Shanghai Times

We flew from Bangkok into Kuala Lumpur. We met our friend Sue Gee (an exchange student whom I befriended at WMU) and her family was kind enough to let us stay at their home. They drove us to the infamous Hindu Batu Caves, a limestone hill in the north of Kuala Lumpur which has a series of beautiful caves.

The next day we headed to Taman Negara, a 140 million year old rainforest in Peninsular Malaysia (older than any rainforest in the world, even South America and Africa. The forest has been always been a protected nature reserve. The jungle contains over 10,000 species of plants and 350 species of birds. Local mammals include mouse deer, barking deer, tapirs, wild boars, elephants, rhinos, leopards, tigers, and monkeys. We were able to stay with the Orang Asili tribe in the jungle, natives whom live off the land. They have no electricity and hunt with poison blow darts and live in man-made huts made of straw and wood. We were able to stay with them by presenting the chief with a gift. In return, he gave us a hut to sleep in and even took us hunting in the jungle during the dark of the night. Our guides pointed out many different plant and animal species to us, including deer, deer mouse, bird-eating tarantulas, inch-long ants, many different birds, and a really interesting glow in the dark mushroom. The rain forest is not a quiet place. In some respects it is as noisy as any big city with a cacophony of insect noises, bird calls, and animal cries that goes on night and day. We heard strange sounds during the night, and the chief told us the noises we heard were native tigers (only 200 remain in the entire 4,343 sq. km Jungle). We also went white-water rafting, which was very exciting.






After a few days in Taman Negara, we returned to KL, where we visited little India, Chinatown, and the infamous Petronas Towers. Of course, we stopped at the Hard Rock Cafe on Valentines Day.