A poor breakfast
We had an 8am start today as we were going to be trekking through the jungle to Juara, a settlement on the other side of the island. We were also moving rooms this morning, so we had to pack all our gear up, and move to another room. Shortly after we had moved all our stuff to the new room, we left for the hike. We didn’t see many places for breakfast, and both of us only had spare change on us. There was no full English breakfast to be had, so a small and simple egg roti was all that could be summoned. It really was small and simple, and it was supposed to fuel us for a couple hours of hiking.
Once we’d finished breakfast in one breath, we set off to he beginning of the trail, which was behind an abandoned factory/mill. As we had researched a bit beforehand, we were led to believe there were going to be loads of steps. There were still quite a few, but no way near what we’d been expecting…especially compared to Hua Shan! This jungle trek to Juara was one of these sweatiest experiences in my life; my entire front was wet with sweat. I know you see folks sweating on TV in the jungles, but I didn’t know how true it was.
A long road
On the whole, the trek wasn’t too tough, just very hot and humid. The terrain was a mixture of steps and beaten mud path. We didn’t encounter any wildlife, but we did pick up a couple of sticks in case of any brave monkey encounters. The path was similar to the hill we climbed in the Cameron Highlands, proper rainforest experience. After 1-2 hours of walking in the jungle, we stumbled upon a road that lead to Juara. It’s the road that the taxis drive on, from the main town to Juara, helping people skip the jungle. But it’s also pretty pricey, at around £30+.
For our hiking experience in the Cameron Highlands, click here.
Several cars passed us, and a few people did too. The road was very long, like another 1-2 hours, it was pretty monotonous. We did get to see a couple of small villages, lined up alongside the roads. Sometimes we got a glimpse of the coast through the trees; we were pretty high up. Once we reached Juara, we headed straight to the beach. There was an old, rickety pier that we walked down, and soaked in the atmosphere of where we were, and what we were doing. On a tropical island, in South East Asia, after having walked through a jungle. When you stop and think, it’s crazy how far you’ve come.
A well earned meal
After having admired the beautiful beach before us, we had some food on the beach front. Juara was a pretty small village, and I counted only a couple of shops. We had some food to recharge our batteries, and I had a refreshing smoothie, just what the doctor ordered. Once we’d somewhat rejuvenated at the restaurant, we started making the long, gruelling jungle trek from Juara to our town, Tekek. Around 10-20 minutes into our walk, a car stopped next to us.
This fine specimen of a gentleman offered us a ride, so we jumped in the back without a second thought. It was a pickup truck, so we just sat in the open air. What would have taken us an hour or more to get back to the jungle, took 5 minutes or so in car. I was so thankful for this dude stopping by and being a saint. I don’t mind doing the jungle trek at all, in fact I wanted to do it, it was just that the road to get there was boring and all uphill this time.
For more info on the trek, click here.
Out of the woods
The return trek through the jungle absolutely flew by; it took us less than an hour to hike it back. I guess we knew the lay of the land, and which bits to look out for. It was just as sweaty as the jungle trek towards Juara though, nothing new there. Before we knew it, we were out of the woods and back in Tekek. The first stop was the hostel, we needed to take the weight off of our feet as we were both exhausted.
We chilled at the hostel for some time, just trying to recuperate our energy and physical form. After dark had fallen, we ventured out in search of nourishment, which we had nearby at a place packed with locals and what seemed like Chinese. Once I had hoovered the food off of the plate, we turned in for the night to replenish our strength.
