TAMAN NEGARA

16TH - 19TH JANUARY


We were up early as planned and were very much looking forward to our rainforest trip. We had to meet at a posh hotel not too far from our hostel, and on arrival we found ourselves in the middle of what was obviously an early morning coffee break for a couple of business type conferences. We didn’t get offered a coffee though, and were soon shunted outside into the parking lot where we were told to wait for the bus. There was no sign of anyone there for a while, but soon enough the driver turned up, and said that the bus was leaving at 9, and not 8. Hmmm we thought, could have had an extra hours sleep!! Still, refusing to let our spirits drop, we finally set off at about 9. 20.

The journey was around three hours to the Kuala Tembeling Jetty, where we had to buy our National Park and camera passes. This took
around 10 minutes, but they’d allowed two hours for this process, so there was more waiting around to be done!! We’d been told to bring a torch, and as the Petzl that we had wasn’t particularly bright, we found a more traditional ever ready bulb type one for about two quid in the local shop! Bargain, and much brighter! We ate the lunch that we’d brought with us, and then it was finally time to board our boat for the journey to Nusa Rainforest Camp.

The boats around there were rather simple affairs, they were like long canoes, almost reminding us of an Oxford Boat race type thing, very long and narrow. All the bags were loaded onto the front, and then you basically sat on the floor - cushions were provided so it was reasonably comfortable, at least for the first half an hour!!