Where to begin? Taman Negara is the location of one of the oldest rainforests in the world – a 115 million year old jungle filled with all the creepy-crawlers you could imagine, one of the last of its kind.
The journey to Taman Negara was almost as much of an adventure as being there, climbing through the jungle. We drove for a few hours in a small tour bus from Kuala Lumpur driven by a man who, despite his calming and friendly demeanor, drove like a complete lunatic. Passing cars in blind turns is common practice here, as is passing in front of livestock and public busses. We tried passing the time by reading, but when the kindle flies out of your hand in a turn, then you know it’s time to buckle up and hold on. Eventually we made it to Kuala Tembling, a small fishing village sitting next to a giant river that would take us deep into the jungle. We stepped on a long but narrow passenger boat, into seats with a small cushion sitting on the wooden floor. The boat had rows wide enough to seat two people, but with economy plus legroom (you could never really stretch out, only reposition yourself every 20 minutes to switch off which leg fell asleep. That made for a long three-hour boat ride). Along the way we saw cattle, snakes in the river and all kinds of other bugs and birds that made us glad to be sitting in the boat and not swimming.
Finally, we got there – Taman Negara – a beautiful small village perched on a hill connected to the river. We stepped off onto one of the many “floating restaurants,” restaurants perched on floating barges that meandered around the river bank – a big spot for tourists to eat, as we found out when we discovered the local eating spots tucked in far away from the river. Our hostel – Wild Adventurer’s Lodge, was situated halfway up hill with a breathtaking view of the floating eateries, the river, local cats hustling tourists for food scraps and finally, the famed national park across the river. To get to the park, one had to pay $1 RM (USD $1 = RM $4.24) to a local boat driver to cross the river.
Our hostel was great; simple, clean, questionable wifi, questionable showers, also questionable water pressure… all the things you would expect from jungle accommodation. The one thing that wasn’t questionable were the resident travelers and the staff. Everyone was extremely welcoming and friendly, offered great travel reccomendations and leech war-stories, and spoke german. It felt like every single person but the locals was Duetsch. Naturally, I tried to flex my German speaking skills, but quickly fell short when their complicated slang outwitted my speaking-to-grandma-on-the-phone language level. Everyone was incredibly friendly, it seemed like the locals had lifelong friendships and likely grew up together – it’s a culture based on friendship and family over all else, a culture filled with teasing, calling eachother “donuts” (an insult), and flipping middle fingers… but there was also more smiling and laughing than I’ve seen in a long time. An energy that was contagious, you couldn’t help but smile and laugh.
We’re sure that you’re asking: “but how was the food?!” Well, despite not having the overwhelming level of options that KL and Singapore offered, the local spots were delicious and cheap. We quickly traded wisdom with the locals and found the low-key spots, far, far away from the floating resturants. Every afternoon, one of the hostel managers would deliver food cooked by his mom – delicious fried bananas and curry puffs, accompanied by a delicious sweet mystery sauce.
We originally came to Taman Negara thinking that we would do a multi-day, multi-night jungle adventure and boy are we glad we didn’t. We settled for a one day adventure – one we thought would be an easy tourist hike, it wasn’t. Let me tell you: leeches and jungle critters are real. Sweating profusely until you’re unsure if you’ll ever stop sweating is real. Slipping and scrambling on muddy roots is real. Narrowly avoiding spikey plants looking to cut you and snag your belongings is real. Spending over 10 hours in the jungle, with the last four of them being soaking wet via a pre-monsoon season storm is, well, a little too real. Along the way we had a blast though, climbing over every obstacle imaginable. Our guide (and thank goodness we had him) was telling us stories of encountering tigers, narrowly surviving a poisonous viper snake attack, repeatedly rescuing lost tourists (one girl was lost in the jungle for 19 days before being found alive) and stories about him living in the jungle with the aboriginese villagers for 6 months. It was an incredibly difficult but rewarding experience. A day later we stepped back into the jungle for a night hike, our guide expertly pointing out snakes, creepy glow-in-the-dark scorpions, and spiders the size of my hand. I’m grimacing just thinking about it. We were amazed by how easily things grow and live in these tropical environments – massive trees, huge plants, and all kinds of creepy critters live effortlessly here. Oh yeah, lots of ants. Some are an inch long.
We became really good friends with the other residents and hostel staff. We befriended two young German girls who worked for Luftansa (which actually sounds like the best job in the world). Essentially they work for 6 months out of the year, request destinations to fly to and stay in places, sometimes a few days at a time and then get paid vacation for the other 6 months of the year. No joke. I know, I’m jealous too. We were pretty tired from our jungle hike so we were fully prepared to relax the last day, do some planning, play some cards but then one of our hostel hosts came up and invited us and the two German girls, Lisa and Michelle, to a local wedding!
They gave Emily and the girls local dresses to wear. We were quickly scrambling to put together some money as a wedding gift, however the hosts assured us that it was not necessary – in local Malaysian culture, attendee presence at the wedding is the gift to the happy couple, in fact, the married couple are the ones that do the gift giving! Stunned and not fully knowing what to expect, we got ready – the anticipation was all too real… we just got invited to a local wedding! What are the chances of this ever happening? What were the odds of my first ever wedding being one, with locals we just met, in Malaysia?!
We arrived at the wedding in the only way we ever want to arrive at a wedding again – sitting in the bed of a pick up truck. Lisa sat on the back of a scooter. It seemed like the entire town had put their afternoon on hold in celebration, there were people lining the streets, a live band playing, cars honking their horns to make as much noise as possible, smiles everywhere – the energy was infectious. And here come 4 white people to an all-local wedding, we thought we’d be sat in the back corner but instead were thrown right into the middle of the celebration. We sat inside the event tent, at a beautifully decorated table labeled “family” only a few meters away from the bride and groom. We were welcomed immediately into the family, everyone was taking photos with us and was happily shaking our hands repeatedly saying, “thank you for coming, it means so much.” Emily and I had never seen a culture so welcoming. Michelle, Emily and I were sitting at the table with our hosts, drinking fantastically delicious, fresh-pressed watermeleon juice when the happy couple walked down the aisle:
Photographers swarmed the couple as they walked down the aisle of tables – Lisa had been elected to walk directly behind the couple with one of our hosts fanning the bride with a huge leaf. Here we are, strangers at a wedding, and Lisa is walking right behind the couple. Unreal.
The couple sat and everyone started eating. In the center of each table was a massive, technologically advanced lazy-susan: curry edition. A massive bowl of coconut rice in the middle, surrounded by various curries and vegetables. Incredibly delicious, but also difficult to eat – there wasn’t any silverware! The locals showed us how to eat with our hands… use your fingers as a spoon and use your thumb as a pushing/scooping mechanism. Despite my best efforts, curry kept slipping through my hands. Let me tell you – it’s incredibly tricky to eat a saucey curry with your hands, until you fully embrace it and accept the fact that you’re fingers will feel extremely gross.
The locals kept on feeding us more and more… finally, I had found a culture that looks at me encouragingly when I go for my fourth plate instead of judging me and prematurely bringing us a check (*cough* Canadian Indian Buffet *cough*). We laughed and chatted, eventually said our congradulations to the couple and parted ways. Taman Negara was an incredibly unforgettable experience. We learned the value of saying yes to more situations and fully embracing whatever the moment has to offer, whether it’s leeches climbing up our legs or curry falling down my fingers.
TEMAN NEGARA > CAMERON HIGHLANDS