Day 87: Taman Negara – Day 1
Our next destination is a pretty popular stop on the typical tourist route. Our hostel had several posters advertising transfers from Tanah Rata to a handful of locations – Penang for diving and Taman Negara for jungle trekking. Our tour the day before had been great, so we decided to book our transfer with the hostel as well. At 8AM the minibus picked us up direct from the hostel, and drove us to the Kuala Tembeling Jetty where we had a 2-hour wait for the boat transfer to the Kuala Tahan village just across the river from Taman Negara.
We had heard from the German couple we met the day before that Taman Negara was notorious for leeches – the girl had apparently gotten 20 leeches during her trek, yikes! – so we walked around the small town to see if we could buy leech socks. Not a single store sold them. We even asked at the Taman Negara Park Office (which had a ticket counter in town) where we could buy leech socks and the guy said, “Maybe in the village.” We asked him to confirm if there were leeches in the park and he yes, “Yes – but don’t worry – they only like Swedish and Germans!”
Maybe it’s just our American capitalist thinking, but if *we* had a store in a town right next to a major national park, we’d stock some leech stocks. Just putting up a sign that says, “WE SELL LEECH SOCKS!” would scare tourists into thinking they need them – you could charge whatever you want and make a fortune! Best thing is, no one would ever ask for their money back if it turns out there aren’t any leeches – you can just claim, “No – the socks just really work!” Just an idea, people of Kuala Tembeling…
Minibus transfer from Tanah Rata to Kuala Tembeling
An early lunch at the Kuala Tembling boat jetty during our 2-hr wait.
At 2PM, we boarded the first of three covered long boats for our scenic 2-hr ride down river to the park. We were warned that the river is quite low at the moment – as it is the dry season – so all the male tourists would be expected to occasionally get out of the boat and help push if it gets stuck in shallow water. Sure enough, we hit a couple of shallow spots – Igor dutifully hopped out and helped move us along. Everything was going just fine until we hit another rocky patch and heard a loud metal clang. The boat slowed to a halt, and our driver steered us to the shore. We were in the middle of nowhere, so clearly this wasn’t our stop. The driver then started walking in the middle of the river very slowly…kinda like someone who’s dropped something in the water…uh, oh, did we lose a propeller blade?!
No one is exactly sure what the problem was – the driver didn’t speak any English, and there were no Malaysian tourists on the boat – just all Westerners. The driver was trying to call someone on his cell (although we doubt he had service out there). Eventually the other two boats heading for Kuala Tahan passed by…but they didn’t stop! We had been sitting on the side of the river in the afternoon heat for over an hour – during which time our driver quietly swam to the other side of the river and disappeared into the bush – when our driver finally returned and got the engine to start working. We proceeded very slowly, but we eventually got to the park just before sunset. Over-heated, tired and hungry, we did nothing else that day but check into our hotel room (which thankfully had AC, and even cable TV!) and eat dinner at the resort restaurant.
Our longboat for the river transfer to Kuala Tahan
Igor getting out to push the boat through the rocky shallows
The scenic views from the boat – including our first sighting of water buffalo!
Our driver taking off across the river after our engine trouble. Taking it all in stride, I’m sure we’ll be moving soon
Not moving soon.
So why did you go to Kuala Tahan? Ddd you need the leech socks?
No leech socks, but food & tours were cheaper in town than in the Mutiara Resort
Way to go Lindzer !!