Teluk Bahong

Yesterday started sedately enough with a breakfast at the Old Town White Coffee in the New World Park next to the hotel. A breakfast of rice, boiled egg, fried fish and a little curry sauce makes a change from crunchy nut cornflakes.

The New World Park is a modern paved and covered food park with cafes and restaurants on the edge and the central paved and soft landscaped area kept for hawker cooks in a ultra clean area; presumably to attract those Johnny Foreigners too scared to use the more lived in and battle scarred hawker stalls.

Sadly during my stay not one of the stalls was in use, which I think is an illustration of how tourism is down here with the recession still biting. Elsewhere hawkers business is booming; which it always will while the locals eat five times a day.

After taking in my carbs it was time to suck it in and head off to the jungle. Well, the jungle and beach, at Teluk Bahang which is the smallest of Malaysia's National Parks in the north west corner of the island. So off for a 10 minute stroll down to Komtar to pick up the 102 bus (which it turned out inevitably picked up by my hotel).

Arriving at the park I signed in at the office as required and stated I would be going along the eastern path up to the lighthouse at Muka Head. The walk in the guidebook was suggested as 'easy' and followed quite closely to the coast with occasional walking along sandy beaches. It sounded good (and easy).

Five people in front of me included three youngsters from the UK and a Saudi couple, with the lady wearing full Chador and veil. It must be an easy walk; unless it was a North Face chador perhaps? The walk started easy enough along a patterned brick lain path. Two hundred metres down the path and the Saudi's did an about turn and came back. It was still a brick path and flat, so I don't know what spooked them. At the end of the formal path a small covered seated area formed a quick break point to down a cold can of carbonated nothing and readjust my bag and its contents of cameras and water, lots of water. The three brits were there and as they saw my bag commented that perhaps they should have bought some supplies. Duhh, you think?!



The path then split into two with the left side going west toward a beach through thick jungle with more of a climb than my easy walk. The path went passed a meromictic lake, which I must say I was quite intrigued to see. My route right and was clearly lacking brickwork. For the rest of the walk (which eventually was about 3.5km each way) the path was either soil, leaves, roots or where topography demanded there were some wooden steps/walkways and concrete plinths over gaping holes.

Clambering over tree trunks and underneath a couple on hands and knees, whilst managing bag, bottles of water, camera and streaming sweat did not seem easy. But the wildlife made it worthwhile with copious quantities and varieties of vivid blue, yellow and green butterflies throughout the walk, and the nosey and confident cheeky monkeys (well long tailed maccaques) passing within feet overhead or even at my feet. I caught a glimpse of some other mammal on the return trip, but couldnt identify it. I think it was of lemur type. But who knows, I am no David Bellamy.

I didn't get to the lighthouse. I decided that discretion being the better part of valour I would make a return trip from the end of Monkey Beach. At the end of the beach along with a group of maccaques clearing the spoils of a beach party (unless they had been drinking Tiger?) I saw a massive monitor lizard, which had been sunning itself until I came along. It wandered off with its weird gait under a tree to hide (unsuccessfully).

Monkey Beach itself was busy with about sixty people their, of which the three Brits, myself and a couple of Germans had walked the rest were all Saudis in appropriated attire (women in full chador or at least head scarves while the blokes were shorts and t-shirts. I must say seeing the full black gear on with the veil on a beach is an odd scene to me (particularly when the one bit you can normally see is covered by trendy sun glasses), but they all looked happy enough. They also looked less tired than me as the climbed back into their boats. Lazy buggers!