A Week without Sunday in Kuchxng - Day 2 Part A

6/10/2009

Today’s plan is to explore the Bako National Park. We took a No.6 bus from the Petra Jaya station (there are several stations so you need to study which leads where) to the Bako village. The fare costs RM 2 per trip. It’s a ½ hour ride. On the way to the station, Wendy bought a newspaper under the overhead bridge. The newspaper vendor told her the paper cost 2 bucks. She gave him 2 bucks right away. The kind newspaper vendor told her he was pulling her leg, and advised her to be aware of cheaters around. The actual price of newspaper was only a buck.

So we got up the bus. A Mr. Miss was sitting behind me. She/He is more masculine than I am, there was no way to hide that BIG body under his/her long hair and thick make-up. Upon reaching the Bako village, some secondary school boys who got onto the bus started making fun of her. I felt bad for her but…she really needed liposuction.

We finally got down from the bus at the jetty. To reach the park, we need to take a 20-minute boat ride which costs 47 bucks per trip (thunder lightning strikes) carrying a maximum of 4 passengers. There were only 3 of us. Then we got to know this man called Alan, who was on the same bus with me too. He is a British citizen working at Shanghai. Since he was given a week off during the China’s national day celebration, he came to Kuching for 3 days.

So we got off shore bare-footed and walked to the counter. We had to register for the trail we wanted to go before going on our own. Ok this is another stupid act from me: You see, the word ‘trail’, made me think of those too-too trains at the zoo, where they carry visitors around the place to see animals. Little did I expect ‘trail’ here means ‘jungle-tracking’. We even took the 3 ½ hours Lintang trail which lasted approximately 5.8 km! I tried hard to hide the ‘grumpiness’ in me since there is an outsider with us.

My room has more insects and animals than the national park (=.=). But along the way there are lots of giant plants and rocks and also yellow streams (I believe it’s sulphuric). Throughout the journey, it rained and stopped twice. Wendy gave Alan her umbrella and I gave her my hat. She had her Dragonball fan all along. We stopped somewhere and Alan shared his bread with us . He shared a bit of his stories and also his sister-in-law’s working as a freelance journalist for an IT company.

Part B to be continued...