Taman Negara

    

 Imagine a lush forest that stretches up mountain tops, while sandwiched rivers and rivulets flow down from them. At night you hear thunder and hear pelting rain that comes down like hammers and swells the rivers the next day. The main river is rushing fast, churning and mixing soil, twigs and leaves into a brown soup. The water is not dirty or polluted, it is just full of rainforest. 

     Imagine trails winding through forests and hills with many gems hidden in the canopy of trees, the corners of caves, in tiny rippling fresh water streams to cool tired feet in, and the peaks of hills which open up to a vast display of mountains covered in tall trees beyond the reach of the eye. Though to see any wildlife like Tigers, Elephants, Sun Bears, Tapirs, Panthers, Leopard Cats, Wild boar, Cougars and other large mammals is unlikely, some a very rarely spotted, you know they are there and you are walking in there home. At times Kevin and I really wanted to see an elephant, but when we heard loud crashing trees, and I mean loud crashing, we darted down the path so fast in fear that we'd be trampled by a large angry  elephant. Of course, this is also probably unlikely, but when you are in unfamiliar land you have to be on your guard.  

     The first day we happened into the park, an older couple from Holland told us that an elephant had passed through the resort and trampled all the banana trees and shrubs. They saw one of the caretakers with his hands in prayer asking the gods that the elephant would not destroy any more of the garden. A few days later, a man told us that a guide had said that because it was mating season and the elephant was older, maybe it was his way of showing his power to make up for his inability to fight other elephants. Of course, this was all speculation. The guide at park headquarters told us that the same elephant comes only one time around the same time every year. Too bad we weren't staying in the resort that night, but it was way beyond our budget to sleep there, even in the hostel. So we had to make do with stories and footprints.

     At the moment I am sitting in a bamboo hut, it is actually made of bamboo, except for the tin roof triangle above us. I am looking from a small window that is next to my bed. I can relax and hear and see the sky and trees within its view. What I mostly hear are rosters Coack-a-doodle-dooing outside, and sometimes a bid chirping, or a bug buzzing if it happens to get inside. There is also the constant sound of the fan, though we have become so used to its sound we have tuned it out.

     The forest has so many distinct sounds and sometimes I wish we had binoculars so that we could see what is making all those noices. 

     There are insects that are the size of your index finger that buzz really loudly. There are the high pitched tiny bugs that like to biiiiizzzz near your head and drive you somewhat crazy. 

     There is so much colour in a rainforest. The greens and browns mixed with sunlight and shade are so soothing to look at. The flowers, birds and butterflies are extremely colourful when you see them from time to time. Even the insects can be turquoise blue, like the dragon flies here. I have even become found of this large insect the millipede. They are not poisonous, but the centipedes are. Beware of the centipedes.   

     Anyways, I want to talk about how we got to Taman Negara. Kevin and I left Kota Baru via the Jungle Tain at 7:15 am. The train was on time and when it arrived at the station, we saw the conductor driving a very old rusty locomotion with black smoke coming out of its toot. It made the "toot-toot" sound as it entered the station. We seated  ourselves in a freezing air coned coach and took out our blanket and opened the window for warmth. When the train started moving people opened the door that was situated between the coaches so that they could smoke and watch the scenery blur by. I fell asleep while Kevin listened to an audiobook, we had after all just woken up at 6:00 and I was felling a bit sick. 

     Sometimes the train would jerk from side to side and it woke me up. It sometimes felt like we would come off the tracks. Sometimes the train would suddenly stop and sit there on the tracks for 15 minutes before it went forward again. At first the scenery was mostly plantations and unimpressive farmland, but then, as we proceeded forward the farms looked more and more like they were part of the jungle landscape. There were lots of trees and rivers and not the mundane plantation crop that continued like a flat prairie landscape forever into the distance. Here was something that I wanted to soak in and keep in my memory. There were cliffs, rivers, rivulets all overgrown with trees. Houses nestled between the forest and a man herding cows, wearing only a simple sarong and carrying a hearding stick. It almost seemed like that back in time place that so many tourist look for and say they find in Laos and Myanmar. Kevin and I stood near the open door, held on to something as the train jerked from time to time, and watched the landscape pass us by and felt the warm fresh air on our bodies.

     The train ride was a good 6 hours, but it seemed a lot faster. Later, at this hostel in Taman Negara, I came across an old travel guide for Malaysia, on the front cover of it was a picture of the forest line. 

It was unbelievable. I took a picture of it because I was so astonished. Though currently still covered in forest, it was no longer primary forest  as it was in this picture, it is amazing to see how much we can alter the landscape. The book was published in 1996, it was in German, so the picture may have been taken about fifteen years ago. Sadly, a lot can change in fifteen years.

     We arrived in Jerantut, ate some food at the train station. It was good, but the people were somewhat friendly, giving you a weird your a foreigner look. We got to our hostile, called Sri Emas, it was so cheap, only 15 RM a night for a descent, clean room with a fan. We had a room to ourselves for 4 canadian dollars. We were amazed. So we went out, after a nap, since I was feeling a bit sick and feverish, and ate some Roti Canai and drank some cold Milo and Iced Tea, a popular drink all over Malaysia. Then we walked around town. Jerantut is a very simple town, small and not much to do. But it was nice to relax and just wander. When we had dinner, we enjoyed the company of many little cats we tried to befriend. We spotted a few moths the size of our hands! We enjoyed some more drinks and night market food, Kevin ate a "double special burger" which was wrapped in an egg. He quiet enjoyed it. I ate a disappointedly small, that was supposed to be large, set of fries from KFC. I know, but they are very yummie here, because they mix them with a kind of cheesy gravy. But they are expensive compared to other food in Malaysia, and their portion of the delicious fritters are for people with the appetite of a bird. 

