I met blogger Tasmiya and her family on Sunday. She is such a sweetie and her sons are too cute! She was telling me about her vacation with her extended family of sixteen to Malaysia. I was like in awe that they could actually work out an itinerary that suited everyone's taste buds.
For my family , I mean for my dad , the perfect vacation would be going to the jungle, camping out and hunting deers whereas dh will be contented to bask in the sun at the beach all day. However, dh is rather an obliging person, the perfect son in law and my dad somehow convinced us to go to Taman Negara/The National Park a few years ago. So we went in 2 cars, my dad's 4wd rangerover and our beaten up proton. It was 4 hours drive from KL to Taman Negara. Phew.
The resort at the national park was almost fully booked and there was only 1 chalet available. My dad did not want this to spoil his vacation so we all stayed in one big spacious chalet, my mum, dad , me , dh , and 2 small kids under 4. Luckily, my dad brought a tent along so dh camped outside in the verandah so there was somehow enough beds for us inside. Poor dh! He said he could hear all kinds of sounds coming from the jungle at night but I think he rather likes camping as he camped out in our aussie backyard once or twice with our 2 older kids.
We had to wake up real early, ie before dawn the next day so that we could watch the deers from the lookout hut near the saltlake in the jungle nearby. My mum babysitted the kids who were asleep while dh, dad and I went out. My dad was sure to give us a pet talk us before hand on how to walk in the jungle as not to startle any wild animals/tigers if we met any. Easy for him to say. Thankfully, we didn't meet any wild animals but we did see some deers at the lookout with the aid of flashlights. Their eyes reflected the light and looked somewhat red. Since it was the national park , hunting was prohibited so those lucky deers were not afraid of hunters hunting them down. Even when the sound of the azan broke out via the loud speakers from a mosque nearby, they were unperturbed. This was one of the highlights of the vacation.
We also took a boat trip up the river. I brought a life jacket for dd to wear and dh held baby son on his lap. (They just provided life jackets for adults). We saw some Malaysian tourists having fun in the river floating on rubber tyres downstream. There were also many Western tourists out and about. There were restaurants afloat on the river and also orang asli settlements. My dad said he could smell a tiger in the jungle nearby when we passed a certain section of the river. I hope he was kidding. Thankfully, we did not see a glimpse of any! They are really quite elusive animals .
All in all, it was a great family holiday and something new to experience !
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3 comments:
my husband has been wanting to go to Taman Negara since for.ever.!
I didnt want to go sebab I can't stand mosquitoes. Somehow they are very attracted to me, and my skin would get really itchy and it would leave marks (you should see my horrible skin). And now that I have small kids, I don't know whether the 'environment' is 'safe' for them.
SO i guess my questions are:
1. Were there a lot of mosquitoes?
2. Did anything scary happen, i.e. is it 'safe' for kids under 2?
-elisa
Elisa,
Nothing "scary" happened when we were there. It was fun! We stayed at Mutiara Resort on the Taman Negara side across the river which is big and selfcontained ie include chalets, a restaurant , souvenir shop and camping site. There are many smaller resorts nearby with plenty of floating restaurants. I highly recommend you bring some lifejackets for your kids. I brought one for dd and should of brought another for my son. I'm a bit cautious about my kids near the water.
You can book tour guides when you want to go into the jungle etc. (Perhaps, babies/smaller kids will be better left with a babysitter as some hikes are a bit strenuous for them). They have also night tours and a lot of Western tourist like to do these to see insects and ants.
I think there were mosquitoes but I wasn't aware of them. Since the river is running water not like the clogged drains in our town, mosquitoes do not have much chance of multiplying. If you close the doors and windows especially nearing maghrib, you can avoid them to have a sound night sleep. Or if you wanna be ultra safe, you can bring a mosquito net or insect repellant.
Hope this help! :)
May I add that I saw a few other families with small kids and a whole group of school children (perhaps hailing from abroad) staying at the resort. If you bring your kids , they should be supervised so that they do not wander around on their own or go into the jungle or near river alone.
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