Taman Negara
Going to a 130 million year old rainforest with only a small village and no ATMs? It sounds like a piece of cake, really.
We begin our journey to Taman Negara early in the morning, by getting on a private bus. I have the pleasure of sitting next to a French guy that sleeps with his legs wide open and rests his head on my shoulder. 3 hours later, we are waiting for our jetty boat to our destination, another 3 hours away. The journey is beautiful, although it’s slightly uncomfortable sitting in a narrow canoe with no leg space whatsoever. We then have the pleasure of climbing a lot of stairs and walk around for what seems like ages to get a hostel. We regrettably settle on the first thing we find, Liana Hostel, where we share a dorm with Allison and Matt from England. We spend the night reading and enjoying the AC in our room as it is uncomfortably hot and humid here, before falling asleep.
The next day, we all get up early to go on a hike in the rainforest.
We get to the canopy walk, which is a few suspension bridges that add up to around 500 metres of walking. Every bridge seems to take us higher up above the ground, and it’s amazing.
After that, Sara and I hike back to the village to meet up at our travel agency, where we have booked a visit to the Orang Asli tribe. We get on a jetty boat to do rapid sailing – you know, where they rock the boat and sail as fast as they can while you get soaked. Then we arrive at the tribe.
Orang Asli means “original people” and is a tribe scattered around. They are nomads, so they move every now and then without warning. They live in simple huts, their chief is their medicine man, and they hunt and gather every day – only what they need, not more. It’s quite admirable seeing how they manage to live a life without greed.
The chief shows us how they make fire, and then he makes a few arrows for the blowpipe, their hunting weapon of choice, followed by a demonstration. Then our group take turns aiming at a teddy bear with the blowpipe – and I am pretty good. Surprisingly.
The arrow on the right, next to the teddy bears face? That’s mine! The chief’s is the one stuck on its face.
Taking pictures of cats, of course
At night, we go on a safari at a plantation. We sit on top of a jeep and the guide points a flashlight at everything in hopes of seeing some animals. We see quite a few: a slow loris, cows, wild boars, owls, kingfishers, foxes and… LEOPARDS!!
Blurry picture of a tiny animal that our guide assured us is a leopard