     When we got back to the hostel, we sat down and chatted with the man, we forgot his name, who was working in the lobby. He was very friendly. We talked about travel. He told us how if you lived in Indonesia for a while you would also be able to speak Malay, because the languages are so similar. We also talked about how you should be careful before you assume that people may not speak the language. He said he could speak a bit of french and Italian, and he would talk to the people in french after they spoke in front of him, assuming he knew nothing of what they were saying.  

     We left for Taman Nigara by taking a shuttle bus from the hostel, that was 5RM each, and then a two and a half hour boat ride down the Sungai Tembling (River) to Kuala Tahan, which is a village that ferries people across the river from the town to the entrance into the park. 

The Sungai Tembling river is a wide river with rainforest on either side. It is brown because of all the soil that rushes into the river from the forests. The boat was made entirely of wood and we sat on the bottom with some cushions. It was all very wonderful until I realized I really needed to go to the bathroom, and there  were no pit stops along the way. At every bend in the river I hopelessly hoped for the jetty to show itself. But alas, it took about 45 minutes of very uncomfortable "I am going to pee my pants before we get there" sort of feeling. I rushed off the boat and up the hill as soon as we arrived, leaving Kevin with all the bags, frantically looking for a bathroom. I can't tell you how happy I was to find one.

     Then I went back down to the jetty and realized that Kevin was not there. As it happens, I had not gone to the public bathroom which is were Kevin went. Luckily we found each other shortly after I ran frantically about looking for him. 

     Then we went out on a hostile search. The Tahan hostel charged about 50 a night so we went down the way to the Durian Chalet, which is were we stayed for half the price. It is a march from the chalet into town, but well worth it because it is like staying in Rainforest Paradise without all the bugs and the traffic from town.

     After checking in, we made our way to Park Head quarters and got a map. We decided to do a small track, half-way up a trail, as it was already two o'clock and its not a good idea to be in the forest after six o'clock because it gets very dark.  So there we were, in our running shoes, stepping off the well trodden path and into the jungle. Well, the first thing we noticed was the mud. Mud mud mud, that sinks up to your ankles and into your socks. And you have to be careful not to slip and fall face first into it either. The farthest I fell was on my butt, which luckily landed on a log so I wasn't all brown. Also, it is humid, not a little humid, its like a steam room, or a steam bath, or thick, unrelenting sweat inducing place that renders you soaked in minutes. So we slipped and swam our way through humidity, mud and bugs. But the forest itself was very beautiful with the sounds of the river and the birds. On the trail we saw huge pats of poop and I saw something that looked like huge, and i mean huge, footprints that looked like it came from an elephant. Maybe it was wishful thinking, but the poop was definitely not. So we walked in hope that maybe we might spot an elephant. Alas we did not, but when we reached Lubok Simpon, which we later found out you can swim in the river here (there are no leeches, crocs, or pirannas as the man at park headquarters jockingly listed), we saw some monkeys. A guide, who was barefoot, had spotted them, and some French tourists showed us their leeches wounds.  We kept on trotting until we had to turn back. We walked maybe about one and a half kilometers, though this does not seem far, in jungle terms it can be very far. 

     The next day we hiked to the Canopy walk. Well, when Kevin started walking, after reaching the next tree he had to turn back because it was too high. I must admit even my heart was racing and I am not afraid of heights. We decided to split up and meet at the end. Luckly, Kevin was waiting for me near the halfway point, because to my great annoyance, most of the walk was closed. I had finished walking it in 10 minutes. I was very upset because I had such great expectations. But I was unlucky this time, but at least Kevin didn't have to worry about me being so high for too long. He was happy. 

     Then we decided to hike up a "hill", as it says on the map, to a place called Bukit (which means hill) Teresek which was about 2km from park head quarters, or .9 km from the canopy walk. Okay, now this may sound like a cake walk with "hill" and .9 km, but it was not, in fact it was the hardest hike in terms of steep that we had in since we can remember walk. Think about a 70 degree incline, with the help of a rope (thank god), but you had to scale over trees and through slippery mud and sometimes see at your side how high you are from the ground. Though the trees would bloke your fall, they are pointy, some thorny, and falling onto them would be very painful. So we focused on our steps, sweating profusely, and finally made it to the summit. This is the view we saw:

     We sat, ate our cookies that we bought at the mini mart and drank lots of water.  Just before we made our decent we said "high" to a group of Germans who went ahead of us. So we made the steep decline down the hill. Our bodies were shaky by this point, but we felt exhilarated. Then we heard, about half-way down wing beats. But they were huge wings, you could tell from the sound. Then we saw the tail of a horn bill. It maybe was a Rhinocerus Hornbill which are the rarest Hornbills. You can tell if they are the Rhinocerus Hornbills by their size and the shape of their beak. 

     We admired it, but it new we were watching and it flew away. We kept decending and then realized that we could not find the path. It rounded about and then back to where we started. So we either had to turn around or rejoin the path that was somewhere out of sight. Now the worst thing to do would be to get lost, if it is anything like what Bill Bryson says about getting lost on the Appalahian trail, then wed be in serious trouble. Sometimes paths seem like paths, but in  fact they are not. The trail we were on was not very well marked, so we relied on footprints. I made a sort of trail using strips of pink plastic bag, which we had in our backpack, and wrapped them around the tree stumps to mark our trail in case we got lost. Luckl, after only about 5 minutes, we found the trail again. We were very relieved. When we made it down to the bottom of the "hill" which joined with the trail we had done yesterday. We decided we were still up for more hiking, since we had time and we were familiar with the trail heading back. We asked some hikers if the trail to Bumbun (which means hide) Tabin was easy and they said yes. So we continued. Here are some photos:

When we made it to the hide, we looked inside. We wanted to see what we were in for if we choose to spend the night at Bumbun Kumbang in a few days time. The hides look like this: Wooden beds, nothing special in the least, a window with benches near them to spot nocturnal animals, a toilet (to our surprise) and even a shower, though we weren't sure it they worked. On the floor was lots of poop from all the night visitors that come into the hide. A new Zealand couple saved they had a mouse runs across them and the man said he saw a huge rat, about a foot and a half, excluding the tail. Well, this is sort of what we expected, because it was similar at Uncle Tans, except we had no mosquito net to protect us.

