It was time to head to the jungle. We decided to catch the famous jungle train so we headed to nearby Kota Bharu, which also happens to be famous for its night food market. We wondered around the market trying to decide and settled on some Nasi Ayam Percik - bbq chicken marinated in a spicy coconut gravy, stuffed Roti Canai and a feast of local sweets. The meal was lip smack'n, finger lick'n good! The next morning we had to get up at 2:45am to catch the 4:18am jungle train (did not need to get up so bloody early, we followed bad advice). Luckily we slept (well Tash did) for the first few hours and awoke to see the train gliding through thick mountain jungle. It was a slow but beautiful journey. 8 hours later we arrived in time to catch the 3 hour slow boat up the river to Kuala Tahan which sits on the edge of Taman Negara jungle.After checking out a few options we concluded that accommodation at Kuala Tahan is overpriced and very grotty. We reluctantly settled on Tersek View Motel (we heard rumours it was the only place in the area that was bed bug free).
The next day we headed out for some jungle trekking with some lovely fellow Aussie travellers we had met along the way. First we headed to the Canopy Walkway which is suspended 20-30m above ground between huge trees. Not long after we started I decided not to torture myself again (I've already done two of these bloody things on this trip).
We then followed a series of trails through the jungle. While Taman Negara is a beautiful national park, sightings of exotic wildlife (ie. elephants, tigers, leopards) that inhabit the park are very rare. But one thing we did spot were hundreds of leeches.... They were everywhere and anywhere. If you paused for a second, a little brown leech would poke its head up from the ground and come creeping towards you. This is where Greg the Big Brave Man, became a Scared Little Mouse. As we wondered the jungle Greg spent every second checking, and rechecking his legs for a little creature that is about 2cm long. Inevitably we all got leeched and Greg accepted his fate stoically. Hot and sweaty from jungle trekking we ended the day with a leech free swim in the river.
Our next mission was to try and find the nearby bat cave Gua Telinga. After dodging leeches and jumping over tree roots we finally arrived at what we thought was the entrance to the bat cave. Using the ropes we crawled into the darkness as far as we could. But couldn't seem to find a way through. Confused we crawled out and headed out and back along the path where we soon found a big sign to the cave. Feeling braver we crawled into the cave and followed ropes through different caverns. The number of bats (and the horrid smell of bats) growing. We then emerged into a cavern that was full of hundreds of little bats. We sat in silence as they whooshed around our heads. Greg went exploring to see if there was a way through and concluded must be one-way. We started to head out and luckily bumped into a tour guide who explained we could keep going through. He showed us the way out - a small crack, half filled with water! Soon we found ourselves at the exact point we had tried unsuccessfully to enter earlier. We surfaced from the cave wet and covered in mud - but happy we had made it all the way through.
That night we went on a guided night walk. With a group of 17 it was amazing we saw anything. But we did see snakes, scorpions, stick insects and some cool glowing mushrooms.Its so hot and humid here that its time to cool off....... 
No comments:
Post a Comment