Selamat Hari Raya

Well, we have made it through yet another jungle trekking adventure, but this one was all on our own...no guides, no groups, no nothing but our positive attitudes and complete lack of preparation that just leads to fun, adventures and of course amazing and hard to believe stories. So much has happened in the past week that it is, once again, difficult to write it all out in narrative form so we have decided to do a Taman Negara Top 10 to bring you that much closer to what we have been through in our adventures in the oldest rain forest in the world...yes, even older than the Amazon at an amazing 130 million years old! Once again, Alex and I were the tiniest bit ill-prepared for the main trek we embarked on lasting over 7 hours after 2 other shorter uphill treks that same day resulting in our sleeping in the jungle in a hide for one night of extreme terror and fright and a second day of excruciating up and down hill trekking alongside the river with leeches and a lot of strength and athletic prowess required...my favourite! So let's get started with Mel and Al's Top 10 Taman Negara:

10) Getting There
As with most journeys to and from various locations, this alone is an adventure without even having to do any activities once you reach your destination. We started off in Kuala Lumpur of KL as everyone calls it, where we booked all of our transport from KL to Taman Negara and then to the Cameron Highlands and onto Georgetown (on Panang Island) and then onto Phuket in Thailand. The first mode of transport was the large bus that actually made us feel kind of excited, as it looked really nice and luxurious and air conditioned. So, we got our luggage onto the bus and off we went to Taman Negara. After about 45 minutes, a young Indian guy was resting his head on the window looking at the gorgeous scenery around him when he noticed the luggage flying out of the side of the bus, as the doors had not been properly secured. So the bus came to a screeching halt and off the driver ran up the highway to gather the 3 bags that had managed to fly out...of course, one being mine! Then, the police arrived and took stock of the situation and sent a patrol car to help the driver gather all the bags and bring them back. It was quite an interesting morning. Then, off we went again and got to the jetty where we caught a very cool little boat in which two people sit in a cozy little nook on some cushions to the island. Now, what they don't tell you is that this is a 3 hour boat ride with NO toilets so you just have to suffer and try to enjoy the scenery until you make it to the island only to discover that none of the floating restaurants have toilets so you have to wait even longer until you get to the hotel. Since it has been Ramadan and then Hari Raya, the end of Ramadan (like Christmas for the Christians) all the rooms were booked bar one that was way outside of the town so off we walked with our 22kilo bags on our backs and our 5 kilo bags on the front up hill to the hotel...and then you get to pee!

9) The Canopy Walk
This was certainly one of the many highlights in the Taman Negara. This is that largest canopy walk in any rain forest and you can tell...it has 6 bridges and 5 platforms and goes on forever. It hangs over 50meters above the jungle floor and offers spectacular birds-eye views of the jungle...spectacular really, but one has to first get up the excruciating uphill climb up make shift stairs and some quite treacherous jungle trekking just to get to the walk and then wait about 1 hour for your turn and then when it is finally you turn, you have to accept that the canopy walk bridges will be bouncy and swing from side to side so that is always a lovely sensation. Alex just whizzed right off, as if she was walking on a normal stable floor of some sort, but I was a bit more cautious and it took a while to warm up, then I was whizzing around just like her! What a rush!

