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Hi all,
So this blog begins with the portion of our trip that began in Taman Negara - the beautiful, and quite old, rainforest located in Central Malaysia. Here we did most of our trekking with a guide named Asli - a local tour guide, and only 21 years old. He was quite good though...his father's also in the tour guide business and so he told us that he learned everything he knew from his father! He also mentioned to us that if he's away from the rainforest for more than a few days (like in a city, for example) that he can't stand it and needs to come back to the nature. I told him that I totally know how he feels...except I'm the opposite! Haha!
On our first night in Taman Negara, we first checked into our lovely hotel - The Rainforest Resort - and then met Asli. He told us about what we'd be doing with him over the next few days, and then we got ready for our first big adventure: Night Trekking! So, we had dinner, and then grabbed our flashlights and headed on over to meet Asli. Before we got started, we got
Teman Negara
A 130million year old rainforest. to watch a nice documentary on all of the plants and animals that live in the rainforest. It was nice because it gave us an idea of the kinds of things we would hopefully see! After the film, we started on our trek. Now, at first, it started off on kind of like a boardwalk path...but eventually we were just tramping along on the jungle floor. It was a little scary...you always had to watch your step, in the case that you might step on something dangerous (For example - a colony of termites that I practically waltzed right through!) Also, without our flashlights everything was PITCH DARK! Another reason it was nice and comforting to have a local guide with us!! Anyway, although they told us we'd mostly see insects on the night trek, we also saw some bigger things! All in all, we saw: Walking stick insects, a poisonous tree frog (that stared at us and looked like he wanted to kill us), a colony of termites (that I already mentioned), a slow-moving lorry, some sort of tree cat, millipedes with bodies the size of snakes, and deer.
The next day was also full of nature and
explorations. We started the day trekking towards Teresek Hill, where we saw some wild boars and were followed by "sweat bees"...not dangerous bees, they just are attracted to the smell of sweat...and we were trekking through a rainforest that was about 90 degrees at 8am, so you figure out if they liked us or not! 😱 Anyway, here we did the "Canopy Walkway" course - about 30-50 meters from the forest ground. I was a little scared of the heights, but luckily part of the course was closed for renovations...so we only had to do about half of it. Then, it was off to Gua Telinga (Ear Cave)... it was called "Ear Cave" because, as described and later we experienced, the opening was wider and then the further in you went, it got smaller and smaller - just like an ear! Well, Larry and I were pretty nervous to do this part of our day because we were told - "It's really narrow and there are lots of bats that live in there....so you'll have to be OK with crawling through bat guano! But, don't worry...it's a lot of fun!" Haha...well, we weren't sure how "OK" we'd be with crawling
through animal poop...so we even considered skipping this part of our journey. But, in the end, we were both so glad that we did it! Not only did we see some AMAZING sights - thousands of sleeping bats, a white snake, and a giant toad - but we also felt so proud of ourselves when we finally crawled out the opposite end of the cave. It was quite a tremendous feeling of accomplishment!
Next, we briefly stopped off to shower and change our "poopy" clothes...before having lunch at a floating restaurant, then "shooting the rapids" down the stream of Sungai Tembeling (Not quite white water rafting, but actuallly going upstream on a long wooden boat with a motor! We were soaked!), and then finally visiting a local tribe called the Orang Asli Tribe. This was quite interesting because of the fact that they are the only people that have been granted permission by the Malaysian government to currently "live" off of the land in these protected rainforests. They hunt for their food and live in huts. We even learned how to use a blow gun and bought one as a souvenir!
That was the end of our rainforest
adventure...that night we had dinner and relaxation at our hotel. The next morning we really did bid Taman Negara good-bye, as we gathered our bags and took a nice, scenic boat ride to the jetty where we would get our bus to Kuala Lumpur. Once in KL, we checked into our hotel and started planning the last few days of our 'Malaysia Truly Asia' adventure... For dinner we went to a really nice tapas restaurant in Starhill Gallery (a GORGEOUS shopping complex - not hard to find in KL), followed by some drinks at the Village Bar. Some other special and memorable things we did while in Kuala Lumpur include: Visiting the Batu Caves and climbing all the steps to the top (all the while trying not to get attacked by macaque monkeys!); Shopping at the Petaling Street Market and Sungei Wang; Visiting Masjid Jamek; Sipping tea at the Old China Cafe; and of course, Walking across the Tower Skybridge (on the 41st floor) of the Petronas Towers!
We hope you've enjoyed the stories and pictures of our Malaysian Truly Asian adventure!
Love,
Larry & Melanie
>>>WE ARE SO EXCITED THIS BLOG HAS BEEN NOMINATED<<<
This
blog has been nominated for a Tourism Travel Blog by the innaugural Malaysia International Tourism Bloggers Conference & Awards 2012 (MITBCA 2012). The awards are hosted by the Malaysian Ministry of Tourism and they are trying to encourage bloggers from around the world. Currently we are in the top three of our category and truly hope to be selected as the winner of the Tourism Travel Blogs.
Malaysia was, with out a doubt, one of our favorite and memorable trips. My wife and I had such an amazing experience and loved the diversity we experienced while in Malaysia, from the jungles of Taman Negara to the secluded Perhentian Islands to the exquisite cuisines of Penang, and ending with the shopping mecca which is Kuala Lumpur. That trip was truly one of our favorites. Ever since we saw the "Malaysia Truly Asia" commercials here in Seoul, we vowed to visit. Now we've vowed to return.
If you want to look at all of the amazing blogs, you can visit there website:
http://mitbca.com/index.php If you like our blog, you can vote for it under the section. Hopefully, we'll be blogging about our return trip to
Ratan
What Tarzan used to swing around on... Malaysia in a couple of weeks.
THANKS FOR THE VOTES
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Bill O.
non-member comment
Very....
that is awesome....! Keep it coming!