and into the concrete jungle of Kuala Lumpur. Which I've grown accustomed to and don't freak out at anymore. I've grown so much in the jungle...
Taman Negara was cool, we basically trekked through the jungle for 4 days, each day getting dirtier and sweatier than the previous, or so it seemed. My first impressions of the national park was that it was like an outdoorsy amusement park, with lots of people, long lines for the canopy walkway, and even park attendants. But that was just the first day, after that we left the crowds and went further into the wilderness, spent a night in a bumbun (dorm/cabin shelter in the middle of the jungle that accomodates 12, but there were 14 of us...Jonathan from France slept on the ground, and a Dutch family's guide slept outside...good on 'em), hiked 5 hours back to the park headquarters the next day with minimal food and water because we thought we'd be able to get a boat back, but noooooo...got eaten by leaches, tripped over roots, climbed over fallen trees, waded through rivers, and had a great time.
Our last day in Taman Negara we hiked to a bat cave, which Michelle spelunked through while I just hung out with the hundreds of bats flying all around my head. My favorite part of the trip...Malaysia redeemed itself thanks to its hyper little bats...guess it doesn't take much for me...
Tomorrow we fly to Malaysian Borneo, not sure what we'll do there for 3 weeks but probably more of the same, tramping through the jungle. And alas, I bought my final plane ticket for this crazy trip of ours, flying to Hawaii on September 1st. Back to the good US of A...well, island style anyway...
