38 degrees and getting hotter...

In the Cameron Highlands (remember to also check out this blog post - as there are actually 2 online ;-)), we were picked up by the accommodation at 8:30am with a smaller bus and arrived in Kuala Tembeling at 12pm. From there, we took a longtail boat for 2 1/2 hours through the jungle to Kuala Tahan.

Idyllic boat tour on the Tembeling...

Since the water level was so low, the luggage was transported separately and we were prepared to get off at one place or another...

So, initially, only the men had to jump out of the boat and push it when the boat got stuck on sandbanks.

Heave ho...

At one point, there was a cascade where everyone went to the shore, walked a bit on foot, and then got back on the boat :-)

Since it was getting really hot during the boat ride, jumping into the 'cool' water was actually very pleasant....

The big highlight of the tour, however, were the wild elephants at the edge of the forest, the water buffaloes, and the cows that ran excitedly to the water to bathe.

Water buffalo :-)

Elephant :-)

Once we arrived, we immediately booked tickets for the onward journey to Singapore and a night walk for the same evening at the local tour office.

The national park was on the other side of the town, so we had to call a water taxi (around 50 cents for the two of us) to cross...

Yeah.. and now for the night walk... Where to start... You can look at the whole thing from 2 perspectives:

Thea: Jungle adventure! Following in the footsteps of Indiana Jones, sneaking through thicket with a flashlight and discovering spiders, scorpions, beetles, fluorescent trees. All of this accompanied by cicada calls...

Or Clemens right after the hike soberly: Scam of the millennium! Because besides us, there were about 100 other tourists on the same trails, shining their flashlights in each other's faces... Our guide didn't explain anything without being asked and only searched for animals at the spots he had memorized... And yes, it was also hot like in a sauna: we were sweating like crazy. And as for the animals.. the advertised jaguars, tapirs, snakes or pumas, of course, did not show up... We only saw 3 spiders, 3 scorpions, and 1 beetle...

Everyone is free to decide which version they prefer ;-)

One of the three animals is well camouflaged...

Afterwards, we were just looking forward to taking a shower, but this brings us to the next point:

The hostel was terrible and the worst one so far - despite a good 8.6 booking.com rating - no idea how they earned this rating... Awful bathroom with mold, ants, hair, and thick dust... We'll spare you the pictures... We are not usually that fussy as we often book budget accommodations, but the room was too expensive for that... It urgently needs renovation... The breakfast was good though and the family was nice. They even made two portions of scrambled eggs for Clemens :-))

The next day, we explored the national park on our own!

Then we spontaneously decided against the 55km tour, which supposedly takes about 7 days... :-D

Beautiful paths through dense greenery!

Huge trees where you can hardly see the canopies...

We wanted to hike to the Canopy Walk (treetop walk No. 2) at 38 degrees - which, of course, turned out to be closed and has probably been closed for several months... but it would have been too much to ask for someone at the hostel, the national park administration or something to tell us about it... :-D

Great... closed again...

Since the day was still young, we continued to Bukit Teresek - a mountain with a viewpoint which we had to climb up 380 meters almost exclusively on stairs and at - yes, you remember correctly - 38 degrees...

Stairs upon stairs.

The last part was over rocks and stones...

After sweating several times and Clemens being able to wring out his T-shirt and towel, we finally reached the top! And the view was...

... disappointing! Nice sign - but that was it... Unfortunately, it was very overgrown. But hey, we are in the wild jungle after all ;-)

Furthermore, there were mosquitoes there... so no break, especially considering the weather (:-D), and we turned back immediately...

Of course, we accidentally took the longest way back...

So before you get the impression that we didn't like it: The trails through the national park are really well laid out. But it doesn't really give you the feeling of the jungle as almost all paths are built on stilts to protect the area. However, this did not detract from the atmosphere. We also saw a family of monkeys swinging through the treetops to the river, and several iguanas, lizards, and cicadas crossed our path.

So many monkeys - already at the entrance of the park...

Climbing monkeys - none of them fell down.

Who can spot it? ;-)

We had a great day!!!

Destination: The boat dock and the village in the background...

Back at the hostel, we could finally shower and pack our things for the next day, when we had to check out at 11am at 38 degrees and our transfer was not until 6:30pm. So we dragged ourselves from one restaurant to the next - as long as they had a fan.

At 6pm, it started pouring rain. After an hour in the rain, we were finally picked up and taken to Jerantut to the train station. It was small (like Unterlüß or Hildesheim Ost), empty, and pitch dark. But our train was not scheduled to depart until 2:35am... So we promptly went to Pizza Hut (our first Western meal so far) and then to a hostel room for 4 hours of sleep and a shower.

At 2am, we went to the train station, got on the train, and chug-chugged to Johor Bahru in the seating area until 12pm (did we mention that our luck was that the sleeping compartment was sold out).

We chose the train as a means of transportation because it was supposed to be the jungle route and we thought we would see some of the countryside. But things don't always turn out as you think... One palm oil plantation after another.

Small and big palm trees, but always the same...

From the JB train station, we took a bus across the borders to Singapore. We will now spend the next few days in the most expensive city in the world until April 17th and then get back to you from Vietnam!

PS: Despite all the little mishaps, we are having a great time and collecting lots of wonderful memories :-)

Now you're up to date. If you have any questions, comments, etc., please feel free to leave them in the comments. Warm greetings from Singapore and have a good start to the new short week...