8) Taman Negara
As we have already spoken about, this is the oldest rain forest on earth, even older than the Amazon and it dates over 130 million years. It is home to 10,00 plants, 675 birds, 150,000 insect (of which I think we encountered all of them), 25,000 invertebrates, 270 reptiles and 200 mammals. And what a site it is to behold! When you first roll up onto the tiny village of Kuala Tahan, near the rain forest, it feels a bit like the opening scene of Dirty Dancing with so many tourists everywhere and signs with activities and schedules everywhere and we were a bit skeptical of it, especially since we refused to book anything with a guide after our disappointing trek in Indonesia. Sometimes, the best treks and overall travelling experiences are those done on a whim and without any guides. We read about the treks in the Lonely Planet book and discussed it with the Wildlife Department and felt that we could do it on our own so we booked two nights in our hotel with a break between these nights to spend one night in the actual jungle in what is called a hide. A hide is a wooden cabin in the middle of the jungle...like to most remote part...so that you can see wildlife in its natural form. We chose the furthest one away from Kuala Tahan, as we are totally hardcore and wanted a really true intense jungle experience...and we are kind of insane. We got our packs ready with bug spray, a change of socks, some snacks (crackers, raisins, sleeping bags, water and the hotel owner made us take some rice as well) and off we went. First, to conquer the canopy walk and the Bukit Teresik or two view points hike (another total uphill straight incline climb up some intense hills and slippery mud which took us about 3 hours already. Then, off we went at about noon to head to our hide called Bumbun Kumbang...we were told it was 5, 6 or 7 hours to this hide and that we had to make it there before dark as we were quite brisk initially, but it was tough from the get go. It is really hard to explain the terrain throughout this hike, as it varied and you never quite knew what was around each bend. There were bugs and random jungle animals to look out for plus all the plants and various natural obstacle courses in your way to navigate through. Over trees that has fallen, up muddy wet hills, up hills made out of giant tree roots, down embankments towards rocky freshwater creeks, then back up again clinging to vines...it was truly like a movie in which young unknowing travellers embark on a trek that ends in disaster. As we climbed and hiked on and on, we passed a sign that said we had only 4.5km to go until we reached out destination and that was great news, as we had made good time so we rested and fueled up on our tasty snacks discussing the trek so far and deciding and agreeing that we both had NEVER hiked like this before and that we were totally cool and hardcore and then off we went for the remaining 4.5km. Until, we reached another sign pointing us to a Lodge stating that was 4.5km away from our current point, but no sign for our hide. Commence panic...so we decided to follow the path we were on and book it through the jungle to this lodge area, as we must have gotten turned around and just pray of the best...so no more pictures of mushrooms and jungle plants for me! We started racing through the jungle despite our exhaustion and Alex's bleeding blisters on her ankles and came upon a huge lake with an arrow pointing across it saying Bumbun Kumbang (our hide)...but surly there would be a bridge to cross the lake...oh no there wasn't so after a few moments of cursing and laughing hysterically and deliriously, we crossed it, as we were chasing the sunlight and losing! So, Alex got the longest stick she could find so that we could poke at the river to see just how deep it was and we just went for it. As I was stepping off of a muddy hill, I slipped and crashed into the river so no matter how deep it was, I was drenched so that was good, but my ass was aching and my leggings were totally ripped and soaked and I had to wear them tomorrow. By the grace of the Lord, we made it across, but then we had to get up the slippery embankment on the other side. Alex got up first and took the bags and placed them in a dryish patch of grass and then went to help me up, but I put both feet up on the hill at the same time and we just slid right back into the water...this was Alex's one and only fall (my third of 5 total) and we just laughed to keep from crying. We eventually made it up the embankment and to out hide. I want to say that the site of the hide was a happy one, but it was more a mixture of emotions...like fear and angst.

7) Bumbun Kumbang and the Lost Village
So there we were...looking up at a huge wooden cabin-like structure sitting on top of huge stilts, no doubt to keep wild jungle animals out. We climbed up the long steep stair case to the door and opened it to an empty room with several wooden bunk beds naked with nothing on them. There was no one to be seen and it would appear that people had not stayed in this hide for some time. During our trek to the hide, we did see 3 people, but they must have been staying elsewhere, as it was very un-lived in. We tried to make ourselves comfortable and took off all the wet clothing and lit a mosquito coil and then quickly ate a dinner of crackers and water and zipped up into our sleeping bags ASAP during the final moments of dusk and watched as darkness swallowed the jungle. The wooden bunk beds must have been used in concentration camps during WWII, as they were just the most back breaking of any bed-like contraption we have slept in thus far, but the toilet was the worst. It was outside where the rats lay in wait for you to fall asleep so they can scavenge for your snacks (so you tie them up into mid air so they cannot reach them), so needless to say, you just don't go to the bathroom for hours and happily suffer any stomach ache.

6) Lightening Storm and Fire Flies
It was seriously the scene for a horror movie...two girls...alone...in an abandoned cabin...in the middle of a remote jungle...no one knows where they are...I mean, you cannot write something better than that. There was a tender moment in which the open black jungle filled with fire flies that blinkered all around the open air and it was calming to follow them with your eyes and give your retinas something to focus on...until a sudden crash of lightening and then a roll of thunder and within seconds we were completely immersed in a full fledged rain storm in the remote jungle...perfect! How do 2 frightened girls get through a night like this you ask...well listening to Ricky Gervais, Steve Merchant and Karl Pilkington discuss such topics as art, biology and Earth of course! We must have drifted into uneasy and painful bouts of sleep, but awoke briskly at dawn to begin our painful trek back to Kuala Tehan.

