Saturday 21 November 2009

Ulu Temburong National Park Part 2

We had to wake up very early as there was a lot to be covered today. The breakfast consisted of noodles and scrambled eggs! Apparently this is what the locals have for breakfast every morning. It was delicious though and kept us going till lunch.

The first stop on our itinery was at a longhouse. The one we visited had about 25 rooms lined up with families living in each room. It looked tiny on the outside but each room had another room behind it so was quite spacious. All the families were related to each other. There was a nice community feel to it all.


After visiting the longhouse it was time to go to the National Park. I was soooo excited! It was a gorgeous day (like it is every day here!) and the thought of climbing up through the Borneo rainforest was too much excitement! The only way to get to the Park is by boats which have to be booked in advance through agents for the Park. You cannot visit the Park on your own- there has to be a tour guide. We all got onto a long boat and just enjoyed the ride through the river.



The Park was quite far away and the journey took about half an hour with the boat. This was the same river we were going to be rafting down later on!




On reaching the Park we had to climb a few steps to reach the actual canopy walk structure.



(Yusuf leading the way- he turned in Diego the Explorer on this trip!)

(The rainforest)

It was really nice and cool in the rainforest and there were all sorts of different insects. We came across these huge ants. They were everywhere! There were also lots of lizards but we didnt see anything else.


We were told orangutans used to come to this part of the rainforest regularly but have stopped doing so because of the tourism. It took a while to reach the strucutre and after a short break we started climbing it.


(This was not the full height of the structure. After climbing up this one there was a bridge which you had to cross and the same height again to climb! Then another bridge and another climb before you finally got to the top.)

(Zaheer leading the way!)


It wasn't too bad but Zaheer really s**t himself (fear of heights didnt help!) and didnt really enjoy the experience as much as he would've liked to. I loved every second of it! It really is a memory I will never ever forget. To see the Borneo rainforest from the very top of the tallest trees was spectacular. None of the photos do any justice that was the beauty up there. I did feel very lucky to have had the opportunity to go and see it. Just beautiful.

(It was jsut amazing- there was rainforest every where you looked and on a clear day you can also see Mount Kinabalu in Sabah.)


(Salome and me)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I sooo feel Zais pain, i could NEVER EVER DO THAT! serioulsy there was a bridge like this in canada and i almost fainted... AHHHHHHH!!!! XX