The 5000 Project

We took a ride in about 5 cars, never waiting more than 10min for each one, driving through the unknown (to our maps) country roads and finally arrived at kuala tahan – the tourist town overlooking taman nagara national park, over a wide river crossing.

Before entering the jungle, I purchased a mosquito net and a sleeping bag for $10 each – starting to find that the problem with buying things only when I need it is that they’re generally a lot more expensive in the needed locations. Together we stacked provisions of tuna, bread and noodles. We had enough water to get to the first camp, the plan was to yet again boil river water that night, or hopefully find rumoured fresh rainwater streams to fill the bottles.

For the next 3 days we were in the depths of a very large and humbling jungle:

– Day 1

We treked for 8.5km, exhausted and full of leeches, we arrived above a river bank with no noticeable path down, we decided to bush bash through the thick terrain. Some thin long vines were some of the hazards, they were covered in sticky sharp spikes that would wrap around the shirt and hair, its a matter of very slowly spinning back around to unravel them, lest feel the pain of the spikes and ripped clothing.

We arrived at a river bank, but the river was far too deep to cross, we waited for a boat that decided to give us a lift over (there were many boats, so this didn’t take long). A half hr trek on the other side and we were in camp Lata beckoh, an abandoned camp, the termites had destroyed most of the shelters and plants were growing in the toilets – it looked like the camp hadn’t been used in months. We spent most of the night boiling water; without the aid of rum it was an exhausting routine:

1. Keep the fire maintained hot enough to boil water

2. walk to the river, fill the 500ml pot with river water, walk back to camp, put pot on fire

3. wait for water to boil, fill Thermos with boiled water

4. Take Thermos and pot to river, wedge Thermos in rocks to cool down, fill pot with river water, walk back to camp

5. Put pot on fire, fetch cooled Thermos from river, empty cooled Thermos water to non-contaminated plastic bottle

6. Repeat from step 3 until 7 litres of smoked barely-drinkable drinking water is bottled ready for tomorrow’s hiking

That night I setup my mosquito net with sticks to prop it up, a little worried about the leeches, I made sure the net hooked under to prevent anything from crawling through. I slept well, until the early morning when it rained very heavily. Thankfully there was a small shelter in the middle of the camp which the termites had not yet raised, suitable for resting before the others woke. The ground around the shelter was now pure mud.

– Day 2

We packed up as early as we could, after the heavy rain subsided, we met a German guy and Turkish lady who had been using the 2min noodles MSG flavouring on the leeches to great success, we still found it easier to just pull them off then try and flick them away when they try to attach themselves to the flicking fingers – due to the mass quantity of leeches this was still the quickest option, regardless of the battle wounds the day after.

After a grueling 8km hike, we arrived at the location of the night’s rest. Bumbun Kumbang, a nature hide, 2 story stairs to a set of 6 wooden bunk beds. There was a wide viewing area cut out of the wooden-box-on-stilts hide complex, which is used to view the jungle wildlife from afar. This was all great, except that there was a giant swarm of wasps near the stairs on the ground entrance, all attracted to the litres of sweat which we were wearing on our clothes.

We noticed a pipe with flowing water and decided that we should shower and wash our clothes, in turn, before heading upto the hide. We were warned about this hazard by some hikers coming from the hide, their advice proved worthy, although there was a lesser swarm still active within the doors of the hide, the wasps vanished as night arrived.

More hikers arrived later to fill the beds, we saw many fireflys and glowing red eyes when looking from the viewing  window, but most of the wildlife was within the hide itself. Almost as soon as we all got into our beds and turned off the torches/candles – a bunch of bats flew into the hide, one directly over my head. Later in the night we were awoken by a scream, one of the girls had a rat in her bed trying to get to the bread that she had in her bag, in the end she was forced to throw the loaf out as a lure away from her bed.

The next morning we woke and left as early as possible, before the wasps flooded the area.

– Day 3

This was the epic 11km trek back to kuala tahan and the hardest of them all, it hugged the river for most of it, going up and  down ravines; what made it frustrating and challenging is that the up was always very steep and the down was gradual. Our water supplies were getting dangerously low, we decided to trust some of the many fresh free flowing streams coming from the hills of the jungle to the river, it was crystal clear rainwater which provided much nourishment for the last tiring leg of the journey.

