November 11, 2013
The day after we got back from Singapore we decided to bus over to the neighboring town of Kota Tinggi to see the firefly colony and to go hiking in the rain forest. The main National Park of Endau Rompin was closed due to possible flooding so we found a local guide and hiked up a nearby mountain, Gunung Panti. And got attacked by hundreds of leeches!
Turns outs Malaysia and Australia are the only countries in the world that have leeches that can survive dry season in the dirt, then wake to attack innocent hikers by feeling vibrations from your steps. They move at you like a slinky and if you flick them off, they just instantly start making their way back towards you. . . like zombies!
Here’s the Kota Tinggi River - we boated down in the dark to see thousands of fire flies!
We could’t take any photos of the fire fly Christmas trees in the dark, so here’s Omar and I on the jetty.
Our favorite Halal breakfast shop. Rice, vegis, and tempeh for our morning meals and eating with our hands! We’re practically locals.
Omar and our guide Azahar - he’s planning on hiking all the peaks in Malaysia.
The newest fashion trend - leech socks!
Here is one of the many leeches I had to knock off during our 12km hike. 
They use the word hike loosely here.
It was right about now our guide started telling us about all his clients who had broken limbs on this trek. . . hmmm…
We made it to the peak!!!
Yeah for Malaysia - home of the world’s oldest rain forests!
Indiana Jones with a tan!
Hi Alison,
ReplyDeletePreviously we went Gunung Panti with Mr Azahar, wonder if you still have his contact?
We are planning to climb Gunung Belumut in October 2014.
Many thanks!
Mr See from Singapore