Gunung Tahan Day 5, Final Day

June 29th, 2002 at 12:00am

I’ve jumped head-first into the ice cold pool of westernization, straight from the jungle. What a shock! Arrived here last night direct from Taman Negara, after 13 hours and 3 bus rides (actually 4 because the third bus broke down on the way to Singapore and we all had to hop on another bus). I’ve gone from drinking tanin-colored river water and eating mac and cheese to sipping lemon water in a vegetarian restaurant waiting for my grilled veggie sandwich to arrive, ahhh, civilization can be a good thing sometimes.

Our last day in the park was not a’day in the park’ exactly. It was a 3-hour trek down to the road which we did in just over 2 hours. Again we woke up at 6am to hit the trail at 7am. We hiked down to a fishery where we had to wait for a 10:30am pickup from the park’s 4WD vehicle to take us out to the park office. It was not a good thing that we arrived early for our ride. The bees were already waiting for us and there was NO escape. At first there were only about maybe 20 or so which was no big deal and we were all going through our packs, organizing gear, etc, business as usual. Then there were a few more and a few more and after about 20 minutes they were just everywhere. I thought they were bad before. Actually they were bad before. I just didn’t think it could get any worse. But it did.

They were crawling all over my body, my face, my backpack, everywhere. I could barely see at times there were so many in front of my face.

We quickly decided to start walking up the road slowly, slowly, trying to remain calm and hope that eventually they would go away. They didn’t. They actually seemed to get worse. They were crawling up my pants and down the back of my shirt as well. I almost started to cry in sheer desperation, praying that the truck would get there already and get us the hell out of there.

About 20 minutes later the truck arrived and we threw our packs in the back and jumped in as FAST as we could. In the end I git stung about 12 times, which, considering how many bees there were, really wasn’t that bad. Except this time I didn’t have any chance to stop and pull the stingers out so I really got the full dose of poison with each sting. When I finally got into the truck, I felt nauseous and thought I was going to pass out. I still don’t know if it was from the poison or the dire stress but it was probably a combination of both. I really can’t explain how maddening those bees were. Even last night, more than 24 hours later, I had trouble sleeping because I kept hearing the buzzing of all the bees and thinking they were still all around me.

Anyway, I survived. We all survived. Another adventure behind me.

After we got the truck ride to the park office, we had to register with the ranger in order to get our summit certificates. Then we got another ride to the train station and caught a 3-hour train ride south to get back to the main entrance of the park. JC got off early to catch a bus to KL. Ubai, the guide, and I continued on and then had to catch a 2-hour bus to get all the way back to Kuala Tahan.

Finally I arrived around 7pm, took a shower, ate, packed, and went to bed. Long day. We thought once we were done with the hiking we were home free. Boy were we wrong!

Even on the train ride back there was still one bee stuck in my hair that I didn’t realize was there. These 4 backpackers sitting behind me saw it and were like,’Um, Miss, I don’t mean to scare you, but there’s a bee in your hair.’ And I went, “Oh, Thanks,’ took my hair down, picked through it until I found the bee, grabbed it with my bare hand (the stinger was already gone, probably deep inside my neck somewhere), threw it on the ground, and stomped on it with my foot. Then I realized they were all staring at me with their jaws dropped, unable to comprehend that I just grabbed a live bee with my bare hand and didn’t flinch. I heard the one girl say, “Wow, I thought you were going to freak out.’ I didn’t have the energy to explain what I had been through. Only later when I thought about it did I realize how funny the whole thing was.

So the only reason why I really had to go all the way back to Kuala Tahan was to get my other bag out of storage before moving on. Yesterday morning I left, hoping to get to Singapore, but not knowing the bus times so intending to get as fas as I could in one day.

I took at 7:30am local bus from Kuala Tahan to Jerantut and it was pretty uneventful except for the albino man that kept staring at me. I have nothing against albinos mind you but it was definitely freaky to be the only foreigner on a local bus and to be stared at by an albino to boot. In Jerantut I caught the 10:30am local bus to Kuala Lumpur, again the only foreigner, but luckliy the albino went elsewhere and was gone. Arrived in KL at 2:28pm and as luck would have it (for once, but this time I am fully deserving it), there was a 2:30pm VIP bus to Singapore. Excellent. Big seats, air con, a movie even, which sucked (Scooby Doo), but I didn’t care.

All was going great on the 5.5-hour ride until the bus broke down 3 hours into the trip. But you know, compared to the bee invasions, the bus breaking down seemed like absolutely no big deal whatsoever so I just patiently sat and read my book while the drivers figured out what to do. About 30 minutes later 2 other buses pulled up and picked up their share of stranded passengers and I was on my way again. Excellent.

I arrived in Singapore last night around 8:30pm. I saw some other foreigners, 3 girls, at the taxi line at the bus station and asked if I could share their taxi to backpacker land, which, in this town, is in Little India. It’s a good thing I had been recommended a place to stay because the 4 of us had no problems getting beds but they were the last 4 available. I couldn’t understand why the hostel was so packed. Well it turns out that about 2 weeks ago the city closed about 7 or 8 of the backpacker places because they were violating fire codes and were infested with rats and cockroaches. No surprise there. And now there are only a handful of places open and everyone’s fighting to get a spot. If I hadn’t been recommended a place (which was from someone who was just here), I could have spent half the night trying all the other places only to find them closed.

Even after all that adventure I was feeling pretty excited to be in a new country and new city so I dropped off my bags and went out to walk around. Singapore is an island, a city, and a country all in one. It’s very clean and very safe and as a female travelling alone that makes me very happy. I went across the street to the Bugis Mall, got some grub, and decided to see a movie. Went to see’Bend it like Beckham’, a very funny film. Great way to end the day.

Been walking around town all day today, taking in all of the massive shopping areas and westernization, which, after the past few days, is a warm welcome indeed.

And this was before they even got bad

Times this by 100 and thats when it got ugly

Back at the park headquarters at Kuala Tahan after a long day

Entry Filed under: Hiking/Trekking,Malaysia,Taman Negara