This will be Judith's last email (and Mark's last set of photos), dated 13th August.
Any apparent connection between the photos and the content of Judith's email would suggest your brain is not working right. A Rorschach test would have more in common.
Hey,
We left the Cameron highlands and headed to Jeruntut. After having a lunch of rice chicken veg and
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| No we did not try the mashed potatoes dispenser |
egg (rcve) we went to a cave. This was probably our favourite cave experience. We had to climb through some tight spots to get into the main section of cave. There were some rock formations that looked like King Kong and an elephant (they actually looked like them, not like others where maybe if you squinted enough). Our guide then convinced us to exit through the more adventurous way instead of going back the way we came (except for Mark who was convinced from the start). We had to scramble down a slippery section and then go down a rope section to get to a darker section that had lots of bats and a few scorpion spiders. After the cave we left Jeruntut to Kuala Tahan (the town which was on the opposite side of the river from Taman Negara - the national park). We had a dinner of rcve and checked into our hostel. This was the first time we had critters in our place. First I found a frog, then a 2 inch beetle of some sort, an uncomfortable beginning to our hostel experience. That night we went on a night jungle walk. It was pretty tame, followed a board walk, but our guide was cool and was very interested in sharing his knowledge with us. We saw some stick insects (one was about 10 inches long), a scorpion, a snake, some birds, a spider that in the reflection was gold (it's web too). When we got to the observation hide we also saw a deer.
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| Yes that guy is a beauty innovation expert |
That night we had quite a fitful sleep, there were animals either living in the roof or on it and they
liked to make loud scrambling noises (at first I freaked out cuz it sounded like they were inside our room), we then had what we assumed were cats having a massive fight right outside. The next morning we went to the canopy walkway. It was fun, but slightly disappointing as from the google pictures I had thought it to be a lot higher. We climbed the rest of the way to bukit teresek which had a nice view. We were also disappointed with this trail as well it wasn't a trail but boardwalks and stairs. Once again though, our guide was cool and pointed out a lot of stuff.
After a lunch of rcve we went to an Orang Asli village, which is an aboriginal village. There are apparently a few tribes that live in the jungle. This particular tribe makes their money through selling sandalwood (very expensive wood that is sold for its essential oil) and by letting tourists visit. We learned how to start a fire in the traditional manner. Our guide was able to make it in 5 seconds and he challenged us to do it in under 8. Mark did it in 9 and I did it in 10 (my back was incredibly tight the next day, crazy what 10 seconds of intense physical activity can do). The orang asli do their hunting using bamboo blowpipes. So we got to try that out, which was sweet :-) After that we went on a short "rapid shooting" boat ride. We got very wet. We then had dinner.. wonder what we had? Rcve! We were getting very tired of the combination. We had the rest of the evening to relax.
The next morning we went on a trail to another observation hide. This trail was better, about 75% of
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it was actually a trail. We had a different guide at this point but he was cool too and also very interested in sharing his expertise. He told us that he had been born and lived in the jungle (we think he was maybe born in an orang asli village). As an adult he took a holiday from work and lived in the jungle for a year and a half. We saw a lot of leeches and on the way back 6 long tailed macaques. After a lunch of rcve we took a boat ride up Sungai Tahan. I think this was one of the most beautiful experiences on our trip. The river is very shallow (about 1m) and there are narrow passes between rocks that the boat has to navigate through. The jungle lies thick on either side. We were lucky to have our guide as the only other passenger. He pointed out more monkeys playing on a log next to the river, an eagle perched on a branch, on the way back a colourful kingfisher, and just general info he thought we'd like to know. There were lots of butterflies at the boat landing and some thick vines to swing on. We had to hike 15min to get to the rocky swimming spot (lata berkoh).
After another dinner of rcve we went on our night safari. This was quite different than expected but cool. It actually took place in a palm oil plantation. Malaysia has palm oil plantations like Laos has rice fields. Apparently due to environmental concerns the government has pledged to maintain half of the country's land area as forest cover. We saw a couple birds, a poor rain soaked house kitty huddling under a tree (it was raining), some cows, a wild cat that I didn't get a good look at, and finally at the very end a cute owl! Apparently a few nights before the guide had seen a 13 foot python. I was glad we did not see that!
The next day we left by boat back to Jeruntut. The boat ride was pretty, similar to the river Tahan but wider. We saw some monkeys playing on a beach, and some wild cattle with birdies sitting on them. And then after our final lunch of rcve headed back to Kuala Lumpur. From there we caught another bus that took us to Singapore. We arrived at 2 in the morning on the 12th and went straight to bed.
I'll write my final update on our time in Singapore and the flight home when we get back to Canada. Yay Canada.
Judith and Mark
