Malaysian Jungle Hopping
Upon waking late once again, I called down to the lobby of the Malaysian Hotel where I was staying to let them know I’d be checking out today. I was disappointed about not staying the whole three nights, but I had an urge to see more than what Melaka offers.
I looked around a few more sights in between checking out and catching my 5pm but. St. Paul’s church was situated upon a hill overlooking Melaka. It has not been kept up for over 150 years due to the Dutch building their own Christ church, a really nice red brick structure that I’d seen my first day here. The view from St. Paul’s church was really very nice, too bad no one bothered to restore it to it’s natural beauty.
My next destination was Taman Negara. It’s a pristine jungle, about 4500 square kilometers of wildlife. I’ve heard the journey there is difficult and the bus ride there is five hours heading north to Jerantut, which is a small town where I’ll be able to hire a boat that will take me into the park. While on the bus, I noticed this man who also was a guest at the same hotel where I was staying in Melaka, so I said hello. He introduced himself and said he was French-Vietnamese. We hit it off right away, which made the bus journey of five hours go by fast.
When we arrived in Jerantut, we both searched for a hotel for the night, it was already 9pm! As we approached a hotel, a young man appeared out of nowhere and asked if we were looking for accommodations. We told him where we planned to check in and he told us that the hotel closed down. Both of us were fully aware of this ploy, so we continued toward the hotel we both had in mind, but this young man kept following us, repeating that the hotel had closed down. When we got there, we quickly realized that he was telling us the truth! The hotel had closed down, it was still on the list in Lonely Planet! So, we ended up following this young man to his Malaysian hotel and the prices were decent, plus I could make travel arrangements right there at the front desk for my boat hire to the Taman Negara park the next morning.
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