Rough in the Jungle

Tea Plantation in the Cameron Highlands

Malaysia is an interesting confluence of cultural factors, with a variety of languages, food, landscapes, and religion. Actually it's largely Muslim, which might surprise some of you out there. Indeed, as we walked through the beautiful explosion of brilliant colors at the Penang Island Butterfly Garden we passed numerous couples, buff Malay guys in jeans and polo shirts with [fake?] brand name logos with their wives in full black burkas, showing naught but dark eyes. (Also notable experiences at the Butterfly Garden are holding giant centipedes and----brace yourself----scorpions. Our guide said they were a harmless "level 5." I asked afterward, "So how bad is a level 5 scorpion sting?" and he said, "Oh not so bad, only fever and chills for a couple of days. Like a bee sting." Woah!)



As you can see from the attached map of Asia, we've come quite a long way (actually Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Malaysia don't look too far away on the map but we've got the psychic wounds of poor sleep on long buses to prove the distance). This map also reveals the location of Malaysia as directly between India and China on the sea-trade route. As such, Malaysia has been of strategic importance to global trade since the 1st Century CE and bears the diversity to prove it.

Early on Hinduism and Buddhism reigned supreme but Arabic and Islamic Indian traders brought a new religion in the 10th Century that came to dominate politics and economy by the 14th Century. The Portuguese decided in the 16th Century to wrestle control of the spice trade from the Italians, who got their spices from the Arabs, who got them from the Indians, who got them from Malaysia! So they took over a port in southern Malaysia and were followed shortly by the Dutch. The English came with an eye for trade but eventually took over the whole of Malaysia by 1824, leaving profound influence. Notably, nearly everyone here speaks English. It's been really great getting to understand people when we ask for directions or ask about some symbols (like the swastika: "may you prosper and have good fortune").

Also, the British facilitated enormous immigration from India and China, to the point that native Malays became the minority at one point. During WWII Malaysia was commandeered by the ruthless Japanese and it became clear that the British could no longer hold them and they became an independent nation in 1963. Since then they've experienced rapid growth, which brings us here to this towering city: Kuala Lumpur, home of the tallest buildings in Asia, the twin Petronas Towers.

But mostly we've spent time in the jungle.

After a few days in the cool of the mountains (imagine being closer to the equator than I've ever been and shivering in my sweater at night!) of the Cameron Highlands, eating sweet mountain-grown strawberries, we headed into the wild: Taman Negara (Malay for "National Park"). After three hot hours in the sun chugging along up the river, we arrived at a string of floating restaurants, where we later found we would eat dinner every night, each time with another (usually French) couple because there were no free tables. That night we had our first encounter with unexpected jungle insects: NIGHT BEES! AHHH! They only come out at night and they love the light so they swarmed our little bamboo bungalow (and our amiable host assured us they sting and they hurt).

Our first full day we headed into "The World's Oldest Rainforest" (as Sarah's souvenir t-shirt proclaims, along with a picture of a tapir)----130 million years old, untouched by glaciers and volcanoes----and made a *bee-line* for "The World's Longest Canopy Walk," over 500 meters of walkway suspended on cables from 30-50 meters above the thick jungle foliage below. It was so scary! The thick jungle extended above us as well, mind you. Some of the trees there are unbelievably enormous. We saw huge vines as thick as my torso winding up and down these monoliths and often had to climb over gnarly tree roots as if they were huge fallen trees.

Then comes the big jungle adventure: wending our way through beside the river for 11km of quite hilly trails. Hilly isn't exactly the right word. We often had to grip lattices of tree roots to climb up the insurmountable slopes. We also had to trudge our way through streams so clear and clean (untouched by the filth of human civilization) that we were able to fill our water bottles from them and stay hydrated all day long. Oh right, and we saw an enormous MONITOR LIZARD! It was a good three feet long and barely moved its eyes as we passed it on the trail, very unsettling. Once while scaling one of the endless ascents Sarah nearly knocked me back into a stream when a swarm of bats exploded off a tree branch beside the path! There weren't many people around.

Seven thigh burning hours later we got to the hide, which was a big cabin high on stilts overlooking a watering hole, about ready to collapse but the small assembly turned to us and adamantly said, "SHHHHH...." (some welcoming party) and pointed out the window to............a TAPIR! Magical. It's like a mixture between a little hippopotamus and a panda bear, split black and white down the middle of their back, but with a big floppy nose that bounces around as they walk. It made the whole walk worth it.

All the same, Sarah insisted that we take the "easier" trail through the heart of the jungle, which was admittedly much flatter. But I found it much more challenging, at least mentally, due to the enormous population of LEECHES squirming on the path, reaching like skinny little demon fingers from the muddy depths of the jungle inferno for our blood! Well, I managed to get out without a bite, although one did manage to make it to my wrist, which he probably aimed to gorge on and then slit up the vein to leave me writhing in the tangle of vines and spiders (truly villains, leeches). Sarah, however, was not so lucky. She got hit in the ankle with two brown squirming bullets and is now in critical condition in K.L.Advent International Hospital. Just kidding (bad one, I know), leeches are actually harmless, transmitting no diseases and incapable of draining sufficient blood to floor you, but they still freak me out...vile creatures.

Well now we're couch surfing with a wonderful family in Kuala Lumpur, the big city. We get to play silly games that involve lots of animals and explosions with Rica, our host's, 7 and 10 year old kids. Tonight we're meeting up with our friends who we met trekking in Myanmar who live here, Iga and Matteos! In two days we shall be flying to Borneo to get off even the not-so-beaten paths of Taman Negara and into the really deep untouched jungle.