0
Nyamuk pun takda
Posted by HuiHui
on
9:36 PM
Yup, by the title you should have guessed how the taman negara trip went. It was way below my expectation and I didn't even expected much at the first place.... maybe just to develop some new skill - leeches removal skill or see someone pee in their pants after hearing tiger roaring from afar? But, nope... nyamuk pun takda.
Ironically, the most exciting part of the whole trip was the first few hours. The boat that carried us from Kuala Tembeling to Kuala Tahan (access point to Taman Negara) was so faulty that it couldn't move for more than 5 minutes without dying off. Mid of the journey the boat totally refused to start, prompting the boat navigator to take off his shirt (yeah...he has a good body), jumped into the river to pull the boat to the riverside and tied it to a tree so that we won't be drifted back to Kuala Tembeling. Due to the extended journey (~4 hours of boat ride), we had to brave both the afternoon sun and evening rain.
From there on, everything was an anti- climax. The night walk was nothing but a 30 minutes scroll in the well-pathed jungle observing not the wildlife, but insects and flora & fauna (that's a better word for trees). It certainly did not amuse a village girl like me. (i'm referring to Sibu, the village with the longest river in m'sia). The next day didn't get any better either. The canopy walk, supposedly the longest in the world, was a merely 300m walk for us, thanks to the on-going renovation. Shooting the rapids, which I thought was water rafting (many thanks to the countless misleading brochures out there) was nothing but another short boat ride, a bumpier one. The three meekly activities are supposed to be all for the trip! Fortunately I negotiated with the guide to bring us to visit the aboriginal settlement. That was the other highlight after the malfunctioning boat ride. Never did I know such primitive people still exist in our beloved country that shouts development as the bone fide agenda. Anyway, some fact/myth we've been told about them by our guide:
- they don't really go to school.
- their ‘house’ is really just a roof over their head.
- they left their dying relative in a small hut up on the tree.
- after the dying relative die, they just left them there eaten by the birds.
- they can earn up to RM5000 per day during the peak time* (by demonstrating how to start fire & letting their photos to be taken by curios people like me).
- they spent the entire RM5000 on the night itself (don't ask me how).
- the male can marry 2 female at the same time, at the same ceremony & they will stay together under the some roof.
- there is no specific age for the orang asli to get married, a marriageable male is when they know how to make the roof and a marriageable female is when they know how to search for food in the jungle.
- yes, the female is the breadwinner. they need to find sweet potatoes and other edible in the jungle.
- what's the male work/responsibility?!? RE-LAX-lar....**
*I seriously suspect that the spot was just their acting stage and when the night fall, they will retreat to their bungalow.
**MH is planning to curl his hair and get further tanned before packing a few pants and move to somewhere 4, 48' N 102, 21' E.
To sum up, we saw buffaloes, otters, insects, reflective mushroom, orang asli, one pathetic leech & seas of homo sapiens. (easily outnumbers the buffaloes by 1000x). We burnt RM600+ each. We brought back almost unused baygon, insect repellent, waterless wash cream, unused salt, reminding sun block, MH's torn adidas sandal, MH's torn nike shoes & sun tanned skin!!! :(((
Ironically, the most exciting part of the whole trip was the first few hours. The boat that carried us from Kuala Tembeling to Kuala Tahan (access point to Taman Negara) was so faulty that it couldn't move for more than 5 minutes without dying off. Mid of the journey the boat totally refused to start, prompting the boat navigator to take off his shirt (yeah...he has a good body), jumped into the river to pull the boat to the riverside and tied it to a tree so that we won't be drifted back to Kuala Tembeling. Due to the extended journey (~4 hours of boat ride), we had to brave both the afternoon sun and evening rain.
From there on, everything was an anti- climax. The night walk was nothing but a 30 minutes scroll in the well-pathed jungle observing not the wildlife, but insects and flora & fauna (that's a better word for trees). It certainly did not amuse a village girl like me. (i'm referring to Sibu, the village with the longest river in m'sia). The next day didn't get any better either. The canopy walk, supposedly the longest in the world, was a merely 300m walk for us, thanks to the on-going renovation. Shooting the rapids, which I thought was water rafting (many thanks to the countless misleading brochures out there) was nothing but another short boat ride, a bumpier one. The three meekly activities are supposed to be all for the trip! Fortunately I negotiated with the guide to bring us to visit the aboriginal settlement. That was the other highlight after the malfunctioning boat ride. Never did I know such primitive people still exist in our beloved country that shouts development as the bone fide agenda. Anyway, some fact/myth we've been told about them by our guide:
- they don't really go to school.
- their ‘house’ is really just a roof over their head.
- they left their dying relative in a small hut up on the tree.
- after the dying relative die, they just left them there eaten by the birds.
- they can earn up to RM5000 per day during the peak time* (by demonstrating how to start fire & letting their photos to be taken by curios people like me).
- they spent the entire RM5000 on the night itself (don't ask me how).
- the male can marry 2 female at the same time, at the same ceremony & they will stay together under the some roof.
- there is no specific age for the orang asli to get married, a marriageable male is when they know how to make the roof and a marriageable female is when they know how to search for food in the jungle.
- yes, the female is the breadwinner. they need to find sweet potatoes and other edible in the jungle.
- what's the male work/responsibility?!? RE-LAX-lar....**
*I seriously suspect that the spot was just their acting stage and when the night fall, they will retreat to their bungalow.
**MH is planning to curl his hair and get further tanned before packing a few pants and move to somewhere 4, 48' N 102, 21' E.
To sum up, we saw buffaloes, otters, insects, reflective mushroom, orang asli, one pathetic leech & seas of homo sapiens. (easily outnumbers the buffaloes by 1000x). We burnt RM600+ each. We brought back almost unused baygon, insect repellent, waterless wash cream, unused salt, reminding sun block, MH's torn adidas sandal, MH's torn nike shoes & sun tanned skin!!! :(((
