The Tree Top Walk in Taman Negara

This was the most scary tree top walk I have ever done. It was way up high and it wobbled and it swung. When we looked at it closely it was held by nylon ropes, fishing net, wire ropes and aluminum ladders under the planks.
As the end of each of the 5 the bridges approached, I raced to get off. Each bridge had a sign to say how far apart, you had to be, from the person in front. This varied from 5 to 10 meters. I was following Wayne and he just wouldn't get off quick enough for me.
All the platforms allowed only 4 people on and they were attached around a tree, like the one above.

Wayne was ok on the bridge and he took too long for me so I kept rushing him to hurry up and get off the bridge

This was an aluminium ladder that you had to walk up to the next bridge. It was quite scary and seemed to go on forever, it was about as tall as a house to walk up.
The platform goes around the tree and is only wide enough for one person to stand side by side.
Isn't he cute...well I think so.
Wayne was brave enough to hang over the edge and take this photo looking down to the forest floor.
This is what is called a Strangled Feet...it is a vine that strangles the tree it is growing around until it reaches the top and then it takes over the trees place.
This is a sweat bee...it doesn't sting, it makes honey and likes to drink peoples sweat.
Our lovely guide showed us many things on our walk up to a viewing place. here he is holding one of the longest leaves in the world. We were lucky enough to see a skink and it was much bigger and very beautiful.
The view from the top of the hill was worth the walk.


We had such an amazing walk with our lovely guide and then to finish of the day he took us in the long boat to shoot the rapids...the rapids were only little but he got us very wet.
The long boat trip home for lunch and then a quick change and we were back into the long boat for 'shooting the rapids'. We got so very wet but it was quite fun.

and the Leeches

We booked out of our hotel and went to catch our bus to Taman Negara...and then relaised that we were never going to get there intime to get the boat up the river to Nusa Lodge. So we hired a taxi to take us the 70 kms, we negotiated with the driver 200 ringgit (less than $90) for the 2 hour plus ride. The bus was going to take 3 1/2hours. We finally got to Jerentut and then caught another taxi the last 70 kms. We know this was extravagant but we thought it was worth the experience. The drivers talk and give you lots of inside information.<
From the jetty we had a 15 minute long boat ride to Nusa Holiday Lodge.
We were shown the different places we could stay in and after a short consideration we decided to take the Malay House

Wayne was keen to have a swim in the river to cool down...I thought the water was terribly cold...Not only was Wayne hot, so was this pretty bird...it flitted around like our fantails.


Everywhere you go you see people posing...so Wayne thought he would show us his pose.

Wayne sset up his camera to take a photo of the inside of the house...we had some fun.

Beaches

We left Singapore at 10.20 pm on Konsortium Bus bound for Kuantan. We were expecting to arrive there at around 7 am...we arrived before 6 am and there was no way we could check into our hotel room so we found our way in the dark down to the local beach and hung around till the sun was up.The beach looked quite lovely in the morning and was great to see the sea but we were disappointed that there was so much litter on the beach.
Relaxing on the beach was a great way to start the holiday. After checking into a room at around 10 am we got a taxi into Kuantan town - at a cost of 35 ringgit (about $15). We were hanging out for a yummy coffee and found a Starbucks.
This is the view from our hotel bedroom window. It certainly made the resort look lovely and it was just that it was a bit run down but then it was very cheap so we aren't complaining.
We did find this lovely little bar at the beach front...it was well Worth the short walk down there to partake a few g & t's and ales.

The Hermit crabs were everywhere at this part of the beach.
This is my favourite photo for the moment...the sun was just in the right place for the cloud. What do you think?
Cherating Beach was beautiful. The sand was clear and the water was too. There was some rubbish but not as much.



We hired a car and drove up the Cherating and then through some palm oil plantations. One of the highlights was getting to see some turtles at the Turtle Sanctuary. We couldn't get over how beautiful the markings were.

Besarah Beach is where you see the beautiful coloured boats. We heard that use bullocks to pull the fish baskets and nets off the beach. Unfortunately we didn't see this.


Palm oil is a big industry in Malaysia, you see plantations all over the place...a bit like our pine forests back home.

These are the seeds that they process for the oil...much bigger than what we thought they would be like.

National Day

We had a bit of a dilemma today..what to do?
Do we stay home and watch the Olympics or do we get on our bikes and enjoy a ride. The bikes won out and we cycled down to Sembawang Park to enjoy some beach and park. The day was hot, how unusual.
We found lots of people utilising the park. There were tents every where and there were people everywhere as well. Large groups of people enjoying their time together. It was wonderful to see all ages and races there on such a lovely day.
This little fella was trying to get his kite flying but unfortunately there wasn't enough wind but he seemed to be having fun doing it.
In the background are some tents and the beach is beyond them. People were swimming and fishing and having fun all at the same time and place.
These young children were organising here drinks. They had about 5 plastic bags filled with drink and were sharing it around.

We are now home and have enjoyed murtabak and prata from the local hawker centre at the big cost of $12 and it was more than enough to feed us both. The National Day Parade is on TV so we are watching that until it is over and then it will be back to the Olympics.

Walk from Raffles to Chinatown

After a yummy lunch with Chris and Juliet we decided to go into Chinatown. We caught the train and got off at Dhoby Ghaut, intending to cross the platform to catch the purple line but instead got off at Raffles so we walked across the roads and around some buildings on our way to Chinatown. These are some of the scenes we saw.
While we walking we found this delightful park and it had some amazing flowers and views of buildings. The temple is one of the oldest temples in Singapore. This road has a shrine, temple and church within walking distance of each other. The next photo shows the shrine building (1835), old shop houses and the new buildings in the background. This photo of the flower was so unexpected. Everything else in the park was green leaves.Statues of a typical Chinese family in the late 1800's to early 1930's depicting a normal family outing. This are use to be water front but has been reclaimed.
We finally found ourselves in Tanjong Pagar and there happened to be a little Irish Bar at the top of the hill. So of course we had to stop for a drink. We were surprised afterwards to find that one of the streets was bar after bar. After talking at work we found out that it is one of the rougher areas to be in.




While waiting for the train at Yishun we took this picture of the flag. Its is Singapore's 43rd birthday and there are signs and flags everywhere.

BBQ at Desaru

We decided to bbq at 150 (about $70) ringgit for the four of us and we couldn't eat it all. We had lamb chops, steak, prawn kebabs, fried rice, bread, and still more food. We could look out onto the beach and look back at the pool. It was such a lovely way to finish the evening.



Relaxing down at the beach.

I took the plunge and put myself under the waterfall and enjoyed it...don't die of shock...I actually swim quite a bit now and am even putting my head under the water.