Taman Negara

The locals tell me Taman Negara is the oldest forest in the world. Due to my short term memory I can't recall exactly how old at the moment but I do recall that it is much older than the Amazon.

The journey to Taman Negara is a story on its own. First I took a 5 hour bus ride from KL to a small town called Jerantut. From Jerantut I took a long boat to Taman Negara for about 2 hours:
Despite the duration the boat ride was quite refreshing. The slow river current and the breath taking scenery mixed harmoniously to produce the euphoric feeling of "R&R".

The most interesting fact about Taman Negara is the sounds. Several types of monkeys, bugs, and other noctural creatures that sing their own idiosyncratic mating calls to produce a beautiful & unforgettable evening symphony.

Another interesting fact about TN is the leeches. Several leech species around the world are known to reside in swamps and shallow muddy waters and black in color. The leeches in TN crawl around the forest, are around 1 to 2 inches, and green in color.
The locals their told me that when we walked through the jungle that the leeches stick to our shoes and crawl up or into our shoes. They then crawl to our legs or any exposed areas in which they can feed.
Their bite produces only a minor itch or no readily apparent feelings so it is difficult to detect them. Once they bite, they inject their own saliva which stop the blood from clotting thus producing a steady stream of blood directly to their mouth.
Even when the leech has finished feeding (about 10 - 30 minutes) the blood flow does not clot for a while.

Due to limited time I was faced with limited choices of activities. I first took a walk on the jungle canopy which hangs 20 - 40 meters above the jungle floor. It was not particularly entertaining or challenging but the duration of the walk was the sweatiest 3 hours of my life. Even the European travel mates started sweating profusely.

side bar -- a note to the ladies: If you want to loose weight FAST, go to TN and stay there for about a month. Do the canopy walk every day and I guarantee you will loose ALL your unwanted weight and get that superficial yet slim figure that you only dreamed about achieving but could not because you are either too lazy or already knee deep in denial.

Next activity on my list was a visit to the Gua Telinga (called "ear cave" due to the shape of the entrance). I will never forget the smell of that cave. At first I did not know what was producing the smell. Then I realized after seeing the several inhabiting bats and crawling through soft cave soil that the smell was produced by bat guano (excrements) and the soft cave soil was actually bat guano.

The final activity on my list was a visit to the Orang Asli; the aboriginal people's village. The locals of TN informed us that the Orang Asli live a simple nomadic life style in the TN jungle. They build small huts using palm leaves and other small timber produced by the jungle and hunt for monkeys & other jungle animals.

Even though they gain many benefits from the government as the indigenous people of Malaysia (treated MUCH better than the natives in Canada & US), I felt a bit saddened by the fact that globalization has affected their lifestyle. The frequent visits of tourists and the concept of money seemed to have tained them to a degree not apparent to me.
At first I started taking photographs but after seeing the strange stares of the children of the village, I could not help out put my camera away.