I was up with the
alarm this morning and packed the bags while the others slept. I then
got them all up and we hit the streets, walking the relatively short
distance to the sky train station, where we bought our tokens from a
vending machine and then passed through the barriers and up onto the
platform. It was only five stops to our destination and we soon found
our way to the helpfully signposted bus station. It was slightly
trickier to then figure out where to buy our tickets from, but we
eventually found that too and joined the small queue of people
waiting for the counter to open. While we waited, Zoe and I set off
to see if we could find something for breakfast. We ended up at a
little Indian place where they made our old standby – roti canai –
and got two with egg and two without, and a little bag of some sort
of curry sauce. These we took back to the queue and scarfed down on
the pavement while Kate got our tickets. We were just licking our
fingers when the bus pulled up and we all piled on board the 8am bus
to Jeruntut.
About three hours
later, the bus dropped us in the bus station, where we again set
about trying to figure out how to get to Kuala Tahan, the little
village located adjacent to Taman Negara. Kate's enquiries elicited
the information that the next local bus didn't leave until 1pm. As we
debated what to do we were approached by two local guys bearing
information sheets who wanted to tell us all about their minibuses
and tours to Taman Negara. We fobbed them off, but after chatting to
a young Belgian girl who was on her way back from Kuala Tahan (and,
incidentally, on her honeymoon) and who vouched for the credentials
of the tour guys, we agreed to get in their van. We thought we were
then on our way to Kuala Tahan, but the driver started asking us
about getting some lunch and/or groceries. At first we agreed to his
suggestion that we went to a Chinese restaurant for lunch, but then
we decided that we were still full enough from breakfast, so suggested
that we got going instead. At this, the driver turned around and started
to take us back where we had come from. Our hearts dropped, but it
turned out that he was taking us to the tour company office to transfer us
to another van. We were then concerned that we were going to have to
wait until 1pm for the new van, but we barely had time to
finish the ice creams we had bought when the van pulled up beside us.
We climbed aboard and discovered that we were to be the only
passengers, so we sat back and enjoyed the chauffeur service.
The (ridiculously,
recklessly rapid) drive took us through endless oil palm plantations
and a sawmill surrounded by some enormous logs of beautiful dark
rainforest timber. So depressing. We reached Kuala Tanah in about an
hour and the driver would have dropped us at our hotel but as we
hadn't booked anything, he dropped us in the car park instead. Then,
while Zoe and I stayed with the bags, Kate and Sarah set off to see
if they could find us somewhere to stay. It was very hot and humid
and the accommodation on offer proved to be both basic and expensive,
but after some time, they returned with the news that they had found
somewhere within fairly easy walking distance. The somewhere they had
found was a couple of rooms in a single-storey bungalow – bed,
bathroom and, crucially, air-con.
We were hungry by
now so we headed out to see what we could find for (a very late) lunch.
The majority of the restaurants in Kuala Tanah are located on floating platforms
on the river that separates the town from the national park. We went
to the first of these - Mama Chop – and had a decent meal while the
staff sat and watched a war movie. We then went for a bit of a walk
around the town, which was basic to say the least – obviously set
up to service the tourist traffic that the national park generates
with as little thought and effort as possible.
We went back to the
rooms to regenerate in the air-con and then headed out again to look
for somewhere to have dinner. We ended up at another of the floating
restaurants, choosing the one that appeared to be the most popular.
This wasn't a particularly successful strategy. When Kate went up to
the little window next to the kitchen to order, the first three things
she ordered weren't available and when my noodles arrived, they were
so awful that I couldn't eat more than a few mouthfuls. In the
meantime, we chatted to a couple of hard-core birders at an adjacent table - a softly spoken
guy from the Midlands who has apparently seen more than 6,000 bird
species, and Andrew, his very well-qualified local guide. After
dinner we stopped off at a mini-mart to get some beer (this is
essentially a dry town, with alcohol only available from a very
limited number of places) and tom yam peanuts.
No comments:
Post a Comment