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Tuesday at midday I took the speedboat back to Kuala Besut and then caught the local bus to Kota Bharu which is the main city in the far northeast of peninsula Malaysia. I really enjoyed the bus trip because of all the old wooden houses and their windows painted in every colour you can imagine. I quickly found a room at a guesthouse about a minute from the bus station, got something to eat and then had a look around the city. Originally I had planned to spend a couple of nights here, but after having a wander around I realised there wasn't a great deal to see besides a few very nice buildings, so I decided to leave on the train the next day.
So wednesday morning I got up very early to catch a taxi to the station that was about 10 kms from the city. I boarded the train at 7.15am and settled in for the 7 hour journey to Jerantut which is where you can get transport to Taman Negara. The trainline I took is also referred to as the "jungle railway" because it goes through jungle,palm and rubber plantations virtually the whole way with only
a handful of towns along the way. It wasn't actually as good as I thought it would be, mainly because the train is quite modern and goes quite fast. I imagined that it would be more like the trains in the highlands of Sri Lanka where they move very slow and the people are hanging out the doors and windows. It was still okay but next time I would probably catch the bus instead which would be quicker and would work out cheaper. Once in Jerantut I had to wait around for a couple of hours to catch the local bus to Kuala Tahan which is where pretty much all the accommodation for Taman Negara is found. The local bus turned out to be an old minibus which was great, and just over an hour later I was looking for a room just across the river from the national park. I was really disappointed with the prices they were charging for sub-standard rooms, and after about 45 minutes I finally settled for a room a guesthouse offered me at a discounted price. It was starting to get dark so I made my way down to the riverfront which had about
half a dozen floating restaurants, and enjoyed a large dinner at a very reasonable price in very nice surroundings.
Thursday morning I had breakfast on one of the floating restaurants and then took the 30 cent boat taxi across the other side of the river to the Taman Negara National Park. I quickly paid for my permit and my camera fee and then headed off down one of the trails to the canopy walkway which is a large reason why many tourists come here. I paid the $1.60 fee and started walking across the suspended bridges high in the forest canopy, which was nice but shortlived due to the fact that half the walkway was closed for renovations. After this I took the trail uphill to Bukit Teresik which has a couple of nice views of the surrounding hills, and then descended down a quite steep section to Lubok Simpon which is a swimming area on the Tahan river. From here it was a short stroll back to the park headquarters,and a short boat ride back across the river for a late lunch at the floating restaurants. All up I had walked for just over 3 hours, was soaking
wet with sweat, and had seen very few animals (lizards, squirrels, birds, and leaches) along the track. Because of the lack of animal sightings and the humidity level of the forest I decided not to do any of the many tours on offer and decided that I would catch a minibus to the Cameron Highlands the next day.
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