Archive for June, 2002
It’s nearly 6:30pm, and JC and I are hiding safely in our tent from the bees and resting from the long day we had.
We woke up very early this morning, at 6am in total darkness, in an attempt to pack up and get going before the bees woke up. It worked pretty well. We were on the trail hiking by 7am with only a few dozen bees buzzing about our things. Very manageable.
The first part of today’s hike involved summiting Gunung Raja which means King Mountain. It was a good climb and there were actually some views from the top but we were only able to stop and enjoy for about 30 seconds before the bees came and we had to move on.
After that we had a big descent (about 1000 feet) back to 500-feet elevation at the river and then we followed the river for about 3 hours, having to cross it 9 times in total I think. All in all it took about 7.5 hours to get here to Teku Campsite, right on the river. So far we’ve done in 2 days what most hikers do in 3 and JC and I are both still feeling good.
We agreed today that we would both like to summit Gunung Tahan and then hike out north of the mountain rather than return south on the trail we’re on now. The bees are so bad that it’s just not enjoyable and it’s quite daunting to think that we’d have to face them all over again on the way back. If we continue north there is supposed to be a small town about 2 days hiking from Tahan where we can take a bus or a train back to the park headquarters.
As for the bees, well you may think I’m exaggerating, but I can tell you I’m NOT! They were actually not too bad all day today, but after yesterday we learned not to rest near the water sources because that’s where the bees congregate. So today we rested high on the ridges and never stopped long enough to draw a big crowd of them. Everything seemed to be going well until we got to Teku Campsite.
The campsite here is absolutely INFESTED with bees. The average person would have gone clinically insane after about 5 minutes here. I would safely estimate that there are several thousand bees here. When the 3 of us arrived, there were already 3 others here – 2 Singaporeans and their guide on their way down from the summit. The bees had already closed in on them. Everyone’s shirts hanging on the line were literally COVERED with bees. JC and I dropped off our packs and walked back to the river to submerge and escape the swarms. It worked for a few minutes but then we both got leeches from the river – ha! No escaping our natural enemies. I got one on my leg and JC got one on his foot. Small, but feisty, very hard to rip off.
Anyway we got back to the packs and my pack was gone. Instead there was something which had the shape of my pack but it was COMPLETELY COVERED by about a thousand bees. They were crawling all over it!
We set out to put up the tent as quickly (but as calmly) as possible. With hundreds of bees crawling over your body, face, head, and neck and hundreds more swarming around your head, it’s hard to remain calm but you HAVE to! If you can move slowly and stay calm, they actually won’t sting but if you freak out then they get pissed off and then they can attack.
So it’s absolutely essential to stay calm. I kept closing my eyes and telling myself, they’re just flies, they’re not bees. And JC kept saying’just think of the man on tv who wears the bee beard, he never gets stung!’ And we were trying to help each other remain calm.
Somehow we managed to get the tent up, then we got our packs inside (after spraying them with DEET and using the 10-second window when the bees took off) and then I got into the tent and ahhhhh, it felt so good to be inside and know that THEY were outside. Well, actually 3 bees got in, one flew in and the other 2 had been caught in my hair since the river/leech incident, but I managed to kill them all, hehe.
I’ve been in the tent for about 3 hours now and they haven’t seemed to let up yet. I can still see about 50 or so bees hovering outside the tent door and I can hear them buzzing like mad all over the campsite. It has been a challenge dealing with these bees.
Other than that though, we are doing ok, feeling good about the pace and enjoying the scenery. Today we could hear Gibbon monkeys calling all through the forest. In Malay they call them the WhatWhat monkey because that’s what their call sounds like. Yesterday we saw elephant tracks and elephant dung on the trail so they are around out here somewhere, we just haven’t seen them. We also saw tracks of another animal called the Tapin, which apparently looks like a cross between a cow and a pig and it’s big and black with a white back and butt, so it looks like it’s wearing a giant diaper. There are also tigers in the park but hopefully we won’t see them. Anyway there are supposed to be less bees as we go up in elevation. I really hope it’s true.
