Taman Negara - Jungle Jane!

12th – 15th Aug
Ha, that’s a laugh! After the laziest days in Singapore, I decided it was time for an adventure so now it’s 9pm and I’ve been in the Taman Negara region for approximately 5 hours. I woke up at 6am and coughed my way here in a relatively straight forward train journey (although we don’t appear to have bothered with customs so not sure what that’s about) and now I’m in my second room in my 38th accommodation on this trip so far. I’d like to say the change of room was the hostel’s fault but in all honesty, I should know better than to leave lights on and windows open! But still, after some barefoot wandering around this tiny town in the hope of finding some phone top up, I did not expect to come back to a swarm of giant bees! I dashed back out and into a Swedish family’s card game in panic then we all had a five minute newspaper and flip-flop killing spree but when they just kept appearing I lost my nerve and decided to switch rooms. Fortunately the new room seems terror free but I’ll have to sleep in a thousand degrees to keep it that way. Jungle is a whole different ball game.

So, what brings an ill prepared and bug fearing backpacker to Taman Negara? Well it’s outside my comfort zone so it’s a challenge and it’s also 130 million years old, beating the Amazon to the oldest spot by the fact it was untouched by the ice ages, and home to hundreds of species of bird, plant and mammal - most excitingly tigers and elephants! Of course, it’s a bit of a nightmare to get to as the trains and buses stop at Jerantut, 8 hours North of Singapore and where I am now, and then it’s another bus and 3 hours on a longtail boat to get to Kuala Tahan, which is the base for the park but I hear it’s worth it.

Plan is to outdo myself and spend at least some of the time relaxed and not drowning in deet and freaking out whenever something touches me but we’ll just need to wait and see.