Jungle, Jerantut and something else begining with J
MALAYSIA | Friday, 25 June 2010 | Views [548] | Comments [1]
Well folks, the Davis-Hacon summer tour continues...
We are now in Jerantut en-route to the Perhentian Islands. We are
currently waiting for a train to Kota Bharu in the NE of Malaysia, and
recovering from a couple of jungle treks through the oldest (150mn
years) tropical rain forest in the world, but we get ahead of
ourselves... let us back up and fill you in on our adventure to this
point.
We departed Melaka after a few days, and getting to witness the Friday
night market in China Town. We actually sat outside and had to sample a
little fresh satay (yummy, yummy) for some reason, un-beknown to us,
there was a karaoke on for three hours on the main stage in Chinatown,
viewable and audible from our hotel room... we have no idea what the
30-50 year old singers were singing but they were... it all wrapped up
around 10:30, much to our dismay. It is reassuring or sad, depending on
your persuasion, to know that you can buy the same kind of tat on
street markets here as easily as you can in the UK. Although we have
yet to see someone who holds the world record for breaking coconuts
with his (now mangled) finger and selling snake oil in the process.
Fascinating stuff.
We got a bus easily enough to KL only to find that the central bus
station opposite our bed for the night was closed for a refurbishment
and we were unceremoniously dumped someone on the outskirts of the
city, yikes. After a little tet-a-tet among our illustrious selves we
negotiated the disparate rail network and found our hotel, which we are
sure was a former brothel... The room was fab, i.e. it had a/c and an
en-suite. In fact for the money it was great and the staff v. helpful.
We even got a view of the Petronas Towers, well half of them.
KL was interesting, again a huge contrast between the poor and wealthy
and the shopping malls sell all the Western goods you could want. Nice
for a quick a/c break none the less. We spent the second day in KL
attempting and succeeding in getting to the Batu Caves a hindu shrine
in a huge cave complex about 20 mins from the centre of the city. This
20 min journey actually took us somewhere in the region of 3hours as we
navigated the various forms of transport available to us, silly, silly,
silly. But we got there in the end, just in time for the heavens to
open (as it does) and promptly rain for 2hours... we hid out in a
little restoran and grabbed some nosh, v. yummy, played cards (can't
remember who won) and used the toilets (the joys of squat toilets - but
that is enough of that). The journey back from the caves was easily
enough, we waited under an underpass and flagged down the 11 bus... how
simple is that?
And that was KL for us... now for a little bit about our Jungle Trek...
allegedly you have to go to Taman Negara when you are in Malaysia, it
is the largest national parks here. We were under no illusion that we
would be seeing Elephants (200 +/-) or Tigers (about the same number)
as they do their best to stay away from the park HQ that we were
staying near (or hoped to). We caught two buses, and then the highlight
of the journey, a sampan (small boat with an outboard) up to Kuala
Tahan. 3 hours on the river was v. v. cool, although the boat load of
tourists made us think that v. few locals travel this way. Well by the
time we reached Kuala Tahan our bums were numb and we were unable to
walk, making the rush from the boat to get some accomodation all the
more fun, but it is all part of the experience.
The jungle walks were great, we went out both days and promptly sweat
half our body weight away, we have decided to go into business when we
return to the UK, forget Atkins, Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig, a week
walking in the jungle is enough for anyone to lose weight... check out
www.fatpeopleinthejungle.com, sorry,
www.weightchallengedpeopleinthejungle.com for more details!
The accomodation was spartan and Christopher was bitten by every insect
imaginable but he hardly complained (yeah right). Nicola's lovely heat
rash that she developed in KL has subsided, heaps of compaining about
it though (ok, not really). The cows that were scared silly by the
storm last night, the a/c unit, the crickets and the rain make for a
cacophony of noise, which means one doesn't sleep. We ate our meals at
the small restaurants on the river with amazing views of the
rainforest. It was quite something to hike in the place with nobody
about and the densest forest we have ever seen.
Well that is about it for now folks, trying to keep this short and give
you a little flavour of what is going on and more importantly to let
you know we are still alive after a couple of weeks. So much else has
happened but we won't bore you with the details, those can wait until
we get to see you!!
off to catch a train...
