Taman Negara Jungle Trip Day 1

8 a.m. - I repacked my small backpack for the 2D1N tour because I needed to take a photo from all my stuff. Afterwards I got breakfast and we needed to pack all the water, food, sleeping bag etc. in our backpack. At the end my backpack was around 8-10 kg heavy.

10 a.m. - We arrived in the nationalpark and it took ages until everyone had there park entrance and camera license. Eli and I already got that from yesterday. Afterwards we needed to write down what we were wearing and what we had in our backpacks. So they can check if we brought everything back and don’t left trash etc. in the rainforest.

11 a.m. - We finally started the trip. At first we drove with the boat to the canopy walk. Incredible feeling to walk through the jungle in 40m hight. Afterwards we continued the boat drive 1.5h to our starting point for the hike. We also got lunch on the boat.

13:30 p.m. - We started our hiking. The hike itself wasn’t hard. It was always a little bit up and a little bit down but not a lot altitude meters. Just the fact of the humidity, the condition of the path and the heavy backpack was exhausting. We made two breaks one at a river and the other one in a small cave where we discovered a bee nest in the rock and some paw tracks and poop of the black panther. We also saw a lot of elephant paw tracks and poop on the hole hike. It took us quite long to reach the cave and we needed to take a lot of detours because we were one of the first groups im the jungle after the monsoon break. So the path wasn’t in the best condition. We had a lot of muddy parts, river crossing, leeches and there were a lot of fallen trees blocking the way. We ether walked around or climbed over or under. In the end we hiked for 15km.

6:30 p.m. - We arrived in the cave, where we slept, a bit exhausted and tried to shower us in the river to feel a little bit clean and get rid of the leeches. Suddenly it started raining. Afterwards we prepared our sleeping place in the cave, cooked dinner and chatted a bit. Between the cave was huge. Later Eli, a US guy and I went out for a small night safari around the cave. We found a lot of different insects, all twice as big as at home, and a porcupine. At some point we turned of the lights and just looked and listened in the dark. We were surrounded of amazing lights and life in the jungle. I have no idea what it was but I think some plants or mushrooms. At some point a small animal came really close to us and ran away when we turned on the lights again. We don’t know what it was but I almost shit myself.
Anyways it was incredible and scary at the same time to be in the world’s oldest rainforest in the night, home of the Malaysian tiger, other predators, elephants etc. Definitely a highlight and something I won’t forget.

P.S.: My shoulders hurt really bad in the evening.Read more