Blogs from Pahang, Malaysia, Asia - page 76

We left the relaxing Cherating and set off for the jungle! Taman Negara is over 130 million years old and covers 4343sq km! On our first day we went on a jungle treck (hard work but well worth it!). the trek lead us to the Canopy Walk, a series of 10 rope bridges hanging approx 50 feet above the jungle, a bit scary to look down at times and they moved as much as the Shakey Bridge (when it moved!) but well worth doing! After that we travelled on a wooden boat down the river to visit an Orang Asli tribe who live in the jungle, where we learned about how they live and learned how to shoot poison darts through a blowpipe! The only places to eat in Taman Negara are floating restaurants, you get ... read more

Our last few days on Tioman were great. Daytime was spent lazing on the beach. Liam went snorkelling and saw huge grouper fish and a sea turtle! The area of Tioman we were on is called Salang, everything is very relaxed there, even getting breakfast takes at least and hour! The restaurants have bbq's which are great, we even tried crab and tuna (not from a tin!). We tried an apple shisha bong (just puts a taste in your mouth, nothing illegal!). Liam was delighted because he got the 2nd half of the Man Utd game...there's no escaping soccer, not even on a tropical island! We met some really cool people and had some great nights in the local bar and even 1 or 2 beach parties. We found it hard to leave Tioman because we ... read more

Some people travel solely to experience the great rail journeys of the world - the Orient Express, the Trans-Siberian Railway and the Jungle Express. The Jungle Express for me turned out to be a 4 hour leg of the Singapore to Thai border train, on a local train. Hot sweaty, confined, slow, but with exotic scenery from every window, we made progress snail like towards the Taman Negara National Park, stopping at every reed shack in the jungle (or so it seemed). The Taman Negara National Park pulsates deep in the heart of the Malaysian Peninsula, more land life than any place I've seen. The park is home to tigers (100 est), Rhinos and Elephants (400 est), unfortunately these larger animals are wary of human contact (justifiably given our record of hunting species to extinction) - ... read more

It was a long trip over, couldn't get any sleep on the plane! Arrived in Kuala Lumpur, crazy city (but a bit smelly!). Tried the food in the hawker stalls. Spent 2 more days sightseeing in KL, went to the nightmarket in Chinatown and haggled for a few t-shirts. Landed on Tioman Island on Thursday, dubbed a "tropical paradise" in the Lonely Planet book but it was raining when we first got here! Weather is lovely now though and we're having a great time relaxing on the beach, even went canooing and found a beautiful small beach we had all to ourselves! The island is really beautiful, crystal blue water, multi coloured fish everywhere, white sand, VERY cheap drink...what more could you ask for!!! Cant wait for week 2!... read more

Explored by James Cameron and subsequently named after him, the Cameron Highlands are famous for their tea plantations, fruit and vegetables and forests. I stayed in Fathers Guest House which was nice. The facilities and prices are good. (Wifi is intermittently available - weather permitting - from some nice antennas somewhere nearby) After an unpleasant night following a pleasant meal, I decided to make the most of the afternoon and go on a trip to an Orang Asli (Original People) village - the guest house operates tours to a local village, most of the villages that remain in their traditional state shun visitors, but this one due to a member of staff being the chiefs brothers wife welcomes the backpackers on one of the organised tours. The kids gather just prior to the arrival of the ... read more