Dabong (Gurung Stong National Park) (by daz)

"So this bus goes to Dabong?" I asked the nice chap behind the counter of the bus company. "Yes" he nodded in agreement, so I asked him again to confirm. "Yes" he said looking surprised we wanted to go to such a backwater place which was off the tourist trail. Well the way I saw it we had 2 options, a slow train from the station 4 miles away or a fast bus from the end of the road. Well, the bus was an easier option so we plumped for that. Again I confirmed with the bus driver that he was going to stop en route to drop us off at this place Dabong. "You want to go Dabong?" he replied with raised eyebrows. "Yes, I do!" I replied and he confirmed my request but I had an uneasy feeling about this. Well after leaving Kota Bharu at 1pm, we were basically kicked off the bus 2 hrs later in the blazing sun at the side of a main road no where near Dabong (it was 43km away!). While we were considering our options whether to be stranded on the side of the road in the blazing sun with no transport 43km from Dabong or to stay on the bus and ride into Gua Musang with the rest of the passengers where there were good transport links, the bus driver lost patience, boarded the bus and made a quick departure.
  Now we were in the shit! Looking for shade we crossed the road and found what looked like a abandoned tin shack which at some time could have been a restaurant and a passing women on a scooter stopped who luckily spoke a bit of English. We explained our dilemma and she said there were no buses to Dabong and no taxi in this area of jungle (in fact Dabong was the nearest town!) but she knew 'a friend' who could help. We waited in the blazing heat for half an hour and what I can only describe as 'Jessie' from the dukes of hazard rolled up in a car that a gypsy in England would be appalled to own and offered his services to us for a ride into town for a vastly over-inflated priced which was bartered by our English speaking go between. I tried to haggle in vain as he hissed and cursed in the background as our thoughts were portrayed to him by our go between. We eventually agreed a price as our backs were against the wall in this situation but by now Kathy's patience had grown a bit thin in the heat and she insisted that she was not going to sit in 'that death trap with that dodgy looking hillbilly' as she was worried that we would end up robbed and dumped somewhere out in the jungle. She did have a point but I looked on the positive side and said at least we would make the front page of the newspapers in England if we did get killed. This comment did not help and the mood worsened after the non English speaking driver said he was off to get fuel without confirming if he was coming back for us or not or even if he had accepted our offer. Half an hour passed and Kathy was becoming more than anxious and even my happy go lucky nature was being consumed by doubt as I was trying to recall all the Bear Grylls programmes I had watched just before we had left England to figure out a way we could survive a night sleeping in the jungle.
   Luckily Mr Jungle Hillbilly showed up 5 minutes later in his clapped out car which had optional windows and sparse internal fixings and an engine that sounded like a bear being castrated. Next stop was a local hang out point where he paraded his 'prey' with the other hoodlums all laughing and jeering with him as he took a flurry of phone calls suddenly from his willing accomplices further down the road where the deed was going to be executed. I gulped hard as the tension rose as I just wanted to get going so we could get nearer to the safety of civilisation. Thoughts flashed through my mind like how quickly could I get to the rucksack to retrieve the penknife within it in case things got ugly. I glanced in the rear view mirror and noticed Kathy with a face that would kill a man at 20 paces so I knew I could use that to buy time so I could get to the rucksack for the weaponry.

The General Lee was between paint jobs.

  We set off eventually and Mr Hillbilly tried to make conversation with me in a Malay dialect which I had no comprehension of so I just nodded in agreement to pacify him while he tried to explain how dangerous the road was ahead of us and how people just skidded off it and disappeared into the jungle with no trace! I gulped hard and just looked out the non-existent window into the dense jungle ahead. We didn't see another soul along the 43km but good to his word he got us there and even took us to our guesthouse when we buggered him around about the directions and he took it all in good humour and turned out to be a very nice man just doing us a favour for a few bob in his pocket.
 The room (which was the only place to stay in the whole of town) turned out better than we expected so we unpacked and explored town which was tiny and limited in resources. It really was like a final frontier town and we expected even Captain Kirk had not been here on his 5 year mission to seek out new civilisations yet. Food was an extremely basic nasi goreng and there was no such thing as breakfast although we did manage to score a stale bag of coco pops which we later found a rat had chewed a whole in the side of the bag so they were inedible. Our guesthouse owner offered us breakfast for a surcharge (pictured below) but when we opened it our early morning western stomachs could not handle the overwhelming stale fish smell than emanated from it so it was binned and substituted for a cake type thing from a local shop.

Grandma's blue rinse on the rice did not make it anymore appealing.

  The main reason for coming here was to view the highest waterfall in Malaysia at Mount Stong and explore the National Park jungle around it. But with no buses and no Taxis this was proving a problem as the falls were 7km away and the only way we were informed of visiting the area was by an official guide who wanted an unbelievable amount of money from us which basically just turned out to be for transport only to the falls and back. Our Rough Guide to Malaysia said otherwise. It turned out our guesthouse owner who styled himself on Snoop Dog as in the Starsky and Hutch movie, was in cahoots with this guide to strong arm tourist out of their hard earned dollars by insisting it was too dangerous without a guide. Undeterred, Kath and I struck out to the village to rustle up some transport. We hunted high and low, interviewing many a local with hand signals and repeating words they could not comprehend until we exhausted all avenues and retreated in vain back to base. 

Snoop dog 'in da hood' with our Mr Hillbilly looking well 'ard.

   Later I spied Snoop Dog in front of our room and quickly persuaded him to help us with our plight which surprisingly he did and next moment a van resembling something that had just won a demolition derby rolled up to whisk us away to our destiny. Kath refused the offer as by now she had enough of all this adventure and just wanted to chill so I decided to go it alone. Surprisingly the van made it to the National Park entrance and I paid my foreigner rip off fee on the gate and told the driver I would call him when I was ready. He said he would wait. I said I can't afford you too wait but he insisted. I was the only person in the park that day so had the place to myself.  I clambered and scrambled my way through the jungle for the next 3 hours to see the waterfall and took a refreshing bathe in the pools at the top underneath the upper cascade. The water was chilled but I was as hot as hell and it soothed the collection of mosquito bites I had acquired and the leech that had attached itself to me merrily sucking away my boiling blood.

One vicious blood sucker leech

   I rolled, slid,and tumbled my way back down to the park gate, passing my would be guide on the way with his over-paying posse of tourists and then the heavens opened and torrential rain started bucketing down. I was drenched in seconds but in the heat it was most welcomed to keep me cool. Leeches were everywhere and I was in a constant mode of alertness everytime plant life touched me as they have a canny habit of borrowing through your clothes to get to your blood. They have to be removed before they manage to get their teeth in to you. Kathy had acquired one last week while we were in Taman Negera on her finger and the wound would not stop bleeding afterwards due to the  anti-coagulant  they pump into you. When I eventually got back to the park gate my ride was still there waiting for me after 4hrs. I jumped in and he drove me back to the guesthouse while I braced myself for the cost of this ride and wondered if I had enough money on me to pay the chap. I needn't have worried as it came to £1.90 for the whole day so I merrily tipped him 50% and he was most grateful for my custom.
   When I got back to the room ,Kath and I decided that maybe it was time to push on since as nice as this village was, it was not a place that was easy to hang out in. After a few enquiries on line and with Snoop Dog we soon realised it was not going to be that easy to get out but that's another story. Next stop Penang.

The waterfall was worth the effort.