Taman Negar-argh!!

Hello enthralled reader,

So we arrived safely in Taman Negara and headed to Tembeling River View Chalets where we had reserved two dorm beds. This was possibly a little unnecessary as we swiftly realised we were the only people there. There was a good reason for this - it was minky, minky, minky, MINKY with multiple capitals. We decided, charitabley I feel, to stay there for a night and it was a night of fear. Well for me anyway.

Since reaching Malaysia we have become familiar with an extremely loud, high-pitched, whirry, squealy noise. This is the noise emited by the huge (about 8cm), hard shelled, evil looking Cikada bug. Although I said we were the only people at Tembeling River View we were far from the only occupants. Millions of these bugs spent their time whizzing around, making frighteningly loud crashing noises into the side of our dorm. Plus our front wall wasn't quite finished (there was a three foot gap between roof and wall) which enable the winged critters to launch themselves into our room and thwack against our mosquito net. The little darlings liked light, it turned out, and most of the light to be found was in the unpleasant outdoor toilets which were too scary to use in the dark but too crowded to use in the light. Eeeeeeeeeeeeee.

So we moved the following morning to the delightful Ekoton chalets where we were soon joined by Andy, the Canadian we met in Cameron, and two Swedes, Anna and Erik. Using my skills and charm I managed to blag us all a three ringgit discount per person per night! Yes I know, I am truly talented.

I know you are all probably thinking that you have heard the highlight of the trip what with the bugs and all but there was way more fun to be had. If any of you come to Malaysia and don't come to Taman Negara and spend the night in a hide in the rainforest then you will miss out on what has been probably the highlight of my trip.

Anna, Erik, Andy, Dave and I provisioned ourselves with water, baked beans, pringles, tinned pineapple and several assorted boxes of children's breakfast cereal (Dave's choice) and set off fearlessly into the jungle. We were staying at Bumbun Kumbang, a hide five hours walk from the park head quarters. That may not sound far but in the heat and humidity of the Malaysian rainforest it's quite far enough actually. Setting off after lunch we arrived at around 6 ish with a few hours of daylight remaining.

We hoped this would give us time to settle ourselves quietly into the hide before any of the nieighbourhood wildlife came out to visit the salt lick. Unfortunately we were not to be the only ones using the hide that night. There was a group of seven people who had been out on a three day hike and were working their way back to the park HQ. You would have thought anyone who could be bothered to spend two nights in the rainforest with no amenities or alternative distractions would be mostly interested in what the rainforest had to offer. Apparently not. They, well the two aussies anyway, were mostly interested in being as loud and as irritating as possible so any chances of us seeing any wildlife were quickly seen off. We did see quite a lot of rats, as the smells of the other group's illegal camp stove (you are not allowed to use one within 1km of the hide) lured them in.

Now all that ranting might make it sound like I didn't enjoy myself but I did. When they were quiet the sounds of the rainforest were amazing and although we didn't see any animals we did see millions of fire flies and quite a few bats. Andy, Dave and I also went for a short walk into the forest after dark and stood listening to frogs and birds calling out to each other.

When the morning came we all felt weary from our previous days exertions so treated ourselves to a boat ride back (an adventure in itself) and a big breakfast/lunch of noodles, rice and mango juices. Mmmmm yummy.

The rest of time in Taman Negara was spent eating (we did a lot of this), drinking a variety of taste-tastic fruit juices, lazing around playing cards and preparing ourselves for Kuala Lumpur but I'll let Dave tell you about that.

More escapades soon.

Kat x