Catching Up...

I already typed this blog once and for some dumb reason, it didn't save. So I'm not retyping the eight pages that I wrote earlier. For the full version of this, see me when I get home! Nonetheless, Taman Negara was awesome! We took a three hour boat ride in and it was really fun to see the jungle like that. After dinner that night, we went and walked in the jungle for a while. The next day we went on a canopy walk through the jungle. It was awesome to see the jungle from 120 meters in the air. After lunch we went rapid shooting and actually went swimming in the Tembling River. I know that my usual Type A self would not go swimming in the middle of a Malaysian jungle, but I didn't think I'd get an opportunity like this again, so I jumped in. It was a lot of fun though. After that we visited this little village. These people were the most primitive thus far on our trip. They were the closest thing to "Survivor" that we have seen. I got to shoot a blowdart gun there and it was pretty cool. Of course I didn't hit the target either time I tried, but I wasn't the one having to gather food for dinner, so that was good. The next day we took a boat back out of Taman Negara. I will say that the place we stayed in Taman Negara was really nice. It's pretty ironic that the nicest place we have stayed thus far was in the middle of the Malaysian jungle.

After we got out of Taman Negara, that's when the "real adventure" began! We took a jungle train to Kota Baru, thinking that it would put us closer to Bangkok. Really it did put us closer to it proximity-wise, but it didn't help us get there! The jungle train was some of the hottest nine hours I've ever spent! Aside from the roaches, other various bugs and the unmerciful heat, it was ok! Once we arrived in Kota Baru, we stayed at The Renaissance Hotel! That's definitely where I parked my car! Yesterday we got up and tried to find a way to Bangkok. We ended up taking taxi's to the Thailand border. Once there we tried waiting for a ride over the border, but we grew impatient and just walked. We did find our ride on the other side though and had to make some time to the airport. Meg put it best when she said that we were like the family in Home Alone trying to make our flight at the airport. I will say that on the ride to the airport, I saw one of the most beautiful sunsets ever. On one side of the van the sun was setting over the mountains and on the other side, it was setting over the sea. It was truly amazing. We made our flight, which was also interesting. We boarded the plane at 9:20. About five minutes after we sat down, we backed up from the terminal, and I think that some Nascar driver was really driving our plane. We literally backed up and started speeding down towards our run way. We were taking turns faster than I've ever seen any plane take. And once we were at the final runway, we shot down it and off we went! The landing was very similar to the takeoff. It was kind of like being on a roller coaster. After almost dying last night in the taxi, we made it to our hostel.

Today we went to this market were there were acres of any and everything you could imagine! I think that we're getting ready to go out and explore some more now. This is a very abbreviated version, so see me when I get back and I'll fill you in on all the details. Also, if this weren't the second time I'm typing this, there would be a lot more! Regardless, I'll write more later. Until next time...cheers...