7/23…. Maybe back up to Friday 7/22 at 5 in the morning on when I was finally going to bed after celebrating/dreading Lesley’s last night in Korea. Fast forward through a whole 9 hour day of teaching and then a 6 hour flight overnight. Ok so 7/23, 4:30 in the morning Lesley and I arrive in Kuala Lumpur. We find our way to China Town in KL where we are supposed to meet for the bus to make our journey to Taman Negara. With a couple hours to kill we wander into an alley filled with food stalls and people eating their breakfast porridge, so we decide to join and test their breakfast meals as well.
By 8:30 we are on the bus headed for Kuala Tembeling where we were going to catch a 3 hours little boat ride up the river to the Taman Negara National Park. We were about half way through our little boat ride in the wooden rickety boat when the Malaysia driver started bailing out water from the back of the boat. Passengers started to volunteer to help bail the water while the little driver guy continued to struggle down the river. First the French young man jumped up to the rescue, then the Swedish father (who found himself in the prime emergency to unzip his pants into shorts, my first zip-off of the pant leg emergency that I have witnessed, thank goodness they invented those pants), and then the red head Irish guy. Finally after many attempts we had to pull off to a deserted beach to wait for another boat to come and get us. We unloaded the luggage to then load it back onto the little boat due to rain, while the passengers had to all take cover in the jungle. Meanwhile Lesley and I (the only Americans on the boat, and the only ones that spoke one language, while everyone else was switching back and forth between French and English and Dutch) were comparing our lives to Lost and assigning characters to the different boat passengers. Of course the handsome French guy that came to the rescue right away would be Jack, the magical “pants into shorts with only one swift zip” would be Lock, and the chain smoking couple would be Shannon and her brother (they have got no chance of survival). Finally another little wooden boat showed up and we were on our way through the pouring rain to the village that sat right across the river from the entrance to the Taman Negara National Park. DAY 1
7/24, We were on the trail by 9 ready to take this jungle by storm. The trails that are closest to the entrance to the park are more of the common trails that tourists take, such as a canopy walk. We wandered around this part for a couple of hours before heading out into the real jungle trekking. Before entering into the less traveled trails there were signs “suggesting” that you had a guide with you. Lesley says “well it doesn’t say must?” and we were off. The jungle was absolutely amazing; it felt like I was either at an amusement park or in the Rainforest Café. The trees with their giant roots weaving throughout the path, and the vines that hung from every branch, and the soundtrack of animals and whatever else was out there. It was beautiful and amazing and wonderful and unlike anything I had ever seen.
We stopped for lunch half way to our destination. Our morning had been so great, and we were stopped eating our lunch on a little beach right on one of the branches of the river. We noticed that Lesley’s ankle was bleeding for some reason, which was a bit puzzling, but didn’t stop us from enjoying our great lunch picnic. We got up to continue our journey and noticed that I was randomly bleeding under my tall sock as well. Curious, I rolled down my sock to find a BIG FAT LEECH lying there. Full from sucking on my ankle all morning it just rolled out of my sock and flopped onto the jungle floor. We both screamed as we watched the leech slowly attempt to crawl away but struggle terribly due to the overflow of MY BLOOD! Uck! Unaware of the situation that lay before us, we decided that one or two leeches weren’t going to slow us down. As we immerged further and further into the jungle the leech problem became a real problem. Thos little sly “suckers” would just stand on the path, waving all around an inch or two into the air. Once they brushed up against any part of your foot or leg they would crawl and crawl until they found blood and then stick and suck. Uck they were awful! We both hit the point that we were swatting up to 5 leeches off of our ankles when we decided we needed to get out of this jungle!! We both just took off in a jog in the direction that we came. Running all of the way out of the jungle wouldn’t be so bad? WRONG! Lesley’s foot caught a vine, which sent her flying horizontal to the ground for a good 6 feet onto the leech filled jungle floor. Uck uck uck! After many more swats and flicks of leeches, four bloody ankles, and a number of miles, we were safely out of the jungle and back to our little village. So much for “off the beaten path”
7/25, Aaha, leech socks! We found leech socks at the local mart, which consisted of canvas material for the part that covered your foot, and a tarp material that synched just below the knee. We were going to be invincible. We took another trail along the upper part of the river. It was beautiful, breath taking, awing, all of it. Yet again, right around lunch time we rolled down the top of our socks to see how our legs were holding up today, and to our surprise, LEECHES!! Ugh, uck, ugh!
