A few stops through peninsular Malaysia

One last day up in the Cameroon Highlands and we took another hike in the hills.  We hiked 3 or 4 hours, enjoying the cooler temperatures in this area.  Towards the end of the trail, the conditions (of the trail) deteriorated so we took a short cut out through a farm.  As good as the economics of the agricultural expansion is, we were sad to see the destruction of the natural beauty of the area and all the erosion clogging up the dams and rivers.  They really need to do something about the erosion.

 

Everything on my computer is in Thai at the moment.  Once I fix that little problem I will fix up this post...sorry.

 

We departed Tanah Rata (the highlands) by minivan and were driven for a couple of hours. We stopped to purchase our Park permits and have lunch.  Following our lunch we boarded the river boats to take us into the Taman Negara National Park.  This is the oldest rainforest in the world, so thankfully the Malays are making an effort to preserve it, however there are pine plantations all the way there, and the muddy river attests to the lack of erosion control.  About 14 years ago Chris went this way...there was a lot more jungle, the river clearer and there was far less destruction of the river banks.

We can sail across the oceans without a life jacket on, but we had to wear them along the river.  They didn't have one to fit me. 

Below is just one of the pine plantations.

 

One of the highlights, for us, in the Taman Negara Park was the canopy walk.  It is really high!  At times we were over 120 ft (40 m) up in the trees on the swinging, jiggling platforms. 

 

Finally back down on terra firma.  Good walk, great views.  We hiked around the park a little bit, but not far enough away from the touristy areas to see much in the way of wildlife.  We saw plenty of birds, butterflies and other insects...no tigers.

We spent only 2 nights at Taman Negara, then it was back in a minibus for an hour and a half.  What a ride...3 times the back door opened up and spilled people's luggage out into the road and into the way of oncoming traffic.  Need to be a little more selective about our transportation...I think the local bus would have been better in this instance.  Eventually we made it to Jerantut, where there is a train station and we got our tickets down to Johor Bahru, then walked into town to get some snacks for the trip and lunch.  It is Ramadan, so lunch was a little harder to find than usual.

Comfy seats with plenty of space, we were content for the next 8 or so hours.

Once in Johor we visited the Danga Bay Marina, which will close at the end of August, so it was sad to see the nearly empty place.  We visited with Terrence who said there is a new marina on the other side of the causeway, plus the developers plan to put in a new marina at this location some time in the future.  Sad to see the end of Danga Bay Marina.

Johor Bahru has it's own little Leggoland too...we met our friend Jane and she took us out to see where it is. 

Not far from our hotel was this Indian temple.  Johor isn't a major tourist destination, but we enjoy it and there is always a great diversity of foods to try at great prices.

 

Next up we head to Chiang Mai, northern Thailand.