El was still pretty bunged up so we stayed in the first place that looked nice and headed out for dinner. Once again we were faced with pokey restaurants selling fried rice and fried noodles and little else so realised that the jungle was not going to be a culinary treat!
We were too broken to get up early so we had a nice lie in and after a leisurely breakfast, headed into the jungle for a walk. There are thousands of square kilometres to explore but around Terren Negara there are well-sign-posted trails that become sparser as you head away from the village.
We headed to the main attraction - a 450m canopy walkway , "the longest in the world!" where you walk up in the trees. It was a lovely path to the canopy, albeit a bit muddy in places and we were very amused by the number of people walking around in inappropriate footwear. I mean, imagine you're in the jungle, there are leeches and mossies and mud and hills - what are you going to wear on your feet? We made lugging our trekking trainers all round the world worth it by wearing those, smeared in insect repellent and long trousers. We met people with normal trainers (ok), pumps (hmmn), suede moccasins (rather dirty now), sandals (what?) flip flops (really!) and even a few bare-footed women who'd obviously bought high heels that they'd completely given up on!
We got to the canopy all hot and sweaty (a mere 1.2km walk - it's humid in the jungle) (My shirt was going see through, I was sweating so much, I think that El liked me like that, K) and paid our entrance fee. The guidebook says to go early to avoid the queues so of course everybody goes early and (on the advice of a fellow traveller) we waltzed in at 1.30pm and had the whole place to ourselves!!
Leaves as big as your arm!
In the jungle live Rhinos, elephants, tigers, and other less-exciting animals, but, let's face it, you NEVER EVER EVER see them. After our canopy walk (by the way about a third of it was no closed so it's not really the longest in the world anymore!) and our walk back to the village we'd seen a giant lion squirrel, a giant black and white squirrel (about the size of a large cat), the back end of what we think might have been a wild boar, a gazillion MASSIVE ants (2cm long) and El saw a 2-foot bright green snake (although Kieran doesn't believe her cos he didn't see it) so we consider ourselves to have been quite lucky.
On the rest of the walk we tried to scale a hill but it was just too high and steep and after 10 minutes El's aspirin wore off and we just couldn't manage to go any higher. We did meet some people who Had been to the top though and we took a photo of their photo - it was good enough for us!!!! (We are so LAZY!!!)
All in all we spent about 3 and a half hours in the jungle, and Kieran also had 2 leeches (El found hers on a sock before it managed to bite!) and we spent the rest of the afternoon in a shack watching TV!!! El's cold was abating a bit but we really weren't inspired by Terren Negara. The jungle was nice but after spending 3 hours walking about 4.5km and being exhausted and dripping with sweat, we figured that we weren't really up for the 9 or 12 km treks on offer so decided to head to Singapore a day early.
After a 2-hour boat ride back to the train station we realised we'd actually spent more time travelling to and from the jungle than actually walking around in it. Oh dear, we are getting a bit weary of travelling and just need a break - to sit down on a sofa (a sofa!!!) and eat nice home-cooked food (mum, we fantasize about you every day), and have a bath (a bath!!!) and just ... do... nothing.
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