Hi All,
We were a little reluctant to head off to yet another national park
particularly one were animal numbers were low and sightings rare.But
Taman Negara is supposedly Malaysia greatest national ,4343sq kms, so
we thought surely one more won´t kill us! The journey to get there in
itself was a
rather epic journey that involves 3 changes of bus and almost 8 hrs of
travel time.We arrived late in the afternoon and headed to our number
one accommodation choice only to discover that it was fully booked so
we started heading in the direction of another guest house but were
met
by a man who claimed to know where we could get a hostel bed for 10RM
with air conditioning, hot showers and free wi fi so we followed him to
Yellow house.To say it was basic was an fairly accurate description
and it delivered exactly what was promised and much much more.It was a
6 bed dorm and two beds were occupied by a rather unfriendly French
couple who seemed reluctant to engage in conversation with us.They
both spoke English fluently so it wasn´t a language barrier maybe just
antisocial personality traits or travel snobbery.(whatever that is).No
loss to us. We headed off for a meal down at the river on one of the
many moored river boats with restaurants on board. Hamburgers seemed to
be very popular with the western population but we decided to stick
with simple malay cooking. Unfortunately it seemed to be a one wok and
our meals took over 40 min to arrived and to make matters worse they
were
pretty average. We were in a rush as there was a video presentation on
Taman Negara (national park) at one of the other boats so we ate then
headed over in the dark and settled in only to find that it was only 15
min long. Hardly worth the effort but it was also bus company office
so we booked our bus trip to Kuala Lumpar before heading back to the
hostel. It was a squeaky night of broken sleep as even the slightest
movement seemed to be detected and amplified by the metal beds. I roll
around a lot when I sleep.
Next day. We were up early for a walk in the national park. First a
river crossing in a boat for 1 ringgit each to get to the entrance of
the park and register. It didn't take long to be on our way and we were
prepared with plenty of water and our leech socks pulled up. Taman
Negara has some of the oldest rainforest in the world. The path was
wide and well kept and it was looking like a leech free zone again but
we had read a blog recently that talked about a walker getting 7
leeches along a track so it was good insurance. It was really nice
walking through the rainforest and listening to the bird calls. We came
across a pretty crested fireback pheasant which clearly found us no
threat which allowed Vanessa time to capture a few images. A short
while later we spotted a black crested woodpecker before coming to the
turnoff to the canopy walk. The humidity was really high as was the
temperature and we were using our water supply much more rapidly than
expected. We climbed up the path to the start of the canopy walk and
bought our tickets. A fellow traveller could not buy a ticket as the
staff had no change for a 50 ringgit note but we couldn't help but we
made his day by giving him the 50 sen to make up the cost of a ticket
with small change. The canopy walk is the longest in the world at over
400m in length and is very wobbly giving the feeling that you might
fall over the side if you release your grip on the ropes. Some of the
trees towered above us even though we were 50m above the ground in
places. Still we survived without incident and without spotting any
birdlife or animals. The day crowd started turning up and the
tranquillity of the forest was replaced with noisy human chatter. We
were glad to have spent a little time on the track by ourselves. We
were going to continue along the path beside the river but were running
too low on water so turned around and started heading back via a steep
inland mountain. I started feeling unwell, possibly from the heat, and
we turned back along the easier path along the river and headed back to
the hostel for some water and respite in the air conditioned dorm room.
The dorm was all ours when we got back but not for long. A party of
three backpackers turned up and one of them found bedbugs on the corner
of one of the upper bunk mattresses which was concerning. I checked a
couple of the other mattresses and also found bedbugs. Vanessa said she
didn't want to know if they were on her mattress. Fine. I took mine
outside and systematically checked it for bedbugs finding them in the
seams and went and got the owner to show him the problem. He said that
this problem had occurred before as walkers bring them back from the
rainforest. Not quite sure whether it was the correct decision or not
but Vanessa didn't
want to move to another hostel so we needed to find a solution. I spent
the next hour with the owner clearing off and killing the bedbugs from
our mattresses then spraying the affected areas with cockroach surface
spray. Not really the ideal solution but we were only staying for
another night.
We waited out the heat of the afternoon before heading to the river for
some food and then over to the national park with the intention of
sitting in a nearby hide to watch the birds and animals for the rest of
the afternoon. We found a couple of woodpeckers along the way and a
hornbill up one of the tall trees before reaching the hide. We weren't
overly confident of observing wildlife as our guidebook
indicated it was too close to the park entrance so got too much
disturbance and blogs entries seemed to confirm it as fact. Still we
wanted to find out. The hide looked across a cleared area of forest and
had a small artificial lake in the centre. There was a strange looking
brown rock on one edge which on closer observation turned out to be a
small wild boar enjoying a dip. A noisy family of asians turned up and
did their best to scare of any further chance of seeing wildlife even
after reading the 'keep quiet' sign, observing it and saying shhhh then
seconds later forgetting it and continuing being loud. They left soon
after satisfied with their photographs and we were left in peace for
the rest of the afternoon. Three more boars arrived during the
afternoon and we also observed 3 unidentified hornbills and rhinoceros
hornbill just before dusk. An American turned up with a set of
binoculars and sat down to observe with us. He was much keener than us
and was able to identify animal and bird species and it was quite
interesting listening to his adventures. A couple of Samba deer turned
up just before darkness fell. Vanessa and I had headlights and he
walked between us. I was surprised to spot the reflection of eyes along
the path a couple of times and finally spotted the shape a mouse deer.
The rainforest was alive with animals and birds. Perhaps other people
just need to spend the time, be quiet and observe carefully. I was
pleasantly surprised and impressed.
to be continued......
