Leave your leech socks at the door...

Fair warning - this is going to be a fairly long post since we were out in the rain forest for 4 days with no access to email or internet (that's a good thing!). And Brian's taking a turn at blogging, so he has a great deal of pent up blogging in him.

To celebrate the Hari Raya holiday, the Pohl Garibaldis/Miller Wieners headed off to Taman Negara, Pahang for a 4 day journey into the rain forest. Taman Negara, the largest national park in Peninsular Malaysia, was established in 1939 and is reputed to be one of the world's best protected tropical rainforests. The forest is estimated to be 130 million years old.

On the way to the park we stopped off in the last major town before getting on the backroads - Jerantut (or in Tyler speak - "Jeran-TOOTS"). It was Hari Raya so everything in town was closed except for the NKS travel hotel and Pizza Hut. Surprisingly, the travel hotel was extremely rude and would not let us eat at their lunch buffet (yes - we offered to pay them - more on them later), so we ended up at the Hut. What better way to celebrate one of the most important days in the Muslim calendar than by eating pizza! Funny thing is that the place was packed with Malaysians in their holiday best having lunch. We hope it's not foreshadowing where we will be dining on Christmas day... It was however, a glimpse into what it would be like to try to find food during the Hari Raya weekend in a small town in the middle of a rain forest. When we arrived in Kuala Tahan, the little tiny town directly across from the park entrance, we were all excited to have dinner in one of the floating restaurants along the river only to find that they were all closed except for (you guessed it) the NKS sponsored restaurant! The irony was not lost on us (although to be fair they did begrudgingly let us eat at their crappy buffet later that night). It was also ironic because the month after Hari Raya is renowned for people opening their homes for buffet style open houses. All around us people were feasting in their houses so no one needed to go to a restaurant (except for us tourists).

After checking in at the Holiday View Inn, we decided to head out on our first hike to go visit a local swimming hole. Getting to the park from Kuala Tahan was fun - we had to take a boat across the river each time (1RM per person, 33 US cents). We were a little wary since we set out in just our Keanes (at last check our hiking boots with our household goods are now on their way to Sri Lanka! - more on that in a different blog...) but the trail there was along a wooden boardwalk and was well-marked. The kids had an awesome time playing in the river, learning how to skip stones and listening to Brian try to teach them about current and flow. We then returned to Kuala Tahan and had dinner at NKS before returning to our hotel to rest up for a big day of trekking (i.e., we drank Tiger beer and local Malaysian rum mixed with Kickapoo Joy Juice - shout out to Alycia S).

Friday was a big day. After confirming that there was truly no place to buy food in Kuala Tahan, we gorged ourselves on Mary's homemade peanut butter granola and some cold nescafe and set out for the Canopy Walkway. This was a little more touristy than we expected (we had to wait 90 minutes to climb the ladder to the walkway) but all around really cool. We were at times 50 meters above the rain forest floor and the views were spectacular. Tyler also enjoyed it because it hearkened back to the final scene in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom where Indy fights Mola Ram on a rope bridge over a river canyon filled with hungry, man-eating crocodiles. The walkway is about a kilometer. Tyler had to pee and actually dropped trough right over the hiking path 30 meters below us as a Japanese tour group was walking by. (Mary got to him before it was too late.)

Before entering the walkway, we emphasized the rules to
the children, especially "Do not carry sharp instrument eg, daggers"

Friday afternoon was the highlight of the trip. We hired 2 long motor boats to take us to Lata Berkoh, a waterfall about 30 minutes upriver by boat from the entrance to the park. After a really relaxing boat ride through the jungle (Brian and Tyler both fell asleep), we hiked almost 2km to get to the waterfalls. Once we got there everyone had a chance to sit under the falls to feel the power of the river and then we all jumped off a huge fallen tree into the pool below the falls. We were so proud of Tyler since he was scared but held Brian's hand and jumped! (Don't worry Grandma - they had life vests on). We had so much fun at the falls that we looked up and found that we were the only people left. Our guide was super nice and didn't seem to mind. The boat ride back was even better than the ride there as we saw some monkeys in the trees above the river.

