When initially planning my route south through the Malaysia Peninsula from Thailand to Singapore, I dismissed any thoughts of going to Taman Negara. This was mainly due to one sentence in the guide book.
"The best time to visit Taman Negara is in the dry season between February and September. During the wet season leeches come out in force"
The thought of going anywhere near this army of leeches was enough to send me heading straight for the concrete jungle instead of the actual jungle. However... everyone I seemed to speak to in the Cameron Highlands had either just come from Taman Negara or it was their next stop. I decided that I would have countless opportunities on this trip to visit cities and not many more chances, if any, to visit a rain forest. So... on my last night in The Cameron Highlands I found myself booking a ticket to Kuala Tahan instead of a Kuala Lumpur and was now tagging along with a lovely Canadian girl called Shannon.
The journey to the jungle was a bit of an adventure in itself. A two hours bus ride to Jerantut, followed by a two hour wait, another quick bus ride and then a three hour boat ride.
The boat ride was not the most comfortable, sitting on the bottom of the boat whilst being pelted with rain but the scenery was stunning. Arriving by boat also made it feel like we were heading somewhere really remote.
We landed at a floating restaurant and were given some information about possible tours and treks we could do. We had already decided that we didn't need a guide and were going to do a two day trek with an overnight stay in a hide in the middle of the jungle.
The hide we chose was an 11km walk north and should should take 5-6 hours. After finding a bed for the night we went for an explore round the little village of Kuala Tahan to see what supplies we could find for our adventure. The answer was not much. I purchased two tins of tuna and some cookies.
We also met a young couple who were staying at the same place as up. I am ashamed to say that I have forgotten their names, she was Brazilian and him Dutch. They had arrived earlier in the day and had gone for a short trek already. They had both got leeches. Her bite was particular bad and her heel was still bleeding several hours later. I have since learnt that leeches produce an anticoagulant when they bite to stop you healing. Great! Still they weren't too put off by the leeches and were hoping to stay at the same hide as us the following night.
It was also around this time that it started raining. Hard. We went for dinner on one of the floating restaurants and then back at the chalets where I got talking to an Australian called Elliot. He has also arrived that day and wanted to do a trek, but not on his own. I told him of our plans, and he was keen to join us, so we now had a group of five.
We had an early night but couldn't sleep; a combination of the heat, the torrential rain hammering on the tin roof, the mosquitoes buzzing my ear, the cold that I seemed to be developing and the anticipation of what the next two days were going to bring.
The next morning it was still raining. Also, shockingly, the river had risen considerable overnight, and worse still i found i had about 50 mosquito bites on my face and more in my hand. These must have been the only parts of me visible outside my sleep sheet. We met Elliot and went to find some breakfast. There was a group of women selling various delights and after bumping into a British couple I had previously met in Cameron I went for a roti on their recommendation. This turned out to be the start of my roti addiction.
We decided to speak to a guide from the national park about whether it was sensible to go into the jungle in these wet conditions. To get to the hide we wanted to stay at we would have to cross a number of rivers and with the water raising so fast he advised that we go to a much closer one. This meant a shorter walk but also less chance of seeing any wildlife. Taman Negara is home to about 200 Malayan tigers and 600 Asian Elephants as well as Sumatran Rhinoceros, Malaysian gaur or seladang, sambar deer, barking deer, wild pigs, tapir, leopards, sun bear and Long-Tail Macaques amongst others. Although actually seeing these larger mammals is rare you have more chance the further away you get from the village.
So we settle on a 3km walk. As this would only be a 1-2 hour walk we decide to wait till after lunch to depart, this would also mean we didn't have to carry as much food. I hired a back pack and sleeping bag and mat. I packed my water, food and some dry clothes to sleep in into my newly acquired bag. Then left my backpack with the owners of the chalets.
It's still raining and the river is rising fast. The paved area and little beach are now completely covered and some of the floating restaurants have closed as they are no longer accessible. There is one that we can still get to so we all cross the make shift walkway and eat noodles or rice. We have a quick 'before' photo then cross the ever rising river, on a little boat, to the national park. We need to book in and pay for our night in the hide. It is RM5 which is just under £1. There is also a quick bathroom break and a last minute shop where I purchase two overpriced mars bars.
