Advertisement
Published: November 30th -0001
Edit Blog Post
Couldn't resist a Young Knives title - the chance doesn't come up very often!
We woke up early and got the coach with no problems. We arrived at the jetty site at 12:15pm, and waited for the boat's departure at 2pm. We had one hostel booked for the first night, and booked the second and third at a different place with the travel agent when we were waiting - regrets, we have a few! The second place was grim with the worst bathrooms I've ever seen, and out cold shower water ran out when I was rinsing shampoo out of my hair. This was after our caving expedition, so we definitly needed showers! I'm getting ahead of myself though...
The boat journey was amazing. I'm not sure when I'll be on a computer with a usb plug that works, but a picture would be far better than my descriptive abilities. They were long and thin, made of wood and curved at the bottom. There's an engine at the back, and a tin-like roof (which came in handy later in the journey!). You have to sit in a compartment with somebody else and your hand luggage - it makes your
legs so stiff because there's not much room to stretch them. The experience itself and the views make it worthwhile though - the three hour journey is such an experience. It did start to rain very heavily half way through which I found a little scary as those boats don't feel as robust as I'd have liked being in the middle of nowhere and surrounded by water when I couldn't see the bottom. The driver pulled over and covered our luggage with a waterproof sheet, and gave the couple at the front a raincoat and carried on as before. I assume they must be used to it with this being monsoon season. Needless to say we arrived safely and I would recommend the journey to anyone.
We checked into our first hostel (splashed out - our beds were 1.50GBP each!) which was just a dorm with bunk beds and mosquito nets. The latter were very much appreciated, as we weren't provided with them in the next hostel. Aaron especially appreciated it as for some unknown reason he's been getting bitten more than me. I went out in Spain for one night without repellent on and had 50 bites on my legs - here I've had three in total! I'm glad that they don't like me as much over here. We are being careful with the spray though, Aaron especially.
We ate at a different one of the floating restaurants for every meal when we were there. It was very cheap and really nice. The meals available were rice or noodle based and quite simple - but cheap and filling. The banana pancakes around here taste amazing! And mum, you'd love the fruit platters.
On the first night we went on a safari in a roofless 4X4 which lasted for two hours. It was really fun riding through the jungle with the light trying to spot the animals. We saw loads of warthogs (and some really cute young ones), some leopard cats (not dangerous, and they just look like really pretty domestic cats), a mouse snake was sleeping on a plant at the side of the road (apparently their venom just makes you tired for 6 hours. I wouldn't have wanted to disturb it though!) and loads of different birds including a kingfisher.
The next day we had breakfast at the hosteland then got a river crossing boat over to the park (Taman Negara means National Park in Malay). We did the canopy walkway, which is the longest in the work. I'm not scared of heights but i was shaking on this! It was rope and ladders and wood! No idea how it stays up so high, but I was terrified of falling over and breaking it! I survived though, and it was a great thing to have experienced. Then we walked and climbed a nearby hill called Bukit Teresek. The views from the top were amazing, but we were so hot and surrounded by insects.
That night we were at our second hostel which didn't provide mnosquito nets and was not as nice as the first - but unfortunately we had already paid.
The next day we went for a cave adventure, which was more of an adventure than I had anticipated! A couple who had been on our bus and boat there joined us and the guide, and we got a small boat over the water and then walked through the slippy muddy rainforest and to the cave. The boat trip was fun, and Aaron particularly enjoyed sitting at the front. The whole thing lasted about 2 and a half hours. The cave is called 'Gua Telingga', which translates as ear cave because of it's shape.
The journey through the cave was fun, but scary (this and the canopy walk made me feel like a complete wuss - but I did them!) We all got very muddy and absolutely soaked (my trainers are still drying!) We saw bats up really close, and we saw a long (about 2 metres the guide said) snake on the wall of the cave hunting and eating the bats. The rocks inside were slippy, and there were many small gaps to find out way though. It was the last bit where I got soaked, as there were rocks under the water that the guide could locate but the rest of us just didn't have his flexibility or experience!
(will try and fix this later - the last bit's lost :-()
Advertisement
Tot: 0.102s; Tpl: 0.009s; cc: 15; qc: 73; dbt: 0.0462s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Kory
non-member comment
too funny!
Oh my gosh - you girls are hilarious!! I wish I could be with you all to join in on the fun but here I am at home reading it on my computer. :P You're all in my prayers and can't wait to hear more!