We spent one night at the backpackers on the other side of the river once we arrived back to civilization, then the french decided to hitchhike all the way to KL. I decided to spend another night without moving my legs, and to spend some time to heal the many leech wounds which looked a bit nasty due to the pulling from the skin instead of burning them off with salt/fire. We shared internet contact details and parted ways.

The next day I met two Singaporean guys who happened to be heading to the same town I was planning on rocking up to myself, the jungle train north to Gua Musang, a few stops before thailand. We decided to travel together, a bus to jerantut was the first step.

Edit: also something I forgot to add, both straps on my bag snapped,10min between each other, I tied them up and the bag is still fine, with knots on both sides. Dodgy cheap Chinese made bag I bought in China last trip :p

Late Edit: Last night in the backpackers, the fan fell down in a loud crash – thankfully not on a bed

So, there I was with this french couple on the docks of mersing, just hopped off the ferry. We took the earliest ferry from the island at 9am, it was 11:30am by the time we arrived on the mainland – which was quite late for hitchhiking to taman nagara in a day, according to my well experienced traveling companions. We scoffed down some chinese food and I quickly bought the cheapest and dodgiest shoes I could find (I was told that I need shoes for the jungle, which makes sense). We tried to get out of the main town area as quickly as possible, as the outer areas are much easier to get lifts.

After 2min with the thumbs up, we were picked up by a horticulturalist for a few dozen kms before he turned to go fishing. 5min wait for the next, a motorbike mechanic from Kuala Rompin, heading back to the bike shop; we decided at this pace and the late stage of the day that we will get dropped off at the turnoff for the 2nd national park in malaysia, Endua Rompin, just before our transportation host headed to town. Our last car was a 15min wait and happened to be one of the main tour guides for the park, off we went to the jungle! with completely free and happy transportation!

At this stage my main worry was that I didnt have a tent or covering, I tried to find a mosquito net in mersing but we didnt have any time – there was none to be bought on tioman. Thankfully there were tents for hire at the basecamp, equipt with my trusty towel for the base and serong for the top sheet, it was adequate for sleeping. We made a fire (which took a good hr to light, thanks to everything being wet in a rainforest), boiled many litres of water from the river and cooled each for drinking the next day, cooked and ate some noodles, finished off the last of the rum from tioman, shared philosophy; then retired to sleep.

The next day we set forth on a 2hr trek to an impressive waterfall, nearing the waterfall we noticed small worms which seemed to move scary fast in the direction of our feet… at closer inspection (once we got a few sucking at our ankles) we discovered that they were infact leeches, and there were, infact, shitloads of them; We decided to trek with haste on the way back to camp, resting only in the areas of sunlight (yup, leeches dont like the sun, I can totally see them being the inspiration for vampire folktales). upon returning, I counted 5 on one foot and 3 on the other, squirming around trying to get through the socks, they were in my shoes the entire time. A couple were still sucking on the back of my legs, hidden from sight and somehow I couldnt feel them earlier, after the decent trek they were rather fat; however they were easier to rip off when bloated and lazy. The annoying ones are the tiny ones that slip through the socks, then get much bigger once they stick to the foot for a while.

The same day we met with a guy from the Czech Republic who hitchhiked through Kuala Rompin and was adopted by a muslim family, not unlike my own experiences in indonesia. The difference being, he actually converted to muslim and to our bewilderment; he was given 1000riggit ($333) for completing the induction ceremony, reciting some lines and becoming to a new faith. Before deciding on making this bold decision, he mentioned to the family that he is christian, he asked if it was ok to become muslim as well; his answer was yes and thus he became a man of two religions. He was leaving the next day so we asked if we can get a lift with him back to kuala rompin, he contacted the family and the news was positive, we were to meet at the base camp at 4pm to await pickup.

The Czech guy camped with us that night and performed the night and morning prayer rituals, then headed off on his own very early in the morning as we were just waking. We headed down a different path this time, on a journey less leechy but more adventurous, a bit thicker and some fairly tricky river crossings over slippery logs and rotting wooden bridges. We arrived back at the basecamp at 4pm, but the czech guy was nowhere to be found, the lift arrived and we waited ’till 5pm, yet still no sign. It was decided that we will ask park management to call us as soon as he was spotted. We headed to the family’s place to await a response.

