Malaysia Trip

This site is an infrequently updated log of the international travels of Ben and Tyler

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The night before we leave Kota Bharu I am telling one of the Malay guys that works at the hostel about our trip, and asking about their luggage storage services.
He says "No charge for luggage storage."
"Why," I ask.
"You go to Taman Negara without guide, you die, and we keep luggage. Better call up your mom and tell her goodbye. You die like 2 german guys last week."
"I think they were russian" I say, and the German couple sitting next to me agree.
"If you die you give our government a bad name" he says. "Bush will ask where his citizens are, and start a war."
"I don't think Bush will come to save us"
"then you get lost in jungle and die"
"We have a GPS"
"What gps?"
"Ok, I'll tell you what, 50/50 chance with GPS" he says.

The next morning I wake up on the couch at 5am after 1 hour of sleep (stayed up late packing for trip and finishing my college application) and realize we need to get in a taxi to the train station in 20 minutes. I shake Ben awake several times and he falls back asleep. Eventually he gets up and is walking around like a zombie. I push him to the door and lift the pack onto his back, and wonder if he is going to fall asleep and tumble onto the ground. We reach the taxi in time while it is still dark out and Ben is stumbling around like a drunk guy that just got canned in Singapore. It's too dark to see Ben's face, but the taxi driver points at him laying in the back seat and asks me if my dad is drunk. I just smile and nod. The taxi driver says he wants "10 dollars." I hand him a 10 ringitt bill and he shakes my hand and seems satisfied.

We arrive in Merapoh at 3pm and don't know what the heck to do. As usual Ben quickly spots a payphone and is dumping coins in to talk to Nina. Eventually a local comes up on a motorbike and offers to take us to the ranger station in a diesel truck after we eat. The 7km drive is a very twisty road through dense jungle and palm oil farms. Eventually we arrive at the Ranger Station which is a huge new government facility in the middle of nowhere that seems to never actually get any vistors. The rangers inform us that they don't allow anyone into the park at Merapoh unless they want to climb Gunung Tahan, and that you can't climb it without hiring a government licensed guide for RM500 plus RM50/night. We ask if we can just take a look around in the beginning of the park, and he says not without paying for the guide. Apparently a few years ago a woman left to Climb Gunung Tahan alone and never returned, so they have made their rules stricter (but haven't updated the web site with the new rules). He advises us to try and see if we can join a group at the park headquarters in Kuala Tahan, because there are no groups leaving from Merapoh for two weeks. We agree, and he pulls out a train schedule and says his friend can drive us to the Gua Musang train station just in time to catch the express to Jerantut for a RM40 fee.

When the "taxi" driver is backtracking the 7km jungle road flat out and running over lizards, monkeys, and the occasional gigantic fruit all of a sudden his motor shuts off and the car slows to a halt. Apparently he is out of "petrol." After a few minutes of him cranking, while I choke the carb with my hand to make up for the air bubbles in the fuel, the car sputters to life just long enough to make it back to Merapoh where we get 1 liter of fuel, and one of oil (I suspect that the vehicles uses both at a fairly equal rate).

We get to Gua Musang just in time when we realize that the train schedule is not only 2 years old (schedule changes every 6 months) but that the express trains only run on weekends. We spend the night in Gua Musang at the nice Evergreen Inn (complete with AC and Telvision). The next morning we purchase our train tickets after our fair share of Japanese cartoons and KFC food (a sign inside the KFC said "A Malaysian tradition for 30 years)."

The local train arrived exactly on time at 11:53am according to my outdated train schedule. I quickly get ben off the phone and we board the third class coach. By the time we were finished wading through the traffic jam of produce and people we realize that the train is going north instead of south! I quickly grab my pack and say to ben "Shoot, let's jump off before it builds up to much speed." I make a run for the door and motion to the 2 guys looking out like I want to stand with them, but I just take a leap into the air and roll when I hit the ground. I hope that ben is behind me. When I get up I see Ben a ways north of me, and we are both uninjured. When we get back to the KTM train station there is a guy who wants his picture taken with the "crazy americans who jump off moving trains" and the KTM employees tell us never to do it again. Apparently we could have just tranferred south again at the next station to the north.

The proper train comes about an hour and a half late, and we head to Jerantut where we plan to stay at the Green Park Guest house which is owned and operated by Deana, who is a friend of Nina's.

To be continued, time to board the boat to Kuala Tahan. -Tyler