Project Runaway

How many people can say they have actually been in a tropical rainforest? A jungle that is over 130 million years old. That has been untouched by any natural or unnatural disaster and has been around since the time of the dinosaurs? When you try and imagine the jungle, images from every movie you had ever seen flash through your mind. But nothing can prepare you for the raw primeval beauty of it. It draws you in, shows you its ancient secrets and then thrusts you out, humbled. Of everything I have done in the last 6 months and everything I am still to do, our trip into the Taman Negara will still be the highlight.

We almost didn’t go originally. As SE Asia was not on our radar when we left Canada, it was not like we had jungle trek wear. No high sided trek boots, or long sleeve shirts, no leech socks, or flashlights, or anything that remotely resembled appropriate jungle wear.  When locals said that we should go, and that it would be something we would regret, we decided to go for it.

The trip from Kuala Lumpur (nothing all that positive to say about this city so I will just skip over our days there) consisted of a bumpy over air-conditioned bus ride to a non-descript town called Jeranut, where we took a shuttle to a jetty and then onto a long wooden boat for 3 hours up the river to the village in the jungle. The boat ride was fabulous. Relaxing and comfortable as we saw water buffalo, otters, and monkeys. Already we felt the chaos of KL and the horrible bus ride fading quickly into the past.

Mama Chop Taxi Service

We arrived in the village and were taken past the floating restaurants to our rooms. They sucked. I know, I know, it is the jungle, but we were shown photos of the rooms and these were not those rooms. As there did not seem to be any better option we decided to grin and bear. I mean, who needs a working toilet?

We had heard to be wary of booking a tour as you end up paying too much for not much. We decided to do one of the hikes up the hill ourselves, along with a new Venezualan friend, Jacky, and then pay the 5 ringitt ($1.57 cdn) for the canopy walk. Others paid 40 ringitts to have an indifferent guide take them there. We felt smug in our savings. So, there we were in our regular clothes, with our absent gear, just a camera and some 100 Plus drinks. Jacky even had on flipflops. We looked like the relatives who showed up at the family reunion in the Hamptons in new KMart duds. We sailed past the other trekkers in their fancy gear like they were standing still. 6 months of travelling and trekking does tend to make one quite fit. We were smug in our fitness. That did not mean we were not sweating and gasping when we got to the top, just that we got there first, and that was what counts.

Welcome to the jungle, baby!

The Taman Negara is also know for its leeches so most hikers had the leech socks or their pants tucked in. You hear many stories about the leeches and we were prepared to have a few bites. We vowed we would be steely and not try to pluck them off (big no no, leaves teeth in your flesh). We saw locals with fresh bites and other travellers with fresh bites. We had our loins girded, we were ready. Long story short, we didn’t end up with one bite. Not any of us. I felt strangely disappointed.

After our hike and canopy walk and fortifying lunch we hired 2 boats to take the 5 of us (we still had our buddy Jacky) to take us up a river into the park where you can swim near some small falls or a cascade. The boat ride up this river was the ultimate highlight of the trip. The rainforest seemed to be trying to swallow the river and it was so breathtaking. When I looked back at the faces of my family I saw such pure joy. The boats drop you off as close as they can get and then you hike up a trail to where you can swim.

Boat Ride to Lata Berkoh

Jacky had an underwater camera and everyone swam and goofed around, washing away the jungle stink and sweat in the water. I realised that sometimes you just have to wing it and if we didn’t we would have missed out on this experience and yes, we would have regretted it.