Enter the jungle

  Taman negara, Malaysia
Sunday, December 10, 2006

bedbugs! rebecca and i got a whole bunch of bites at the cabin/cachet we were staying at.  this sucks big time, mal suerte! my nemesis from irvine, if you didnt know, i have encountered these most evil blood sucking insects before. i absolutely hate them, and am still traumatized from them from over 4 years ago!  the good thing is that they dont seem to be the super itchy kind.
surprisingly there are very very few  mosquitoes. but that doesnt mean your safe, cus there are creepy crawly inching closer to you every second leeches everywhere.


  well most people know about the amazon and congo rain forest/jungle. but what about taman negara in malaysia and its counterparts in indonesia.  its all same same, just a bunch of invisible lines anyways. well, according to some sources it is considered to be the oldest rainforest in the world? it is said to be at least 130 million years old and possibly 200+ million yrs old. so it is the big brother that happens to be smaller than its younger siblings.  much of the area has not been explored and most people are only allowed to enter the outskirts and charted areas.  who knows what can be inside.....

  there are a bunch of different marked trails you can take, depending on your fitness.  one of the cool things we did was walking on top of the jungle canopy. we had to bust our crouching tiger hidden dragon skills.  tarzan who?


  the highlight of course, was when we stayed in a hide. we had to take an hour long boat ride away from the village and then trek an hour into the jungle. the hide is basically a big cabin that is sitting on 30 feet stilts in a jungle.  our hide was over looking a small watering hole. we got to sleep with tons of insects, big fat rats, micky mouse and jumbo geckos.  the jungle is noisier than an after hours club. i know why "jungle"  the music genre is called jungle-it all makes perfect sense now.

  to make along story short. we got to see wild elephants!!!  yup yup we were super lucky. i know i saw 5 at one-time, and i think a couple others were around the vicinity.  they were wondering around and taking turns drinking from the watering hole.  when they are drinking it sounds like a mix between a deep sounding vacuum cleaner and toilet flushing.  the flash lights that we shined on then did not bother them, but if we talked or made any noises it would put them on guard. they stayed with us the whole night and til the early morning...