     After looking at the hide we walked balk to park headquarters jus in time to be out of the jungle by 6 ockclock, but before that we stopped at Lubok Simpon, they had some benches. Kevin took off his socks and saw to his dismay very bloody ankles. As it happens, there are lots and lots of leaches in Taman Negara and they really bite. They also really make you bleed, there must be something in their bit that stops you from bleeding. I took of my socks and was disappointed to find no leaches, except for one crawling on top of my shoe. I had not been leached. I filled up the water bottle from the river and Kevin washed and bandaged his leech wounds. I put my feet in the river and really wished to swim, but i wasn't sure if there were crocs (as we had not asked park headquarters about this fear yet). Too bad, because swimming was entirely okay there. Sniff Sniff. I just imagine now, I am floeting on my back in the cold water, looking up at the trees canopying the sky and looking for monkeys or Hornbills and I was nice and cool in the water.

That night our shower felt so good and our food tasted delicious. 

The next day was another adventure of an entirely different sort, though not so pleasant unfortunately. Kevin and I set out full of ambition and pride, ready to hike any trail we felt like. We decided to take one more day hike before doing the overnight one in the hide. So we went to Gua (which means cave) Telinga. The guide at park headquarters said it was nay easy trail, though we could not go into the cave because it was closed. This was okay because we didn't intend to go into it alone anyways. But before, I asked him some questions and as it turns out there are lots of mammals in the rainforest that we though were not. That means, tigers, black panthers, leopards, cougars, and sun bears. The kind of mammals you would not  want to meet in the jungle. I asked him if he had ever seen a tiger and he said twice, but from the boat. That is how i would love to see a tiger, but confronting it on the path, no so much. So when we set out on this trail, we were not so ignorant and hence a bit more frightened. As it happens, the trail we choose was not a popular one, so we were almost entirely alone. The entrance to the trail, however, was beautiful:

The first part was very steep, but the worst part was the leeches. Oh my God, where there ever a lot of them. YOu could seem them advancing towards your shoe when you stopped to take a break. They were everywhere. They marched up to us like Yogi bear would march up to a pick nick basket. 

     We met a group of people who spoke French and English and we asked if we could join them. So we had company when we walked to the cave. All of us stopping every five minutes to flick of the leaches that had attached themselves to us. When we reached the cave, it was very small, this is what we saw. 

     Kevin and I were still ready to keep hiking, so we spilt up from the group and continued on to the Bumbun Blau hide a kilometre away. Well, now that we were alone we were feeling a bit scared again and this part of the jungle was even thicker. Kevin also said he was feeling sick, about halfway through the trail, so we were getting worried. Then we heard the biggest crash int he trees. It was probably an elephant or a falling tree, but the crash was so loud we walked to se fast hoping to get to the hide to rest before heading back. We finally reached the hide and Kevin was not feeling any better. We saw a local, probably a guide or from the village walking in the direction of a sign that said "Jetty 800m". Kevin and I decided to maybe try and catch the Jetty back because Kevin wasn't feeling well. So we walked another 800m, which is far, and the time was advance to almost four o'clock. We decided to wait 20 minutes, but nothing came. We had to leave, because we did not want to be stranded in the jungle. It was not so fun anymore. Luckily Kevin was feeling a bit better, so we started to make our way back. much to my annoyance, once we were our of sight of the Jetty, I heard the boat. It made me so upset, but we had to keep going because we weren't even sure if they would stop there for us anyways. We walked so fast, let me tell you. We were afraid because of all the noises we were hearing, that we only had two hours to make it back before dar, and we could hear thunder in the distance. We walked, forgetting about the leaches for most of the way. Breathed with relief when we made it to the trail we had walked with the Germans, because it was mostly flat and easy to walk. When we made it to the mean hill we were also relieved because it was near the entrance of the trail. We were almost there. We drank some water, flicked off some leaches, Kevin has a very professional way of flick ing them off, it is very affective, and we walked up the bitch hill. I very rarely swear, but that is what it felt like and there is no other way to describe it under our circumstances. Finally we made it to the actually river crossing. We caught a boat back, washed our feet in the river, drank some 100 Plus and relaxed in our hostel room after a shower.                     

     Unfortunately, Kevin was still sick and we were both getting worried. I had had a small fever before, but Kevin was gonna get one too, and a fever is always scary when you are in Asia. We ate dinner and Kevin relaxed. The next day we went to the clinic and the doctor checked Kevin and said he was fine, he had a cold. His fever was not very high to be of concern. So he had some cold medication to take. We are sitting at our hostel now relaxing. We cannot do the hike to the hide, but maybe another time.

I am sort of sad, but I am happier that Kevin is fine and that we made it out of that crazy hike. It just goes to show that you need to be careful, and that it takes good planning and good decisions to hike in a jungle. I think, sometime in the future maybe we will come here, just for Taman Negara. Spend a month here, learning slowly about the rainforest, spending the money to take guides and then maybe, do longer treks when we are ready. It is an amazing place to be and there is so much here that one life time would be only enough to glimpse a small part of this amazing environment.

With regret I say goodbye to Taman Negara, and I hope to see more rainforest like it. 

A City of Believers?