5) The Thrills and Spills
As mentioned earlier, there were 6 falls total...5 for me and 1 for Alex, but of course this one was caused by me so it really doesn't count. I am not sure why I seem to fall all the time, but these were all really bad falls in which I was injured both physically and my pride too and most of our stuff got wet as well due to the fact that I always seem to fall into bodies of water...even the most shallow. It does make us laugh in retrospect, but there was one fall in which Alex very gracefully grabbed onto this vine and swung herself around a fallen tree and a sharp spiky plant that I had already fallen into earlier so she made it look very Tarzan-like and easy, but when it was my turn I just don't know what happened. I think I might have tried too hard to be safe and avoid the spiky plant and it just went all wrong and I somehow managed to swing around the vine itself without catapulting myself to the other side and just rolled right around bashing into the tree stump and the spiky plant to which I screamed, "I hate hiking today and I don't want to be here anymore!" Alex smiled and we discussed what went wrong and how I managed to just completely ruin her technique that she so elegantly demonstrated for me. We were discussing this as we were walking up to the village lodge area that we thought we would have to stay in the night before due to poor signage. We figured that a lodge area would have many people and possibly water, as we were running low. We came up to this lodge area and were horrified to see that it was nothing but an abandoned derelict village with crime scene tape tied up at the front of each individual lodge as if there was some sort of terrible mass murder that had occurred. We looked around for a while and thanked G-d that we found our hide the night before because rolling up to that abandoned lodge at dusk before a rain storm in the jungle would have caused a breakdown I'm afraid.

4) Food and Water
Just a tip for all you readers out there, when you are trekking in a jungle in Malaysia in the future and the guides you talk to before you leave say that you CAN drink the water in the streams, don't believe them and pack a lot of bottled water for yourself, as the stream water is a lovely shade of milky coffee colour and should not be consumed by anyone human...We learned the hard way and did not take enough water with us. We thought 7 litres would be enough, but alas, it was not, as the jungle is so muggy and humid and just drains you of all your fluids! As for food, we have survived for days on snacks and this is not even during the trek. This is due to Hari Raya, which is the end of Ramadan and everything is closed. There are about 7 or 8 floating barge restaurants in Kuala Tahan and all of them were closed so when we arrived, before the trek from hell, we were starving and could not find a restaurant or shop or anywhere to eat. We made our way back to our hotel and I think the owner could see starvation in our eyes so she invited us to join her family's karaoke Hari Raya party and eat her yummy food. What a treat and so sweet of her...this was all for free and we were blessed that she was so thoughtful and giving...especially in light of the recent news in which Pastor Terry Jones planned to burn the Quran in protest of the building of a mosque near the sight of the World Trade Centre in New York making it a very tense time for all Americans travelling in Muslim parts of the world, as well as just all Americans living or working or studying in these parts of the world...parts of the world that may practice the Muslim religion, but are NOT terrorists and have nothing to do with that way of life or way of making points and spreading hate. It has been a strange time really, as Alex and I have experienced some of the kindest most touching moments in the most Muslim dominated countries and even forget that this is the most prevalent religion in the area...and that is what it is...a religion and to burn the Quran in such a small part of the world has caused such ripples of hate and anger all the way over here so many thousands of miles away and for what reason? We are baffled and perplexed...it will not bring back those that we lost in 9/11 or those that have been lost in Afghanistan or Iraq or anywhere in the world and one hateful act does not beget another one. We wish everyone had the opportunity and chance to travel around the world and meet people that are portrayed in such a way on television and in the news to breed fear when it is quite the opposite...for example, the news that we have watched always shows Muslims riding on motorbikes with their faces covered with balaclavas and it does look scary and like they are hiding something, but since travelling we have realized that this is merely a way of keeping the pollution and car smoke from their noses and mouths when riding on the streets. Any story can be twisted and turned and portrayed in any way one wants it to be and Americans and Brits are no different...so off our soap box for today and back to the story! We ate the tastiest food ever...Rendang and Lempang - this is a delicious beef curry and rice made with coconut milk cooked in a bamboo tube...we ate until we were sick and sang karaoke all night with her family until it was time to sleep and get ready for our trek! The next day as we were leaving, she loaded us down with more rice and off we went.