I tucked my trousers firmly into my socks, not the best look, but hopefully a little more leech proof. The path starts on a wooden walkway and is fairly up and down, it has mercifully stopped raining but it is not long before we are all soaked to the skin with sweat. It is so humid. Once off the wooden walkway is not long before the first leech attacks, Elliot feels a little itch on his ankle and lifts his trouser to find a skinny brown leech ready to attack. After a mild panic all round the offending animal is quickly flicked off. Luckily he was discovered before he had a chance to bite. However on checking his other leg, Elliot finds a much fatter leech attached and halfway through a meal. He too is removed and has an untimely death underneath someones show, causing Elliot's freshly harvested blood to splatter across the path. Everyone else does a quick leech check and several leeches are removed from shoes and socks but no other bites are found. Elliot then wisely decides to go for the trousers in sock look like Shannon and I.
We follow the trail past a little beach on the river which is used as a swimming stop in the dry season. We pass lots of varying types of fungus but as yet no sign of wildlife. Every ten minutes or so someone will start to check there shoes for leeches, this usually prompts the rest of us to start looking and then someone will start swearing at the leech the have found as they desperately try to remove it. I found the best technique was to use a stick to try and flick them off, as if you use a finger they would invariable try to stick to that. The sock in trouser defenders seemed to be holding up although a number of leeches tried to worm their way down into my shoes.
We are walking at a fair pace. Shannon and Elliot seem to be walking the fastest. The Dutch boy and Brazilian girl are not so fast with my natural pace somewhere in the middle. At one stage Shannon, Elliot and I get quite far ahead and when the others catch up they reveal they stopped to get some photos of three wild pigs that they spotted and we completely missed. We carry on, continuing with the regular leech checks as we go. After a while Elliot stops us indicating that he has seen something, I look up and see some kind of light grey monkey way up in the canopy moving very fast. A split second later he is out of site. We hang around for a bit but there are no others and he is long gone.
More walking and more leech checks. Eventually we come to another wooden walkway. This is strange as we had been expecting to be getting deeper into the jungle. We can either turn left down the hill or right to go up. After two hours of walking in the heat the left turn is looking more favourable. Shannon and the Dutch boy consult our maps and decide that we should head down wards. After about 200 meters we get to another junction and after more consultation it is discovered that way back at the beginning of the walk we missed a turning and we are on completely the wrong path. There seemed to be two options, turn back and try to find the turning we had missed or carry on up to the peak and down to meet the correct path on the other side. We all agreed we didn't want to backtrack so onwards and upwards it is.
From this point it is was a 1km walk up to the peak and so there was huge relief when we finally got there. We had a nice long break for photos and water and some little green cookies that the Dutch boy had brought along. After we were suitably recovered a girl comes along and we find out we are not at the peak and we have another 200 meters to climb.
The view from the fake peak
The view from the actual peak
Group shot at the actual peak.
We carry on down the other side although it looks like this track is rarely used. It is overgrown and we have to climb over fallen trees and the decent is really steep in places. It is muddy and there are so many obstacles along the way and you don't want to leave your feet still for too long in case this gives a leech an opportunity to jump on. Eventually the path flattens out and the walking gets easier. We reach an junction with a sign post and we are back on the right path. There is a bridge across a small river ant then we know to take the right hand fork.
Suddenly Elliot is crouching down by a huge pile of, apparently fresh, elephant poo and he is really excited. We also spot some elephant footprints and you can also see the trail of destruction they have left through the forest. It is actually really exciting, I know we haven't seen an actual wild elephant but to know we are in the same vicinity feels amazing and we are filled with hope that we could see some at the salt lick from the hide. Elliot has spent a total of 11 weeks over the last five years volunteering at Elephant Nature Park, his degree is in Animal Sciences and his dissertation in Elephant Behaviour so in my eyes he is a bit of an expert. What with Shannon being a nurse I feel like I have chosen my jungle buddies well. Elliot poses for a picture with the poo and we carry on. You can actually smell the elephants in the air. A bit further along we see more elephant destruction, they have actually ripped the signposts out of the ground so in order for us to see which way to go Shannon lifts it up to check which way it is pointing. It is raining again by now. Not that it has too much of an impact as we are all already soaked to the skin from the heat.
