Woke up to a rainy morning at Taman Negara. Wished to stay in bed.. but struggled to a RISE & SHINE!
We were nearly late (yes again..) in catching our boat that took us from the meeting point (NKS Floating Restaurant cum jetty) simply because we had late breakfast at Dedari Coffeehouse, Rainforest Resort)
After breakfast, went for a hike to Bukit Teresek. There was still little drizzle so some of us decided to don our ponchos.
First, you have staircases to help you walk up the trail.
Next, gone are those staircases..
Got my first leech bite!
Felt a lil' pain + itch on the bitten area I though it was a mosquito. Before I tried to "murder" the mosquito, I saw this long thin stripe thing and at first I though, ohh a dead leaf or something, thought of brushing it away when it finally dawned on me, "OMG!! It's a baby leech!!!"
My frist reaction was tried pulling it out! first try was unsuccessful as it was clinging on quite strong on my flesh. Managed to get it off on my second try. Pheeww!!
Just minutes after that one of the girls in my group got another leech bite, triple the size of the earlier leech tat bit me and she was bleeding so much! But she's cool & calm..and we continued our hike up the hill ..
The longest canopy walk in the world at 530 metres.. Seriously??!! Oh well..that's what they claimed :p
Here, above ground, I heard the Hornbill for the first time! Didn't see any perching on the trees but to get to hear them was pretty awesome !!
Lunch Time!!! STARVING!!!!!!!
Today's lunch menu: Stir Fry Long Beans + Fish Ball Soup + Fish Curry
After lunch, off to Orang Asli settlement!
The Orang Asli homes. Their settlement is located on a higher ground near the river.
Inside, it's floor are just covered with mats, very 'open' concept. Simple and yet they are comfortable.
The Batek people are one of the Negrito tribes and have similarities to people from the Andaman Islands, the Philiphines, Indonesia and New Guinea. To me, I find them to have some similarity to the African tribes. Their hair is one of the example! The curls are quite the same when you see it upclose!
How the Batek tribe orang asli ignite their own fire. Just using wood and a string of some kind of wood. When it started to give out some smoke..they'll transfer some of the smokey wood shavings in some dried leave and more wood shavings (if you can see it in the picture below)
Then some gentle blowing...and voila, the fire appears!!
Above picture shows one of the Batek tribe elders demonstrating on the fire ignition process.
Time for some hands on :p
Lunch Time!!! STARVING!!!!!!!
Today's lunch menu: Stir Fry Long Beans + Fish Ball Soup + Fish Curry
After lunch, off to Orang Asli settlement!
The Orang Asli homes. Their settlement is located on a higher ground near the river.
Inside, it's floor are just covered with mats, very 'open' concept. Simple and yet they are comfortable.
The Batek people are one of the Negrito tribes and have similarities to people from the Andaman Islands, the Philiphines, Indonesia and New Guinea. To me, I find them to have some similarity to the African tribes. Their hair is one of the example! The curls are quite the same when you see it upclose!
How the Batek tribe orang asli ignite their own fire. Just using wood and a string of some kind of wood. When it started to give out some smoke..they'll transfer some of the smokey wood shavings in some dried leave and more wood shavings (if you can see it in the picture below)
Then some gentle blowing...and voila, the fire appears!!
Above picture shows one of the Batek tribe elders demonstrating on the fire ignition process.
Time for some hands on :p
The Orang Asli make their own blowpipe and darts. Some darts will be laced by poison to paralyse their prey.
The eligible bachelors of the Batek Tribe..
The eligible bachelors of the Batek Tribe..
I was trying to matchmake one of them to my buddy Flamingo Legs! LOL :D But she was playing hard to get.. HAHAHHAHAA!
Darts & carved casings and bangles souvenirs for sale.
After visiting the Orang Asli settlement, we went for an activity called "Rapid Shooting", can't get pictures of these as it's a WET affair. All belongings (bags & cameras) were requested to be handed over to our guide and he kept it inside big plastic bags. Remember the picture of the boat I posted above? That.. was the boat we were on for Rapid Shooting as well.. hahaha..
What happened during Rapid Shooting was, the boat we're on will be heading upstream, then our guide he rockes the boat side to side and it was kinda scary.. felt as if I'd be thrown out of the boat. The guide got cheeky MANY TIMES, he used the oar to make huge splashes of water on all of us. It was COLD and I was SHIVERING!! A lot of screaming and laughters.. IT WAS FUN!
After that, back to the hotel to shower and off for DINNER!! Am STARVING!
Dinner: Rice with Stir fried long beans, Bean Sprouts & Dark Soy Sauce Chicken
Next up: 4WD Night Safari. We paid extra RM 40 for this activity. My expectation was, we'll drive into a real safari they have somewhere.. but I was WRONG! We were taken on a 4WD ride through an oil palm plantation with a guide and he'll be scanning in between trees with a BRIGHT torchlight and bushes to spot for the wild animals. The first thing the guide told us : DOn;t expect this safari to be like the Singapore / Africa Night Safari ok.. hahahhaa..
Crazy rite? Fits almost 10 pax on the 4WD. Nope.. I wasn't on this ride. I was on the next ride.. and just because I am smaller size, I was requested to sit on the top of the 4WD roof.. Long Legs has no choice, she sits next to me..hahahah..
I was getting worried too .. What if a tiger come and pounced on us??!!!
Well.. no tigers of course.. we spotted some birds, snakes, and a red eyed animal high up on the tree.. I can't remember what's it called.. :p
A little bird trying to catch some sleep among the oil palm trees.
Snake on the oil palm tree!! Now I will be a little paranoid when passing by trees, just in case there's any snake slithering among the branches.. *shudders*
I actually spotted something running up and around the tree bark.. turns out to be some jungle mice..hahaha!
We were told that there are some wild cats roaming around and they look really cute. But we weren't so lucky as they chose not to show themselves to humans that night. Our guide told us a couple of days back they were spotted.
It's been one Full day of activities. My legs were glad when we we finally back to our hotel room. Last night in Taman Negara.. back to the hustle and bustle of the city tomorrow..
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