Passage through Thailand

After a month of being out of Malaysia we find ourselves missing it quite a bit.  Maybe this is just rosy-coloured hindsight, maybe not.  But we left Malaysia with a bad taste in our mouth and I wish we hadn't.  This largely had to do with our departure process.  After we found out that there was not seats left on the train we tried taking the bus into Thailand.  The only place that went was a city called Hat Yai (which was right in the area that there had recently been a bombing of a hotel).  After debating this issue, buying a ticket, then attempting to cancel the ticket (no luck there), we hopped on a bus to Alor Setar (where supposedly another train went by).  To help us off to Thailand we talked to a guy at breakfast who had just gotten out of jail in Thailand (he had been there for a few years).  He told us that he had a Canadian friend who was still in jail in Thailand.  Great.

Alor Setar had a very small train station and the ticket booth did not open until 4, we arrived at 1.  Fortunately the baggage guys were very friendly and allowed us to store our big bag with them while we went to the bank and ate lunch.  The booth opened and again there were no tickets, for the next two days in fact.  We persisted though and there were tickets to the border and maybe we could buy tickets to Surat Thani (our thought of destination) beyond that.  We decided to risk it.

As we waited for the train another train passed by heading in the other direction.  It was green and spotless and looked like a hotel on tracks as it passed us.  We saw large beds in sleeper rooms and one restaurant car with what looked like a crystal chandelier hanging in it.  From the back of the train two very well dressed people saluted us with their champagne glasses as they passed.  This was the Eastern and Orient Express and I'm sure one ticket from Bangkok to Singapore would have cost our entire travel budget…  Still it would be nice to ride it, when we're rich.

Our own train did not look anywhere as fancy, but the seats were comfortable.  The ride to the border was uneventful.

We arrived at the border and, as Nancy noted, the Malaysian side said "service with a smile" and the Thai side said no such thing.  This proved to be true.  We went through the Malay side very fast.  On the Thai side things were slower.  We had to stand in a box on the floor while the border guard, in a box scanned our passport.  Apparently we aren't wanted for anything in Thailand so we got in.  Of course we only had train seats to the border so we had to buy a couple more tickets.  There were only two seats available we were informed, one was in first class.  We reluctantly bought them and figured we would explain to whoever got into the other seat that the second class was beside that we would trade for a first class ticket.  As it turned out we had sleeper berths in second class so there was actually room for four people during the day before the sleepers came out so we did not need to explain anything as we sat not crowding anyone.  Once the sleepers came out, we actually fit quite easily in the top bunk together.  Our bunk mate (in the lower bunk, but for most of the ride, sitting across from us) was an American named Emily who had been working in Australia in some capacity.  She was going to Surat Thani as well, which was lucky because she knew where to stay and was far better at negotiating the cab fare than we were.  The cab sped us to our hotel at a terrifying speed.  Our room was straight from the 70s and only really worthwhile by the fact that there were 3 of us staying (and we still ended up paying more than we had anywhere in Malaysia).  The room was huge though.  We only saw Surat Thani by night really, it looked alright.  In the morning we were informed where to catch the bus back to the train station by the counter people (one of them even wrote it out for us in Thai in case we got lost).  I don't think many farang (as Thai's call foreigners) take the bus in Surat Thani.  I had to ride up front as my legs were too long for any of the seats.  We did get a lot of smiles though and one sale offer of a song bird (which we declined).  And 10 hours after arriving in Surat Thani we hopped on the next train to Bangkok.

In the scary taxi

Our room in Surat Thani

The ride to Bangkok was about 10 hours and pleasant.  Pleasant, that is, until we got our first sights of Bangkok, at least half an hour before the train stopped at the central station.  We found ourselves a little unnerved by all of the people, the cars, the noise and the poverty that we could see and hear as we went past.  Bangkok did not really improve by us stepping into it.  As we walked to the hostel we had pick out a man asked us if we needed help finding it (we did not have a map).  After deciding that we did, he started leading us to the place; along the way he informed us we owed him a beer for his troubles.  We probably would have found the place on our own and not short a beer.

