Our trip to Taman Negara lead us through Kuantan. As we were worried everything would be sold out at our late time of arrival, we booked online a room. Whilst walking through the city looking for it, a man with a truck stopped and wanted to help us finding it. He was so caring and wanted to make sure we would find our destination, it was so amazing. After finally finding it, we enjoyed the provided TV and watched a movie before falling asleep. In the morning we walked back to the bus terminal. There we had a quick breakfast before our bus departed. In Temerling we had the choice to take a long boat ride or a minivan.
There were three English girls which also wanted to go and they asked if we would get together and be able to negotiate the price a little down. We had success and were after a stop at an ATM machine on the long and windy way. We went through many palm plantation before we slowly went into the higher areas where we finally started to see some of the rainforest which Taman Negara is famous for.
Our driver was so sweet and followed our request to drive us to one hostel we saw in the lonely planet. As this wasn't what we expected he drove us to the second and then the third hostel. Eventually his boss called him and asked him to come back. So the boss talked to me and told me that we only booked a transport (and not a personal guide for the day). So we had to let this sweet man go and ended up to check into the Rippi Hostel, close to the river. The owner is a funny guy with a lot of knowledge about the area and the jungle.
We had dinner in one of the floating restaurants and the food was very good. We had the entrance for the national park on the other side of the river.
For the night we booked a night walking tour to see some insects of the jungle. After crossing the river for 1RM and paying a park entrance fee of 1RM plus the 5RM fee for a camera we started our excursion with our guide. After only a short walk we already saw this big fellow.
It's around 15cm long and can be dangerous for humans. So don't get stung by him if you see it in the jungle!
We saw many different beetles on the ground and on the tree. Even a bird eating spider, however it was so high in the trees that we were not able to get a good shot of it.
Chrisy got a wonderful picture of this glowing mushroom. The nature has wonderful things to offer! It was an informative 1 1/2 hrs walk through the jungle and we even saw some deer from the hide out on one of the salt lick areas. At the end of our walk we were almos out of the resort we had to pass to get back to the boat, we saw a crowed of people and first thought there might be another insect. When we came closer, we encountered this very unique sight! "a group of Malaysians posing for a photo"! (and a tapir...)
After a good breakfast we stored our big backpacks and went with the rented mattress (now it's the second time that we were sorry we sent our camping gear home) and a fly net and a bag filled with food and water over the river. Our plan was to walk to a hide out 6hrs hike into the jungle, sleep there and hopefully see more wildlife on the way and there in the night. It was a hot day and we were sweaty from head to toe after only a few minutes walk. After 30 min we saw this coral snake, which is rated poisonous. We both almost stepped on it and it didn't move at all.
The symphony played by the wind, trees, birds and insects was a masterpiece and we often stopped just to listen to the amazing concert. Birds and apes came up with solos that Vivaldi would have been jealous.
Then I heard a noise from the trees above me! I looked up in the hope to see an endangered animal posing for me and requesting a photo taken. The only thing I saw was a 10cm long stick falling my direction and landing on my lips! AUA!
A scar and memory for lifetime. And I agree with my guide from the night before that the chance to get killed by trees than by any animal (or all of them together) is far more likely!
Hard as I am, I decided to keep on walking. Even though I was close to dying... My inner "Bear Grylls" must have come through.
We enjoyed the tranquility of the jungle as we didn't see any other people on the way. The only thing we could hear was the monotone "hhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaeeeeeeeemmmmmmmmm" of the 25hps outboard motor of the long boats cruising the near river up and down.
The creature of the jungle are a true extraordinary gift of nature.
This is a nest of thousands and thousands of little spiders.
When we arrived at our nights hide out, we were exhausted and sweaty.
It contained 12 wooden bunk beds and was fully booked for the night, as we found out when we paid our 2RM for the night. A guide and his group of French clients was already there. We got invited by the guide to join them for the dinner he had cooked on an open fire next to a river.
The night was magical, however we didn't see any big wildlife on the salt lick, which could be because of the late arrival of the German group, which was pretty noisy and didn't give the right set up for the shy animals to come any close to our location. The night we didn't sleep to well on the hard wooden beds and thin mattress we had rented.
In the morning the guide of the German group invited us for a cup of coffee, which we enjoyed with our peanut butter toast before hitting the track. After only 30 min we had to cross a wide river with the water coming up to our chest and a robe to hold on. As we didn't want together wet shoes we got undressed and put everything in our backpacks and carried them above our heads through the water. We made it safely and with dry cloths (only the under pants got wet) and shoes to the other side. Then we proceeded on the path.
I was leading and we just made a small creek crossing 10min back and the path got smaller and smaller and I haven't seen any markers since then. Then I heard some voices out of the bush. I stopped and could spot a kid and a woman between the trees. They both didn't wear any cloths. First I thought they might have crossed the river as well and dropped accidentally their cloths, but then I remembered that this was also the area of indegious jungle tribes. I looked around and was a little afraid that any second the hunters would jump out behind the trees and shoot with their long hollow sticks some poisonous arrows after us. I could see myself already hanging under a branch tied to it, carried by some tribe man to their village where the women were heating up the fire under the big pot.
The lady kept on talking and talking in a loud voice and after reassessing our chances to be still on the right bath we turned around to find back to the river again. For a moment it was even scary, as the jungle looks the same everywhere. It wasn't easy to walk from this side, as the path wasn't as easy to spot and many other paths were crossing as well. We managed to find back and then we saw that there was the main track going in a different direction.
It was also a total of 7 hours to get back to the entrance of the park.
We had encounters with many leeches (74) which is a small number compared to rainy days. Many leeches tried to get to our naked skin but most of them we saw on our shoes and flipped them away, but number 34 reached Roberts calve and already started to enjoy his delicious warm blood when we saw it and removed it. One we did not even see we just realized there must have one bitten through Chrisy's hiking sock due to a large blood stain on the back of the sock.
Can you see one of the little suckers on the picture above?
On the way we also found fresh footprints and poop of an elephant.
It seems like it was a very fresh dropping and the elephant must have used the track for a good while, as we could see his prints for a good 40min walk. At the spot where we had dinner the previous night, the guide told us that he had seen one of the still 200 tigers 3 years ago. Unfortunately we didn't see any of the big and endangered animals on our trip. The one group which was on a 7 day tour through the jungle might be a little more successful in the deeper untouched areas then us. I don't want to smell these guys when they come out on the other side, after such a long time in this heat!
We enjoyed the two days and had a lot of beautiful encounters of the small kind. We were wet from head to toe, the heat and humidity were a burden and sometimes we head even sweat in our eyes, the shower after we returned to our hostel was refreshing and welcomed by us. With fresh cloths on we enjoyed a cold fresh fruit shake and a delicious meal on a floating restaurant on the river.
On the following day we took a 3 hour boat ride down the river and then a minibus to get to Cameroon Highlands.
More Taman Negara pictures
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