To the Oldest of Jungles
We woke up once again really early to catch the minibus to Taman Negara. There was no one besides us at the travel agency when we got there and we wondered if someone would actually pick us up. Inna was a bit grumpy because she hadn't had her breakfast so she went to buy some for us. We didn't have much time and I didn't want to miss the bus because of food :). She made it in time though and it sure was better than not having food at all!
The bus trip to the edge of the national park of Taman Negara took about three hours. The weather was nice and most of the time I was listening to two British teachers on the front seat. I especially liked the way she told our driver how much she liked the wild jungles around (We were driving through palm oil plantations).
Like I think I've already mentioned, Taman Negara is considered to be the oldest tropical rainforest in the world. The forest is located almost in the center of Peninsular Malaysia and covers an area of over four thousand square kilometers. If you're lucky enough, you might have an encounter with an elephant, a rhinoceros or even a tiger!
The hot beach
To enter the national park we had to pay five ringgits per camera and one ringgit per person. The trip we had purchased in Tanah Rata included a boat trip to a nice small town of Kuala Tahan at the edge of the park. The boat we used had roughly a dozen people on it and it was long, narrow and fast. We had a relatively comfortable place for sitting or lying on the bottom and the water was so close you could actually touch it! The view around didn't change much during the three-hour trip, just green vegetation and brown water all around. In about half way we had a short pee break on a sandy beach. The sand was so damned hot that I had real troubles getting back to the boat without frying my feet!
Eventually we arrived at the "harbour" of Kuala Tahan. The harbour consisted of a few floating restaurants on the river bank and we stopped in one of them. At the restaurant one of the workers explained us some basic things about the town and the park and tried to sell us their excursions. After asking around a bit we decided not to buy anything and started searching for accommodation.
Aaah! Mosquito nets!
Surprisingly many guest houses and bungalows were either closed, full or too expensive for us. Luckily there still was something to choose from and we took a real jungle-style dormitory room for ten ringgits per person. The room had four beds in it but it was empty when we arrived. The roof was made of thin, corrugated iron and there was a huge gap between the ceiling and the walls. I guess a tiger could have easily fit itself through there :). The best thing was that the beds had pre-installed mosquito nets in them. I really, really have to buy a mosquito net for our next trip!
Quite soon after settling in the room it started raining outside. This time the rain wouldn't stop at all and we decided postpone going to the jungles for the next day. Instead we walked around the town and realized there wasn't much to see, but we found some food at least. Before sleeping we talked with the manager of our guest house about the jungles and asked how to deal with the numerous leeches. He told us not to worry about them but I remembered the troubles a friend of mine had after visiting these jungles...
Chilling on the boat
The jungle didn't show its secrets to the river.
The trees were of many sizes and shapes.
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