Hi there
Only 17 days ago I entered Malaysia, and now I’m already back in Thailand, where I arrived some days ago.
In Kota Bharu I stayed two days only. It’s a quiet city. It’s mainly the gateway to the east coast and it’s islands or to the jungle railway. The second day I already set off to Wakaf Bharu, the train station, where the trains to Taman Negara National Park leave. According in the guide books a local train leaves in the early morning, around 7:00 AM, and is an adventure by itself. Full of local people and all their goods and slow, stopping at every tiny station on it’s track. The ride should take anything between 8 and 11 hours. But that’s not the case anymore. The service has been ‹improved› very much, probably for us tourists. There’s now an aircon express train doing the stretch in 6 hours. Almost no locals on this train. Windows can not be opened. No adventure at all anymore. There are still local trains, but they leave at very inconvenient times and they do not go all the way down to Jerantut, the town where one has to get off, if heading to Taman Negara. Anyway, the 8 tourists we were had no option anymore and took this train and 5 of us got off in Jerantut, while two got off earlier, heading to the Cameron Highlands and one continued he’s journey to Singapore, another 11 hours.
After a couple of hours we caught a local bus which brought us to Kota Tahan, the village at one of the parks entrances. We checked in a dorm room together in a nice ‹jungle bungalow resort›, which is located a bit outside of the village. The owner was an always smiling gentlemen. In general I’ve found only friendly people in Malaysia. Maybe Malaysia is the real ‹Country of Smiles›? To find a place for dinner was the greatest adventure of the day. But finally we found a very nice floating restaurant on the riverbank. The following day we crossed the river, payed the national park entry fee and set off to our first walk. As we were a little late we decided to do a small track, called ‹Swamp Loop›. I’d now rename it to ‹Leech Loop›.
I’ve been wandering in jungles then and now and I knew there are leeches. I even experienced having one on my leg some 14 years ago in the very same national park, just on a different entrance (Lake Kenir). Then I didn’t only find it, when I removed my shoes. It was thick and full and fell off by itself. … and became fish food in the very same moment. But the amount of leeches on this track was just amazing. All concentration was put on the shoes. Every few meters there were a few leeches already stick on them and crawling their way further up to the ankles. I was lucky and got them all off in no time. I’ve also been wearing good walking boots, which made it difficult for them to get in. But two of the ladies in our group were less successful. Can you imagine the drama in the jungle? The scenes looked like Indian rain dances sometimes. Finally we encountered that the loop is not a loop but was a dead end path and so we had to go back the same way. Running, jumping, dancing, just not stopping, so no leeches could climb up upon us, we got back to the national park camp. The two ladies had 3 or 4 leeches on every foot and everything was red of blood.
The others of us were more lucky! Insect repellent helped to get the leeches off the legs and feet. But the bleeding did not stop for a while because the leeches inject some stuff that keeps the blood liquid. This was now the first adventure for some of us, an experience for the rest.
The next day we set of again, but better prepared. Applying insect repellent to the shoes should help. As things were going slow again in my group, I set of earlier with Gin, a Japanese gentlemen, to walk to the target of the second day, which was a ‹canopy walk›. To get there a hike of a couple of kilometers was necessarily. But I haven’t seen not even one leech on this path. The canopy walk was nice. Some 40 meters above ground on narrow, hanging and swinging bridges we had a glimpse at the jungle from a different angle.
© Masanori Nakayama
Animals, of course, were none visible. They’ve escaped the touristy regions already a long time before. Gin and me were very lucky to spot a family of boars and a deer from an lookout on the way to the canopy walk. Except some nice birds and some squirrels that’s it then for me about wild life …
On the way back we climbed a hill and descended on the other side. Just when we arrived our domicile it started to rain. Heavily! Monsoon! My four room mates arrived some time later, completely wet. What a mess. This stuff was never going to dry anymore! My cloths were wet as well, but from sweating. Still we set off to another walk the next day. To a cave and a local village of ‹orang asli›, which means ‹original people›. They live a very simple life in very simple huts. No water and no electricity. But they have mobile phones as well … Maybe somewhere they have a generator. At least those villagers, that live close to the tourist tracks. We were caught by rain again, but that’s how it is there. It’s a ‹Rain Forest›. It was another day with some leeches, but not so many as on the first walk.
While my room mates left to Kuala Lumpur the next day I stayed one more day just strolling around and reading.
One more story I have for this place: The five of us lived in a dorm with 3 bunk beds. I was using a lower bed, the one above me was free. Mosquito nets were mounted to the ceiling so they cover the entire bunk bed, protecting both guests. The second day we were joined by a French traveler which then occupied the bed above mine. In the evening, when everyone prepared for going to bed, the guy above me started to nestle around. Eventually he had finished and we were ready to turn off the light. So I waited for him to close the mosquito net. But this didn’t happen. When I noticed a mosquito flying around, I mentioned it and I got his answer:’So what?›. This made me suspicious and I got out of bed to find, that he had set up his own mosquito net. In a way, that made it impossible to close the big one, which would protect me as well. So I told him, that his solution doesn’t work for me and he replied, that I have a problem then! Can you believe this arrogance? It explained him, that he’s causing this problem, that the original ‹installation› was ok as it worked the night before and as it works for the other people in the room as well. I told him, that I’ve never experienced such a behaving of another traveler before. I even called him an asshole. So he told me not to get to nervous, got off, dismounted the original mosquito net from the ceiling and started to remount it just in my lower bunk. Of course the net was made to cover the entire bunk bed, so the installation ‹inside› was not very easy and finally he finished and installed some kind of mosquito cage for me. This was rather small of course and I could not avoid to get in contact with the net all the time. This allowed the mosquitos to try to bite me, but I was lucky and there were not so many of them. This guy left the next day. Of course he left it to me to restore the original setup. When I called him an a.. the others got aware of what was going on, but didn’t show much reaction. Only the following day only they confirmed me, that in their eyes he also really was …
One day later I left to Kuantan. Together with Gin I boarded a boat, that brought us halfway back to Jerantut. The rest was spent in a bus. From Jerantut an express bus brought me to Kuantan and a local bus to Chearting the same day. There I arrived at eight in the evening and found a nice bungalow only a 5 minutes walking distance from a nice beach. After the jungle I was looking forward to a few relaxing days at the beach. But it seems that the wet season didn’t want to end. I was swimming just once in the ocean but the rest of the day I was sitting in front of my bungalow or in a restaurant, hiding from the rain. The next day it got worse and the following it was like the first one. I decided to head north again, even skipping the Perhentian Islands, and traveling back to Thailands west coast.
Because of the elections this was not so easy. Many people were traveling. So I didn’t get a ticket for the connecting bus to Kota Bharu in Kuala Terengganu and had to stay there overnight. It’s a very quiet place. I’d say nice but also rather boring. It’s the gateway to some small islands. But with these weather conditions I had no desire to travel on a small boat. Usually monsoon is over by end of February, but nowadays everything is different. So, one day later I was back in Kota Bharu. The next day I took the bus to the border and after crossing into Thailand, again very efficiently, I walked to the train station of Sungai Kolok and bought a ticket to Hat Yai. This now was a real local and real slow train! It took 6 hours to get there, but it was a very interesting and colorful ride! And it seems, that I finally left the clouds behind …
There were some riots near Kuala Terengannu, because of the elections, but when we passed it was all over. I just read it in the newspaper. The only thing I’ve experienced is long delay of the bus (3 hours) and one road closed by the police in a town north of Kuala Terengganu.
Here I’m again in Thailand. Having finally found a beach that really pleases me! But that’s the topic for the next report.
Greetings from Koh Lanta!
Thomas