Friday night we returned to Kuala Tahan determined to find a place to eat since we were running low on granola. Reluctantly, Brian set off with all 4 MW/PG kids to see if the buffet at NKS was open. The lady was incredibly rude and met Brian at the plank to the restaurant waving her arms shouting, "No food for you. Buffet closed for packages. Sorry. You go to Mama Chop." What is Mama Chop, you ask?  It was simply to best restaurant (that was open) in all of Kuala Tahan! We walked across the rocky beach to the red roofed Mama Chop/Han travel center and met Mama herself who invited us in for the dinner buffet. The food was okay (and cheap) and the best part was she promised us menu service for breakfast and dinner the next day.

Saturday started slow but picked up. Mama Chop delivered on her promise - the pancake breakfast was delicious but took almost 2 hrs for all of us to eat (not because of how big the pancake were but because of how long it took for them come out). Mama is the waitress, expediter, Sous Chef, executive chef, manager, you get the point... Instead of doing our morning 3hr trek as planned, we went back to the swimming hole because we only had about 90 minutes before our afternoon rapids trip/visit to an Orang Asi village. The trip was 2 parts amazing and 1 part depressing. Our rapids guide Carlito was an expert at tipping the boat just enough so that everyone would get soaked but not enough so that Tyler would fly off the side into the rapids (again, don't worry Grandma, even the parents wore their life vests on this one). The highlight of the trip was stopping for a swim in the river during a torrential rainstorm, a great reminder that we were in the middle of a rainforest. Halfway through the trek we stopped at a riverside village inhabited by an Orang Asi tribe, one of the oldest indigenous peoples in Malaysia. This particular tribe is known for their knowledge of the rainforest and their prowess as hunters with the spear and blowgun. They showed us how to make blowdarts and let everyone have a shot at a teddy bear slung from a tree 20 feet away. Only one German tourist and our guide "killed the monkey." Violet just missed. It was a little sad seeing the village since it was littered with candy wrappers and soda cans. They are traditionally nomadic but this village hadn't moved in 4 years, partly because of the tourist economy and the money that it brought into the village and partly because no one had died since moving to that site (apparently they have to move every time someone in the village dies). It was hard to explain this complex situation to the kids.  It was also hard to explain to Tyler why our guide shot a cute little teddy bear in the head with a blowgun!

Saturday night was dinner at Mama Chop (great fish, chicken, kuey teow, vegetables and amazing fresh fruit and vegetable juices) followed by a night safari. After a torrential downpour for 4 straight hours threatened to cancel our trip (Mary and the kids were actually already in bed reading The Hobbit when the guide showed up), we set out on the back of a pickup truck (don't worry Grandma - the kids wore their life vests) for a 2 hr night safari.  The trip was really interesting but again brought to light some complex issues. The safari took place almost exclusively in a palm plantation. Palm oil is the biggest export of Malaysia and the growth of palm plantations has greatly threatened Malaysia's rain forests. We saw some really cool animals including 3 leopard cats, a beautiful owl and a fox-like tree inhabitant whose name escapes us. But we also saw an area of rain forest that was in the process of being cleared to grow more palm trees. This was upsetting to Violet since the kids had just learned about the effects of deforestation when they visited the elephant sanctuary. Tyler pretty much just slept the whole time. It's really hard to try to understand, let alone explain, the need for balance between humans and nature. It's even more difficult to explain how financial interests sometimes lead people to do things that are questionable. But Violet and Tyler are beginning to ask some difficult questions and it was another great reminder of the types of experiences and perspective we hope that we will all gain from our time abroad.

We (well, mostly Brian) have said to much.

Thanks to the Miller-Wieners (including Grandma L) for a great rain forest adventure.

Selamat Hari Raya!

We were all full of kick-a-poo Joy Juice.