Day 86 – Day 87, 14-15/5/2012
I was heading for some quality time on the beach, but the possibility of visiting the world’s oldest rainforest convinced me to make a stop in Taman Negara – which translates as “National Park”.
Some people had told me that it is an amazing place, and that I’ll be eaten by leeches. Inspiring, so I decided to give it a chance, though after having heard so many stories about the Perhentian islands, I was tempted to head to the beaches as soon as possible. Starting from Malacca and 2 buses later we had arrived in a town from which we could take a boat upriver to the park – sure, being in a small wooden boat and boating through a national park in a brown river was exciting! For about the first 20 minutes. The boat journey took 3 hours.
We were one of the last boats to arrive at about 6pm, so I was worried that all accommodation would be full. Luckily, there was a dorm bed available for 1 night in the first place where I asked, so I stayed there and then went on searching for a hostel for the other nights I was planning to stay there. Well, this was one of the cases were Lonely Planet had listed almost all accommodation options, and there weren’t many. I realised how lucky I was to have found a place in the first hostel, because everything else was full. I found a bed for the next night – the water pump in this place had gotten broken on that day, so noone was staying there, but the owner was saying he’d fix it next day. Ok.
I’m not sure what I expected from a lodge in a national park, but one thing was clear – it was bloody boring, as the only entertainment were grasshoppers, beetles and termites. Then I got locked out of my room – the other guy who was staying in it had taken the key and gone for a walk. Perfect. It took 15 minutes for one of the staff members to try out most of the unlabeled keys from a tin jar until he found a key that fit. Talk about efficiency.
On the next day I teamed up with the guy from my dorm and his friends who were staying in another place, and we decided to try out the famous Canopy Walk – it’s one of the main attractions in the national park. It’s a walkway built among the canopies of the trees – at some places even 45m high. I was surprised at how easy it was; even more so as I’m not the biggest fan of heights, unless it’s a mountain and I’ve got skis. I didn’t see any animals during the walk, but the walking part to get to and from the walkway was entertaining enough – mud, mud and more mud. I didn’t encounter any leeches, but the mud was enough.
We were told that there nearby is also a nice swimming place in the river, but when we found it, it seemed less than calling us for a swim (who wants to swim in brown and murky water after you’ve spent weeks in turquoise waters). By then it was barely midday, and we were running out of options of what to do. It was too late to go on a one day trek (and too muddy, come to that). Because of some construction works we were told that the path to the nearest hilltop (with, they say, stunning views over the park) was dangerous and we shouldn’t go there. The nearest bat cave was closed because of a rock that is blocking the entrance, but the other bat cave was accessible only on a 2 day trek that involves sleeping in the jungle (and the trek involves walking at least ankle deep in sticky much, which I was neither morally nor equipment-wise prepared for). Other options included an ultra-touristic visit to a local village, which would be fake and the village people wouldn’t see any money out of it anyway. At this point I started seeing more and more mental images of white sanded beaches and turtles, and I started reconsidering the amount of days I should spend in the park. Oh right, I forgot to mention that it felt like a wet sauna in the forest – you didn’t even need to do any exercise to be covered in sweat as if you’ve just stepped out of a hot shower.
After some more walking around, absorbing the different trees and mud, and a long lunch (yellow noodles is the keyword for having the same noodles that they put in the chinese section in menus in India), and I moved to my new hostel. The owner was still fixing the water, so I was still the only guest in the hostel with a vague hope that I’d actually get to have a shower. In the evening I went on a night jeep safari – we were driven around an palmoil plantation in a jeep and a guy was pointing a huge lantern at the surroundings, hoping to spot something alive. We were lucky enough to see 2 palm civets, 2 leopardcats and 2 owls, plus many huge butterflies and an infinity of fireflies. Then in started raining and the sky was illuminated by lightning – a lot of it. Overall it was an interesting experience, and I’m also glad I did a jeep safari instead of the other option – night walk, where people got all covered in mud and spend their time with various insects. Thankyouverymuch, I have fine dreams even without going insect-spotting in the jungle.
When I finally got back to my hostel, the water had been fixed and I had 2 more dorm mates. I had seen enough of jungle and there was no need for me to stay here longer. Let’s leave rainforests to their natural inhabitants, and move on to something more fitting my taste. Beach.
Chapatis, curries, rooftops and holy cows 