Jungle, rivers, boats... and a big arse Ghost Tiger!

The train ride to Geruntut was boring. I had watched the jungle and the old looking villages pass by for some time, but the sun quickly set and everything grew dark. I’m not the kind of person to sleep much while travelling so instead I spent the nearly eleven hour trip reading a novel from start to finish.

By time we had arrived in Geruntut and left the train it was close to 2am. I wanted to find a hostel quickly and fall into the sleep of the dead. Luckily for us a bus driver from a hotel was waiting at the station and said he’d shuttle us up to decent hostel. It was easy and quick, and I actually managed to get some sleep the boiling hot room that night.



The next day we walked to the local tourist centre with our packs and booked a bus to a place called Taman Negara – Malaysia biggest and most untouched national park. It was required we buy a park permit, entrance permit, camera permit, blah, blah, blah. I knew we wouldn’t be asked to show it again… and guess what? I was! Essentially for the next three days we would live in the jungle… Well we thought that at the time. We spent the time waiting on the internet, sending mail back home and just checking out news from the rest of the world. Then our bus turned up. I had thought we would travel by coach, but instead we stepped up into a Toyota Hiace van and along with a kiwi couple we were off.

I have driven Hiace vans before at work… and I was unaware they could move so fast. The trip which we had been told would take us 2-3 hours took us little more then 1 hour. The kiwi guy who we had started talking to glanced at the speedometer at one point and looked back at us a little panic striken. He mouthed to us “140km/h,” I knew we were moving fast but I never had any idea a van like that could move so fast.



When we arrived at Taman Negara the raining was pounding down. A bit of rain didn’t bother me but I was disorientated. I didn’t know where we would stay, so we found some shelter until it passed and Matt who didn’t want to walk with his incredibly heavy pack said he would sit down and watch our things. I went looking to see where there were vacancies. It took me an hour of searching and I found nothing, only a four bed room, and a double bed room that was full of mosquitoes. On my way back to meet with Matt I ran into the Kiwi guy from the bus and we decided to share the four bed room with him and his girlfriend. The four of us weren’t pleased with the room or the price we paid. There were bugs, moist spots, it was hot, there was no running water and the toilets were out of order. It was for one night we told ourselves, and the next day we would find somewhere else, and we did. For the remainder of our time we shacked up in a 12 bed room, which wasn’t overly private but provided some relief from bugs and the heat… as well as toilets that actually flushed.

The only place to buy food similar to the islands was small family owned restaurants which floated atop pontoons on the river. Morning, noon and night we would head down there and choose something from the menu. I was happy to try everything, and my favourite item on the menu was actually the tuna and cheese sandwich. It was much safer then the Green Curry I had ordered which I thoroughly enjoyed… Until I found a dead wasp mixed through it. I can say for certain that wasn’t part of the recipe.



The national forest was home to some cool activities. The first day we were ferried up river on handmade long boats to a native village which was ‘untouched’ by modern man. It was untouched to an extent, however I’m pretty sure children before white settlement didn’t wear Manchester United shirts or jeans cut off at the knees. The tour guide took us through the village and showed us how they hunter, told us about their culture and the rituals and their way of life. Things that I found funny were that teenagers as young as 11 years old could marry and have children, out there is a very different world to what we are used too. The tour guide showed us how they used a type of grass and wood to make fire using a huge amount of friction. He proposed a competition and I was the last to try it… On my first try the block of wood flew up and hit the guide in the face, nearly knocking him out cold. It still state it was his fault for not standing on the wooden block properly. On my second try I became the first person be successful. I’m still waiting for him to give me prize... That tin arse.



On the way back we went rapid shooting and enjoyed the ride as the boats raced and each driver tried to drench the other’s passengers. I was thoroughly saturated by the end, because for some reason the group of Japanese riding with us thought it would be hilarious if I was wet for days. Later that night we went on a jungle safari. It was hilarious to me when a Ute rocked up with two wood planks in the back tray acting as seats. The ride was rough and the wild life was pretty quiet. We saw a small cat like creature, and apparently a snake. All in all, the most fun was driving in the back of the Ute for three hours and trying not to fall out.




Besides the occasional monkey laughing from the trees on the opposite of the river bank wildlife in Taman Negara seemed very scarce. It wasn’t until the next day when we took part in a cave exploration group that I finally realized how deep in the jungle we were. Our tour guide who went by the name of Eko led us through the jungle for about 2kms. It was muddy and slippery; however it only took us about half an hour. As we arrived at the cave entrance Eko told us to leave our packs and belongings behind if wanted to keep them. It seems trivial and a bit suspicious but I did that, all I took with me was SLR… And while I got some cool photos I should have left it behind.




As we climbed in the cave I thought how scary this would be for a person carrying a few extra kilos. I remember crawling through spaces that barely accommodated for my shoulder width, putting my shoes, hands and feet in water to crawl under the low ceiling, grabbing onto rocks that were slippery with bat shit and at times thinking to my self if I had no torch, I would never get out. It was funny because Matt who had scoffed at taking a torch was now crawling through the darkness, calling out for light. There thousands of bats flying through the cave, getting caught in our hair and generally pissing us off. As we saw the light and pulled ourselves from the earth I was relieved to see my pack was still there where I had left it and no monkeys had gone looking for the cookies stashed in the bottom of my bag.

We began to walk back, and Eko stopped us and told us to gather around. When we got closer he showed us a giant foot print similar to the size of a small dinner plate.

“That,” he told us, “is the foot print of the white ghost tiger that haunts this jungle. It killed my father, my mother… and I fear some day it will kill me.”

Poor bastard, I don't like his chances. That tiger is after his family… and he walks around the jungle giving idiots like us tours. Some advice Eko… Get a job in the city!!