The boat ride was much better on the way back to Kota Besut and we did not feel nearly so happy to be off it when we arrived in the port.  We were assaulted by the usual "Teksi, Sir!"s all the way down the pier.  We said no thank you a number of times.  The bus stop was not far away and we asked some one at an express bus terminal when the next bus to Kota Bharu was.  It was in an hour apparently so we decided to have breakfast in the meantime (well second breakfast as we had gotten so little of our first).  Of course roti was on sale somewhere and so was coffee and we ended up having a much cheaper breakfast (6RM) than we had had in the previous 5 days.  Unfortunately when we  returned we found out that the bus had just left (an hour my foot!).  When we had found this out we were greeted by fresh waves of "Teksi sir?"s or "Where you go?"s.  To answer this last question I said, "bas 96".  They left at that and left us alone for the hour and half that we ended up waiting for the local bus to Kota Bharu.  Fortunately it was in the shade.  When the bus arrived and the fair turned out to be 4RM a person (compared to the 50RM offered by the teksis), we decided it was worth the wait.

Kota Bharu is the capital of the most conservatively Muslim state of Malaysia.  The Lonely Planet informed us that it more stringently enforced sharia'a law and couples had been fined for holding hands (this being publicly indecent), or women for wearing somewhat revealing clothing (also publicly indecent).  This law of course only applies to Muslims so travellers were not to be bothered, unless they too were Muslim.  Still it did seem to be a good place to be more conservative in our own dress and actions.  It also turned out to be one of the least English speaking states.

When we arrived we found ourselves immediately lost and the Lonely Planet map was of little use.  After asking about for what was probably an hour we found the guesthouse we were looking for.  Unfortunately no one was there and we did not want to wait around.  We found our second option much quicker and in a much quieter area.  This one was run by two Chinese men, one older, one younger they were possibly father and son.  It was called The Ideal Travellers House and it actually was ideal.  The price was 30RM for a double and it had a balcony.  We've found that the places in Malaysia that were the cleanest and cheapest were usually run by Chinese people.  This was certainly the case here.  After settling in we decided to explore town and get some food.  Food was the first order of business and we found it at a place called Mohammed Lee's Chicken rice.  The food was great and the owner (presumably Mohammed Lee) came over and greeted everyone who came in warmly, including us.  I unfortunately ordered chicken with Thai spice and while I enjoyed it immensely my mouth was numb with spice for the next hour and my face was hot from it.  I still say it was great though.

Kota Bharu was very hot that day and we tried to find some indoor sort of activities.  Unfortunately all of the museums were closed that day and the only one that was somewhat open was closing by the time we got to it.  This was a place called the Kraftigan and was an exhibition of the local art styles.  We came upon a small shop, inside the Kraftigan compound, that we saw some other tourists leaving and went in.  It was an art stall for a batik painter named Zecsman, who also did batik classes.  We looked at the art and Nancy struck up a conversation with Zecsman about batik.  We decided that we would come back the next day and perhaps buy some painting.  In the meantime we were chase back to the guest house by the continual heat and a new threat of rain.  I picked up 1000 Splendid Suns by the Kite Runner guy and Nancy started on The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.  I got 117 pages into 1000 Splendid Suns before we left Kota Bharu (I'm borrowing it from you when I get home mom), but we couldn't trade as Nancy hadn't finished the Dog in the Night-Time.

Kota Bharu purportedly has the best night market in Malaysia, but when we arrived later that night it did not seem very big or great.  We did have some tasty treats but overall we were a little disappointed in the whole affair.

The next  morning we had a cheap breakfast from the guest house, prepared by the older man and went off to the laundry mat.  It was a Chinese run "laundrette" and they said they would have it done by 9 that night.  I think we hadn't walked 20 minutes before losing the laundry slip.

The Istana Raja was our first destination and it was in a traditional old building of wood.  It chronicled the wedding ceremonies and other ceremonies done by the nobility in Kelantan (the state KB is the capital of).  The exhibits we neat and enlightening, though on reflection I cannot remember very much of the content.  I do remember that after a child was born the princess has be massaged and take hot baths everyday for the next two months to help her "regain her fitness".  We next went to the Istana Batu, which was a more personal museum to the father of the current sultan of Kelantan.  It was actually in the house that the previous sultan had lived when he was the prince.  There were a lot of personal effects and great deal of information about the sultan's (and sultana's) education, background and interests.  Also, left as though they hadn't been gone too long, their bedrooms, studies, wardrobes, the sultan's hat collection etc.

A quick note on the sultans.  Most Malaysian states have sultans (as most Malaysian states were sultanates at one point).  The sultans of these states take turns being the sultan of Malaysia, they switch every 5 years.  I think this give them a bit of veto power, but I'm not really sure.  I think their main power is to declare national parks and marine parks.  Which is nice.

The Istana Raja (no cameras allowed inside).

We got need up back at Zecsman and while looking at painting we struck up a conversation with an older Italian couple who were also looking at the paintings.  They were from Venice and had been travelling on and off for the past 20 years.  They were big fans of Laos, Myanmar and India for potential destinations, but were less so of Malaysia thus far (they had arrived about a week before).  After we parted company and picked out our paintings, we asked about some of the other cultural activities.  Zecsman, who was closing up shop at the time, offered to show us to the cultural centre and introduce us to the guide there, his friend Roslan (a man).  As we walked Zecsman told us a bit more about the area.  His English wasn't that great but I think we caught the gist of what he was saying for the most part.  Kelantan on the whole did not like to have immigrants in the state, if we understood him correctly, it is apparently illegal to move to Kelantan, even from other Malaysian states.  Perhaps they were even thinking of forming their own country, though I'm not sure if this is what Zecsman meant.  Also all the bird song that we were hearing throughout the city was largely recordings to attract birds to make nests in the area.  These nests (made entirely of bird spit) could be harvested to make bird's nest soup.  Largely they were sold to mainland Chinese people.

