Leeches are Not Friends! @ Taman Negara, Malaysia

After the high octane excitement of MotoGP, it was time to find joy in the simple pleasures of nature. Where better than Taman Negara? The biggest national park in Malaysia and home to the world’s oldest rainforest. But first we had to answer one question: how do we get to there? Helen, a strong proponent of public transportation, proposed a taxi to Kuala Lumpur, followed by a bus to Jerantut, followed by another bus to Tuala Tahan, followed by a boat or a taxi to our Guesthouse. Adam politely considered this 12 hour long travel plan, then suggested we rent a car. He argued, compellingly, that renting a car would be about the same price.

“But they drive on the wrong side of the road” worried Helen.

“I got this” Adam said with confidence. How hard could it be?

So we did it, we rented a car. Helen opened the left side door and sat in the passenger seat with Adam grinning to her right. She gripped the arm rests for stability and we were off.

We navigated the dense city center, only missing a couple turns. Adam constantly reminded himself to stay to the left, but not too far left or else Helen would shriek. Things got easier once we made it to the highway and there was a nice concrete divider blocking oncoming traffic. We turned on our favorite audiobook and relaxed into our roadtrip routine.

Adam’s internal monologue and Helen’s lane departure alarm successfully did their job and we made it to our destination, a guesthouse just outside the park. After checking in we ate a delicious dinner served at the guesthouse and added ourselves to the list for the night walk at Taman Negara. On the tour we saw all sorts of creepy critters, snakes, and sleeping birds.

The next morning, Helen, always eager for an adventure, decided it was time for us to do a big hike. Adam was a bit apprehensive for two reasons. First, all the big hikes in Taman Negara require a guide. However, we learned that there’s no penalty for getting caught without a guide and found many posts online of people successfully enjoying a hike without a guide. Second, there would probably be leeches. Leeches was a fear we both shared.

In Taman Negara leeches are everywhere. They are land dwellers, thriving in muddy ground and puddles from the rain. Outside of the fact they’re little blood suckers these leeches are mostly harmless and while they technically can, it’s exceptionally rare for them to carry a disease. Leech saliva acts as a topical anesthetic, so they can latch on, suck your blood, and fall off without you ever noticing. We read that you will, however, notice the blood running from the bite since leeches also inject an anticoagulant to help them feast faster.

We decided together that a bunch of harmless leeches couldn’t stop us from enjoying a jungle trek. We would be fine with some leech prevention strategies. We donned long pants and long thick socks, despite the tropical heat, and Helen even tucked her pants into her socks. It was time to hike.

Morale was high and we were having a jolly good time. We remarked that there were no leeches. Helen even asked Adam if he’d be upset if we didn’t see a single leech. He reluctantly replied yes. After all, we were somewhat curious about them. Everything was just swell, then we noticed a wormy something on the outside of Helen’s pant leg. A leech had somehow attached itself to the fabric and was trying with all its vampiric might to bite through for a taste of that sweet blood.

Our first leech! It was a gross little guy. It wriggled around like a blow up dancer outside of a car dealership. Needless to say, we were not a fans, but it seemed like Helen’s pants were doing their job. We continued on and 4.5 miles in we stopped at a good snack spot:

Resting for lunch/snacks we decided to check our legs for damage. Adam rolled his pant leg up to a terrifying sight. Blood was running down his leg, soaking into his sock. He immediately rolled his pant leg back down and decided that was not what he wanted to see. Ignorance is bliss and there’s nothing we could do now.

It was time to head back. We quickened our pace as we now realized we were under constant threat of leeches. We tried to chant “leeches are friends,” but no matter how many times we said it to ourselves we couldn’t believe it to be true. They were everywhere, waving wildly around like little tentacles from hell. When we passed a muddy puddle we shouted “no fall zone” (a term often used in skiing) meaning we were not allowed the stop in the space because there might be leeches. We eventually made it back to safety, but not without our fair share of wounds.

That night the scent of iron filled our room as we washed our bloody clothes with cold water in the sink. Leeches are not friends.

For our last day in Taman Negara we decided to play it a bit safer. We:

Taman Negara was great, the guesthouse we stayed at was beautiful. The nature was unique. The only thing that could have made it better would have been fewer leeches. After this we get to heal our wounds in a nice hotel in Kuala Lumpur.