I should mention we did have a book for Thailand, but it was not a Lonely Planet (a mistake we will not make again).  It was instead a Fodor's which does seem to be a decent travel book, but only if you have more money to spend on accommodations and transportation than we did.  Its advice for our budget was not at all feasible.

The hostel we stayed in was 250 Baht (or 25RM) a bed which was the most we had paid for a bed in a dorm room since leaving Sabah.  One of our bunk mates was an large, older French man who moved around in his sleep all night (the bunks were very squeaky).  So we did not get much in the way of sleep in Bangkok.

The main proprietor of the hostel was a very friendly and pleasant woman who was happy to help us in anyway she could.  The next day when we were on our way she told us how to get around Bangkok by boat and Skytrain/MRT.  To get to Wat Po, Wat Arun and The Royal Palace we could take the sky train to the river and take the public boat up the river to them.  The boat up the river was pretty cool and gave us a good view of the Bangkok skyline.

Bangkok from the river

Wat Arun was our first destination and it was great.  In the middle of this massive noisy city it was a place of true tranquility.  We wandered the grounds for hours listening to the chimes and the chanting and wandering to the top of the massive stupa that looked out over the river.  The rain made it even better because it chased off many of the tourists.  The main temple area was very quiet, even though there were many people milling around it.  There was even someone telling everyone who passed (in a low voice) anything they wanted to know about the temple and the images inside.  We were reluctant to leave and extend our time there by eating some food made just outside the temple grounds.  We would not be in a place this tranquil again until we visited Wat Sisaket in Laos.

Wat Arun

It's Steep.

On the other side of the river was the royal palace.  It just so happened that we came on the right day because it was free to enter (usually its something like 200 Baht to enter) due to the upcoming coronation day (or some sort of holiday involving the monarch).  The only catch was we had to be wearing pants.  There were people renting loose and light Thai pants for men and women outside entrance and I rented a pair for 50 Baht with 100 Baht deposit.  I ended up liking them so much that when we got out I had them keep the deposit and I kept the pants.  The palace was pretty and photogenic.  A lot of soaring temples and stupas and more palatial structures.  A huge mural down one whole wall was particularly interesting.  There was also the emerald buddha, which was statue made of jade entirely and was also stolen from Laos in the 1820s when Thailand (then Siam) invaded.  Though the Siamese claimed Laos stole it from them first.  Who knows really.  We took a rest out of the sun in a little pavilion and while we sat there a Japanese woman sat next to us and her friend took a few pictures (not too subtly).  After the few pictures apparently did not come out as wanted the woman beside us asked if they could take pictures with us so that we might look directly at the camera.  After a few pictures with each of their cameras of each of them with us, they thanked us enthusiastically and wandered away.  It was a kind of funny way to end our visit to the palace.

My new pants

Nancy in a fancy door

Passage to the underworld?

Nancy and a bird person.

We never found out how to enter Wat Po and perhaps it was closed that day, I'm not sure.  But as we walked the streets of the area we did encounter a side of Bangkok that we would rather have not.  We found ourselves having bags of dry corn forced into our hands and put on our wrists with people telling us to "feed the birds" and "no money".  Being approached this way was not to our liking and we tried to refuse but they were very insistent.  We tossed the corn in the air and as the birds ate we were surrounded, with demands of "money!" and "150 baht!".  We were intimidated but we said no and that this was not fair or a good way to get money.  After our constant refusal they back off and one lady started crying, which is what broke us and we gave her 50 baht (which she snatched our of my hand so fast that her hand practically blurred).  In hindsight, we should have done no such thing as it only perpetuates this kind of behaviour, and likely there will be more people who fall for this sort of trap in the future too.  Its that 1 in every 10 or so that succumbs, that keeps it going.

Not feeling so good about this encounter we returned to the river and sky train to try and find some street food and call it a day.  We had no luck on the street pod front and just ate near our hostel.  As we ate we noticed how many older farang there were with young Thai girls wandering about and we found out later that we were relatively close to a red light district.  Yes, sex tourism is alive and well in Bangkok.  

