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?

Goodbye Thailand, Hello Malaysia

Hello All

We arrived at Ko Lanta ready for a good session of chillaxing. Our hotel was ideal for this as it had three pools and a sea-front restaurant! What a treat for us 'backpackers' lol. We mastered the art of non-competitive water volleyball and may had broken the world record for continuous play :)

The next day we decided to explore the beautiful of Ko Lanta so we hired a moped and scooted off. Can I say at this point that Marc is getting pretty dab handed at riding these mean 125cc bikes despite the rutted dirt roads and steep hills lol. (And Liz is pretty good at giving me instructions from the back seat too!) We stopped off at a lovely old fishing village. Very sleepy and here we ate durian, another favourite new fruit, and ate coconut milk puddings. Yum yum! Then the coastal road to the national park. We didn't have to wait long to see wildlife as saw a 4 ft long Monitor lizard at the side of the road! For those of you who don't know these Lizards can grow up to 10ft long, are black and look like Comodo dragons... spooky :) As soon as it heard us it sped off back into the forest. We stopped and to look for it, yes I am getting brave in my old age (Liz) but no joy and not photographic evidence I'm afraid :(

By the time we arrived at the NP it was getting fairly late. Hardly anyone was around and not even anyone to take our entrance fee . We took a trail into the forest where we saw some distant gibbons swinging through the trees chasing each other. We watched for a couple of minutes, but got a better view than we bargained for when they swung over our heads just a few metres above us! They were pretty noisy as they thrashed about in the trees, grunting and making other monkey noises, this startled me (Liz) so I stepped backwards. The problem was I was standing on a 4 foot ledge so I plummeted to the ground. Luckily Marc came to the rescue and prevented me from going head over heels ha ha.

A Ko lanta Beach

Guess where I am?

Planet of the Apes?

As if this wasn't enough 'wild life action' as we walked further through the park close to the beach we saw tons the more common monkeys. Seriously, there must have been about 20 of them playing, eating, fighting and hanging out on the beach. We got lots of photos of these ones :). Finally we saw a third type of monkey in the trees as the sun was setting - a group of dusky leaf monkeys. Impossible to photograph, but fun to watch.

We got a much closer look at a lizard the following day however. Liz came round the corner in our hotel and saw a 2ft Lizard. It ran and dived into the pool where it was able to swim around expertly, but it couldn't climb back out. Half hour of comedy followed, with the hotel staff in the water chasing after a lizard that was a far better swimmer than they were, and a German tourist trying to video the whole episode with a snorkel and an underwater camera. Finally, with the help of a noose the lizard was caught, and released, but not before getting it's picture taken.

Not what one expects to find in the pool!

Swimming time is up for you little guy!

We returned to the National Park a couple of days later for a trek and a swim. As on every beach we went to in Ko Lanta, there was nobody else there. Travelling in the rainy season is not such a bad idea after all, and it mainly rains at night.

View of beach from top of the hill

After Ko Lanta we said goodbye to Thailand and hello Malaysia. Our first stop was the island of Langkawi. This seems to be the place most Malaysians go for their holidays. It is (was) a beautiful island, but has been spoilt by some pretty ugly buildings. We enjoyed taking a cable car to the highest peak on the island for some amazing views of the coastline, and went on a slightly scary raised bridge over the jungle canopy. But other than that we didn't hang around for too long.

Langkawi Gondola

View from the top.

And again...

Next we visited the Cameron Highlands in central Malaysia. This is a great place to cool down as it's at higher altitude. Less heat and humidity for a few days were very welcome. The Highlands are famous for their tea plantations and strawberry farms which, although necessary, are an eyesore of deforestation and polytunnels. We did manage to get into some unspoilt jungle though, via some of the muddiest, bumpiest 'roads' imaginable and an ancient Land Rover. In fact about every third car in the highlands was an ancient Land Rover, all of which look like Top Gear's indestructible pick up truck (sorry if you don't watch that show). In the jungle we trekked to see 'the world's biggest flower'. The one we actually saw was about 2ft across (not a particularly big one of it's kind) but still a bit weird. It was pink/orange and rubbery looking and is apparently related to the mushroom. Unfortunately the sole of Marc's boot came unstuck near the start, put with some hobbling and some jungle engineering, he was able to complete the walk without resorting to hopping.

A Land Rover ride we will never forget!

But I've only had these boots for 16 yrs!!!

Rafflesia Arnoldii - largest flower in the world!

We also trekked to the most amazing, pristine, mossy covered rainforest we've ever seen, up in the clouds. Dark, atmospheric and a little bit spooky - we imagined tigers stalking us, but we didn't see anything scarier than the usual assortment of bugs! We also visited a tea plantation, and had a go at using the blowpipes and darts used by the indigenous people to hunt (before the government re-settled them in ugly concrete houses), and got up close with some huge bugs at an insect farm.

Tea planation and us :)

Huge beatle :)

Cool trees in the Cameron Highlands

We topped off our visit to the Highlands with a late night, having met a devout Saudi Arabian muslim guy and a gay Chinese Malaysian.This made for some very interesting conversations, accompanied by too much Guinness and excellent Indian food. In hindsight that wasn't such a smart idea considering the long bus/boat journey the following day, but let's not go into any more detail than that!

Take care all
Love Liz & Marc

ps - More pics to follow when we get a more reliable internet connection.