We arrived at the cultural centre and Zecsman pointed out his friend who waved us over.  Zecsman departed back the way we came after pointing out an alternative route for us to use upon our exit.

Roslan had us sit down, we were apparently just in time, afternoon prayers had finished and the silat was about to begin.  Silat is Mayasian martial arts and we were shown a long demonstration of it to music.  Two men circle each other slowly back and forth and occasionally put each other in holds.  It was a neat thing to watch and we even took a video that turned out alright.

Can't seem to add the video though.

Next we were shown to the big drums and watched as 8 of them were played by two people per drum.  They asked for volunteers to try them out:

We both had fun beating the drum but our hands hurt afterwards.  Not for the uncalluosed hands they were.

The last part of the cultural show was the top spinning, which we could not get pictures of, because the action happened way too fast.  Basically, a guy twisted a long rope around a 4kg "top" (which looked like a weight for bench pressing), the rope was attached to his wrist and he held the top in the same hand.  Then he stood in front of another guy, who sat crouching not far away and hold a small wooded spoon like thing.  The guy with the top then threw the top and pulled the rope in one fluid motion.  The top flew at the guy with the spoon who caught it on the bottom (which was all flat) with the spoon.  The top spun on top of the spoon until they could get a proper bottom on it.  Then they placed the whole contraption in a horizontal slatted piece of wood.  Roslan told us that the tops could spin for another 4 hours before it stopped.  At one point the top spinner missed the catcher (who had to dive quickly out of the way) and the top crashed into and knocked over some chairs.

As we walked home we noticed that the stadium parking lot across the road was quite crowded.  We wandered over to find out what was going on.  Apparently the KB soccer team was in the semifinals of the nation league.  We were seriously tempted to buy a ticket to the game as well, but we realized that if we went to it, we would not be able to get to the forest rail on time the next day and hence be unable to leave.  Also we were getting a lot of funny looks from the soccer fans as we were inquiring about the tickets (this helped in the decision).

We had dinner at a vegetarian place that was quite good and we ran into the Italians again.  We had another long chat with them.  The woman worked for an engineering company and the man was a civil servant.  When we asked what exactly he did as a civil servant he said not much.  "Lots of reading done; some darts…"  He also got 35 days of holiday time a year.  Lucky guy.  We talked also about books and they suggested that we read some books by an Italian travel author and journalist named Tiziano Terzani.  The one they specifically mentioned was called "A Fortune Teller Told Me".  We kept it in mind and when we returned to KL we found it in a book store in KL and bought it.

After we parted ways we realized that we had forgotten to pick up our laundry and dashed to the laundrette.  They gave us our laundry despite not having our receipt, but took our names and passport number just in case.  As we did not have our passports with us we took out our Taiwan ARC to get the number and the girl there asked how long we had lived in Taiwan.  She had gone to university in Taiwan (Tainan to be precise).  We got laundry and headed home to pack.  As we had to wake for 6 we did not get much in the way of sleep, especially since we had nothing to wake ourselves up with.

Paradise Island

     Kevin had a craving for swimming and I still had not quenched my love for snorkelling, so off to the Perhentians we went. We took a bus to Jertih because there was no direct bus to Kuala Besut, which is where we had to go to catch the ferry. The bus ride was relaxing because the driver was actually driving as if he was riding a bus and not a mini car. It was nice. I read A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson and Kevin finished The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Hadden. Currently we are reading much sadder books, which we might write about later, but the books we were reading at the time, well at least mine, was very funny. Though it did not tame my environmentalist attitude in the least. There are many stories about trees, animals and birds being entirely wiped out because of human carelessness. America is no exception to this global problem. 

     When we got to Jerantut many taxi drivers stopped us, saying with absolute certainty "there is no bus to Kuala Besut". We told them we had things to do in Jerantut and would consider their advice. Of course, after getting to the bus station, and being persistent in saying we didn't want to take a taxi, we finally managed to catch a bus that went to Jerantut. We have learned never to trust anything a cab driver will say, its most likely a hogwash story he will concoct in order to get business from you. Don't trust a word a taxi driver will say about directions. I learned this lesson especially here in Penang. The taxi driver had said, "oh to take the ferry costs fifty ringet, its better to take a taxi, and the ferries only come ever two hours". Well, after going to the ferry we discovered that it in fact only costs one ringer and fifty cents and it came every half an hour. Like I said, don't trust them, they are very friendly but they still need business. I can imagine it to be a very hard business, being a taxi driver, and I understand they need to make a living and compete with all the other taxi drivers around. One day, when Kevin and i have more money, we will take taxis, but at the moment we are so limited that forty ringet is like forty dollars canadian to us. but taxi drivers do not understand this of backpackers it seems. Oh well.

     After waiting in the shade, it was incredibly hot that day, we started on our journey again. A young man offered us some gum and tried talking to us in English. He was very sweet, but his stop was near and he only seemed to want to make small talk. He was very friendly though. 

     As it turned out, we had to transfer to another local bus to get to our destination, this wasn't so bad, but we were a bit weary and didn't want to move because it was so hot. We waited at the bus station and drank some 100PLUS and ate some unlabled potato chips and coconut cookies (very sweet cookies). As we waited a man on a motor bike stopped to talk to Kevin, he shook his hand and asked him if he was Muslim. We were a bit surprised by this, I was wearing my head bandana, so maybe that is why he though that? Anyhow, he asked Kevin where he was from. I have become used to this, Muslim men generally only greet men, so they usually only talk to Kevin unless I approach them. I don't mind, but it is sometimes funny that when I go to buy a ticket or something, the men will address me as "sir". I guess they are not used to addressing women. We have been told that Malay Muslim men will greet each other by covering each others hands, but only with men, they cannot touch a woman's hands. Sometimes, some men don't follow this custom, so we usually just go with how the people greet us.

