Our trip into the dark recesses of time included two bus trips and an unforgetable boat trip up the Tembeling River, before reaching the Kuala Tahan resort. As with anything in a location as remote as this, the accommodation was fairly basic - 4 walls, simple wood frame beds, a window, and hot and cold running animals on every surface. The surprising thing about this backward village of untouched traditionalism was the fact there were 3 different mobile phone masts there - I had better reception than when standing on the roof of my parents house in England. Technology appears to have caught up faster in areas you'd least expect it to.
I'd got talking to a few lads from Ireland on the journey, and like me, they were keen to see as much as possible during their limited time there. We assessed the options and decided to join the night trek for that evening. The actual national park is located across the river but there are regular river taxis transporting people to and fro all day long. Once in the park, we hiked slowly for about 500m with everyone hoping to catch some exotic creature in their torch light. Unfortunately (or fortunately) we didn't see any of the tigers, panthers, or snakes, the forest is known for, but saw a few wild deer, a porcupine, various stick insects and a couple of poisonous crab spiders.
The next morning we left early to the 'Canopy Walkway' - a 13 year old, 450m rope-bridge (longest in the world - apparently ;) ), that is suspended up to a height of 45m above the forest floor. There is a restriction on the number of people allowed on the bridge at any time, to keep the swinging down - no pun intended - and a minimum gap of between 5m and 10m between each person. There are connecting platforms every 50 m providing a little more stability for those optimists hoping for an animal sighting, but most creatures stay well clear as soon as they hear the roar of the 'American Tourist' or the distinctive click of the 'Japanese Holidayer'.
Our group split up in the afternoon, between people chilling in the village, exploring a local cave, or visiting the local aborigines, the Orang Asli, as I did - thankfully, they were not walking round in Nike trainers, and discussing trade deals on top of the range mobile phones (as it the case with some so-called traditional tribes). They taught us about sources for water in the jungle, how to make fire, and perhaps the most useful (cool) skill of killing animals from 50m with poison darts from a blow pipe.
That evening we signed up for another night adventure, but this time from the luxury of a 4x4 vehicle. After an hour of driving, the guide seemed to be severely clutching at straws when he pointed out a robin, but within a few minutes we were lucky enough to spot an owl and two Leopard Cats.
The next morning we all jumped on a boat and headed back to the future. I passed time chatting to a German chap who is currently living in Kuala Lumpur as part of his national service - why don't we have this in England?! A top bloke and another chance encounter - he provided the idea for what to do with my next spare day in Kuala Lumpur. But that's another story.
Back in the city, we dumped our bags at the hostel and went to the KL Tower to see the city at sunset, from the 4th highest tower in the world. Significantly higher than the skybridge on the Petronas towers, this viewpoint was a little more impressive, and it proved the point that the Petronas towers are better looked at than looked from. Just a shame they didn't build the KL tower in front of the P' towers, than to the side. Didn't they think about potential photo opportunities?
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