Jungle and Paradise

We arrived in Taman Negara (in Malaysia), excited to be in the world's oldest rainforest and explore the wildlife. We signed up for a night safari only to be dissappointed that the safari was actually a drive through a palm plantation - a sight we have come to loath (See Liz's blog). We saw very little wildlife, and couldn't help thinking we'd have seen far more in the 'real' forest.

Thankfully, the next day we headed out on a 2 day/1 night jungle trek. This involved a trek in a group and guides through the jungle, starting with the worlds longest canopy walkway, 50m above the tree tops. We're both a bit scared of heights and the walkway was very wobbly in places, but we did pretty well. Back on terra firma we put on our heavy packs with our share of the food and sleeping bags. The hike was fast paced, which was fairly challenging due to the heat and numerous river crossings to negotiate on improvised 'bridges'.

Canopy walkway Taman Negara

We camped for the evening in a HUGE cave. The guides lit a fire to discourage animals (elephants, snakes, rats etc) and cooked the food, while we washed in a muddy stream and watched the bats waking up for their nightly flight (see pic). After dinner we played a few games of cards with an Ozzie guy in our group and enjoyed a spectacular thunderstorm playing out through the cave entrance, then settled down for what we hoped would be a peaceful night's sleep. First we were kept awake by the very noisy, and dare I say highly annoying Dutch insomniacs next to us, then by a rustling on the groundsheet behind us. We feared it might be a rat and our torchlight confirmed those fears. One of our group said it brushed past his cheek. Can you imagine...eeek!

Bat sleeping in the cave we stayed in - there were hundreds!

Setting up camp in the cave

No elephants or other potentially scary animals came in despite the storm, but one of the Dutch girls was lucky enough to see a civet cat (a small 'big' cat).

We'd been warned to expect leeches if it rained - a previous group got about 20 bites each. The leeches were everywhere (see pic), One French girl in our group got bitten, but despite the previous night's rain, we lucked out and avoided ending up like Humphrey Bogart in the African Queen lol.

Tiger leech - found by Marc luckily before it sucked his blood!

Following breakfast the next day we visited a bat cave. They started flying around our heads when they saw our torches, so we were able to get a cool pic. Then back to serious hiking until a lunch of spicy noodle and vegetable soup. Yum Yum.

Cave we visited on day two of our trek

The guides preparing lunch

Back on the trail we saw elephant footprints and dung but unfortunately the wild elephants were elusive. Apparently a group about a week earlier did see the wild elephant which scared them out of their wits and they all darted in different directions. Now that would have been fun! There are also tigers in the jungle, but they are incredibly wary of humans, no surprise there...

The second day of the trek was particularly tough, with heat, humidity, and tired legs from the previous day to cope with and the pace didn't slacken either. We both felt a sense of achievement whennthe trek came to a close. The speed boat trip back along the river was really welcome as a chance to cool down. But we got cooler than we expected as a big water fight broke out between our boat and the guides in the other boat as we sped along, resulting in us all getting completely drenched. It was a right laugh, but 3 days later our boots still hadn't dried out!

We made it! Group photo at the end of our two day trek

Following the 2 days in the jungle we spent a day in a minibus on the way to The Perhentian Islands. During the journey we realised just how bad the de-forestation in Malaysia is. Most of the rainforest is gone, replaced by tens of miles of palm oil plantations. These are no use to most wildlife, or anyone else except the growers and the government who spotted the chance to make a quick buck at Mother Nature's expense. Very depressing! (Liz is going to write a separate blog about that for those interested).

Following another long 8 hr journey we arrived at Coral Bay and there was 'no room at the inn'. Feeling dejected, like Mary and Joseph and being heavy with ruchsack ha ha, we were turned away .We usually book ahead for the first night, but without any internet connection in the jungle, we decided to risk it. Big mistake! We met some other people who'd walked from the far side of the island to where we were, because that side was also full. Then we had a stroke of luck. A kind hotelier called someone on another island, and they had a vacancy. So after another boat ride we arrived at Coral View.

It was a more luxurious place than we'd usually stay at but as Liz's birthday was on the horizon we opted for a very nice cabin right on the beach, rather than the alternative of sleeping on the beach itself! The islands resemble paradise. The sea was fantastic for snorkelling. We must have seen 20 different types of fish, and loads of colourful coral.

Perhentian Island

Perhentian Island

We planned a snorkelling trip on Liz's birthday. We actually ended up going the following day, but we certainly were't dissappointed. At the first location Marc saw a small reef shark. The second site was a spectacular coral garden, but the highlight was the last place, where we saw a turtle on the seabed, maybe 20ft down. After a few minutes it started moving and gradually swam to the surface for air. We followed it, and as it came closer we realised how big it was - about 4ft long. We were able to swim beside it and touch it's shell. We followed it for a while longer as it dived and surfaced, and even watched it eating a jellyfish. Magic!

The evening of Liz's birthday was spent at the only restaurant on the island with white wine. What a luxury! Needless to say Liz was very happy :)

Speaks for itself - Written in coral by Marc aww

My birthday evening :)

Apart from that we've spent a lot of time on the beach and had fun watching the flying squirrels swooping through the trees around the resort. We were sad to leave the island, but excited to be one step closer to Australia.

Flying squirrel outside of our room

We're now on an overnight train to Singapore. At least it was supposed to be an overnight train. Whilst we were asleep we were stopped for about 6 hours because a tree came down and broke the windscreen of the train. The 14 hour journey is now 21 hours and the air con has just broken. And we only just made the train after our taxi broke down. We planned to spend a few leisurely hours in Singapore, but now we'll have to go straight to the airport, which really sucks. Another place to add to the list of places to see on our next trip to Asia...

Who said that 30 yr old mercs are reliable?