Cameron Highlands to Taman Negara national park

Well we got out of the $3 hotel and promptly moved over to a $12 establishment....it wasn't perfect, but the sewage system seemed to be working, so who were we to complain. I did find it a bit strange though that Kiwi-boy and I were the obvious minorities...it seemed we had checked int an all Muslim hotel. Nothing really wrong with that, it was just glaringly obvious to everyone that we passed in the halls that we were the crazy backpackers who had somehow managed to get reservations at their hotel...I think they probably were laughing at us poor schmucks, because staying at that hotel as backpackers, obviously meant all of the cheap places were booked.

Anyhow, we enjoyed our stay in the cameron highlands...we checked out the boh tea plantation, the strawberry farms, the butterfly farms (complete with GIANT Rhino beetles...my kids in Japan would flip out if they saw the pics)the cactus farm (the obsession with cacti is strange as it isnt really the desert) and ate tons and tons of Indian food from our favorite resturant, Kumar's....i befriended the owner's wife (she thought i was an indian girl), so we kept going their because their service was so good...and I kind of liked the owner's wife.


Today we took the famous jungle train thru about 3 hours of jungle...OH MY GOD!!! It is so hot! THe train did not have airconditioning...merely open windows. We sat on the train and proceeded to lose about 20 lbs of water weight. It was at that point that Kiwi-boy and I discussed the fact that although the jungle was awesome, both of us were dreaming of time at the beach...so I believe we will now be cutting our time at the park short by a day, and heading to the Perhetian Islands tomorrow....

Oh yeah, FYI: Taman Negara is Malaysia's oldest national park, and one of the world's oldest, untouched rainforests...the forest is over 160 million years old (holy cow that's old) and because of strict deforestation laws, the park has barely been touched....unfortunatly, because of poachers the animal life has dwindled considerably over the past couple of decades....the Malaysian government estimates that there are only about 200 tigers left in the wild...I guess that means our chances of seeing elephants, tigers, and water buffalo are pretty limited...but I will keep you posted.