Getting covered in bat shit in the jungle

As I returned to my Guesthouse in Kota Baharu, I found 2 German guys that I'd met on the Perhentian Islands there too; Marcus (who'd been my diving buddy in my Open Water course), and his friend Flo. They're making their way to New Zealand, where they'll be till January before heading home. My German isn't so hot, so luckily for me, Marcus has just graduated as an English teacher, and Flo is also fluent. On a demonstration of my German, they were amazed that I'd had 5 years of lessons at school. Anyway, it turned out that they were heading off to Teman Negara on the Jungle Railway too, and there was a taxi going from our Guesthouse. This made things a lot easier for me.

On the Jungle Railway down to Jerantut

So, the next morning we arrived at the station at 6, met up with Khurum (who had now decided that he didn't fancy Teman Negara any more, so was going to Kuala Lumpur. He had grander plans than our little jungle jaunt. He was off to Borneo.) and got onto the surprisingly comfortable train in the pitch black. The seats were really springy, and the reason for this was soon apparent. We were to be riding a bucking bronko for the next 10 hours. Luckily, it wasn't too hot or packed, so, apart from the bouncing, the journey was relatively comfortable. The scenery was pretty good too, as we were taken deeper and deeper into the world's oldest rainforest (apparently no ice-age or tectonic activity has affected this region).

On arriving in Jerantut (the stopping-off point for journeys into the jungle), we decided to share a room there that night, and head off to Kuala Tehan (the town right next to the National Park) the next morning. The main highlight here was the male receptionist with a ridiculously high voice attempting to flirt with us, and his clear interest in Flo. We went to an 'information meeting' in the evening and were lectured at by the guy giving the talk, who had an annoying habit of shouting "get it??!!", at the end of every sentence. We left after half an hour, during which he'd managed to describe only that there were 2 ways to get to the park; bus or boat.

Water Buffalo in the jungle

Well, it turned out that there was only one option, as when we tried to get the bus the next morning, we were told that it wasn't running, and we'd have to take the 3 hour boat journey, which turned out to be a killer. We saw jungle, some water Buffalo, and that's about it. The boat itself was a long, thin, narrow type, 2 people wide and sitting very low in the water. And there were lots of leaks - there was a guy sat in front of the driver whose sole job was to bale water for the entire journey. The guy I was sat next to, Asif, was an architect in London, travelling alone, and was to join us in our jungle adventures.

Flo posing in the Pink Palace

When we finally arrived, the 4 of us set off to look for accomodation. By this point, I was dying for a piss, so I signed into the first cheap place we came across while the others had a look at some other places. 10 minutes later they came back, saying they'd found somewhere much nicer that was exactly the same price - it had mosquito nets and everything. I really couldn't be assed to move, but they insisted, so I managed to get a refund and headed off with them. Well, words cannot begin to describe the homosexuality of the dorm that greeted me when I opened the door of this new place. Pink and peach mosquito nets, draped over each set of bunkbeds, with little frills at the bottom and even peach coloured walls. This room even smelled of girls.

Me and my 'lovely bear and friends' bedsheets

And to make things worse, my bedsheets had 'Lovely Bear and friends' all over them. I told them it was pretty much the gayest thing I had ever seen (and I've seen Murph dressed up like a woman). Flo decided to dub it 'The Pink Palace'.

written by

olliejohnson on October 3, 2006 from Jerantut, Malaysia

from the travel blog: A man from Cockshutt.

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