     So we finally reached Kuala Besut and caught a boat to the smaller island, Pulau Kecit, the island with the cheapest accommodations. Being a bit weary about what the Lonely pLanet said about private boats, we asked some locals and ended up on a boat with some Malays from KL who seemed very hippy, some men had dred locks, and the girls did not wear headscarfs. 

     After waiting for some time, patience is something you need when using public transportation in Malaysia, we finally took the boat. Now this day the waves were not exactly small, but ignoring this fact and also that the boat was not exactly large, the driver decided to driver directly into the waves. The boat bumped like a car would if it drove some road in Cambodia without any shocks at high speed. The covering to the boat seemed to be coming at the hinges, and kept bouncing and tugging at them as we bounced our way through the water. We observed one smaller, one person boat, bumping almost vertical against the water. The driver was at the end of the toothpick like vessel, and his body seemed to be the only thing keeping it from flying directly up into the air. He seemed to jump over the waves, and sometimes it felt like we were doing the same. Kevin and I were sitting on a small seat in the centre of the boat, when the cushion sunk with thump to the ground of the boat. Our butts got stuck in-between the seat frame and our knees stuck out over our heads. Everybody burst out laughing, and we to could not help joining them. It was rather exciting, and painful, crashing through the waves.

     Finally we made it to the place we wanted to go called D'Lagoon. A little boat came to pick us up and it brought us to the little reception where lady offered us some orange juice as a welcome present. We got a room for 60RM a night. It was a bit pricier but we felt like having an attached bathroom. 

     Everything was very laid back. There was a zip cord you could take by climbing some rocks, a little floating dock you could swim too and a few trails around the place. We talked to a local man, who was British decent but born and raised in Malaysia. He had a very cool accent and could speak Mandarine as well. We had some long conversations with him over dinner about Malaysian sultans, asian drivers, scuba diving and such. He kept mentioning how he wanted to be a diving instructor again, as it felt like he was on holidays every day. He was currently working as a trainer for teacher in the Malaysian education system. He taught teachers the "western" style of teaching, which is the 'ideal' form of education for some people? 

     It was really beautiful to swim in the underwater world again. We 'hiked' to a small beach called Turtle beach about 10 minutes away. It was a beach out of time, fringed with palms and sparse jungle and the coral far from shore was beautiful. We saw huge Bow Head Parrot fish more than a meter long and perhaps a meter tall. They were gigantic, and we saw at least four of them. We saw Nemo, our favourite fish hiding in their little anenomies, spotted sting rays gliding along the bottom, hard and soft coral and so much more. The next day, with the advice from a French man "go to those rocks there, I just saw so many reef sharks, it is incredible", we saw some sharks. We had just finished snorkelling, but we ran back in the water in the direction he mentioned, telling our Swedish neighbours about them, so they joined us in the search. At first we didn't see them, then there one was. It looked just like in the pictures, but smaller. It was comforting to know that they only ate crabs and that they were no longer than half a meter, because they were so fast. The speed at which they turned was amazing. Soon we saw so many, at least 10 swimming here and there. You could tell by the way the other fish were swimming too that sharks were in the area. 

     On the third day we hiked to "Adam and Eve" beach, which was about a twenty minute walk through the low jungle, and it too was very beautiful. We swam along the rocky shore, observing crabs running along the surface of the rock near the water and below we saw how the water shone light about the rocks and coral and found tiny fish and little hidden areas, protected from deep water with tiny fish here and there. It was like being a child exploring the hidden nokes between rocks. 

To Turtle beach

     We saw another sting Ray and Kevin spotted a larger shark in the distance. We were a bit scared to go to deep because we didn't know what was out there and our Malay friend had told us he had seem giant trigger fish, and these, we also agreed were scary, because they do attack people and they have large teeth. Just before we left the beach, a reef shark, almost longer than a meter came right up to the shore line.

     Later that night we sat on the darkened beach and discovered to our amazement an army of hermit crabs, in all sizes. Kevin also saw tiny little bioluminescent "things", we thought maybe jelly fish, being washed up onto the shore. They glowed a clear bright blue. It was so beautiful.

     The next day we hiked further towards the "windmill" which is actually a wind powered electricity generator. It was cool to see, but the hike, especially when we no longer were under the cover of the trees was unbearably hot. Sickeningly hot, heat stroke hot. But there was shade near the windmill and far below us we could see an abandoned jetty that was broken in two near the water. Near it was a beautiful bay of white water, and we really wanted to swim. We walked down, risking the fact that there may be no way to get into the water, but luckily found access into the water by the rocks, which were like steps into it. It was shallow and incredibly refreshing. We discovered a small cave between the giant rocks, but stale water was inside of it, because the water from the sea could not reach into it, and there was garbage and standing, stinky water. We just looked into it. When we wanted to climb back up the rocks, there was a pool surrounded by rocks that was unfortunately very deep and had a strong current. When I tried going in that way I almost got caught in the swirling water, but got out in time to find another way out of the water.

View at the top of the hill

After our hike in the shade

Stairs to the broken jetty

The view

"I dare say" said Kevin, "It's a windmill"

"What are you looking at?" said the monitor lizard.

     Other than relaxing on a hammock or swimming on a piece of wood tied to a sting hanging from a palm tree, we swam out to the floating dock near just in front of the hostel and relaxed while the water rocked us.

     We left on the fifth day with reluctance. Unfortunately, we ordered our breakfast at the time the boat was suppose to arrive, because we didn't expect the boat to be on time, nor did the staff for that matter. So when the boat arrived, on time, our breakfast was too hot to eat so we offered it to our british malay friend and left our little island paradise.

