Transport on the Teman Negara river

But I'm not at home right now. I'm on my own in Teman Negara National Park. And there are tigers here, tigers that eat people, estimated to be three hundred among the trees through which I now stroll. There are no borders in this park that read, "Excuse me tigers, turn around and leave as tourists trek in these parts. Go away!"

Since tigers are illiterate, it's just me in a forest with three hundred of them!

We hadn't seen a single large animal in six hours of hiking through dense jungle today. Even our guide, known as Cat, said he has only seen one tiger in all of his time working at the park. These facts elude me now. Looking back one hundred metres towards the cave where Cat and seven others in the expedition snuggle around a campfire, I rate my chances of making it back alive at fifty-fifty.

Of course I made it back. The only thing that might have ended my life prematurely was a fast-beating heart. Having endured a hard day trekking under the unforgiving sun, this incident prompted me to realise the true splendour of my adventure.

The Taman Negara National Park is the oldest natural rainforest in the world. It's been there one hundred and thirty million years. Within its great expanse are leopards, tigers, rhinoceros, tapir, elephants, monkeys and other animals that roam parts of the forest where no human has ever stepped foot. The scale of the place is awesome. If Tarzan exists he's swinging through the trees of the Teman Negara National Park.

If a bear lived in there, we'd have never found him

With these thoughts in mind, the second day of trekking was a happier affair. I was more appreciative of what I was doing and excited about the night's camping I had endured. The cave was enormous with its walls reaching one hundred feet into the air. The campfire had magnificently projected our shadows into giant proportions onto the walls. Elephant droppings, scattered throughout the cave, gave me a thrill in the the knowledge that the beasts might return.

Our guide was genuinely worried that the elephants would make an appearance. He feared this mighty creature more than any other. The elephants failed to materialise, though. Our morning walk didn't deliver any evidence of large animals either.

The second day was a blend of the good, the bad and the ugly. The good was that heavy rainfall during the night meant we were walking through the forest at its most beautiful. The bad was the same rainfall had resulted in an epidemic of leeches. The ugly was the mess they were making on our feet and ankles. With all these leeches around, and man-eating cats, why would anyone want to live in this forest?

I can't play the didgeridoo, let alone fire darts from one!

Live here they do, however, and part of our trek was to incorporate a visit to the Orang-Asli tribe. Visiting these people was like jumping into the pages of National Geographic on a month when there's no Canon advertisement. As a tribesman helped us feed wild berries to a native bird, a young boy walked past with a monkey over his shoulder. He had killed the animal with a poison dart fired from a weapon resembling a giant wooden peashooter.

This was a jungle boy, a real Mowgli, not as friendly with the monkeys as the animation. Witnessing this near-naked young man, not yet in his teenage years, returning from the depths of the dense jungle with food for his family was impressive. It had also caused me to feel inadequate. The boy had done well to find his monkey, for it was more wildlife than I had seen in two days.

The excitement on the final day of our trek came in the form of our transport home. It was time to ride the rapids! To everybody in the group, weary and sweaty, the rubber rings were a blessing. We blazed along the fast-flowing river, passing the occasional herd of water buffalo and battling the rapids towards Kuala Tahan, hub of both local and tourist activity in the National Park. The ride was an enormous amount of fun, but it was the encounter with the Orang-Asli that still mesmerizes me.

How can people still live primitively in the same country that has the world's tallest building? Malaysia is far more enigmatic than it is given credit for.

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