Pahang National Park and Deerland

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For our trip we had to get up just after five and be ready at six to leave for Pahang national Park. We had booked our trip the day before and thought that we would be in a group of around twenty people and so when our guide rolled up in his minibus at about quarter past and picked us up we were surprised that he was on his own. We snuck the question into conversation whether we would be picking anyone else up, and he said the answer was no and then explained that he was having some issues with his advertising strategies and that we were the first people to have responded fto him from a leaflet left at a hotel!
Setting off on our drive of an hour and forty five miutes from Kuala Lumpur we got talking to "Bob" (his name began with B and he found many westerners couldn't pronounce so it was easier if everyone called him Bob) and he turned out to have incredibly good English, a diploma in Tourism and knew pretty much everything about everything. He told us about all of his past experiences and all of the good islands to go in Malaysia, who he'd given tours to which includes Bill Gate's neighbour some Singapore Ministers and the Saudia Arabian Sultan's son. He was really nice and down to earth and we got on with him well. He also mentioned that his Uncle was the owner of Deerland, where we were headed and he told us of the extra activities we'd be doing that normal visitors weren't allowed to do and they sounded great. When we arrived at Deerland in the Pahang National Park, we were given the choice of either going the "natural way" into the forest, without any insect repellent on your feet which allows the leaches to bite and then remove them when you've finished, or use it and try and repel them. We decided to use the repellent and he did too saying he normally did! Then he gave us some binoculars and we went birdspotting for about fifteen minutes, Bob trying to make us "comfortable" in the rainforest. We saw a few birds but where we were wasn't a particularly good spot and after that we headed into the jungle properly.
We started our hour and a half jungle walk in which we saw loads of different plants, trees, bugs and insects. Some things were quite scary and we got bitten most of the time but it was a really good experience and very interesting as Bob was telling us about every little thing the whole way through. Jack climbed a tree after Bob's insistence and Bex led the way for a while getting a few cobwebs in her face.
We came to a clearing next to a river where a guy who worked at Deerland had prepared a fire and there was a small table with some things on, which we were shown how to use. There was a large banana leaf, a knife and some rice and Bob showed us how to make a parcel for the rice using just the leaf, which we both had a go at. There was also a couple of fish that we wrapped in banana leaves, which was a little harder because they were very slippery. When this was done we put the rice packets inside some bamboo shoots, which we then filled with river water and placed on the fire.
Next we had a go at a river crossing using two ropes tied between trees across the river. Bex went after Bob and slowly made her way across wobbling a bit! To get back across the river was a rope winch that we had to hold on to while it slid us back across the river, similar to those tyres things in playgrounds. Jack had a go and after we'd finished we went back into the jungle. here we met his Uncle "Abdullah" and he took us into the survival area of the forest to show us some traps that are used by the native tribes people that still live in the forest. These were really clever and they had a lot of different kinds. After showing us some traps he showed us a blowpipe that the tribespeople had made for him and we hadthree goes each at shooting darts at a target. Bex managed to hit the target board each time ad eventually hit the twenty point marker on her last turn. Jack impressed Bob by holding it in the tribesmen way and hitting the 60 point marker first time and hitting the target the other two times. This was really good fun and we were pleased we got the chance to do this. They both seemed to enjoy seeing our attempts as well.
After this Bob took us to the canopy walk which was much lower than we imagined it to be but interesting none the less due to Bob telling us about all the different medicine plants and flowers we were walking above, and how they are used and what they treat.
Now Bob took us to the animal section of the park and as we were walking up to it Bex spotted Blood in Jack's shoe and all over his sock. This turned out to be a leach that had been there for ages, but as the insect repellent it hadn't taken as much blood as it would have, but was pretty disgusting all the same! We left it on and Bob said I'd get a chance to take it off in a while when it had naturally fallen off otherwise it itches for days.
We were taken first to a deer pen and we were allowed into it with a basket of leaves. He showed us how to feed them and that they would even stand on their hind legs to get food if we held it up. This was fun and they surrounded Bex pretty much instantly and there was a shy baby Deer that Bob said was shy and didn't normally come up, that we hand fed and got a photo of. Moving on we went to see some ostriches who were in quite a big pen of wooden sticks woven together. They were funny and scary and we also hand fed them vines and bread! They aren't very friendly even when you are feeding them and they hissed at us. The next animal we saw, we were very lucky to see because they take years to train to become tame and we were told it was the only Park in Malaysia where they had tame Mouse Deer. There were really small and sweet ad we again hand fed them small bits of bread. They still seemed really nervous and lost interest when a group of brash Australians came over and scared them off!
Next we visited the Sun Bears, which are the smallest kind of bear in the bear family. The male was tame and was allowed to roam in his area but the female wasn't and so had to be in a cage. We were even allowed into the sun bear's pen and Abdullah was feeding him milk which he squeezed into our hand, which the bear licked off while we stroked his head! Even though he is the smallest kind of bear in the world he was apparently much bigger than normal, weighing 95kgs and you would not mess with him! Especially after a story Bob told us of someone who smacked the bear from behind and got swiped on the face in return!
After the Sun bear Bob took us over to a monkey called Manolo and he was taken out of his cage and had a chain attached to his collar and the ground. He climbed over Jack;s shoulders taking some nuts and was quite playful! He stole a bottle of water out of Jack's pocket, which he played with for a while!
Our favourite bit though was next when we were taken to the Sun bear's baby, who was 9 months old and under a metre tall. Bob played with him first and told us to come in and wrestle with him, which we did. This was quite fun and he enjoyed it a lot. He kept trying to get Jack's blood stained ankle, which Bob forgot to mention he was attracted to! He was really playful and wouldn't hurt us even though Bex got a fair size bruise when he held onto her leg and bit her gently not breaking the skin though! This was really fun and we discovered that Bears really do like honey as he was given a squeezy bottle of honey, which he drank lying on his back like a baby. This was quite messy and funny to watch.
All this and we hadn't even had lunch, which Bob took us to next. Our rice and fish had cooked and we removed it from the bamboo rice cooker and ate next to the river. This was surprisingly good and felt nice knowing we'd cooked it ourselves.

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