Saturday, January 26, 2008

Taman Negara

Another rainforest!!
Hi all, we're just leaving our third rainforest in 2 weeks, this time it is the national rainforest of penisular Malaysia, Taman Negara, which apparently is older than both the Congo and the Amazon rainforests.
We stayed in luxury here as a treat for Brian's birthday so had our own cabin overlooking the river and only one monkey tried to break in :) The package also included all you can eat breakfast and dinner buffets, the bags are stuffed with ahem leftovers as we have left the resort and will be living on bananas and rice for a few days to detox from the gluttony!!
Did a jungle trek, canopy walkway and a boat trip to go swim in some rapids on the local river, a natural jaccuzzi - lovely!!
This trip to the internet cafe is unplanned as we missed the bus to Jerantut where we are getting the train north. Now, I use the word 'we' there liberally as most people who know Brian probably know this is the first time in his life that he has ever missed a bus!!! And those who know me know its not my first time missing a bus :)
(post script - a few hours later, we waiting 5 hours for the nect bus and it left an hour early luckily with us on it so i think it was the bus's fault this morning, he he)

So our stint in Malaysia is almost up, heading to the islands in the south of Thailand for a few days. If the Perenthian islands are open we might pop there depends on the weather!!

Some final thoughts on Malaysia -

The people here are fab, really friendly, helpful and most speak English which is an added bonus.
However, the insects here are not! But learned a few curious bits of trivia.... A leech is male until it sucks blood, gets fat and sleeps for 5 months he then wakes up female, mmmm.... Brian is correcting me here saying that he turns female straight away I'm sticking to my version. A spider in a web is not poisonous because he has to catch his prey so no need to be scared of them, a spider lurking around a tree is another kettle of fish. And apparently mosquitos don't hang around sea water and if you ever are being chased by a heard of bees hop in a river they don't like water!!!! (our poor guides - they were showing me wild boar, otters, etc and i was asking about insects!!!)
Speaking of guides, our guide in Teman Negara, Roslan, was brill and works freelance and if you are ever here and need a guide we'll give you his number.

And ta da...... we have photos!!!!

Off to Thailand on the 11pm train.....

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Jeanette, Have just been catching up on your travels - looks like you're havin' a great time. Although i'm a bt worried that you had to get up at 5:45am, 3 mornings in a row!!! Christ, if that happens again i think you should consider coming home!!!
Chat soon, Liz x
Ps Ed says Hey

Anonymous said...

Hey there Brian/Jeanette, You are certainly embarking on a right adventure. The updates are great - seving to exacerbate the already rampant travel bug within me! Keep enjoying yourselves. Brian, Give me a call on the Skype next week if you get a chance. You know I'm pretty much on it most of the time...Off to Manchester tomorrow and going to take in the Man City v Arsenal Premiership match. Fill you in later. Better get back to the translating. Deadlines! I bet you don't miss them... Tóg go bog é. Happy trails, Begs :-)

Anonymous said...

Hi Jeanette,

Just logged into your page to see how your adventure is going, Linda sent me the link. You are definetely making us jealous here at home, it looks amazing. All the pictures are great.

Have a ball,

Mairead x

Mairead says said...

Hi Jeanette,

Just logged into your page to see how your adventure is going, Linda sent me the link. You are definetely making us jealous here at home, it looks amazing. All the pictures are great.

Have a ball,

Mairead x

Jeanette said...

Liz, the 5.45am starts have eased up thank god, the earplugs are great at stoppnig the cockcrow waking me up!! Hi back to Ed

Mairead - great to hear from you, glad you reposted cause i've had no idea who petuala is!!