World Adventure

Hi All,

We got back to the dorm and found that one of the three backpackers  had  moved to alternative accommodation and we started talking to a female backpacker whom we thought we had briefly spoken with earlier in the day  It took a couple of minutes to work out that she was slimmer than the girl that had been on the same bed earlier and that she was also Swiss and not from the Netherlands Obviously the other girl  had left and been replace almost simultaneously  We decided not to mention the possibility of bedbugs to her. It was another squeaky night of broken sleep and then a thunderstorm hit followed by heavy tropical rain. I was a little confused when my bed started getting wet during the heaviest downpours but soon realise that the roof was leaking and a stream of water was falling on me! So I got out of bed and found that the rest of the room was fine, started to move beds when the rain eased and the roof stopped leaking water. I remade my bed and curled up in the dry area and went back to sleep.

Next day.

We were up early for our bus which was departing at 8am and after a quick breakfast we walked down to the bus stop to see the bus already waiting. We board the bus and other backpackers gradually filled the bus it was at about this time that we were informed that there had been a mistaken and that our bus to KL which we were informed was scheduled to depart at 930am actually left at 8am today.We were informed that we would have to wait in Jeranut until  1pm to catch the next bus to KL.Like hell we were not going to hang around in Jeranut for 4hrs we had planned to be in or at least well on our way to Melaka by then and that was the plan that we were going to stick with so our money for the Jeranut to KL leg of the journey was refunded (80RM total ).The bus company told us that there was a local bus leaving at 1000am so maybe we might be able to get tickets.We weren´t going to hold our breathe waiting for them to offer to secure tickets for us as we knew that they had no intention of being so helpful so all we could do was hope for the best.We arrived at Jeranut and were transferred to a smaler bus with three other boys who were suppose to be going to KL by this stage it was 945am and the small window of opportunity to get onto the bus seemed to be closing.we arrived at the bus station only to be told that there were no tickets available ...........arghhhhhhhhh..............we pushed the issue and managed to secure two seats on the 10am bus to  KL for (26RM total )but the boys were forced to catch the 11am bus.We climbed aboard the bus and sat in our allocated seats and then the hhalf empty  bus departed.The boys could have easily fitted so am not sure exactly that their definition of full is the same as ours.Uneventful journey to KL then a journey on KLs rapid train line to reach another chaotic bus terminal.Stinking hot and as humid as a sauna we were thankful to climb about a bus bound for Melaka within about 15minutes.

Taman Negara is a National Park that deserve much more time than we were able to give it and it is definitely a place where the more you put into it the more rewarding it is likely to be.I think that if we had had a week  to spare then we would have walked out to the hides that was furtherest away amd definitely off the beaten track but alas that will simply  have to wait until next time

Bye for now ,

David and Vanessa