We decided that we did not need to spend another day in Bangkok and after some checking of availability of rooms in Northern Thailand sites we decided we did not need to stay in Thailand either.  We decided to get a train directly to Laos.

This proved to be a not immediate solution as we could not get train tickets until the next day and the train itself did not leave until 6:30 PM.  We awoke early in the morning raced to the train station (just in case).  We bought 3rd class tickets as they were much cheaper than the second class sleepers (our total with 3rd class was 600 baht about and with the 2nd it was 1500 baht).  As we ate breakfast in the train station there was an announcement and every Thai person around us stood up.  The national anthem came on (I think it was 8AM); some people even sang along.

Back at the hostel we stored our bags for the day and decided that we did not need to do much by way of tourism.  We had coffee and read up on our destination and read our books.  Generally relaxed.  Nancy was reading Tiziano Terzani and I had just started The Honourable Schoolboy by John LeCarre.  We arrived at the train station around 5 and had our dinner and once again witnessed the national anthem.  Then we boarded our train.

At first though we stared a bit at it.  It was definitely 3rd class and we found ourselves on hard benches, not in row but facing the Thai couple in the seats opposite us.  We were the only farangs.  It was about a 13 hour train ride.  The couple in front of us managed to sleep a little though they kept waking each other up and grumbling about it (it was  kind of cute really).  Nancy also managed some sleep.  I did not.  I did manage to get a good portion of my book read though.  Some of the more clever people slept on the floor, which was definitely a lot more comfortable than our seats.  After what seemed like far more than 13 hours on the train we arrived in Nong Khai the Thai town bordering Laos near Vientiane.  In a daze we found the bus that took us to the border paid the $44 US each for our Visas (it all went very smoothly) and hopped on a Tuk-Tuk to Vientiane.

Our room in Vientiane was about the same price as one bed was in Bangkok.  We did not spend time marvelling at this.  We found our room, the big comfy bed in it and went to sleep.  We would try exploring later.

A Colonized Island

We arrived back in KL around 2 or 3 and found ourselves right next to a Monorail that could take us right into the centre of the city.  We spent about an hour looking for a room that was not too pricey.  We found such at last at the Green Hut Lodge (60RM for a double with shared bathroom, breakfast included).  It was nice place to relax and get our bearings.  We had a decision to make.  We were now more or less at the end of our Malaysian tour, with one or two more stops before heading elsewhere.  The question was, where was elsewhere?  We had heard many varying reports of Thailand, from hideous tourist trap, to eden like paradise.  It was also starting into its rainy season.  We did not know how long we wanted to go for.  Others had told us that Indonesia should be our next destination, it was big, exotic and was not about to have a monsoon.  Though it seemed to be having some difficulties and we would have to do some serious research into what places were in fact safe.  We had heard a lot about Laos, about how it was less developed and less jaded towards all these foreign invaders, as of yet.  Also that it was going to be changing rather soon and turn into a Thai style tourist trap before long (get there while you can still enjoy it was the call).  In the end the decision was pretty easy.  Laos was to be our next big destination.  With that in mind, we needed to do some preparations.

The next day we set out to the mall (where there was a "farmasi" as  its called in Malaysia).  The purpose was to get some Doxicycline for malaria as it is prevalent in Laos.  We previously had mefloquine as a treatment for malaria, which was a weekly tablet, but after reading the potential side-effect, we decided that getting malaria was actually preferable to taking the damn things.  In any event, we were not really in danger in Malaysia, so we actually dumped the pills.  Laos was a  different story.  If you look at the WHO malaria map of Laos, the entire country, minus Vientiane, the capital, is covered in red (meaning its prevalent).  So we went in search of some Doxicycline and ended up finding some in a pharmacy in the mall under the Petronas towers.  It was expensive, but not nearly as the other stuff.  We got enough for a month which is about how long we planned to stay in Laos.  After which we decided to enjoy ourselves a bit.  In the theatre we noticed that The Avengers was play (and was not to be out in most places for another week), so we got ourselves some tickets.  It was most enjoyable, and rarely over the top.  We also spent some time in the bookstore and picked up a Lonely Planet Laos, plus Tiziano Terzani's A Fortune Teller Told Me, which, as it turns out has a fair bit to say about Laos.

