hour and half (apparently the train isn't the most reliable in the world) and killed time talking with a local man. He spoke very good English having worked for a British company. Malays seem to be fairly open people as you often get the whole life story during the short discussion. This guy, father of four, had worked and traveled in number of foreign countries but regretted deeply the years he had spent abroad and only seeing his family intermittently. Now he was trying to make it up to the
youngest son, who was still at home, and his wife by spending as much time as possible with them.
The jungle train was quite nice, although I think the best parts would have been further north. We still passed through the green landscape and sometimes the banana trees came so close that it felt like the train pushed itself through them. There is only a single track between the stations, which means that the train stops every now and then to wait for the on-coming train for a longish time. I didn't know that and started to get nervous if my driver in the other end would still be waiting for me. The train finally arrived in Jerantut 2.5 hours later than I was told at the departure station.
The driver WAS waiting for me. Luckily the trip didn't continue right away, as I was really hungry and thirsty. I had left without any breakfast and thought I would be in Jerantut for lunch - now it was 3.30pm. The driver took me to the guesthouse where I could leave my backpack. We were waiting for another bus from Perhentians so I had an hour to explore the
little town and have something to eat. I had my first mee goreng (fried noodles) in a Malay restaurant. Wasn't particularly good, but at least I got my stomach full.
After another 1.5 hours drive we finally arrived in Taman Negara. I did the normal round in a few places trying to find the best deal for the accommodation. I got a hut for myself with 40 ringits ($12) and was quite pleased. Generally the price level in Malaysia is quite a bit higher than in other countries I've been traveling. At the same time the rooms tend to be less clean so it's not an ideal combination and leaves me unhappy most of the time.
On the following morning I left for my first walk in the rain forest. I had considered long and hard if I should do an overnight trip with the guide or just some day walks. Eventually I decided to go for the day trips. As I didn't know any other people to go with me it would become ridiculously expensive to have the guide just for myself. To be able to see the most untouched part of the primary forest you would
need to trek for a week, anyway, and I didn't have nearly as much time.
The National Park is another side of the river to all the accommodation (except some really nice bungalows) so you always have to take a boat to the other side. I didn't say exactly where I wanted to go (to the NP head quarters) just waved to the other side with my hand and soon noticed that I was taken to a wrong place - another side of both headquarters and the accommodation side (the river has two branches in this place). As I was there, I thought I could as well walk to the Ear Cave, which is one of the main sites although not in my original plan. It was an easy walk, fairly flat and wide path, one hour there and another back. I was pleased to be in the rain forest; finally a lifetime dream comes true. At the same time I was both disappointed and scared. The forest didn’t look wild enough. I think I had been expecting something more like Amazon. Definitely something wetter. And even if I saw some wild boar as a first thing I was
A monkey in the tree
I didn't see any monkeys during all those hours spent hiking in the forest, but as soon as I got back to the resort I saw about 20, many with their youngs. I didn't see any monkeys during all those hours spent hiking in the forest, but as soon as I got back to the resort I saw about 20, many with their youngs.
anticipating more animals... As if I could have see any as I was so terrified of the possibility of encountering snakes that my eyes were fixed on the ground all the time. I did hear lots of monkeys, but did I see any...
I got to the Ear Cave. There was no one else, I only had a small torch with me and the entrance looked really small... And I had read the warning: For those visitors who are over-sized, it is advisable NOT to enter Gua Telinga (Ear Cave) as you may have difficulty to crawl through the narrow passages and get stuck inside. So I used that as my excuse not enter the cave. The real reason was that I knew it would be full of bats and I'm a bit scared of them too.
After this starter trek I took a lift to the right side of the river. After visiting the HQ and getting some tips for my trek for the
Making fire
This Orang Asli boy is seventeen year old father of one. following day, I set off to the trek number 2, hill of Bukit Indah. This is a commonly used path, and I saw quite a few people on the way to the small hill. A nice view and nice walk, but nothing too amazing. And no snakes or any other kind of animals, just some monkey noises again.
On the way back I stopped and did the canopy walkway, the main tourist attraction of the NP. This one is the world’s longest, being 500 metres long and strung up to 40 metres high above the forest floor. I was a bit excited about walking above the trees - would have felt more relaxed if I knew that the structure is checked every single morning.
On the second day I was off to another trek, to a place called Lata Berkoh. This was supposed to be four hours each way (because I didn't want to invest in the boat ride to take me back). Nothing new to report, didn't see any snakes or other animals, but got shocked nonetheless. I heard some human voices and thought it was a group of tourists, but after a turn in the path,
what did I see: an African looking village! I did blink twice. Then I realised that these must be Orang Asli people as well, just from the different group and origin than the Cameron Highlands people. In Taman Negara there lives a group that is called Negrito. As the name suggest these people come East Africa. They have dark skin and frizzy hair. The women were bare-breasted and each and every one had a baby in their arms, no matter how young they looked. They stared at me and stared at them, even if they must see tourists on the regular basis. I REALLY wanted to take some photos, but I didn't want to be intrusive so I didn't and really regret it now.
(Couldn’t find any good photos from the internet either I could refer you to, but have a look at that: http://www.malaysiasite.nl/orangeng.htm)
Later on I learnt that these people live half-nomadic life, changing the location of their village every six months. They are gatherer-hunters, hunting birds and monkeys with bamboo blowpipes using poison-tip darts. The blowpipe is deadly accurate within 20 meters. According to their beliefs they are only allowed to hunt animals that live above ground-level.
Later on that day, when I had got back from my jungle walk, I got an opportunity to go for rapid shooting and visit another Orang Asli village with a class of Malay students who were on a school trip. Rapid shooting was rubbish, even if we got totally wet (mostly by splashing water onto each other from one boat to another). The village was also nothing compared to the 'real one' I had seen earlier, these people had Nike sweat pants and fake designer sun glasses, but I got to see how they use their blow pipes and prepare the darts. I also learnt that every Orang Asli youngster is ready for the marriage when they can light the fire with a traditional method. We were shown how this happens and it looked so easy that no wonder they all have babies by the time they are 16!
The most annoying thing about trekking in the rain forest is the possible leech attack. I had been warned (by the guidebook) about them - apparently you need to check you feet every 20 minutes - but had totally forgotten. I was just wondering what's pinching me inside my shoes, but as it wasn't exactly painful, I just marched forward. When I took my trainers off in the end of the day it wasn't particularly pretty sight: my socks were covered with bloody stains from the bites. One was still hanging there with its stomach full of blood. Yak. It would have been probably better if I had been wearing the hiking boots but they were still wet days after the rain in the Highlands. Some of the beastly bloodsuckers had found their way also under my trousers and left their mark in my legs. Next time in the tropical rain forest I know to be much more careful.
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Outi K
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More Pictures of Karoliina!! :)
We want more pictures of Karoliina! :)