Lazy Days in Cherating

We got to the Tioman ferry at 7 AM, as the guy who sold us the ticket had said to do.  "You should be early, so we can load faster," he had told us less than 24 hours before.  So we were very much on time, if only the ferry had been so obliging.  They did not actually open the ferry waiting area until 8 and the ferry itself finally pulled up to the jetty at about 8:45.  Fortunately since everyone was well prepared for the ferry's arrival at this point, it did not take long to load up and the ferry was off before 9.  We put our bags down to claim some seats and made our way to the back of the boat again so as to sit outside.  Outside in this case was a cramped back deck that couldd seat maybe 10 people if they were skinny Malays.  We ended up sitting done just as some other foreigners came out.  They were unfortunately only out to smoke, though they did stay once they were finished.  After about 10 minutes though, the ferry pulled into, what's this: another jetty to pick up more people.  The captain seemed to be unsure as to which way to park at the jetty and the ferry moved in, the pulled back out then moved in again for about 15 minutes.  As it did, the sky opened up and rain began to pour.  From the back of the ferry we some good pictures of the rain on the Ocean:

The ferry finally found the right way in and again people quickly piled into it.  The rain got a lot worse and all us foreigners were chased back indoor.  Nancy and I got further reading done when we sat back in our seats.

The ferry docked at Mersing Jetty around 11:30 a full 2 hours later than it was supposed to, we were troubled by this as we had looked up bus schedules for our next destination and there was one at 12 that we were hoping to get.  By the time we were close to the bus station 12 had arrived and I'm fairly sure we saw the bus leave.  It was alright though, we had not eaten yet and did not like the idea of going for another (supposed) 3 hours without food.  We stopped and ate at (and we're not proud of this) KFC, which seems to be the biggest western chain in Malaysia (they are everywhere!).  After they gave us 3 small bags containing our modest meal for two, we decided that we could probably skip KFC next time, unless we were going to be eating in (even then..).

There were no direct buses to Cherating (our next destination) from Mersing so we had to take a bus to Kuantan and take a local bus from there.  When we inquired about the bus to Kuantan we were told the next one left at 5.  We did not want to wait 5 hours and then stay in Kuantan.  We asked at another place and they said that maybe the one at 1 was not full, but we would have to wait for the bus to arrive to find out.  So we sat down and waited, hoping for there to be room.  Fortunately an agent for the bus company arrive before the bus (which didn't arrive until 1:30) and asked us if we were going to Kuantan.  Presumably he had talked to lady at the counter.  He called the bus driver for us and secured us the last two seats on the bus for us.  We were very grateful.  We talked to the man for a bit, he said that he used to be a ferry captain, and at another time a cargo ship crew member in Singapore.  He had been married to a Dutch woman, a Chinese woman and a Malay woman at different points in his life and said he was looking for his fourth wife.  "Muslims can have 4 wives, you know?" he joked.  Of course this was not quite the same.  We thanked him very much when the bus arrived and hopped on.

The bus did not take quite 3 hours to get the Kuantan and we enjoyed the ride, though the driver did seem to be going a little fast for a bumpy 1 lane road.

We arrived in Kuantan, and decided from the window view that it was a good thing that we were nor staying the night.  We ate at a restaurant between the express and local bus stations and made our way to the local bus station.  The bus to Cherating (actually its final destination was another town a bit further than Cherating) had just left we were informed there, but another one would be arriving in an hour.  So we waited.  As we were waiting we began to notice that several other people were also waiting for the same bus.  The crowd got rather thick at the bus stop and when the bus arrived (an old rickety, but quite large one) it was immediately mobbed by the crowd and we knew that we did not have a hope of sitting down on the ride.  We pushed our way through to the back of the bus and put our bags down on the floor beside us.   And then we waited for another 20 minutes or so.  The bus had no air con and no wind wind was blowing through the windows.  It was not a pleasant wait.  Finally the bus got underway, but not before more people crowded aboard.  On one side of us data group of 3 boys around the age of 10 or so and on the other side a group of girls about the same age.  They spent a good deal of time glancing at each other when they thought no one was looking.  It was rather cute to see.  What was less cute was watching them dump their garbage out the window of the bus when they were finished with it.  It seems like there is a bit less in the way of education when it comes to garbage clean up here, with the younger folk.  Its disappointing. An old woman eventually made her way to the back of the bus to collect fares.  She took one look at us and said, "Cherating?" (how ever did she know?).  When the bus arrived at the proper stop she stopped it for us.  Apparently this was where all the foreigners got off.  It was 8:30 by this point.  We had spent more then 12 hours on transit or waiting for transit.  We were tired and a little grumpy and really just wanted to put our bags down for a final time for the day.

The Lonely Planet pick for Cherating was the Villa de Fedella and we made our way there for the night.  We were greeted by a kindly older man who showed us to our chalet.  We were initially unimpressed with our new lodgings, especially since it was 70RM a night, more expensive than anywhere we have stayed in Malaysia.  While large it seemed dank.  The light was florescent and unappealing.  We decided that we only needed to stay one night as we got ready for bed.

It was a different story when we woke up though.  The room had grown on us in the night and when we stepped outside we were greeted by the most pleasant of grounds we have ever stayed on:

Nancy by the lotus pond.

Our Chalet.

A cute kitten that wanted to eat with us.

More with the lotus pond.

Still more.

In all we ended up staying 5 nights.  The gratis breakfast wasn't bad either.