Eventually we see out little home for the night. So basic and un homely but still a very welcome sight. There is a little climb up as it is perched on stilts. There are four crudely constructed bunk beds and a little bench by the observation hole. First things first though. One final leech check. We pull off our soaking shoes and socks, I remove my last two unwelcome hitchhikers and give them a liberal sprinkling of the salt that Shannon has just pulled from her bag. Miraculously none made it to my skin and I am happily bite free. We settle down in a row on the bench and Elliot and I fall in to a conversation about elephants and Elephant Nature Park. All the time staring out at the salt lick desperately willing one to appear. It's funny, when we found the elephant poo and tracks it was so exciting but the reality of coming face to face with a wild bull elephant would be something else altogether and the excitement, for me, would I'm sure, rapidly turn into sheer terror.
So we had set out to do a 3km flattish hike but, with the missed turn, had ended doing a 6km very hilly hike. I am secretly very glad we were advised not to do the 11km hike. In hind site we are all very glad for the detour, it was more challenging and we would have been in the hide far too early if we had taken the route we had planned to.
I tuck into my tin of tuna which turns out to be a delicious meal with some Pringles donated from Shannon and Elliot. With cookies and the mars bar for desert it is quite a feast. It is heavenly to change into my dry clothes and i do not look forward to putting the wet ones back on in the morning. A quick bathroom break in the jungle, I don't want to hang around and pick up any more leeches and I clean my teeth and I am ready for bed at 7pm. There is a bit of drama when the Dutch boy discovers a leech on his leg. There shouldn't be any leeches in the hide so it either came in on someones shoe or he picked it up on his bathroom break. Still it has us all on edge again and frantically doing yet another leech check.
At dusk we are all sat in a row on the bench looking out to the little salt lick, our eyes drawn to any movement hoping to see something. There are a couple of little squirrels in a tree and some bats flying about but that is about it for the wildlife and soon we are sat there in silence staring out into the complete and utter darkness. My mind starts playing tricks on me and I wonder if for some reason everyone else has wondered off and I am in fact all alone. I am brought back to reality by a strange noise that sounds like it is coming from inside the hide. Almost like a deep croaking. Elliot is first over but can't see anything, I join him and using my torch I spot a beady eye looking back of me from the roof of the hide. I can only see its head, which is about the size of a golf ball but it appears to be some kind of lizard. That excitement over we all return to the bench. There is much flashing of torches but none of or lights are that powerful so we probably wouldn't be able to pick up animals down at the salt lick anyway. Shannon suddenly asked for all lights to be turned out, she has spotted some fireflies, flickering in the darkness. She spends some time taking some long exposure photographs trying to pick them up but with no decent results. More sitting in the darkness and the only further excitement is a little crashing in the distance which we convince ourselves are elephants moving through the trees.
We realise that we are all falling asleep, staring out into nothing, and we should probably settle down to sleep for the night. This prompts Shannon, an experienced trekker and camper back in Canada, to suggest that we put out food in one bag and tie it from the ceiling to stop any rats getting to it. RATS!!! I was so focused on the leeches that I hadn't given much consideration to rats, or any other jungle critters for that matter. Right on que, someone spots a huge spider and I hear the word huntsman being banded about. Shannon finds some kind of winged creature nesting above her bunk and then a snail actually in her bed. I feel like it is going to be a long night. Once in my sleeping bag with my hood up I listen to the deafening jungle chorus and I am sure I can hear a few more elephant crashes. Then the heavens open and all you can hear is the torrential pouring rain. I begin to wish I had already done the Vipassana meditation course I am taking over Christmas and New Year as I am sure those skills would come in useful when trying to sleep in the jungle. I concentrate on the fact that nothing out here can actually kill me... as far as I know.