3) Hari Raya
The end of Ramadan is here and not a moment too soon for those travelling who aren't Muslim. What a celebration it is. The whole town shuts down, like Christmas and Hanukkah, and everyone goes around to their family's home and cooks great feasts. The men wear these brightly coloured silk pajamas and ride around on their motorbikes wishing everyone a Selamat Hari Raya...it is a lovely celebration and the Muslims get to eat once again. We asked our hotel owner the meaning of Ramadan and she said it was to teach empathy and give people a chance to experience what it is like to not have money or food and not get to eat all day long so they can feel the pain of starvation and poverty to remind them to help their fellow man.

2) The Not-So Remote Native Village
So Al and I were trekking and hiking the west loop back to Kuala Tehan along the river with bloody blisters dripping onto our shoes, wet stinky clothing clinging to every curve of our skin and running low on water. We must have been about 2km away when we can across a Native Village and it was surprisingly similar to the other tribal village we went to in Mentawai Islands. It seemed a bit forced and appeared as though the native people retreated to their air-conditioned duplexes after the white tourists came to make a poisoned dart and watch them spear some poor little animal. It was all very posed and staged and unreal, but people were eating it up. We both looked at each other and decided it was time to get on a boat the rest of the way back...and so we walked out of the jungle and approached the tourists, tribal people and guide to ask for a ride. Now, I don't think we realized just how bedraggled and unkempt and jungle beast we must have looked after surviving a night in the rain forest, but the look on those tourists eyes was priceless. In retrospect, we had not bathed in 48 hours, we were wet and covered in sweat and mud and random bits of jungle plants, but I think the clincher were our bloody feet covered in leeches that really shocked and scared them all. We also knew that the guide would try to charge us an arm and leg for a boat ride back to the main village so we played it up a bit and really put it on taking our socks off ever so slowly making sure to wince and wriggle when pulling off the 20+ leeches that had attached themselves to our feet, ankles and legs leaving streams of blood draining from us. It was a site I am sure, but we managed to get a free ride back to Kuala Tehan and looked like total bad asses when all the tourists wanted to hear our harrowing tale of our night in the Taman Negara Jungle!

1) The Leeches
As usual, we save the best for last and this one goes to...drum roll please...the leeches. Those blood sucking shit heads! Now, the locals love to tell you that they are good and they suck all the bad blood out of you, but we want all of our blood in our bodies, good or bad. We both discussed this and we both thought leeches looked like some sort of Out of Africa looking leeches that were these huge black sucking monsters that appear after you fall into a murky river of some sort and then you feel faint and pass out. This is NOT what they look like. They are tiny thin brownish/reddish/blackish inch worm looking things that find you through your odor and sound vibrations so while all other jungle creatures avoid humans like the plague, leeches come in droves to the trek paths and stand upright on leaves and various jungle foliage and literally jump onto your shoes and inch their way with their suckers up your shoe into your sock or onto an exposed part of your skin and just start to drain you. It lasts for about 2 hours until they are full and then they just drop off to digest. The first few times Alex noticed hers, she was a bit frazzled and briskly yanked them off and threw them down, but I just never really got used to the whole idea of leeches on my person so every time we did a 'leech check' and we inevitably discovered a few, the panic really set in and ripping those suckers off of you is no easy task. We perfected a technique of grab a leaf, use the leaf to grab the leech, pull the leech off of your skin, squeeze the shit out of it in rage until its' death (that was my bit, Alex wants everyone to know that none of her leeches were harmed during this event; however, I want all of you to know that all leeches on my person were hurt, killed or rendered disabled after coming into contact with me). There were many times where we just missed them and only discovered them after we were sitting in the native village surrounded by other tourists telling our tail and blood was dripping down our foot and low and behold...a leech!

So, at the end of all of that, we made it back to our hotel for one more night and a delicious shower with a very safe and calm ride to the Cameron Highlands with a great driver and 2 awesome Aussies that gave us some great tips for travelling around Oz in a van. This place is amazing with strawberry fields and cactus gardens and butterfly gardens and every possible vegetable garden one can imagine for us to explore over the next 2 days until we are off again...some well deserved respite...don't you think!