Trekking in the World’s Oldest Rainforest

Taman Negara is a massive national park that is smack dab in the middle of peninsular Malaysia.  The place is supposed to be the world’s oldest rainforest and is teeming with wildlife ranging everywhere from vampiric leeches to stealthy Bengal tigers to poisonous cobra snakes. If you needed an idyllic example of a jungle this is it.

The paths are narrow and are constantly battling against the ever increasing walls of vegetation in the jungle, you can hear all kinds of crazy shit around you but can’t see anything. Off the path, the vegetation is so thick that it would be impossible to make any headway into the area without a few machetes or for the ones who hate the environment, some Agent Orange. No need to mention that we were in for a little adventure…

TEKSI! TEKSI! TEKSI!

As we departed the ‘Jungle Train’ we were approached by a Chilean couple to split a taxi out to the park, we weren’t planning to go until the next day but we figured we could save a few dollars if we went with them. After asking a guy on the street where to get a cab, he pointed at an overweight and balding Malay fellow standing near a food stand smoking ciggies and whispered “You want ride? You go talk to that man right there.” Ummm OK, no need to whisper right? WRONG. The prick sent us to some old dude who was an unlicensed taxi driver – basically a dude with a beater ’83 Hyundai with no seat belts and an assorted array of stains and garbage littering the back seat. I had a bad feeling about it but we decided to go.

After making stops at the gas station and an auto supply store our driver proceeded to breeze through red lights on the highway until he nailed on the brakes for one set of lights. As Jackie and I were looking at each other wondering WTF was up, he turned and said ‘camera’. I knew this was gonna be a long ride, and I was hoping we wouldn’t end up being the next dead assholes the Lonely Planet writes about as a prime example to NOT take unlicensed transit. After almost an hour of going 140KM/H, blindly passing around corners and up hills, and dodging loose cattle on the road I was a living wreck. I didn’t even mention that the guy was more concerned with lighting up around 10 cigarettes on the way up to the park than staying on the right side of the road. When we finally arrived he magically took us to ‘the best place to stay in town’ which coincidentally was the place that got terrible reviews online and was his buddy’s place. Grateful to be alive we declined to stay at his buddy’s guesthouse (which he definitely got a cut from) and we cruised into the core of town to get ready for our adventure the next day.

TREKKING

I have no idea why but I have always wanted to hike through the jungle, maybe because it is so exotic from our homeland. I knew this stop would be the highlight of Malaysia for me, and I wasn’t disappointed. We had full intentions of hiring a guide and doing an overnight trip to the jungle – until we realized we had no access to our money because there was no ATM in the town we were staying in. Our options now consisted of hiking alone or not at all.

We decided to give it a go on our own and picked up another souvenir quality map and headed off. Our first stop was the Jungle Canopy walkway which is huge network of suspended and interconnected aluminum ladders and cargo nets high above the jungle floor. It was relatively easy to get to the walkway and we headed up to check out the view from various vantage points above the jungle canopy. You are apparently able to see birds, monkeys and all kinds of wildlife from the walkway but we didn’t see anything.

Jackie cruising down one of the walkways on above the jungle canopy

After completing the walkway – which is the longest in the world at 450m – we had some newfound confidence in our jungle trekking abilities. Jackie was over the whole poisonous snake thing and I was blindly attracted to the adventure that awaited us in the jungle. We decided to summit to the top of one of the jungle mountains nearby and figured it would be equally challenging and rewarding to complete. After passing a few groups of people our age with guides we were wondering if we bit off more than we could chew (usually the case) but pressed on. I forgot to mention how much you sweat in the jungle – the heat and humidity combined with the kilometre walk uphill had us both drenched. Throw a backpack full of camera gear in the mix and you are pouring sweat like Chris Farley in his Matt Foley Motivational Speaker skits.

Trying to cool off midway through our jungle mountain climb

When we finally arrived at the top of the mountain we realized we had two options: turn around and go the same way we came up or keep following the path which should eventually lead back to the boat jetty. After taking in the scenery and sucking back some H20 we decided to continue on.

My hot little hiker wife at the top of the mountain

After about ten minutes of walking, we realized the terrain was significantly more difficult. The path was narrow, muddy and covered with vines and ancient root systems. Ducking under fallen trees, jumping down ledges and traversing up hills with ropes – we were starting to get the adventure we wanted!

There came a point in our descent where we were both wondering if we made the right decision as we had come across no indicators of the ‘way back’ for well over an hour, if we went the wrong way we would be going farther into the jungle. To add to the pleasure of disorientation we encountered a piece of wildlife that Taman Negara is famous for – leeches.

After looking down at our shoes we realized that the little buggers (hey Grandpa, I used this word just for you!) actually penetrated through the material on our kicks and were gladly feasting away on our delicious hemoglobin. Good thing I brought a lighter to burn them off, they were everywhere!

This little bastard latched onto me for the whole trip...and ate himself to death

When we finally came to a crossroad that indicated our destination was in the direction we were traveling, we were happy that our jungle experience was on the denouement. We were both surprised by how challenging the trek was and we were quite impressed that we only got mad at each other once along the way!

WRAP UP

Although we didn’t get a chance to spend a night in the jungle, we did get a taste of the hot and sweaty vibe in the jungle. It was honestly exactly how I envisioned it, the sounds, sights, temperature combined to make one of the most memorable atmospheres that we have encountered on the trip so far. Next time we are close to one you can count on us bombing around it – I just hope I don’t forget my lighter!

The little hole left by the leech that ate himself to death