In Thailand now, still catching you guys up. So, forgot to mention about one last thing in Kuala Lumpur. We went to the National Mosque. A very large modern mosque. As women should be covered head to toe for the most part, I dressed appropriately for the day knowing we would go here. Many tourists don't. When you arrive you remove your shoes (as almost every Muslim run place of worship or business for that matter). For the 'unprepared' tourist, they give you these purple robes. In the mosque, they are unmistakable, stand out like a sour thumb. As I was more appropriately dressed, a woman only tied a scarf over my head. She lent me one that happen to match the coloring of my clothes. Within the mosque, a volunteer came up to us and was talking about the religion and what not, but in the beginning, he looked at me funny and asked, "Are you Muslim?" I chuckled a bit. Funny to think I could of fooled them.
Actually, throughout the whole trip so far, no one has pegged us as American. A very GOOD thing. Been called Aussies a bit. People are shocked to find out we are from the US. They say we don't look American. We must be doing something right. Still tourists none the less though. By the way, there are a lot of people traveling from Australia here. Very close proximity wise.
So onto our Tamara National Park experience. We arrived by several buses from KL, through the town of Jerantut. The park is in the NE of Malaysia. Outside of Jerantut, we caught a wooden longboat for a three hour ride up the river to the National Park. We had to get permits for the park and a photography permit as well before entering the small boat. It was a little more expensive than taking a bus all the way, but I thoroughly enjoyed entering the park this way. Felt more down to earth. A good preparation mentally for the transition of the big cities we have most recently come from.
We found a very nice little guesthouse outside the park, Yellow Guesthouse. Owner used to be a guide in the park and spoke very good English. Very laid back and offered to keep out packs for us while we galabanted about the park. We stayed in the dorm room (our first on the trip) with one more guest from Norway. Otherwise, the Guesthouse was quiet and empty. Nice. Well, besides be woken up by all the chickens!
The park is a peninsula by the way, so the town of Kuala Tahan, across the river from the park is where all conviences are. You have to ferry to and from the park at the small floating restaurants in the town. We spent the first day in the park doing a Canopy Walk. They say it's the longest in the World. I had so much fun. We had to hike in just under 2 miles on a nice trail to the Canopy. We were the only ones on the Canopy while we were there. 6 canopies and 5 platforms. One on the canopies was actually stairs! I was gleaming during this activity. Many of you can relate I am sure.
After many talks starting the night before with many different locals, we were able to arrange a local to guide us up river about 1/2 hour (up through about class 2 rapids) to a small Orang Asli village. The guide arranged with the village chief for us to stay a night in the village. We stayed in one of the local huts...one of the gratifying times we got our shots. These huts are in the rain forest, no doors, do real floors...I think that says enough. The Orang Asli are the local natives that still live in the rain forest and get all their food, housing and such from the forest. This village was a little modernized, they had rice bought from the village. They speak their own tongue. The guide left and there we were, Eric and I among this tribe. A lot of sitting and watching, waiting for people to come to us (not really ever happening). Eventually when they men came back from the hunts of the day, one man came to us. He spole very broken English. We learned a few things from him. Got to try a blow pipe for hunting and for the real unique experience from our visit, yet not what we were expecting is this:
When the men returned, they brought a generator. After many ooohs and ahhhs, and various electronic parts being pulled out of individual homes, a TV and DVD player with one big speaker was set up. This was their first time to watch TV in the village. The kids where glued right away. And to what? Malaysian Karaoke Videos! It was sooo loud though and the bright light of the TV in the dark of the night gave me a horrible headache. 'Bowman' kept asking Eric, "Is your wife, ok?" The TV mind you, as special as it was, did not prevent the kids from being timid by our presence. Many of the very young cried if they had to walk by us. We tried to be as inobtrosive as possible. We were told that people stay out at the village once in a blue moon. Although guides do bring tours for about an hour at a time. When we arrived a tour was just wrapping up. They were bug eyed and aghast that we were staying the night. They left sending us many 'good luck' praises.
We brought in our own food for the night and brought rice as a gift for the village. Our night was actually quit harmless and peaceful (after the TV got turned off). There were creepy crawly things of course, but I shut my mind off to it. In the morning we seemed to have proven our worth because the villagers were a lot less timid. We were able to watch them building a new hut. Weaving the roof from the palm leaves. Only the woman worked on the house though. We were told this was the woman's role, 'to provide the home for the man.' Quit literal.
Our guide came right on time to pick us up in the morning. Our ride down the rapids was fun! In the wooden longboats, much different feel than a raft. Our boatman was very trusty though. I highly recommend him if any of you go here, Zam and his wife, City. Young couple. You would have to ask around town.
Upon our return, we headed out on a 5 mile roundtrip hike to Gua Telinga, A cave. I explored a bit to the tune of many smiles when I came upon hundreds of bats. Deeper in the cave the concentration more and more, each corner a bigger grin on my face. But also, as many of you know, the nose krinkled more and more. The cave was short and I planned on going all the way through. The stench got so bad, I had to turn around. I had my fill and was quit content though.
We left the next morning by minibus to the Cameron Highlands. It was in Kuala Tahan that we ran into the first (that we were aware of) American traveler. There don't seem to be many here. Mostly Europeans. Every where we have gone so far that is. The National Park is a bit off the normal backpacking trek through SE Asia, so it was nice to do.
