macado's se asia adventure I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.

Taman Negara and Cameron Highlands

Just finished up approximately 2 days of Taman Negara, the world's oldest rainforest.  It was actually nothing special in my opinion but i'm glad I saw it. The entire experience was quite commercialized although it's really actually your job to make it what you want it to be. We sort of just did the pre-packaged tours because none of us were obviously equipped for a 3-5 day jungle trek with camping gear in the rainforest but I imagine it would have been quite good. Literally miles of endless rainforest that we barely scratched the surface of.

After taking a bus, we took a 3 hour boat ride that was almost like a safari in itself to get to Taman Negara.  The park itself is on one side of the river while all the budget hotels/guesthouses and stores are on the opposite side of the river.  Getting into the park requires you to take a short (like 40 second) boat ride across the river to the park's entrance.

We got there in the afternoon and did a night trek in the rainforest.  Didn't really see anything too special, a huge snake (extreme exaggeration), some harmless spiders and other bugs, and a poisonous tree frog.  After we finished the night trek we were taken to an observation deck where we could see some wild deer in field.  That's pretty much it; the entire night trek really wasn't even worth the mostique bites that I got in the process.

Next morning was actually much better.  We did a 3 hour jungle trek and walked approximately 6-7km (approx 4.2 miles). We didn't really see any animals but the scenery was fantastic.  The majority of hike was uphill leading to an awesome view overlooking endless rainforest.  We ended the tour doing a canopy walk high above the forest floor, that was the highlight of the trip.  Taman Negera is supposed to have some of the longest canopy walks in the world so it was quite impressive.

Once you get inside mainland Malaysia, the prices are quite cheap and on par with Thailand compared to the Perhentian Islands.  Food wise, prices seem actually cheaper while accommodation is a bit more expensive.  Transportation is unfortunately a bit more expensive but seems generally more reliable and filled with less scams that many people experience in Thailand.

We actually left Taman Negara yesterday afternoon and arrived in Cameron Highlands this afternoon.  So far we haven't really done anything but Cameron Highlands seems to be my favorite place in Malaysia.  Lots of good scenery, cliffs, mountains, etc.  Cameron Highlands is basically the fruit growing capital of Asia.  It's where Malaysia, Thailand and I believe Singapore acquires their fruit.  The place seems extremely clean and developed.  There are lots of jungle-type tours like in Taman Negara, there is a golf course and you can also pick your own strawberries.  The other good thing about Cameron Highlands is that it is 1400 meters above sea level.  The temperature difference is quite drastic.  This is actually the first time since I got here that I was cold and had to put on a long sleeve shirt.  Not sure how long i'll be here but so far it seems like a pretty nice place.  I will try to post some pictures when I have time.  Coming to Malaysia (at least outside the major cities) is like stepping backwards 6 years in computer technology.  I can't really batch edit 60 8megapixels images on these 200MHz Windows98 machines with 64mb of RAM.