After getting a taste of the Taman Negara on the afternoon hike near our cabin, Steve, Alex and I decided to hire a guide and explore the more remote regions of the jungle.

Our boat sat pretty low in the water so that when we charged through these rapids it felt like it wouldn't take much to capsize us.

This boatload of aboriginal native people from the jungle charged right by us though.

Shareef, our guide took a nap during the trip upstream.

Shareef gave us a quick introduction to the basics of the jungle as we started our ten mile overnight trek.

I think we all realized quickly how different hiking in the jungle is compared with something we were familiar with such as the Appalachian Trail. You might be able cover ten miles on the AT over a diligent afternoon's hike, but we found that after a few hours of slogging up and down the steep, muddy terrain of the Taman Negara we had only covered a kilometer or two.

Only a short while into the hike, a torrential downpour opened up out of the sky. Shareef tried to help us keep our packs dry by attaching large jungle leaves to the outside.

This wasn't going to be quite as easy as we all expected it to be.

Within a few minutes we were soaked to the skin, but at least the jungle heat kept us from getting cold at all.

It's crazy to think that we originally considered just going without the guide and doing the trip by ourselves.

Not long after we began hiking, we all noticed that our feet were covered in leeches like this one. the leeches would lie in wait on the jungle floor, then stand up and wave wildly back and forth when they sensed the vibrations of our footsteps approaching. The leeches were quite successful at catching a hold of us as we walked by.

Alex found this vine that turned out to be kind of a jungle gong against the tree. Note the muddy stream of rainwater running down the middle of the trail.

The vine rang out a hollow, resounding note when it hit the tree.

Shareef scolded us for stopping every five minutes or so to pick the leeches from our feet. Alex had a few go through his socks inside his boot.

A few hours into the jungle trek, Steve's Tevas that had served him well all over Nepal gave out and the straps broke.

Shareef attempted to salvage Steve's Tevas by operating on them with his knife, but there was no hope for them. Luckily Shareef had a spare pair of sandals, but they were several sizes too small for Steve's feet.

We pressed on towards our camp for the night, crossing streams swollen from the non-stop rain.

Some of the trees deep in the jungle were completely covered with thick, branching vines.

Alex found this huge porcupine quill along the trail, luckily we didn't encounter the owner.

As we neared our camping spot we found this abandoned Aboriginal settlement, Shareef said that the tribes still live in the jungle as they have for eons. They build temporary settlements from the bamboo and palm fronds, then move on to a better spot depending on the seasons. I imagine the indigenous people are probably a little less worried about the leeches than we were.

As we neared our campsite and the end of the trail for the day, I think we all looked forward to changing into some dry (or more dry) clothes.

We camped out in a huge cave that had a large opening looking out into the tree tops. Inside the cave was like a cathedral, with a ceiling that looked to be about 70 feet high and extended far into the earth. Shareef told us that elephants use the cave as a temporary shelter sometimes, and sure enough we could see their enormous footprints in a few spots in the cave. We hoped that they wouldn't choose to come visit us during the night.

Shareef began preparing an awesome vegetable curry for dinner. You can see Alex in the background exploring the cave with his headlamp. Before we went to sleep on the floor of the cave, Shareef built a fire to keep the jungle tigers at bay.

After dinner we felt like we had earned a rest. Photo by Alex Iams.

The next morning woke up early, and a feeble light made it through the thick jungle canopy. We needed to be back in time to catch the last boat in the afternoon back to Jerantut to pick up the Proton and arrive in Kuala Lumpur in time for our flights home. I don't think any of us slept too well in the cave because of the weird jungle sounds that woke us up throughout the night. Shareef didn't seem to have any problems sleeping through the noises of the night creatures and snored away contentedly.

We passed this unusual looking jungle flower along the trail.

Here you can see one of the jungle leeches in its attack position, standing on the rainforest floor blindly searching for its next victim (us).

Leech breaks were just as common on Day 2 as they were for Day 1.

The same soldier like rows of ants that we had seen near our cabin were also deep in the jungle as well.

Sometimes we got lucky and found a fallen tree to get over the many stream crossings.

Near the end of the jungle trek, we stopped to take a break inside this hide that people will stay in overnight to watch the jungle animals come out at night. It certainly was more plush than the cave.

When Alex took off his boots to check for leeches, he noticed these three that had not yet gotten inside to feast on his ankles.

As we neared the edge of the rainforest, more and more sunlight streamed down to the jungle floor.

Finally we came out into the clearing where we were to meet our boat back to the relative civilization of Kuala Tahan and on to Kuala Lumpur.

It was really nice to stretch out my leech-ridden feet in the afternoon sun for the trip down river.

Back in Kuala Tahan we said farewell to our new friend Shareef and caught the boat back to Jerantut.

As we drove back to Kuala Lumpur, we stopped to eat at what Alex appropriately named: McDonald's International Airport.

An evil looking Ronald McDonald was at the entrance of McDonald's International Airport to urge us to pick up some Ringgit McSavers.

By the time we parked the Proton in a Kuala Lumpur parking lot it was about 11 pm, and I think I was especially showing some road weariness as we toasted the trip over a few Tiger beers.

The next morning we fired up the Proton to take us to the KL airport and out of Malaysia.