Mutiara Taman Negara Jerantut

Apologies for the delay in getting this travelogue to you but internet access has been a bit difficult lately and so I'm currently trying to play catch up! Well we didnt make it to the amusement park in Times Square in the end but we did go to Chinatown where dad bought a fake Rolex watch to match his (real) Rolex ring. Cost him the grand sum of 6pounds! Tuesday we got up at 6.15am (anyone who knows me will know that this is NOT my usual style AT ALL!). We were supposed to be picked up from o...

Today we made our way to the Taman Negara rain forest. We started off from our apartments at 9:00 a.m. and went for a four hour bus ride. We stopped for lunch at a little restaurant on the side of the road about half-way through. It was a really interesting local place. You pick a variety of items and add them to a bowl. Then the chef takes them and dumps them into a soup pot to cook them with some broth. It was delicious. I also tried tea tarik, which is also delicious. It is basically just ...

Today was 110% better than yesterday. It was a "free day" so we got to do whatever we wanted until 2:30 p.m. So I started the day with a couple of phone calls to Dan and mom and dad. That was really nice. Then I went to breakfast and made my way into town. This "town" is really small and not very developed at all. It was fun though just to walk around by myself and not feel like I have to be part of the group. I walked forever! I saw some cool things and a ton of roosters and chickens. I saw ...

Where can you find a rain forest over 130 million years old that is accessible? Taman Negara in Malaysia is where, and this is to be our final very exciting part of our 2008 travels. To get there involved a journey by bus from KL then travelling in a long boat with our luggage perched precariously on the front and with dire warnings ringing in our ears of getting swamped by the afternoon monsoons. These thankfully didn't eventuate at all for our 2 day stay(even though the day before monsoon r...

Seoul, South Korea Jul 17, 2004 Ten-hour layover in Seoul turned into a wonderful day. Explored downtown Seoul and even went to Catholic Mass when the rest of the city seemed to be asleep. Nothing like a catholic service in Korean to keep you awake when you are 12 hours off of your normal time zone! After mass at the Myeongdong Cathedral I explored the Namdaemum Market. The Market is similar to every cookie-cutter Chinatown style market selling bags, shirts, bathing suits, and street vendor f...

To be updated...

(Jim) When we made our list of preferred activities the first night, before we decided to leave a day early and spend only one full day at Taman Negara, Katharine's first choice and mine was to do what the brochure describes as Rapid Shooting, a ninety-minute trip up and down river over seven rapids. Jack was reluctant, preferring a trip to a waterfall with a natural Jacuzzi for swimming. He was finally persuaded. Within ten minutes of boarding the boat, we knew we'd made a good decision. We ...

(Jim) "Primitive" people are not incompetents who wander into the woods by mistake, like the strange kid in Jon Krakauer's fascinating book, Into the Wild. They are highly-functional experts with a different skill set. The Bateks are one of Malaysias many ethnic minorities. About 3,000 of them live in the park, with 30,000 living more modern lives elsewhere in the country. After a ten-minute boat ride and a short climb, our guide Hasbi introduced us to the headman of the local Batek village. ...

(Jim) "Be sure to use the bathroom before you get on the boat. It is a three hour ride. There is no bathroom." This seemed clear enough. I pictured a meandering three-hour trip upriver, lazily putt-putting along a gently-flowing stream between palms trees on a larger version of the African Queen. Something like our spectacularly uneventful visit to the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary in India on a huge slow tour boat, an hour each out and back for a 3km journey. What we got was a high-speed three ...

Taman Negara is an old-growth forest, estimated at 130 million years old, and might be the oldest rainforest in the world. This is truly dense and amazing jungle. I had to take three different busses across the peninsula to reach Kuala Tahan, the small town set across the river from Taman Negara, Malaysia's most spectacular national park. I got there and settled at the little Durian House - named after the smelly and sweet fruit that everyone loves or hates. It was a great spot for my dorm ro...