After an uncomfortable night, I had a 6.30am bus to catch to Kuala Tahan Jetty... the meeting place for my trek. By mistake, I didn't get up until about 5.55am. I only had 35 minutes to transfer what I didn't want to the hotel's storage, have a shower, and prepare myself for the unknown elements of the trek through Taman Negara. I had a basic idea that there could be water so I took all of my plastic bags. In hindsight, I could of taken a lot more clothing and less toiletries... and definitely ALL valuables as you will find out in future entries!
After transferring my unwanted goods to the Hotel Sri Emá's 'safe keeping storage unit', I boarded the coach to Kuala Tahan. The trip was quite surreal, with white fluffy clouds floating through the beautiful rainforest. I was very tired and battled to keep my eyes open the whole way. I was the only one on the bus as well. It is low season here in Malaysia so the tourist sights are quite empty (and cheap).
I arrived at the jetty at 8.30am and had a personalised briefing from one of the tourist operators. After this briefing, I had about 1.5 hours for breakfast. Kuala Tahan Jetty is interesting... it is a floating jetty that enables it to rise and fall with the rapidly changing water levels of the Tembeling River. There are many other floating restaurants as well in this area. It is an amazingly scenic area and one in which I hope to return to in the high season.
At 10.30am, I was introduced to my fellow tour mates. Drew and Emi, a married couple from Denver, Colorado (IT specialists on a one year RTW trip... off to Australia next) and Marc and Owen from outside of Amsterdam (on a two month trip through Asia). Marc's height of 6 foot 7 came in very handy with getting our bags across the river crossings and I couldn't have thanked him and Owen enough with there unbelievable kindness. We were subsequently introduced to our tour guide, 'Along', a young 20 year or so local.
We were quickly ushered onto a short length wooden boat which basically put us on the river's water surface. Due to the rough swell, we had to periodically get on and off and trek alongside the edge of the Tembeling River. Our first introduction to the rough trekking ahead! At one stage, I lost balance, fell over and was wet thereafter! After about 3 hours, we arrived at Kuala Trenggan: the starting point for our 6 hour trek through a very difficult Taman Negara rainforest.
After about 1 hour of mud, water and beautiful rainforest, we arrived at a run down hut with broken floor boards. Emi nearly ended it for herself by snapping through one of the floor boards.
From 1pm to 7pm, we trekked through the jungle. The major challenge was to circumnavigate 9 river crossings, some of which were up to my neck. At the time, I kind of enjoyed it but was very concerned for my paper and electrical gear (like everyone else). After falling the first time, I quickly put my passport/papers in plastic Glad packages which turned out to be very useful. Unfortunately, my passport isn't looking as good as it use to two weeks ago. And one of my traveller's cheques will need to be replaced. But luckily, no other major damage.
I was quickly introduced to leaches. These are amazing creatures that have extremely acute senses and sucking capacities. Every five minutes, I had a leach gnawing into my shoes. Some of which got through to my feet and legs, and several up to my neck through my pants and shirt. At night, I found one large dead leach in my backside... not very comfortable. I was nevertheless assured that leaches are quite healthy for you in that they act as a anticoagulant and suck all the bad blood out of you. In terms of getting sucked, it feels like a mosquito bite. But it is quite a sight seeing blood going everywhere (including your clothing) once they have sucked enough. The leaches start off small and get very large after a while of sucking you dry.
Tonight, our accommodation was at Gualuas Cave... full of large white rats and very uncomfortable sleeping arrangements. The mattress we were given was 1cm thick, no pillow, but a thin sleeping sack. Talk about doing it rough! Even though I managed to get a few hours sleep, I was quickly awoken by a large rodent banging into my head. It was quite a shock.
The cave was huge. My preparation could of been better because I had no flashlight. Going to the toilet was interesting... at one stage, I slipped in a pool of mud and was dirty all night. Oh yeh, what luxury you must be thinking! I was very exhausted by the 6 hours of physical trekking I didn't really care after all.
Day 1 over, more to come tomorrow!
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