How I love those ferns
River Crossing Number ?
Trying to cook and bee happy
June 24th, 2002
Alright. So it?s Day #1 of the Gunung Tahan Assault. I am so happy to say that I have embarked on this journey, especially because it?s the whole reason why I came to Taman Negara National Park. Gunung Tahan (Tahan Mountain) is the highest point in Peninsular Malaysia at 2187 meters, and it?s deep in the heart of Taman Negara which is supposed to be the oldest rainforest in the world. Can you feel the excitement brewing?
Well, it almost didn?t happen actually because I couldn?t find anyone to do the hike with me and I didn?t want to pay the $140 guide/permit fee by myself. This hike usually takes 7-9 days and most tourists don?t have the time or the energy to try it. Yesterday I was at the Wildlife Office and Enforcement Office several times trying to inquire about my options and it wasn?t looking good. No one was scheduled to do the climb for several weeks. I posted a note in front of the office asking if anyone was interested to join and left it at that.
I spent the afternoon doing the Canopy Walk in the park, a series of ladders and ropes that allow you to walk 25 meters above the forest floor. Pretty cool. Then I went over to one of the floating restaurants on the river to watch the Spain vs. S. Korea World Cup Match. Everyone here is rooting for Korea so it was very exciting. All the Malays were so nervous when the game went to kicks ? they were all chain-smoking their clove cigarettes, eating plates of fried bananas, and screaming and yelling like crazy. Man was everyone happy when they won! Every restaurant was packed. I had dinner with 2 really nice girls who I met during the game ? Lisa from the UK and Shoshana from California.
Just as we were leaving (after watching Senegal lose), a guy came up to us in the restaurant and said, ?Are any of you named Jennifer?? Turned out this guy had read my posting at the park and was interested in doing the Tahan trek too! By that time it was after 9:30pm and this guy wanted to leave the next day (today) to start. So I said ok then, I mean, why not? I already had 7 days worth of food ready to go which I had bought and packed in KL so I had everything I needed. I just had to organize my gear and pack.
Everything happened so fast. I said goodbye to my new friends from dinner, hello to my new hiking partner KC, and then goodnight so I could run off and get ready.
KC and I met at 8am this morning for breakfast, organized the guide through the park, and were hiking by 10:15am. It took some time to clear the paperwork at the park because as part of the application permit, they make you empty your entire backpack and then they count how many of certain items you have, namely batteries, bottles, plastics, and clothing. When you are finished your hike you have to show them your bag again and if the numbers don?t match then they fine you. It?s a pretty strict way of controlling litter problems in the park but actually I think it?s a great idea.
So Day #1 of the yet-to-be-determined-number-of-days trek is done. We hiked for almost 8 hours today, passing the normal campsite for Day 1 and continuing on another 3 hours to here. There are 2 reasons why we pushed on ? mainly because we are trying to do the hike in 6 days but also because it is high bee season and the first campsite was over-run with swarms of bees! I have never seen so many bees in my life. There must have been 100 bees on my pack and gear and at least that many swarming around me as well. A very good example of a time when you MUST stay calm. Even so, I was stung 4 times and JC was stung 3 times. We were lucky.
We kept going and eventually the bees subsided and we were free again. The section between Camp 1 and Camp 2 is meant to have ?27 hills?, or basically many ups and downs. We did about half of it this afternoon. Got to our unofficial campsite at 6pm and set up camp for the night. There are just a few bees here, maybe about 50 or so, nothing compared to earlier in the day, but still annoying.
At sunset we all had to hide in our tents because we could hear thousands of bees swarming high in the tress, all heading back to their nests for the night. It was scary! Sounded like an Indy 500 racetrack. Thank God we have tents.
My hiking partner, JC, is Malaysian (from Sabah) but is now living and working in Sydney, Australia. He came home for vacation to visit his family and decided to do the Gunung Tahan hike before meeting up with the folks. It?s great to have him along because his English is perfect and he?s also fluent in Malay so he is able to communicate with the guide whose English is minimal. Plus he seems to be a really nice guy and it?s also brought the cost of the trip to half of what it would have been on my own.
