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Published: April 26th 2008
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I am currently 3 hours boat ride up a jungle river in Taman Negara which is the most ancient rainforest in the world, 15 million years if i remember rightly! believe it or not i am in an internet cafe ( a shack with 3 computers in it with a dial up connection) however the next place i am going, the Perentian Islands apparently dont have anything, i think that this is here because of the tourists........... being the oldest jungle and all they get quite a few. only prob is that they dont have a card reader for my camera's memory card and it doesnt seem to just plug in and work without the software (maybe i should read the instructions) so u might have to wait a little while for them. for the time being i'll try to be descriptive.
almost forgot to mention the Batu Caves on the outskirts of K.L that we saw. its where the Hindus go once a year and have the skewers put through their tongue and cheeks and then walk a mile to the stairs that lead up to the cave( their are quite a few you'll see in the pics). where
there is a holy man who removes them and gives his blessing. the festival was in feb but the caves are quite a spectacle none the less. the monkeys that inhabit the stairway are very amusing but if pushed can be quite aggressive ( again Refer to photos when they come).
China town was also pretty mental in the eve where u can buy anything u want as long its a bag a wallet or a watch ("genuine Copy"). where an item that starts at 250 RM and cant be haggled lower than 200 will become 40-60 when u walk away!
we ate at some king of ghetto food court that was there and just as we were about to order we saw a rat scurry across the floor of the kitchen, if you could really call it a kitchen there were a few people with mobile cooking equipment and some communal chairs in the middle. anyway i happend to be with a guy who'd spent 2 months in Thailand who ate 'street meat" all the time including deep fried bugs and assured me it would be fine. i'm happy to report that i am fine and i have
been brushing my teeth with the tap water as i've been advised that it will build immunity for when i get to India.
2 mornings ago (i dont know what day it is) me and Karen Court a bus to the outskirt of the jungle to where there was a boat waiting to take us 3 hours upstream to the village i'm in now. the only prob as that the first boat we got in, which i immediately pointed out the rotting wood and rusty nails sprung a leak after about 5 mins! we had to go to the nearest shore ( a little mound of sand that had been created by the meanderings of the river) to get the wait out of the boat while they went and got as a new one which was a bit better (it didnt leak anyway) however it seems that it wasnt their boat and after about 20 mins we passed whoevers boat it was and decided he wanted to swap for the one he was in. so, once again it was over to the nearest shore take off our trainers and walk through the leech infested river and wait for the
new boat.
once we finally got things sorted the journey was lovely it was nothing but river and panoramic views of the rainforest as we meandered downstream. monkeys jumped through the trees and we saw what looked like a beaver skarper as he saw us coming. the ipod went in my ears and kicked back to some Nick Drake (river Man) as the first sun of the journey came beating down over the forest canopy making me have to battle with the sand man to enjoy the view.
once we arrived we got off the boat with all our stuff (those of u who remember how heavy my stuff was will know my pain here) we had to board a little floating restaurant and walk down a thin rotting piece of wood over the river to the shore where there was no path just hills of rock and clay to climb which led to what have been aptly named "the stairs of death" a rickety rotting stairway with no handrail with planks that tip when u walk on them.
anyway once we checked in we had booked a night trek through the jungle with a guide. we
crossed the river on a little wooden boat and met with some others doing the same trek who alarmingly were all wearing long sleeves and trousers tucked into their socks! my only source of comfort was that the guide was also wearing shorts and t shirt although even he had long socks on as opposed to my little trainer socks ( apparently leeches were the reason). but luckily it didnt rain and i was safe. we trekked through by torchlight except i didnt have a torch so i had to make sure i stayed close to someone who did, which wasnt hard because everyone did except me. we saw stick insects making sweet love a sleeping kingfisher some very poisonous spiders ( Hunter spider?) a scorpion but no snakes.
Today we went along the canopy walk which is the longest in the world and saw some good views of the rainforest although i did expect it to be higher most of the time you were just surrounded by foliage. on the way back we went and sat in a hide (a wooden shack where u sit quietly and watch animals) and there were two sambar deer grazing followed by
a wild boar who came to drink. i was hoping a tiger would come and ravage them but no such luck LOL. but it was a very nice spot beyond the watering hole was an amazing view of the forest where the jungle formed a massive hill shape that was only broken by a huge majestic tree with white bark and beautiful sparse foliage so you could see through. i could have sat there for hours but the humidity was very intense and i'd ran out of water so we headed back. we decided to walk through the resort as a short cut and found that they had a heard of wild boar attacking all their shrubs looking for something ( Truffles maybe? LOL) they didnt seem to be eating them anyway just trampling them a bit. 30 seconds away we found 2 big monitor lizards struttin around followed by a bunch of monkeys that were more than happy to share my banana cake with me.
almost forgot, after the night trek someone mentioned some locals were playin music so we went along to find a guy in a rasta hat and his pals with drums and guitars playin
bob marley songs. so there we sat in the middle of the jungle singin along to Bob Marley classics until 2am. very sureal but sheer magic. The Prophet lives on!
just worked out how to connect my camera so here are a few pics but its well slow so i'll send the rest another time and try and work out why the vid doesnt work.
for now tho i hear the guitar being played outside so i'm off to chill and listen as this is my last night in the jungle. plus this is well expensive here i already owe about half a nights accomodation at least.
much love spk soon
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Big Pete
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Jungle explorer
Yes Dave, not wasting any time exploring i see, looks like you're enjoying yourself, slightly jealous !!