We had an unplanned day of walking the day before we left Tanah Rata. Having decided to catch a bus and visit a butterfly farm and then walk to the main tea plantation in the area we were unfotuntely abandoned somewhat short of our destination. rather than having a wasted day we stuck with it and started our walk, not quite sure of the distance as all the tourist maps aren't to scale.Some 4km later we arrived at our first point of call - the butterfly farm. We were informed that the buses shouldn't be relied upon and we thought we'd continue uphill to the tea plantation knowing that being a popular destination a ride back home would be easy to obtain as we'd seen many cabs on their way there. We were very much mistaken there were no cabs in sight and for our efforts of hitching a ride, all the locals thought we were being friendly and just waved back.Thankfully Erin kept high spirits and walked all the way back to the main road and completed a round trip of at least 11km - her biggest walk yet. The only tears seen that day was when she was "attacked" by a butterfly.
We are now departing Taman Negara. This is one of Malaysias largest National parks and the size of Luxembourg. We arrived at the main gateway village after 2 1/2 hours. The kids spotted a wild boar drinking from ther river. There is a strong flow and all the longtails here are kitted out with the very latest outboards. Definately not using the advised kill cords if they even have them and certainly not abiding by R.Y.A guidelines of wearing life jackets etc. The village is in great preparation for the forthcoming season which starts from Chinese New year onwards. We came here to do the largest Canopy walkway in the world, which was not a disapointment. The kids raced on while Jay took great enjoyment wobbling the bridge and making me nervous. I wasn't very trusting of the construction having seen health and safety practices in this part of the world, i eyed up their "cow hitches" with great scrutiny thinking i would have chosen a better know to do the job!!! After new year there will be queues of up to 2 hours to get on the rope bridges which take 30 minutes if you take a gentle pace!!!
We met a guide recommended in the Lonely planet book who does tours and decided to doa night Jungle walk last night. Ieuan had already collared him all afternoon picking his brains and we felt rather oblidged to give him some work after all he'd been teaching the children. Ieuan has learnt alot but for example he is able to identify plants which honey can be extracted from and also create your own natural tattoos using fern leaves!! He'll be disapointed to leave although i think the man will be pleased to have some quiet time. The night walk was just as rewarding with finds of caterpillars that turn into fireflies, scorpions, stick insects, moon snails etc and tracks of elephant and barking deer.
Today we took another trail and saw the orang asli (native people) and went to a cave where there we hundreds maybe thousands of bats. Its extremely hot and humid here and after the three hour walk our clothes needed wringing out and we actually appreciated our "cold river" shower. We leave for KL tomorrow another long day and a couple of changes. Hope it all makes sense, haven't had chance to read through, tierd.
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