Taman Negara: Jungle Overnight in an "Animal Hide"

July 29, 2010

Griffin and I went on a jungle overnight. Our first. On the hike there, Griffin said "Mom, I've been waiting my whole life to do a sleepover in a jungle."

The hike there from our cabin was way too long for Griffin. So, just the two of us went on a little boat for a long boat ride up the river at about 4:30pm, just enough time to hike the remaining 2 kilometers deep into the jungle to the "animal hide" before dark. See the picture above for how the hide is really a little house on stilts that's a blind to watch animals in a clearing, photo above too.

We got off the boat and I watched the boat pull away, wondering if I'd regret letting the boatmen go. No one was in sight. And no sign for "Bumbun Kumbang," meaning Kumpung Hide, was in sight either. As we walked down the concrete path, it seemed to clearly lead into a jungle path that I figured must be the way to the hide. We were just walking into the woods when I turned and was shocked to see a family with 3 generations of aboriginal people walk across our path, they are famously called "orang asli" in Malaysia. See pictures above of the orang asli kids I later took from our boat.

These aboriginals are so famous that tourists from our cabins would pay for tour guides to take them to the aboriginal temporary hunting villages to see their way of life. And to stare at the topless women.

I deliberately avoided staring at the topless women. I found that I wanted to make it clear that I was not your typical tourist but was an overnite jungle trekker, like them. No picture-taking for me. I gave what I thought to be a confident jungle nod as I led my son into the jungle. They all turned and looked at each other silently, then the elder man carefully came up to me and said in perfect English, "Are you looking for the Kumbang Hide?" I nodded. Then he pointed in the opposite direction I was going.

Then realizing that he'd saved me and Griffin from a lost night in the jungle, I thanked him profusely. He gracefully nodded and led his generations, including a young mother with a baby strapped to her, off to fish for their dinner. His son turned and watched where we went, following us for a tentative moment, then pointed, once again, in a completely different direction than we were heading towards a very small, worn sign near an abandoned bridge saying, "Kumbang Hide" -- see photo above. Again, I groveled out a relieved thank you and we happily headed down the correct jungle path.

It didn't take long before the sun setting brought out the loudest insects and animals we'd ever heard. It was like the Times Square of jungles. In the video below you can hear the jungle sounds as we headed into the night. It was so loud that we couldn't help but get creeped out, until we adjusted. Griffin started asking me just how far away the Malaysian tigers were in this jungle (110 tigers remain in Taman Negara, and 630 elephants). I had fear fantasies of ways I'd distract the tiger from killing Griffin, actually picturing popping open my can of tuna for him, like it was a can of cat food.

Then, it started thundering and raining. We nearly ran our hike until we realized it doesn't really rain in the rainforest. It was so dense, the rain barely reached us. But, still, we were so relieved to make it to the hide, and before dark!

And, Griffin was relieved there were other people there, especially a man there. Turns out, before we left Ken told Griffin that he'd have to be the man of the hide, since only his mom was there with him. Griffin couldn't take the heat and desperately wanted another man there, as a result. It was a small French man and his wife, both kind, meditatively quiet watchers from the blind, and vegetarians. In fact, none of us really spoke the entire time -- just lots of whispers nad nonverbal pointing. We just watched for animals.

Being French, they packed excellent jungle camping food, including morning coffee. Griffin and I loudly crunched on Pringles for dinner. We probably disturbed any animals from walking through the clearing, from the jungle that sounded like it was teeming with animals. Griffin was convinced he heard "elephants stampeding and blowing their trunks like horns." We saw some birds, bats, and a squirrel. But, after hours of watching and waiting we didn't see one animal.

Before we went to sleep, a young couple from Los Angeles nearly crashed into the hide, exhausted, after a 10 hour hike with backpacks, with a couple hours in the jungle dark before arriving. Griffin demonstrated with his flashlight where they could sleep and how to flash their light to the clearing to check for animals. We slept, tossing and waking often, on wooden bunkbeds. I held Griffin's hand often to help him go back to sleep. I woke up for the sunrise and the Frenchman and I watched it rise without seeing one animal.

On our hike back through the jungle to catch our 8:30am boat, I asked Griffin how he felt about not seeing any animals from our jungle hide. While I'd warned him beforehand that we may not see any, we'd read the sign at park headquarters that the previous nite people had seen a tapir, elephants and king cobras at the kumbang hide. Griffin said, "I didn't care. I got to do the jungle overnight." Funny, I didn't care that much either. The overnight had been challenging enough.

We plunged back through the jungle to the boat. Or, so we thought. We hit a nearly unpassable river we'd never crossed on our way into the jungle. Griffin started sobbing uncontrollably as we searched around for any signs back to the boat jetty. We retraced our steps, then turned around and then turned around again. As we headed back, we saw the French couple who guided us back to the key turn we'd missed. There, we saw that a sign for the boat jetty had been on the wrong side of a tree, so only oncomers, not outgoers like us, could see it. Completely relieved, we giddily ran as fast as we could 2 kilometers back to the boat jetty, driven by concern that the boat would not wait for us.

We burst out of the jungle to the boat driver about to enter looking for us. We nearly grabbed him and hugged him for not abandoning us. Then, he drove us back to Ken, Alice, and Boom who held us tight and made us tell them every detail over a huge buffet breakfast back in civilization again.

We realized that we'd seen no animals, but that the humans had been fascinating.

Taman Nagara: Griffin's Near-Death Rapids Ride

July 30, 2010

We rode a boat then hiked to the rapids called Lata Berkoh in Taman Nagara park. Griffin was exhausted after his jungle overnite but still ran at the end of the hike to the rapids. He jumped along the rocks on the riverside, and Ken ran to catch up to him, with Alice and Boom in tow. I prepped the lunch.

I watched from the riverside as Griffin lost hold of a rock, when crossing between two large rocks, and he started being sucked into the rapids. Ken couldn't see that he'd fallen in but thank god Alice did. She yelled at Ken that Griffin had fallen in and Ken ran to catch Griffin before he was sucked into the very dangerous rapids. Ken had to get around a big rock then fight his way through the rocky river, leaving bruises, to get Griffin.

At the same time, Griffin was unable to stop getting sucked by the strong current, until he had a brilliant moment. He turned over and started doing the backstroke as fast as he could against the current right before going over, just to stay in place until Ken got to him. At the same time, I was screeching to Ken and crying as I raced across many rocks trying to figure out where to jump into the next level of rapids to intercept him (somehow, I'm still not sure how I'd get through that white water to him in time), if Ken missed him. Then, Ken grabbed him, right before he was sucked into the rapids flow.

I sobbed. Griffin sobbed. Ken held him then sat stunned for a little while. We all came to shore, then finally really read the sign warning us not to swim there (see above). Griffin sat in my arms for a bit while Ken took the kids to a safe swimming area.

Then, Griffin stood up to join Ken, grabbing the tree next to him and started screeching again. I had no idea what was wrong til he showed me his hand and pointed at the tree. There was the largest stinging caterpillar we've ever seen. And, those stings hurt. I slowly picked off the hundred stinging thorn-like hairs from his hand.

As we went over the day, we realized Griffin had been lost in the jungle, almost sucked down rapids, and grabbed a huge stinging caterpillar...all in one jungle day.