Sweat Baby Sweat!

Sat 15th Aug
Made it! Just got back to Jerantut after a dodgy hostel, bad food, stifling humidity and great people - I had a ball! But phew, what a workout the jungle is!

Left here 3 mornings ago and boarded a long tail boat with ten others for the 80km river trip into Taman Negara. The journey took just over 3 hours and passed by the kind of nature that National Geographic would be proud to show, including wild buffalo and bird of prey, and then we were dropped off at one of the floating restaurants and let loose on the little village to find ourselves some accommodation. When booking the boat and park permit, I was told that it was pretty much booked out - hard to believe as on arrival the ten of us dispersed out of the heat and into the trees and there was literally no one else around. But then I discover that they are filming back to back ‘I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here!’ series and the place is reserved for crew. So, standards lower and everyone stoops to places that wouldn’t normally be considered but it’s the jungle and for 2 quid, including breakfast, why waste time worrying over the shower being no more than a concrete room with a bucket of river water? Unfortunately for the afternoon arrivals (Timo, Axel, Susan and Jesper), they’ve chosen to do the entire trip on a £60 package tour and this place was not quite what the brochure illustrated! Still, jungle! Let’s move on.

Our first venture across the river is on a gentle night safari focussed on the night fauna and insects so there is no preconception of seeing prowling tigers or herds of elephants passing by. The guides are brilliant and spot all kind of weird wildlife –glow in the dark mushrooms, termite mounds, luminous tree frogs, preying mantas, snakes, venomous black spiders and even a bird eating tarantula – but there are too many people and it’s hard to see past them so Timo, Axel and I end up ‘tourist spotting’ in our best David Attenborourgh whispers with our hired torches, even getting people to people think us sincere and copy by photographing complete blackness and a few sticks. Well, they look the same as stick insects anyway.

Weirdly, with jungle temperatures outside, 6 people in a room with only one fan and I can’t sleep because I’m freezing (and the room is once again full of bees – what’s with this area??) so I’m pretty tired the next day when we set off to do the suspended canopy walk and a 3 hour trek up the mountain. Wearing shoes and shorts (so you can see the leeches!), parts of the trek were almost climbing and a few people gave up but the rest of us sweated it out (literally!) and whenever we managed to catch our breath, the jungle was awe inspiring and the views from our highest point were unbelievable. The canopy walk (250m of rope and wood) however, was absolutely terrifying and very few people look anywhere but straight ahead so the views aren’t exactly enjoyed! It was also not helped by the fact there was a traffic jam half way round due to a snake on the rope so we all swayed 50m above the jungle floor as a terrified guide swiped it away. But getting back onto the ground safely was pretty amazing! The afternoon passed quickly, I decided to rejoin the travel company I came over with a 6 of us did a longboat run down the rapids and we were filmed at a couple of stages by the resident crew (opening scenes to ‘I’m a Celebrity...’ perhaps??) before relaxing to dry out in the sunshine on a sandy bank.

For our last night, Timo, Axel and I got a boat over to the canopy entrance and to the resort there (the only place in Taman Negara that isn’t dry) and had a proper meal and a few tiger beers among the rich and famous (or filming the has-been famous anyway). We agreed to meet back in Germany where I’ll get a locals view of Oktoberfest and they were even true gentlemen and treated me by paying discreetly so it was a truly lovely way to end our time in the jungle before our 7am rise for the bus back into civilisation.

So I would definitely recommend Taman Negara, even for the most unprepared and bug fearing travellers!