Posts filed under 'Taman Negara'
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
June 29th, 2002
The end of another long day. 10 hours of hiking. All but a distant memory now as I sit by our campsite by the river, enjoying the clean air and many strange sounds of the jungle. But my knees remember!
Yes it was a lot of work to get here. Another 6am wake-up call (well, 6:30 actually; I didn’t hear my alarm because I was wearing ear plugs to sound out JC’s snoring) and we were on the trail at 7:30am.
It was a steady 3.5-hour climb to the summit from our campsite, with amazing views of the Titi Wangsa mountain range. We went back and forth between an alpine-like environment and the thick, lush, green jungle which I was surprised to see up at such a high elevation. Mind you, the rainforest is so thick here, that even though there are elephants, tigers, wild pigs, and tophairs running about, no one can even catch a glimpse of them through the dense forest. It’s not like the plains of Africa where you can sit at a restaurant in the middle of the park and watch the animals come to the river at sunset. It is a bit daunting to know there are tigers running free around here, but hey, if they don’t bother me then I’m happy.
Anyway, we went up and up until we couldn’t go any higher and we finally reached the summit of Gunung Tahan (2187 meters, over 7,000 feet) at about 11am. It was just the 3 of us at the top - myself, JC, and Ubai, our guide. The views really weren’t that great because we had some clouds and mist rolling through, but it still felt great to be there! We took all our summit photos (and I still can’t believe it, but I left my American Flag back at the park headquarters with my other stuff), and then we rested on the top for about an hour.
From 2187 meters we went down, down, down for almost 6 hours to our current elevation of 750 meters. So in one day we went 787 meters up and 1437 down. That’s a lot of hammering on the knees! But I felt strong and focused all day, what a great feeling.
From here it’s only a 3-hour hike out but since we got here at 5:30pm and it was getting dark soon, we’re going to do that bit tomorrow.
At this campsite by the way, there are almost NO bees!
So it feels good to have the worst behind us and know that we will have an easier day tomorrow. Looking forward to a shower when we get back to civilization.
Shes on a mission
The summit!
Enjoying the last views before heading down…
June 26th, 2002
Long day today. This is not an easy hike, I can tell you. Actually today we finally started climbing the mountain Gunung Tahan. The past 2 days have been an up and down and up and down approach through the jungle. But today we left the river and started up. And up. To a final elevation of 1400 meters. That’s a lot of climbing for one day.
But first we had to escape the bee invasion this morning. We got up at 6am (in the dark), but the bees had been up since 5am. We did as much as we could (eat, pack) inside the tent and then got out, packed up the tent, and slowly, calmly left the bees behind. JC had a few casualties during the night though. I guess 2 leeches made it inside our tent and sucked on his ankle all night long. When he woke up there was blood everywhere, all over his sleeping pad. Somehow they missed me and man was I glad about that.
Anyway we started to hike at 7am and had a steady, steep, uphill climb for about 3 hours. We actually had to summit 4 other mountains today on the route to Tahan (which hopefully we will hit tomorrow). Those other 4 were Gunung Pankin (1463 m, 4800 feet), Gunung Tangga Lima Belas (1539 m, 5050 feet), Gunung Reskit (1666 m, 5466 feet), and Gunung Gedong (1830 m, 6004 feet). Many hours of climbing up, up then down, then up, up - a total of 11 hours today. We pushed it to get here because there was no water anywhere else and now that I’m here I’m happy we did it but it was a long day. I wasn’t expecting this trip to be as challenging as it’s been but I’m happy that it’s worked out this way. Mind you most people take 4-5 days to get where we are now and we’ve done it in 3.
The bees have definitely added a new element of challenge for me. And the trail itself was pretty difficult in some parts today - sheer rock faces with ropes hanging down that you either had to scale up or belay yourself down. And when you’ve already been climbing and sweating your ass off all day those rock sections can be a real bitch. But we made it.
We had some great views from the summit of Gedong and we also got our first glimpse of Gunung Tahan. At 2187 meters, it’s another 700 meters of climbing from here, but after what we did today that seems like nothing.
The plan is to set out early tomorrow morning for the summit and then descend down the north side, a different route than the one we’ve taken up. Should be a few hours to the peak from here and then we hope to put in another 6 hours or so to get down to the next camp.
Oh, and the best thing which I forgot to mention is that there are NO bees at this campsite where we are tonight! How wonderful!! When I unrolled the tent to set it up here, there were about 30 or 40 dead bees which had gotten caught in the tent from this morning. Ha - suckers! Have to admit it felt pretty good watching their dead bodies roll off the nylon.
We did see a few other hikers today - 2 groups of Singaporeans heading down from Tahan. Not too many people actually venture this far into the oldest rainforest in the world I guess.
Gaining elevation
Summit of Gunung Gedong
This is where were headed folks
June 25th, 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
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