Welcome to The Jungle

So we finally made it to Taman Negara, Peninsula Malaysia's most famous and most lush jungle, and boy we sure got the complete 'jungle experience' alright.

We took a small boat up the river from Jerantut to Tahan, which is the river village next to the start of the jungle. the boat ride was great, and we saw some water buffalo and heaps of birds all the way up the river.

Tahan was basic, and we stayed in a nice dorm room with a bunch of nice people from australia and england.

So what do you do when you are staying a stone's throw from such a big old jungle? you put on your big waterproof boots, pack a raincoat and lots of bug spray, and head right on into it. thats what. The first day we had there we went to the local tourist attraction, which is the world's longest canopy walk. whats a canopy walk? its what tight rope walkers do when they want an adrenaline rush - a 30cm plank supported by ropes connecting the tops of the tallest trees in the jungle together. each tree has a small platform for resting and taking photos from. At times you are suspended more than 50 metres in the air, inching along the platform while it swings in the breeze. you can see right across the jungle, and almost all the way down to the ground, but the foliage is too dense to see all the way. amazing experience, and only 5 ringgit!

the next day we climbed a mountain, which was basically a 3 hour walk up a hill to a pretty ordinary lookout where you could sit down and examine your fresh mosquito bites and check yourself for leeches. yep, leeches. yummy. this jungle had no shortage of friendly little critters, all eager to sample your blood. we saw some big bugs, and even photographed a few before running like girls in the opposite direction.

after leaving Taman Negara, we both agree that we both loved visiting the jungle, but we are definitely more beach type people.

we are now back in KL, and we fly across to Kota Kinabalu on monday morning (on the Borneo side of Malaysia, see the map down the bottom). after 2 weeks there we are heading to Thailand for a few months, but no doubt we will update this again before then.

Take it easy!

//Brendan