Teman Negara National Park

  Teman Negara, Malaysia
Sunday, June 18, 2006

Up at 7am to get the 8am bus from the Manila Pacific hotel round the corner in Chinatown.
Managed to sleep on the bus for once,and after 4hours arrived at Jerantut,the jump off point for tours to the National Park.Booked a dorm room for 10ringhit for 3nights but decided against booking a package as thought I might be able to do most of it myself and so we were herded along to the jetty to get our boat-me expecting a ferry,but instead climbed into 3 longtail boats,with all the bags at the front and back of the boats,with the water about an inch from the side of them once everyone was in!3hours of slow ride up the Tong Salap river,sat with a chap from Portugal called Goncalo.Nothing along the river banks and as we wound our way up the locals houses became less and less and realised we really were entering the jungle and somewhere really remote.While going along the river which was brown,a river snake swam past and its head was the size of my fist,so kept our legs inside the boat for rest of the journey!

Teman Negara National Park

Arrived at the landing jetty,in Kuala Tahan the village opposite the entrance to the 2,000square metre national park!Nothing in the village but 5 floating restaurants which doubled as landing jettys for the boats carrying people to and from Jerantut,and each having a small dingy that you had to take and pay 1ringhit to cross over to the other side,where the entrance to the park was.Checked into the dorms with them to myself,and went down to dinner to meet Goncalo and Linda from Sweden,and Dana from Romania who had been sat behind us on the boat.They went off to do a night safari as they had booked all inclusive trips,so sat watching the football on floating restaurant.After coming back they said all they had done was walk around the jungle for an hour,spotting insects and a porcupine and so decided not to take that tour the next night!Stayed up till late with Portugeezer talking about football,and it turned out his job before quitting was working for Fifa as a legal adviser,and got to speak to players when they had problems with their clubs over contracts-once had spoken with the Columbian keeper Heggita,and even Roger Milla!How cool is that!?
Got up late and so missed Linda and Andy and Nina from Liverpool but went off to other side of the river and to do the canopy walk.
Wow,crossed the rver which costs 1ringhit to take you from Kuala Tuhan over to the park entrance where all the jungle treks start.Massive resort full of wooden cabins which would be nice to wake up to the sound of the jungle,but pricey.As their muslims beers nowhere to be seen here but on the resort,which costs 25rm for a bottle!4quid!!Walked along the resort and then into the main jungle towards the canopy walk,walking through massive undergrowth and trees looking like they were from Jurassic park
Then I got there to the start of the canopy walk!WOW a walkway around the tops of the oldest trees in South East Asia,50METRES above the ground,and 500metres long-like something you'd see in an Indiana Jones film,made just out of old ropes tied to trees,some walkways sagging in the middle and ropes only waist high to hold onto while its swaying like a hammock!

Canopy Walk

But a cracking view!Had a party of 70 chinese before me so had to jump ahead of them or it would have taken 5 hours to finish waiting for them to take photos of every ladder rung and rope!Bit scary up there as it was just rope holding you up at the top of the tree canopy,but well worth it!

Jungle From Mount Teresik

Then walked to Mount Teresik a 2kilometre steep walk where you looked out across the jungle.Caught up with Andy,Nina and Linda on way down and walked down to the river where we all fancied a dip!I jumped in first,water deep brown so couldn't see anything below you while the others stayed on the river bank,swimming around really happy to cool down.Andy had about 4 leeches which had lodged themselves onto him and was streaming with blood,and after Linda reminded me of the river snake we'd seen on boat here I swam round for another 5mins (pretending not to be bothered!)then got out!
Heard about the woodlands resort on the otherside of the water which actually sold beer,so the lot of us made a trek over there at night and made them put the football on the massive T.V and paid 9rm,still pricey but better than 25 for a can of Tiger.
Sat till 3am with Goncalo watching the footy,and arranged to meet up in Cambodia where I had decided to go as could get a cheap flight and regretted not going from Bangkok.
Last day just me and Linda,who had activities booked with her ticket so trekked off into the jungle again for a long walk to find some animals and a salt lick with a hide.

Oldest Trees In Southeast Asia

Came across some wild boar,massive beetles the size of a mouse mat,sweating like never before under the trees hiking through the bush.Apparantly there are still 200 tigers and leopards living in the jungle of Teman Negara,so set off trying to track them down!Walking 2 hours into the jungle came across a jetty where a massive monitor lizard was sunbathing but scarpered when it heard me.Eventually got to the hide,a hut on stilts with small slit window to look out into the jungle to spot animals so sat there for an hour quiet hoping to spot something.Elephant and tiger sightings were rare so didnt hold out much hope,and made my way back-all the way pulling off the leeches which were having a field day on my feet as only had flip flops on while everyone else had bought walking boots!
Half way back heard a really eerie sound which stopped me in my tracks,like the sound of Barry White yawning a really low growl or moan and stopped checking the ground for footprints like the signs had said in the hide so could spot Tiger prints to follow.A massive russle of trees and then nothing,really gutted as was hoping to spot a tiger to follow,but may have just been a family of wild boar,whatever it was probably saw or followed me,but I couldnt see it!
Up till 5am watching the England game at night with my 2 Japanese dorm sharers,then down to the river at 8am 3 hours sleep where caught another longtail boat back to Jerantut with Linda to carry on back to Kuala Lumpur