Irene & Matthias in Malaysia, 2006

Here we are once more, one of the many little trips we like to reward ourselves with, actually it is really more of an excuse to pack as much time alone together whenever we see each other on our countless special days...
Destination this time : Malaysia

Give us trekking trips anytime, we both love to get down and dirty and rough it out. :) This time, we went camping in the world's oldest rainforest... Taman Negara, it is located in the Malaysian state of Pahang. We haven't really been prepared for this trip :

number 1) the monsoon season was a major worry - the buses don't even run from singapore to the rainforest because most of the roads there was flooded at this time,

number 2) I cannot ignore the fact that we might be constantly battling some bloodsuckers in the rainforest - leeches, YUCKS,

number 3) we only actually made out a plan on the day when we were supposed to leave - that doesn't include packing and having tickets for a ride there.

Damn. But still we made it, after one whole evening of bargaining in Johor for the fare rides, we finally took the KTM (train), some waiting in a hotel lounge for a bus ride and lastly, a 3 hour boat trip on the river straight in to the rainforest.

6 hours night train..

Lesson learnt : Kiss in public at ur own risk. Even sharing the sleeping bunk in this train will invite disapproving stares. We are still in Asia afterall, we have to respect the public's opinions.

We have to take a river taxi every time we want to go from let's say, the camping ground to the restaurant, costs about 1 ringgit.

Oh that reminds me of something ridiculous.

Cost of park entrance : 1 Ringgit

Fine when u are caught without one : 500 Ringgit.

We had been the only ones camping out in the open. At first we were discouraged by the park rangers because of the monsoon weather but well, a trekking trip cannot do without camping. A big surprise awaited us in the morning though, we woke up swimming inside the tent. Oh, Mother Nature.

Some pictures about the hiking..... the Canopy walk.

Some vodka and Carcassone...

That's not all folks.... to be continued.