When we left the mall, there was a scent of smoke in the air and when we woke up the next morning we found out that there had been a large (the largest in 10 years apparently) demonstration in Independence Square, at which the Malay authorities fired water cannons and tear gas, before it was dispersed.  They were protest some of the electoral changes that seemed to simply help the current (and continuous since the inception of Malaysia) governmental party stay in power.  I get the feeling that they will be on top for a while before being toppled.

Quick political side note on Malaysian politics: the current opposition leader has been fighting a legal battle for years against charges of sodomy (yes homosexuality is illegal in Malaysia; so btw is being an apostate from Islam).  These charges have continued to pop up every time he fights one off a new one pops.  There has never been a shred of proof and they only started when he became the opposition leader.  Yes, Malaysia still has a bit to go before being what one might call a real democracy.

We decided that there was only one more place that we needed to go in Malaysia and that was the world heritage city of Georgetown on the island of Penang.  Before leaving the Green Leaf, Nancy traded the book I had just read (Deception Point by Dan Brown; an enjoyable popcorn book) for The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison.  We went to the train station and booked a train ticket to Butterworth (the city across the water from the island and Georgetown) and spent an enjoyable few hours in the train station, reading and drinking coffee at Dunkin Doughnuts for a few hours while we waited for our train to head out.

The train took 6 hours or so and we spent some more time reading and writing.  The only problem was the person in front of us kept getting phone calls and spoke perhaps a bit too loud.  We arrived in Butterworth at about 10 and when we left the station we were immediately assaulted by "Teksi!".  This time some of the drivers came over to us and offered us "deals" to Georgetown.  One persistent guy told us he could take us to a specific guesthouse for only 50RM and that the ferry only ran every 2 hours and didn't cost much less, they also told us that all the accommodations in Butterworth were far away and expensive.  While Nancy was buying all this hook, line and sinker, I told them that we would just walk to the nearest place in Butterworth and walked away, forcing the driver to stop talking.  We wandered away and then made our way to bus terminal, where they told us we had to take the ferry.  The ferry, as it turns out, actually left every 15 minutes and only cost us 2.8 RM all together (a far cry from 50).  We happily boarded it and enjoyed a 15 minute ride across the water, looking at the light of Georgetown approaching.  There is something magical about cities by night, when their light is reflected on the water.  It felt a little magical.  The reality of Penang was something of a let down.

We were wandering down the ferry station looking at the map and wondering how it was we would get to a guesthouse, when we ran into an older man from New Zealand who came to Penang once a year.  He knew of several places owned by one guy in Chinatown that were all really good.  He showed us to the Star Lodge, which was a great deal for 45 RM, and the owner, Jimmy, was incredibly friendly.  We had not eaten and Jimmy told us about a 24 hour place that was not far away (it was 1AM).

Our ever so cosy and cheap room at the Star Lodge

Jimmy's establishment.

Food is one of Penang's selling points and so it proved at this place, and pretty much everywhere we went to eat in Penang.  Penang (well Georgetown is technically the name of the community on Penang, but most people think of them as one and the same) itself was a lively heritage city, much larger than Melaka (or so it seemed), with an unfortunate amount of cars whizzing by in every direction, though this was much calmed at night.  It fell short when compared to Melaka, but not by too much, our main complaint was the traffic.  Like Melaka though, we did not over do it with a search for museums and other forms of entertainment.  We took our time.

How do you like my vase hat?

A Chinese Temple near the guesthouse

I'm stuck!

Hard to get around on these these days, too much traffic though you can't see it here.

We went to the Penang Museum, which had some decent exhibits, but was marred a bit by the large amount of loudly talking, picture taking tour groups of Mainland Chinese.  It was an interesting experience in that respect though, kind of highlighted the different between Taiwanese and Mainlanders.  Having lived in Taiwan for a year, we are fairly certain that a group of Taiwanese tourist would have been quieter and more respectful of the rules (there were several clear signs in english, chinese and Malay saying no pictures; perhaps the fact that they were tour groups gave them different rules, but this seems doubtful).