Sleep eventually finds me and when I wake I wonder how long it is till sunrise. A quick glance at my watch reveals that it is 11.39pm, it is not even midnight. This really is going to be the longest night. Eventually some more sleep and when I wake again it is 3am, it seems others are awake too as there are some torch lights flashing. A little later I blow my nose and the torch lights come on again. I hope they realise that it was just me and not some scary jungle creature. I'm awake till 5am, then a few hours more sleep and when I wake next it is dawn. It hasn't stopped raining all night. I can't open my right eye, and not just because I am sleepy, it is completely swollen. I am happy there are no mirrors in the jungle, my eye is covered in red spots from yesterday's bites and now completely puffy. I must look a sight. Eliot pulls out his very comprehensive first aid kit and Shannon identifies the antihistamine I should take to bring the swelling down.
After breakfast (my second tin of tuna) we decide that we should not wait for the rain to stop as it could keep going like this all day. The 3km should only take just over an hour if we set a good pace. We are all craving some roti from the same woman as yesterday so christen the walk out 'the road to roti'. With this new motivation in mind I pull on my wet clothes and pack up my little bag and we are soon on our way.
The track is considerable wetter than yesterday and after one slip I have soaking feet. We seem to do less leech checks today, maybe we are more resigned to them. Every time we stop I find at least two of the little buggers on my shoes or socks.
Shannon, Elliot and I strike out ahead and I find my self leading. We navigate over a fallen tree trunk and then are stopped in our tracks when we hear a growl to the left of us. I do a 180 and find myself standing behind the others, what a coward. We take a few more steps and Elliot shots out his best aggressive alpha male shout and the mystery creature replies. We make a rapid retreat to the fallen tree where we arm ourselves with huge sticks just in case we need to defend ourselves. It is ridiculous, we hope and hope to see some wildlife and at the first sign we are big fat sacredy cats. Being ridiculously girlie, Shannon and I push Elliot out in front and we continue down the path once more but this time there is no sign of the animal. Relived and also disappointed we pick up the pace and carry on through the rain. At one stage there is so much water on the ground it feels like we are actually walking through a stream. The rest of the walk is fairly uneventful, if you don't count me slipping over onto my bottom as an event. We soon find the path we started on and wonder how all five of us could have possible missed the turn.
Once back to civilisation we use the bathroom to do a thorough and final leech check. Shannon finds a bite on her foot but no sign of the offending leech, thankfully. Can leeches bite through socks? Out of the five of us I am the only one who managed to stay leech bite free. I feel very relived, but also strangely, slightly disappointed.
We sit and wait for the others to return and then head down to catch the boat back to the village, we have just missed one but he turns back when he sees us. We are really shocked at how high the water has risen in the 20 or so hours we have been away. So we are nearly at the end of the road to roti but when we reach the little food stalls there is no roti in sight! Disaster! I settle on, ironically, some tuna spring rolls. I don't think I have eaten tuna this whole trip but today it seems I am to be powered by tuna.
In the afternoon we split our time between a little shelter at out guest house where I learn to play UNO, winning only one hand out of about 20 and the only floating restaurant that remains open. We sit for an hour or so and watch the river rise at least half a foot before our very eyes. I think it is time to get back to the city.
It still hasn't stopped raining the next day and the floating restaurants that we used to look sown onto are now practically level with us. We bump into another friend from the Cameron Highlands over breakfast. Kathleen has been camping in a cave in the jungle, she has tales of numerous leech bites not just on her feet but on her arm pits as well. It is time to say goodbye to Elliot as he is heading to the highlands but Shannon, Kathleen and I take the local bus to Jeruntut. It seems like we are getting out just in time as the driver receives a cheer from his passengers as he successfully navigates the flooded roads that have beaten many cars. The landscape is so flooded, just the very tops of palm trees are visible over the water by the swollen rivers. I am very glad I am not sleeping in the jungle tonight.
So I feel like I have kind of conquered the jungle. Although it also kind of beaten me. I am leaving with a spotty face, swollen face and hand, a streaming cold and my backpack is the smelliest it has been this whole trip. Still I would do it all over again, though maybe in dry season next time.