Cherating is on the coast and ostensibly it was a town to come, relax, surf and swim.  We did not like the looks of the water so we did not swim on the first day, instead after walking up and down the beach for a bit we tried to walk to the turtle sanctuary that was just up the road from Cherating proper.  We got about 5 minutes up the highway and realized that we would have to go earlier in the day if we did not want to roast.  There was no shade close to the road and there  was little in the way of a pedestrian path.  We walked back to Cherating unnerved by the traffic and sun and tried to find a place in the shade with a cold drink.  We found such a place that also offered a 10 RM batik painting session.  We picked a picture of two cats and Nancy painted one, while did the other.  To paint batik style one needs to have picture already, using wax (the cats were outlined and crisscrossed with wax), then the painter takes a brush and dips it in the paint and puts the tip in the centre of a waxed off area.  The paint spreads from the brush and fills the area (if it is small enough).  I'm not much for the technicalities of art, but it was fun.

On our way back we inquired at a place called Hafiz's tours, which The Lonely Planet recommends.  Hafiz, a self made expert on the local fireflies, told us that we simply had to show up at 7:45 to hear a talk on fireflies, then we could board a boat and go on a firefly tour.  After a great dinner at Matahari's restaurant (the lemon chicken was divine) we did jus that.  Hafiz loved his fireflies.  His english was not super good but his exuberance was infectious.  He talked about how the light from these particular fireflies were mating signals and light pollution was bad for fireflies.  Malaysian fireflies don't have a constant glow but a flicker on and off.  They sometimes think that human made light is mating calls and die trying to follow it (most this is the flicker of cars on the highway near their habitats.  It was hard to follow everything he said, but he sure talked a lot.  Eventually his wife had to cut him off so that he could actually lead the tour.  they needed two boats for the tour and after everyone was boarded we were off.

We cruised slowly down a dark river, with little to guide us but the moon and few flashlights.  Hafiz continued to talk.  We passed under a bridge and then were away completely from all artificial light.  The boats suddenly slowed down and our attention was draw to a tree to our left.  It was sparkling with little flickering lights, like an oddly shaped Christmas tree.  Hafiz clicked his flashlight once and on masse the entire glowing tree seemed to lift up and drift towards us.  We immediately surrounded by glowing little pixies, drifting around us and landing on us.  They do not feel hot, in fact they are so light (haha), that we did not feel anything at all.  Nancy held one in her hand and its glow lit her hand on and off.  One landed on top of my pointer finger and made it look like I had magical powers.  This continued all up the river.  An hour seemed too short.

On our way back to the Villa we ran into an Australian couple who were looking for a place to stay.  We suggested that they stay at the Villa.  They apparently took our advice because the next morning we met them at breakfast.  Their names were Otto and Tila (I think).  We struck a long conversation with them.  They were on what they referred to as a short vacation (only 6 weeks) and they had spent many a month in Indonesia during the previous year.  Indonesia and Malaysia speak pretty much the same language and they were trying to practice what they had learned while there.  They had travelled all over Southeast Asia, and like many people we had talk to, they said that Laos was their favourite and Thailand was so-so.  They also, during the conversation told us that we should go to Australia at some point.  It was easy for foreigners to get jobs there and we would be able to travel the country with relative ease, while working when we needed to.  It planted a seed.  We may just do that in the coming months.

After parting with the AUstralians, with promises to meet for dinner, we decided that we were going to rent bicycles and ride to the turtle sanctuary.  This was not to be.  After an hour searching we found one place that had lots of bicycles for rent but only for guests at their hotel and one place with a single bicycle to rent (which was not very helpful as it was not a tandem).  Dejected we were walking back to the Villa when found ourselves in another batik place.  We asked, one final time, if they knew any where that we could rent bicycles and a girl working there said we could borrow hers (though the brakes didn't really work).  We borrowed it anyway and rented the single bike from the other place.  We did not attempt the highway with a brakeless bike, but rode around Cherating for about half an hour, before returning the bikes.  They refused to accept money for so short a ride, so that was a bonus.  We jumped into the Ocean to cool off, before heading back to the same batik place we had borrowed the bike from.  This one allowed us to do our own picture and involved a lot more instruction.  Nancy was quite interested in this so while she worked on her first tea batik piece I read.  There were several stages to the batik process and after Nancy had waxed and painted we had to wait for it to dry before "setting" it.

We met our new Australian friends for dinner, though they had to run before they could actually get dinner because they were keen to see Hafiz's fireflies.  Before they went we told them we had been thinking about taking a river kayak up the same river as the fireflies were the next morning.  They said they just might join us.  After setting the paint at the batik place we returned to the Villa for an early night.

The next morning we were up bright and early, and while we did have breakfast with our Australian friends they said they weren't up to kayaking, they were taking a river cruise to see the otters on the river around the same time and we decided that we would discuss what we saw when we were both done.

The kayak we rented was from Hafiz and as we climbed into it, the man who had helped us get it ready told us (at Nancy's questioning) that crocodiles were usually much farther down stream, so unfortunately we were unlikely to see one.  We didn't think that this was so unfortunate.  The river was incredibly calm as we paddled along.  We didn't see much in the way of wildlife but the tranquility of it alone was worth the trip.  As we were turning back we heard motor boat approaching and shortly saw one approaching.  At the front of the boat was our Aussie friends who discussed with us what they had seen thus far, across the water.  Their guide was good enough to point out a small snake curled in a tree not far away for us and some of the richer looking tourists actually took pictures of us as well as the snake.  I guess (as we were the only people on the river in a kayak) we were kind of a novelty too.  As we kayaked back some children on the bank made crocodile hands at us and laughed.

Our time in Cherating over all pretty lazy, with a few flurries of activity from time to time.  The atmosphere of Cherating was one of peaceful idleness and well we got a lot of reading (I finished finished The Painted Veil and started The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time; Nancy started A Walk in the Woods) done in the shady spots of the Villa.  The Villa itself was neat and not too strenuous to explore.  All in all, Cherating was like a calm little pool that we could float around in before hopping back into the rushing river that is the rest of Malaysia.  We enjoyed it, but we had to move on.  After all we could spend all of our vacation on Cherating time.

The hornbill we saw as we were leaving the area.