Another place we visited was the Anglican graveyard in Penang which holds (most know to us) the grave of Thomas (?) Leowens, who was the husband of Anna Leowens of The King and I fame (or Anna and the King fame, the one with Jodi Foster and Chow Yun Fat, which is the version a lot closer to the actual events recorded in Anna Leowens' journals).  We never found his grave but did enjoy the quiet solemnity of the place.

When Paul Theroux visited Penang in Ghost Train to the Eastern Star he stayed at the Eastern & Oriental, so, as we found out later, did Terzani.  In fact, a lot of very famous people stayed there.  We saw pictures of famous authors who had such as Joseph Conrad and Herman Hesse, when we ourselves visited, but did not stay.  The guy at the door (dressed ridiculously in high knee socks, with shorts and crazy british safari hat) told us we could go in an look around.  It was quite something with its high domed ceiling, colonial airs, ocean view veranda and fancy, well everything.  We gawked for about half an hour,and vowed that should we ever become rich, we would stay here.  Its 1000RM a night, which is our weekly budget… It may be a long while before we stay at the E&O.

The E and O

Fashionable doors at the E and O

More E and O doors.

One another day, we ended up going to an Indian cultural event, where we saw many interesting dances and were given free food and drink for attending.  We were shown here by a friendly Chinese Malaysian who talked to us at a temple in Chinatown.  I forget his name, but he had been to Taiwan for some sort of cross culture thing and he and the Chinese Indonesians had shown off to the Taiwanese by speaking Bahasa to each other.  There were Malaysians of every stripe at the Indian festival, which was one of the first of its kind, blending several Indian tradition (of the various ethnic Indian groups of Penang) into one Indian new year. The governor of Penang was there (he was Chinese Malaysian) as well as several high ranking members of the Penang cabinet (most ethnically Malay) and richer business men (and women).  All of whom gave some speeches after the dancing was over.  It was kind of a wonderful sight to see, members of 3 diverse cultures showing respect to one another (I'm fairly sure it was all genuine too).  Though when the speeches got too long for us we made our leave.

Indian Festival; a dancing peacock

A large Chinese temple had been in the works for several years in Penang, with new additions constantly being added to it.  We decided to go see it though we had had our fill of Chinese temples in the past year.  The scope of the temple was immense and there was a giant statue of Guanyin (goddess of mercy) on top of the highest structure, which one could take a small train up to see (we opted not to do this).  The grounds were like a small city to themselves, though I don't think any city would be so tranquil.  On the highest area we went to, in front of an amazing tranquil black Buddha (that looked more Thai style than Chinese) we got an amazing view of Georgetown and the surrounding area.  In the lower level there was a turtle pond with tonnes of turtles, who all swam over to under where we were standing when they saw us.  We spent a good deal of time wandering around the temple and absorbing the atmosphere.  The only thing that marred it was all the shops and stalls that were congregated on the only entrance and exit that we could use.

After this we tried to go to Penang hill which was said to have a neat old train that went up it.  A Chinese lady stopped her motorbike when she saw us waiting at the bus stop and asked where we were going.  She told us how to get to Penang Hill from where we were and then told us that old train had been replaced by a sleek new one just this year.  The new one went up the hill about 4 times faster and was also 4 times the price.  We were disappointed with this and decided that Penang Hill could do without our patronage.  The Chinese lady (whose name I also don't remember) gave us a lot useful advice on where we could go and also made us a cool origami double heart with a 1 RM bill.

The temple.

Anyone want an Angry Bird?  (Bought near the temple)

Yes, those are turtles.

The view from the temple.

A certain viewer.

We spent a few agreeable days in Penang , though we did not spend too much time at actual sites (or sights), besides what I have mentioned.  We ate, we walked, we read. It was enjoyable, but we knew that we had to leave soon, we were growing a little tired of Malaysia and wanted to head on to Laos, to see something new and different.  So after about 4 days we hopped back on the boat and headed on over to Butterworth and the train station.

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.