The Adventures Of Me And My Rucksack

Today we decided to do something crazy..... challenging and different!! We'd heard about things called Hides in the Jungle... were you can go and stay for the night and watch out for animals!! it cost us 5 ringitt for the night..... thats like 70p!!! Be being the organised person i am the two things i needed was walking boots and a sleeping bag.... which i left in KL!! So i went and hired them for the trip!! The hide was about a 6 hour walk or an hours boat ride then an hours walk!! You can guess what one we went for!! The boat was awesome.... we were travelling up rapid in this boat.... we were all totally soak it was a great ride!! It took us right in to the rain forest! it was great fun!! When we got to dry land it was like something from a horror movie.... the was a small run down resort..... the toilets had been taken over by animals and the wood was all rotten! We were all standing on the decking of this hut waiting for someone to go to toilet!! Me being my usual self saw a bit of decking which looked really rotten so i went 'hey guys.... look at this its really rotten!!' Toucked it with my foot and but a bit to much weight on it.... well you can guess what happened next..... my foot went straight through the floor..... and it hurt!!! I've got a beautiful bruise round my thigh..... everyone found it hightly amusing!!!! After that we started our hour trek........ throught the jungle! It was awesome!!! The photos will explain it better!!! It was just a really good experience!! The only bad thing was the leeches.... they were everywhere.... we had to have a leech check every 5 minutes!! They are nasty!! When we got to the hide it was great!! It looked like a hut on stilts!! On one side was a look out it to the jungle!!! it was great!! There was about 7 of us in the hide!! We'd Brought lunch before we left..... i got fried rice with chicken which didn't taste great!!! We explored the surrounding area for a while then got safely in our hide for the night!! The jungle noises were so amazing!! Someone in our hide had been growled at by a lion on there way there.... scary stuff!! We took it in shift to stay up and keep a watch for animals!!! We played load of games of shit head to keep us up!! my shift was till about 3!! I was feeling pretty rough from my dinner and at about 2 it decided to come back!!! It was not pretty..... i was throwing up for about 30 minutes!! I was so ill..... it woke everyone up.... whoops!! I was ok after i'd been sick!! but it was not nice at the time!!! I went to bed after that.... i was knackered!! On my shift i heard monkey and i big rustle..... i recon it was a elephant.... and about a hundred fire flys!!!! In the night we were attacked by rats..... they stole our food and rubbish and ere funning round our bed!!! we also had a few lizards fall in to our room aswell!!! It was alot of fun!!! The walk back was pretty painless!!!! Apart from one of the guys we were with decided to swing on a vine which asn't attached to anything.... not a good idea!!! That didn't look very comfortable!! Well a briliant few days was had by everyone!!!! Not long till i'm home now!!!!!

Well...... left for Taman Negara on monday.. its the oldest rain forest in the world.... about 130 million years...... there was quite a big group of us in the end which was nice....... Took a whole day travelling there and when we got there the accommodation we'd booked wasn't booked so we had to trapes round looking for somewhere to stay.... found a cute little hostel over the river from Taman Negara!! The next day the fun started..... it was my BIRTHDAY!!!! Got up and went for breakfast and opened all my cards the i had with me and got a few from the group i was with!! We then went over the river in to Taman Negara..... we decided to do the Canopy walk!!! Its the longest in the world and it is scary!!!!! It was an amazing thing to do on my borthday... i'm not really scared of hights but this was scary..... it was basically a metal ladder with planks of wood on it strung up in the trees.... there was only 4 people on the canopy and you had to be 5 metersa apart!! when 4 people were on it it was really rock and swung all over the place.... it was proper scary! It took about an hour to do the whole thing... the views were amazing and just being on the canopy was such an awesome feeling!! Some of the people i was with were scared of heights and the were so scared!!! It was crazy!! When we got back on to terra firma we went for a short trek to a view point of the rainforest!! Then back to the main resort..... we found a few vines on the way there and had a swing which was fun!! We then went for lunch and a nice restuarant and i had a cake brought out for me.... with candles and everything!!! bless em!! That evening we didn't do much... went for food and then bed cos we were all so tired!!! It was a great birthday tho!!!! There was a huge storm that night... it was the loudest thunder i'd ever heard!! The electricity kept going on and off..... it was pretty crazy!!!

Hello hello, I'm still loving the Cameron Highlands its so chilled out here in every way!!! Yesterday morning i just chilled out with my book which i've now finished (only took me 4 days.... a personal best) ;-) Dorm life is getting much better..... the turnover of people is quite fast so the group in there now is pretty awesome......... The light actually stays on till maybe........ 11!! Except for last night when a new germen guy got arsy with us for reading with the light on....... Shock horror...... if only my book had glow in the dark letters!!!! Anyway...... yesterday afternoon i went on a tour to the Orang-Asli tribal village.... it was awesome!! The village was set up in a valley..... it was a bit jungley round there and we had to do a bit of off roading to get there!!!! When we got there we all had a go with the blow pipes! It was so much fun..... when it was my go i accidently sucked rather than blowing and got a mouth full of nasty, dirty cotton!!! Nice!! When i did eventually do it i was the best of the group.... there was a flip flop pinned to the wall which was our target and i was the only one to get it!!! Brrrriliant!!! We also had tea and tapioca (there staple food) with the Chief of the village!!! It was pretty awesome!!! well tommorrows sunday.... so in true sunday style i'm going to have a day of rest.... not that i haven't had much of that!! Then probably heading to Taman Negara.... the oldest rain forest in the world!!!!!!

I went to the floating village today on the Tonle Sap!! It was crazy.... all the houses are built on bamboo so they float on the water! There is everything you can think of..... a floating basket ball pitch..... floating schools..... a floating church.....flouting playground..... floating resuraunts....... even floating pig/crocodile and fish farms!!! I felt sorry for the pigs there pen was half submerged in water..... they didn't seem to be very good swimmers! There was even a floating hospital!!! Everything you could think of!!!! While i was there people were moving house..... literally! There houses were being pulled up river by boats!! It was funny!! Get this..... all the kids were sitting in buckets.... yes thats right buckets!!!! They had a stick as a paddle and they would float round begging for money or catching fish!! You have to see it to believe it!!! I got loads of photos!! I'm going to Phnom Phen tommorrow morning..... Exciting stuff!!!

I arrived in Cambodia yesterday morning the flight took about 45 mins..... crazy!!! Cambodia is gorgeous.... i love it!! It's really sad tho.... there is alot of begginhg..... its like nothing i've experienced! the kids hd on to you and don't leave you alone.......Í've started buying some fruit and taking it round with me so if a kid asks for money i give them some fruit..... its much better than giving them money!

Anyway i have started looking round Ankor Wat and all its temples..... its amazing!! The temples are beautiful! I can't really explain it without photos it just really nice!! The carvings on the walls and on the pillars are so intricate it must have taken years! Walking round is like being in a playground you have to clim around the rocks are all uneven and the steps and only a couple of inchs wide.... its very scary when your up high!!i would have loved to have seen it when it was originally built, it would have been even more amazing!! In some of the teples huge trees have grown in the middle and broken the the temple up.... all the rots of the trees have made the temples fall apart!!! As soon as you get to s temple or leave it you have about 10-15 children on you shouting '10 for $1'or something to that effect....... they are selling anything and everything!! You can't get away from them either it a bit overwhelming sometimes!!

Tommorrow i'm going to visit the floating village on the Tonle Sap!! Should be interesting..... the on wednesday morning off to the capital 'Phnom Phen'!!!

My guesthouse is really nice big rooms...... big fans!!! It nice and cool! Called Ivys Guesthouse!!