Later that afternoon we went on an excursion up the Kuala Tembling River to visit the Orang Asli Village. This village still practiced and lived how their ancestors did, and they are the only people allowed to hunt and live on the land in the national park. It was very interesting to see how these people live, because they really do still live off of the land. They make their own fire, make their own darts for their blow guns, make their own cigarettes with leaves to keep to keep the mosquitoes away, and use the practices of a medicine man. The most interesting part was that they don’t keep track of their age in the traditional way that most cultures do. It is more along the lines of “I dono, I’m 20, 21 maybe?” This was so fascinating, because while most of the world is stressing so much about age (Yes! Finally I’m 16 and can drive… Yes, I’m 21 and I can finally drink… O Shit, I’m 30). I found their absent of age to be such a refreshing way to look at life. There is no rush or pressure, nor the longing for time to speed up or slow down. Basically just living to survive, just what we were intended to put on this Earth to do.
7/26, En route to the Perhentian Islands; we took a bus from Tanam Negara to Kuala Busut where we then caught a ferry (you could call it) to the smaller of the two Perhentian Islands. We landed on Long Beach, wandered around for about an hour to the different beach huts/hostels looking for a room to stay. We found a great one down the path from the beach, with a nice air-conditioned dorm room. We then went to enjoy our first beer at the beach bar.
7/27, 7/28, 7/29. Vacation mode kicked in while on the island. Our days were filled with lazy beach reading mixed in with sporadic activities. One morning we took a hike around one of the sides of the island, which connected you to a few of the smaller private beaches and dumped you off at the local fishing village.
We had been warned about large lizards on the island, and while hiking we did see a fairly large lizard, but the best one came later. We were walking around behind one of the nicer resorts on the beach, looking for a bathroom, when we came across one of the largest lizards I have ever seen. I thought it was an alligator at first; from nose to tail I would say it was easily 6 feet long. I think if I were to try to hug that guy I would not have been able to touch my hands. Luckily it was more frightened by Lesley and I (understandable) than we were by it, so the encounter was brief.
One afternoon we went on a snorkeling excursion. Our little Malaysian guide, Adam, took us to 3 different spots on both islands: Turtle Bay, Fish Point and Shark Point. Turtle Bay we got to swim with a sea turtle. That was amazing; the sea turtle was just so graceful gliding under water. It is a beautiful animal. Fish point offered exactly what you would expect, fish. These were the biggest and brightest fish I have ever seen. I felt like I was in the aquarium at the car wash or something. Fish the size of my torso that were brighter than I could have ever imagined. Huge schools of fish which you could swim right through and become apart of. Finally, Shark Point, again a cleaver name. Prior to jumping in the water Lesley and I were both kinda freaking out a little bit, uncertain if what swam below, but to our surprise fear was replaced with awe. Seeing a shark swim through the water so close to you is really amazing. They are very beautiful creatures and float with such a dominating grace through the water. I was fascinated and found myself trying to swim faster and faster to catch up to these guys, and then would turn around to find that I was alone and kinda got a little freaked out and swam just as fast back to Lesley.
In the afternoon on the 29th we took a ferry back to the main land, then took a cab to Wakaf Bharu where we were going to catch the Overnight Jungle Train down to Singapore.
7/30 We arrived in Singapore at 10:30. We somehow stumbled through the bus system, then through the subway line and made it to our hostel Tresor Tavern. Upon arrival we were able to check our email, and sadly Lesley got the news that her grandpa had passed away. That was a really big weight that came crashing in on the day. We went on a hike to across the Southern Ridge mountain range, which gave the opportunity for Lesley to clear her head and take in the news. Along our hike we also crossed paths with an extremely friendly group of monkeys. There was one point when I thought one of the monkeys were going to climb up my leg which freaked me out for a moment there.
That night we went to the heart of Singapore called Clark Quay. This is a shopping and restaurant attraction right along the river. We had our last supper. Our adventure of living abroad and traveling abroad was coming to an end so we toasted to every growing and learning experience as well to the fun adventures over the past 10 months. We grew with each other and learned from each other; I would not have picked a better partner in crime to accompany me while losing our way on the path through our adventure, just to end up finding a better version on ourselves on the other side.
