Day 10 – Taman Negara National Park – Tues 5 Mar

Day 10 – Taman Negara National Park – Tues 5 Mar

Met Fahid our guide to Canopy Walk (we declined steep mountain side trek!) Taman Negara NP 130 million yrs old - Telegraph Tree; bush medicines; cicadas change sounds at night; "1 million ants per person in world" - steep, humid. Fortunately we chose the dry season, so no leeches! Local tribes eat clean animals (in trees, air) not ground animals that feed on detritus eg chickens… Wash poison from fish with muddied water. Rhinoceros Hornbills in trees loud cawing to one another; squirrel, sun lizard, super-sized geckos, "Stupid Bird" (too silly to get out of way). Wood and rope canopy being upgraded to carbon fibre due to rot/ termites in original...still narrow, swaying, creaking (but fun!)

Entrance to National Park

Brave GirlRob

Giant Geckos

Clouds built up for afternoon visit to original rainforest community Orang Asli via boat - people originated from Sth Africa; showed in skin colour and gangly limbs. Children don’t go to school, smoke from 10, marry from 13, often die young (but chief lived to over 100!). Watched fire starting demo, models children made learning to build houses on stilts, dart making and blowing... Rob saved the family honour by being champion dart blower, hit target in middle of head!

Our carpark sported showers and toilets with a hose and attendant- ah the pleasure of the first hair wash. Also found the local laundry, so threw in the sheets and towels (was not looking forward to doing by hand). We followed the backpackers to find the best food in town - Mamma Chop’s floating restaurant; loved their tropical fruit Lassi (with yogurt). It has proved true that it is cheaper to dine out than shop/cook in Asia… and certainly much cooler. 

Squirrel...

Floating barge restaurant