Day 85 - Taman Negara

The 25th June was our last full day in the Cameron Highlands the place I have really grown to love. My first thing to check upon awaking was the result of the England vs Italy Quarter Final in Euro 2012. As I suspected and hoped they were eliminated on penalties. Fans will now go about blaming all kinds of things on not winning this time (or any other time), most likely morale which England always has a reason for not being able to summon. That said it seems what other teams and nations think of England is true. The team has no passion. All defense and waiting for a counter-attack that may never happen. This self-doubt and insecurity as a nation and not just a national team culminates and is summarised in how England almost always goes out of internationals; penalties. When it comes to confidence there is no better show than one-on-one penalty shoot-outs. I am also glad that England went out for playing John Terry. No self respecting company or employer would do anything but suspend pending a full enquiry someone caught on camera calling a comrade a "black cunt". Playing him then shamelessly trying to overcompensate by a tasteless PR stunt of sending some of the team to Auschwitz the day is pathetic in the extreme. So I'm happy, Euro 2012 will be won by a deserving team. Back to my travels.

I will miss the Camerons and have truly found a place I will love and want to come back to but probably won't. Sarah observes that it is touristy, and it looks just that in the towns of Tanah Rata and Brinchang and the tea plantations. That aside our guide informed us that the area is 85% reliant on farming and is indeed the vegetable basket for Malaysia and beyond. Taking a figure like that at face value, it would seem that should the Malaysian government decide that tomorrow no more tourist visas will be issued, the Cameron Highlands would survive. This in my book makes it one of the less touristy places on our journey, and considerably less touristy than where I grew up in Cornwall.

My last day in the Camerons I wanted to go for a solo hike. I knew Sarah was meant to be recuperating and she seemed happy enough blogging so I headed off to the nearest trail. After rechecking my guidebook and being sure that the trail leaves from what looks like a private back garden I was quickly on my own. I was merrily skipping away, climbing up little rocks and ducking under trees that had fallen on the path. All the time sweating but cooled off by the cool temperature which I'm sure I've mentioned already. Suddenly I had a quick flash-back to our guide the day prior, telling us to watch out for snakes as it was mating season. All of a sudden as I was 2km into the walk I became concerned and looked at my feet a lot and looking hard at the trees I was ducking under. Still I played a stat in my mind, how few people get attacked by snakes, then played that stat off against how long it had been since I'd seen another person should I be bitten and need help.  Still I carried on and came to a fork in the trail. I took the trail 10 route as this seemed to go to a peak of some sorts. Still skipping for a while, but slowing down as the trail became a steep climb, to an actual climb. Now in the part where I was using 4 limbs to travel, I saw to my left a black snake perhaps 2 foot long (I'm bad at measurements, but I think that is conservative) slither across my path and into the bushes. Obviously his tongue which can measure a slightest change in temperature sensed this 14 stone mound of sweat bouncing along and tried to get away. I was not about to prevent his escape as it suited us both. But I became paranoid and no longer felt safe using 4 limbs and turned back. Every step checking what I was stepping on. I have a huge fear of snakes I'm ashamed to say. On the way down and near to the garden where I started another snake slithered off the path in front of me. The place was infested with them. Well 2 hours walking and only seeing two snakes may not count as infested, but it was two more snakes than humans I saw in that time. I returned to safety and to Sarah. Once on the road I gave thanks that the situation didn't arise where I was tying a tournique around my leg and hopping back to a hospital, stopping to suck venom out. Or worse still a villager come up to me and make me ly down and smoke some opium while they heat a knife and sizzle it against the infected wound. I'm being a little bit dramatic now.

The 26th June we were up for 8am to take the 3 hour bus journey to Jerantut a place that serves purely as a jetty for where we would pick up a boat to take us for a further 2 hours into the village of Kuala Kampung Tahan opposite Taman Negara. A quick heads-up; Taman Negara is a protected national park, and protected it should be as it is 130 million years old. Ice ages, crashing plates and comets have left this rain forest in peace, and it is truly an honour to enjoy something that is relatively untouched by humans. The boat journey was enjoyable and for the whole 2 hours we saw nothing much, until we arrived at the village. The village looks like it is accessible only from the river, but a quick walk to the other side and a main road is visible, which takes a little of the remoteness shine away. On arrival we were told where are guesthouse was, up a steep walk and take a left and there it is, 10 minutes at least. The Tahan Guesthouse is a hippy heaven. Painted green as a background but loads of flowery murals. In the garden there are signs hanging from trees with messages like "Every thought it a seed" and "1 + 1 = 2 not 11?". The room stays close to the decor, but with a balcony and a mosquito net and a fan covering the whole bed the place is airy as it needs to be as we are now away from the cool tea country temperature.