Well it?s been a long day and we have more kilometers and bees to face tomorrow so it?s time to rest and get some sleep.
The longest canopy walk in the world, so they say
Me and our guide deep in the heart of the tropical rain forest
And here we have a really, really big tree
June 23rd, 2002
Well that’s what ‘Kuala Lumpur’ means in Malay and I’m not making it up. It was named that because of 2 rivers that come together in the center of town. Anyway I’ve left the ‘Muddy Confluence’ aka KL and am currently heading north into the jungle of Taman Negara National Park.
I first took a 4-hour bus ride from KL to a small town on the river and I’m now on a 3-hour boat ride into the park. Remote? Yes.
The bus was full of ‘Top Shelf’ tourists as I like to call them…mostly all of them having stayed at the posh Istana Hotel where the bus left from. They’re all on package tours with the park, with $100 – $200/night rooms and scheduled times for guided nature walks each day. I’m the only backpacker chump who came up from Chinatown to crash their bus and I’m staying in the park dorm for $12/night (which is a bit pricey for my budget but hey), and I’ll be doing my own days trips from there.
I chose to raid the top shelf holiday bus because their hotel was much closer to where I was staying than the local bus station and I figured it’d be a much nicer bus which it was.
It feels good to be out of the city, sitting here on the open boat, taking in the jungle views. Don’t know exactly how long I’ll be staying in the park – it will depend on whether or not I can book a 7-day trek to the summit of Gunung Tahan, which, at 2187 meters (over 7,000 feet), is the highest point in Peninsular Malaysia. Will have more details on that later today. The jungle in this park is claimed to be the oldest in the world, having existed as it is for the past 130 million years. It was never affected by any glacial melt or volcanic activity as many other forests have. I think they have some really big bugs here too. Yeah, I am ready for some pristine primary rainforest experience.
3-hour boat ride into the park
Taman Negara National Park, Kuala Tahan
This shit cracks me up (durian fruit tree above)
June 21st, 2002
Still in KL…I’m a bit tired at the moment after a long day of touring the town. Yesterday was spent mainly relaxing and recovering from the night before. Anders and Nils (the 2 Danish guys) and I had gone out to a blues bar and I was very pleasantly surprised to see some really good live music. I tend to consume more beer when the good tunes are playing and the guys were pretty much doing the same. It was one of those nights where we covered the gammut in deep conversation, from women’s suffrage to world hunger to family values and I think we even covered a few more but the details are somewhat blurred.
Anyway we all rested up yesterday and the guys left last night on a night train to Singapore.
This morning I got up early to get to the Petronas Towers in order to get one of the 1290 tickets that they give out every day to visit the building’s observation deck. At 452 meters (1483 feet), the Petronas are considered the highest buildings in the world. But the tourists only get to go to the sky bridge on the 41rst floor. Still a good view.
After that I went to see a Chinese Medicine doctor for some acupuncture. It was the real deal, in the back of a ginseng tea and bird’s nest soup shop in the heart of Chinatown. He put 1 needle in the nerve of my’gimp’ foot (see the Appalachian Trail section of my site, under FAQ’s for full details) and proceeded to wiggle it around every few seconds to’send energy to the brain.’ It was REALLY painful. I was sweating profusely and breathing very heavily, but somehow I got through it. And it did feel better afterward. This guy I went to, Dr. Lee, taught Tai Chi and Meditation at the University of Michigan for 8 years. Really cool guy. He told me all about the benefits of meditation and how we as humans are’addicted to thinking.’ He’s going to recommend a few meditation centers to me in Thailand which is really great because that is where I was headed next. The acupuncture, by the way, cost about $8 USD and Dr. Lee gave me 2 books on Buddhism included in that as well.
What else…more walking around the town, running errands, getting good coffee, doing internet, etc etc and before you know it another day has gone by. One more day in KL for me and then I think it’s off to Taman Negara.
The Skybridge at Petronas Towers, an architectural feat apparently
Looking down
They havent changed the sign yet, and yes I was feeling nervous up there
June 19th, 2002
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