Peninsular Malaysia: KL and Taman Negara

(I'll post pictures as soon as I get to Phuket and have a decent internet connection again)


I arrived in Kuala Lumpur via flight from Brunei on Wednesday afternoon. To be honest, I had no idea what I was doing here. The original plan was to go to Taman Negara which is the oldest rain forest in the world, primary rainforest, unlike the ones I had visited in Borneo which were mostly secondary. Upon arrival though I was still debating if that was really what I wanted to do--Let's be honest, after months of traveling through the jungles of Southeast Asia, especially Borneo, trekking through yet one more tree infested landscape didn't sound all that appealing. I mean yeah it's cool, but is it cool enough to spend a lot of money (by Southeast Asian standards) and a lot more effort getting there? In the end I decided it was--mostly just because going to Taman Negara has been on my bucket list for years and I couldn't be so close and not go just because I was feeling lazy. To be honest, I don't even really remember why it was on my bucket list, I think I read some book years ago of things to do before you die and it was in there so I wrote it down.

So, I arrived wednesday, spent the rest of the afternoon wondering around the city aimlessly, went to bed early so that I could catch a bus early the next morning. I wasn't even really sure if there was a bus to catch, I had only heard rumors, but the only way I could know for sure was to go to the alleged pick up spot. Bright and early the next morning I hoped in a taxi and told him to take me to the Malaya hotel. Upon arrival my heart dropped to my stomach--closed for renovation--it was completely abandoned. Not knowing what else to do I got out of the taxi and looked for any other hotels in the area that might be able to provide me with some tourist information. They all told me the same thing, the only way to go to Taman Negara was to do a packaged tour. I continually insisted they were wrong. Finally I found a company that would let me tag along on their packaged tour bus without actually having to partake in the tour. It still cost me an arm and a leg but much cheaper than paying someone to tell me where to go and what to do when I could just as easily figure that out on my own. It took 8 hours to get there including a 3 hour boat ride up the river in a tiny little boat. That was actually my favorite part.

It only took me a few minutes to find a place to stay once we arrived. Granted it was probably the worst hostel I've ever stayed in in my life but it was cheap and it had a bed.

Dinner time--I met up with some kids who were on the bus with me from KL--two guys from Austria and one from Germany. They ended up being my traveling buddies the rest of the trip. Hanging out with them was a refreshing break from previous traveling buddies--They were nice and polite and they kept their opinions about the USA and religion to themselves. It was very refreshing to not have to watch every word coming out of my mouth in fear of it being used against me. As an added bonus they were even gentlemen--opening doors, giving me their chairs if there weren't any others available--I tell you what guys, it makes all the difference. Just because I prefer to hang out with guys doesn't mean I want to be treated like "one of the guys."

Friday morning we woke up and went for a hike through the rain forest up to the canopy walkway which consists of the longest network of suspension foot bridges in the world--almost sounds cooler than it really is--but at 40 meters above the forest floor it was still pretty awesome.  Hiking there and back took up a good portion of our day and by the time we got back none of us were very keen on doing much else. With so much to do and so little time there wasn't a moment to rest. After a quick break I headed down river to meet up with some of my local friends I had made the day before who were going to take me up river to shoot some rapids and see a local aboriginal tribe (apparently native Australians aren't the only native groups referred to as aborigines). There were supposed to be more people coming but they dropped out last minute so in the end it ended up just being me and my guide. Since it was just the two of us he decided to teach me how to drive the boat, I gotta tell you it's harder than it looks. The boat is basically a long canoe maybe 30 feet in length with a tiny outboard engine attached to the back. Not exactly the same as driving a speed boat.

Eventually we ended up picking up some trekkers so I wasn't the only one. That made it less awkward. It was pretty cool to see the Orang-ali village. They really did look like the aborigines with their black skin and frou-ish hair, some of them even had their faces all painted white.

At their village they taught us how to shoot blow dart guns which they use for hunting monkeys and squirrels, as well as how to make a fire using materials only found in the forest. Yeah, I pretty much failed at that one. Knowing me if I were stuck in the forest over night I'd probably freeze to death if it dropped below 65 degrees. To top it all off our guide gave me a blow dart gun to take home to remember him by. I think he had a little crush on me which made me just a little bit uncomfortable--the blow dart gun is pretty sweet though. I can add it to my collection of weapons from around the world.

After we finished at the village we went to a spot where a rope swing hung over the river. After playing on that for a while we swam further down river to a spot where the river was joined by a small creek. Here my friend mashed up small pebbles from the creek turning them into paint to paint our faces the same way to tribes do when they are to get married. Too bad it was raining, it would have looked really cool if the paint hadn't formed small streams down my face.

It was a pretty fun afternoon, definitely worth all the hassle it had taken to get there. When we got back to the village where we were staying I stuck around and hung out with my local friends a little longer. They spent the whole time trying to convince me to stay there a few months and work with them. They would give me free room and board plus I would get to go on all the guided jungle trekking trips I could ever want to for free. Tempting but I declined. All the same it was fun to hang out with them and get a taste for the local culture.

Saturday (yesterday) my Austrian friends and I came back to KL. We hung out for a few hours seeing the sights around town before they had to head to the train station to catch their train to Singapore. KL really is a pretty city, possible my favorite city in Southeast Asia other than Bangkok.

Today was Sunday. After staying up way too late last night texting back and forth with Candace it was all I could do this morning to convince myself to get up and find my way to the chapel. Finally I asked myself where my priorities were and dragged myself out of bed. With nothing more than an address and an attempt at memorizing the google map from my computer I headed out almost an hour and a half early determined to make it in time for sacrament. I could only take the subway so far, from there I would have to walk. I had no idea how far it was but I figured it couldn't be more than a kilometer or two. I was wrong. Fourty five minutes after getting off the subway I was ready to give up and find a quite corner somewhere where I could sleep--I continued on. I did finally find it eventually. Turns out I had passed the street the first time because the lettering on the sign had been worn off so the g looked like a c. I arrived just in time for the deacons to be excused to be seated with their families--Blast! I had just barely missed sacrament. Oh well, the rest of church was nice. This may sound weird but it reminded me that I'M NOT CRAZY OR WEIRD! That's kinda the way people (other backpackers) tend to treat me when they find out that I'm a deeply religious person (for lack of a better term) and a Mormon at that (if they even know what Mormons are). It just felt really good to be reminded that there are millions of other people with my same beliefs around the world. Sometimes that's easy to forget when you haven't met another member for almost a month.

Now I'm just waiting to head to the train station to catch my train back to Thailand. It almost feels like I'm going home. Unfortunately I just realized that my train isn't exactly taking me where I thought it was. I thought it would be perfect because I can sleep all night on the train (there are bunk beds) and in the morning when we arrive and I wake up all I would have to do is take a quick ferry ride over to Phuket and spend the rest of the day relaxing on the beach. Wrong! Turns out where the train stop is still 8 hours from Phuket so, I'll spend all night tonight on a train and all day tomorrow on a bus :( I hope my back can handle it. Oh well, it's all about the adventure right?