We signed up for the night jungle walk. I must admit I wasn't bowled over with enthusiasm for this. Let me tell you why. Man going into the jungle has been an important part of our development. If it was not for the second children of Victorian society, the ones not inheriting the family estate, so had to get daddies attention by delving into the jungle with big mutton chop side-burns and a bible. They taught us so much about anthropology. Today scientists going into a jungle come out with treatments for cancer and erectile dysfunctions. Now I'm a first born child of today, I would not know where to look for a new drug amongst the leeches and ants, so there is absolutely no reason for me to wander into the jungle, but that I did. My interest picked up as the fear of snakes and scorpions subsided. In any case there were plenty in our group wearing vests and flip-flops and they were surely at the frontline of any attack from the tiny beasties. We walked at a glacial pace as the guide looked with a torch to find things of interest. During the jaunt he founds us many crickets, stick insects, spiders (some deadly, and I need to come back to this point), a green tree snake (not poisonous but can be snappy), a scorpion and a deer. The point I need to come back to. Sarah, and I've sort of mentioned this before under the butterfly post, is scared of spiders. Many a time back in our home I'd be watching TV and hear an earth shattering shreak. I would then feel manly as I came to the rescue with a piece of paper and a glass letting a harmless house spider out into the cold north england air to fend for itself. On this walk, there she was under order bending forward looking closely at a spider which had the ability to bite you and give you 2 days of violent fever. I'm sure when the wife reads this she will explain this irregularity. The walk finished with a trip to the top of a tower. From there we told to turn off our torches. Not hard for us as we had prepared for everything, well prepared for not getting attacked by leeches, but we had no torches personally and were relying on others. The tower was a sort of hide overlooking a water source which would hopefully tempt bigger wildlife. Of the bigger wild life in the park there are tigers, many monkeys, elephants, jaguar and deer. Most of which have the good sense to not come near the wooden platform path that we walk on. However, just before leaving and giving up we spotted some deer. In all a very memorable experience and besides my sarcasm I'm really glad we did it.

Very hippy Tahan Guesthouse

Today the 27th June, we were on our own and decided to explore the jungle on our own. About noon we got a boat across to the park and walked the raised wooden path through the jungle and an saw more clearly the amazingly tall trees which we couldn't obviously appreciate in darkness. From there we walked about 2km to our focus point of the Canopy Walkway. Now we were told to go with a group or leave early as queues for the Canopy build up. Maybe I should first explain what the Canopy Walkway is. Well its a series of rope bridges linking the top of trees and you walk carefully and literally amongst the tree tops of the jungle. A scary but interesting activity. The rope bridges being what they are only let 4 people on at once. This is where the queues build up, and reading the guide book and listening to the tour salesmen all recommending a 9:30am start to beat the crowds, Sarah and I being the great strategists we are used the reverse psychology and left casually at noon and largely had the Canopy Walkway to ourselves. I'm scared of heights as well as snakes. I say this even though I have twice bungeed and once jumped from a plane. Still heights make my legs jelly up, and the walkway planks missing a rivet or a nail or didn't help. That aside when I summoned the courage and looked out over the trees I quickly realised this is a view of the world you don't see very often, just looking across trees. It was an unmissable experience. And importantly not single leech to my knowledge, even though every guide book read said peeling a leech off or letting the little bastard suck your blood for 20 minutes until he's full was a certainty.

As with all heights I love coming back down safely. Also on coming down I came to appreciate how sweaty the jungle has made us. My vest and trousers clingling to me, even though the effort we put into this was moderate. We consumed water with a vengeance. The bliss of returning to our room for a shower is a pleasure unmatched. Tomorrow it is Sarah's birthday and she is doing what she wanted for her birthday, cavorting with elephants. Of course I will let you know how it goes.