Leeched in Tama Negara...and those twin towers

I wrote this post already and then the power went out in the town of Banaue in the north of the Philippines....
So, there I was on a bus with Mats heading towards Taman Negara, the Malaysian jungle. We got into town a little after 4pm and headed immediately toward the travel agent/local restaurant to sign on for a jungle trek. Ross and John were sitting at a table contemplating leaving on a trek on their own that very night. Fortunately for them we walked in and convinced them to join us on a three dayer instead. Turns out that these two are more afraid of bugs than I. We encountered a rather large beetle in our hostel that night. There was another flying bug near the beetle that started up its wings and banged into Ross a few times. He did a very funny dance for us in the hallway trying to avoid the bug. His friend John started running to avoid Ross and the bug that was following him. Both of them decided not to wash that night because it would have meant walking past the bugs in the hallway to get to the bathroom.

The following day we discovered that three other people had signed on as well. Our team now consisted of an elderly Irish lady, two young Irish blokes and two Koreans along with the German (Mats) and I. The Koreans provided some sound effects for our little trek. We hadn't even left the boat and I could hear them making some very familiar noises behind me. On the trek itself I would hear "do you know where you are? you are in the jungle baby" over and over again. I wish they would have known all the lyrics to that little ditty by Guns'n Roses.


The leeches were out in full force. I could feel them trying to crawl into my socks and Mary, the elderly Irish lady, got leeched pretty bad. The trek itself was quite beautiful. It really did feel like the jungle as we trudged through mud, crossing springs and little rivers every half hour. We kept discovering elephant tracks and poo. The highlight was the discovery of tiger tracks and poo. I think the Irish lads were a little worried about those tracks. They were also more than a little worried about the leeches. There was a song and dance sequence surrounding their little adventures in removing leeches from their legs.



The night was spent in a large cave. Apparently this was a favorite sleeping hole for elephants as their tracks and poo was all over one side. We lit a fire to keep the animals at bay while our guides made dinner. Sun told us a little story about his hairdo...well, I had to ask. How can you resist asking a Korean man with a huge Afro puff about his hair? It took seven hours to get it done. Sun printed a picture of Snoop Dog to show the Thai hairdressers. Apparently the words Afro puff mean nothing to the Thai. Even with a picture most hairdressers were reluctant to give him what he wanted. He struck gold around six in the evening and by 1am he was a proud Korean sporting an afro. Kids can't control their giggles when he walks by...who can blame them, really? I could hardly control my laugh when I saw him.

Back to the cave: dinner was great. Chicken curry from a can, rice, veggies in a soup and hot chocolate. Bean, the other Korean, travels with his own homegrown food supplies. The man brought Ramin noodles and Korean hot sauce. I was so grateful because the veggies needed a little something extra.

After dinner we began discussing Mats' German ancestory. He is not into S&M despite being German but he is punctual and hates to be late or when others are late. Mats loves house music and is into the early nineties scene. Unlike most Germans he tans well. Once this riveting conversation was over I settled down in my sleeping bag and passed out. I then spent the entire night trying to push Mats off the tarp we were sharing.

Day two involved more mud, slipping, leeches, noodle lunch, swinging from tree branches to cross streams and a boat ride back.

Our little team met up for some drinks that night and we bonded some more.

It was time to get out of the jungle. We missed the local bus because Mats was too tired to get up and I was too willing to agree to stay in the bunk bed. It turned out to be a good experience. We scored a ride with three travel agents along a very beautiful road to Kuala Lumpur.


In Kuala Lumpur I discovered that durian...

...and making out were prohibited on the subway.

Not to worry. I did find something else to eat and something else to do on the subway.

Met up with Kevin, Tanya, Galen and Bill. I had met Bill back in Istanbul in the summer. Our team had assembled itself after I put the word out on Thaipusam, one of the biggest Hindu festivals in Asia.

On our first day together we took a little saunter over to the Petronas towers. At the towers we were guided into a small theatre where we were brain washed into believing that the towers were a vision realised.

Then we were herded onto an elevator for a ride up to the bridge where I went mental with my camera...but the pictures later were erased due to an effing defect on my card. Luckily, I had uploaded some of them before that happened.

KL is a purdy city.