Many hours past and the family recieved a text, our friend was lost in the jungle. We couldnt call the number after reading the text and everyone was deeply worried, the family wanted us to stay the night then together lodge a police report the next morning, preparations were being made for several search groups. We woke the next morning bright and early, preped for another trek through the jungle; my phone was charged and ready for some serious GPS navigation. In a car convoy we headed out of town, when we got a call from the czech guy! he arrived at a village on the way to johor (the provence south) they fed him and supplied a guide for the trek back to basecamp. With this terrific news we decided to use the early morning wake to continue the hitchhiking to taman nagara, we thanked our hosts for their hospitality and shared phone numbers, I asked to be informed of any news regarding the czech.

We were dropped off just out of town, it took 2min of thumbs up to tag a car…

I waved goodbye to the eccentric Chinese backpacker manager after he dropped me off at a local bus stop in the middle of nowhere. I waited a good hr for a bus and was tempted to hitchhike thinking that the bus may not actually arrive, unfortunately it did so I hopped on and paid the 3 riggit ($1) for the 1.5hr bus ride to kota tinggi (Malaysian public transport is very cheap, in price and comfort). I took another bus to mersing then a ferry ticket to tioman.

I arrived in tioman as the sun was setting, all the single and double rooms were full in all the accommodation provider’s abodes – I met with a French couple (for reasons unknown, most of the tourists on the island were French or from french-speaking countries; odd considering the English initially colonized it) that were in the same situation as me and together we decided to try sleeping on the beach after asking locals if it was ok to do so. To prepare for this bold act, we decided to bunker in at the bar and consume a decent quantity of tax free (no crazy Malaysian alcohol tax on the island) beer – due to the investment towards the bar’s services, the owners allowed us to sleep under the pagola with a fan, they also offered the hammocks in the surrounding area. The sleep was ok in the hammock regardless of the mosquitos.

The next day we managed to find a cheap ($6/night each) 2 bedroom chalet (1 double, 1 single). The tioman adventure began with a 4hr trek through the jungle to a nice beach on the other side, amazing scenery, fresh waterfall in the middle to cool off.

Tioman used to be a small fishing island, they used to use traditional methods of net fishing – when the Malaysian government decided to turn it into a tourist haven, they actually built tourist lodgings for the locals to own, on the condition that they stop net fishing within a certain radius.

During the next few days I asked a few locals if it was ok to fish, they all said it was fine as long as I don’t use a net. So, I decided to purchase a retractable compact fishing rod for $8, with the ultimate goal to catch, fillet, cook and eat self sufficient food during my travels. This is exactly what happened, with the help of my French friend, although the main fish had poisonous spines which made it difficult to cut out large fillets.

All was fantastic on this island, it was all reasonably cheap; the beaches were nice, the water was crystal clear, the snorkeling was scenic, the jungles were vibrant and immense, the fish were biting, and fishing from the shore was highly illegal for tourists but legal for locals… as we found out while performing the act on the 4th day.

We were fishing from some hard to get to rocks when a guy in an official blue shirt started running towards us yelling that we will get a fine and that we had to stop, he used the hand signal for lock-up, we assumed we were busted but the guy didn’t want to walk out to the rocks to get us, so we decided to go around the other side, climb the rocks and sneak out into the jungle. We took our shirts off and hid the fishing bag under steps on the main jungle path. On the other side of the jungle path, my friend decided to snorkle around the point to possible freedom, while I put on my sunglasses and waited for some backpackers to walk with to somehow camouflage myself amongst the generic western whiteness. The plan worked, we met back at the chalet and I changed my clothes completely (contemplated wearing a hat, but all we had was a cold weather Beanie), emptied my main backpack; and headed to the path to retrieve the fishing bag within my pack. Mission successful.

Later we found out from the Frenchman’s girlfriend (who during this time was on the beach wondering what we were doing) spoke to the guy in blue and it turns out he was just warning us of a possible fine if we continued to fish. The adventure, nonetheless, was most excellent fun.

We decided to leave the next day anyway, to be on the safe side. Once we got the ferry back to mersing, we decided to travel together; little did I know that these guys are pretty adventurous hippies.