In the Jungle, the Mighty Jungle...

                                                Canopy Walk in the Jungle

Will and I have always enjoyed getting up on a Saturday morning and hitting the nearby trail in our neighborhood (i.e. Trinity Trail in Ft. Worth, our own made up little walking route in the Heights, etc.). There's nothing like an early morning hike (and by "early" I mean 9:00...ok, 10:00, ok seriously, more like 10:30 am) to really get the blood pumping and to start the weekend off on a positive, pulse racing note. Unfortunately, the "trails" in this neighborhood are few and far between, and the sidewalks, well, the sidewalks are more like sideleaps really. They buckle, they bend, and most of the time there's just a huge chunk missing out of them all together. We've had to save each other from falling into the deep, dark pits of missing Malaysian pavement more than once. Anyway, with that being said, we decided to lace up the hiking boots and head "out of town" last weekend to a well-known jungle about 15 kilometers from the city. That's right folks, kilometers. I'm trying to get used to it too. A couple of wrong turns here and there and a few "lost satellite reception" and the dreaded "recalculating" announcements from our sometimes trusty GPS lady, we finally pulled into the FRIM parking lot (Forest Research Institute of Malaysia) to explore the 600 hectacres of tropical forest, full of flora and fauna not found anywhere in Texas. After fully hosing each other down with our precious imported Off Spray, we charged full steam ahead into the forest to see what this whole Malaysian Jungle experience was all about. And what an experience it was! After an intense 30-minute climb up, over, through, and around the steep nature "trail," we reached the highly anticipated Canopy Walkway, a fully enclosed rope and netting walkway suspended 30 meters off the ground that overlooks the city in the distance and the greenery of the forest underneath. What we didn't realize however, is how long the line was going to be just to get across this thing. Apparently it was field trip day for several of the local schools here, so we had to wait for a couple hundred teens from the Malaysian Boys and Girls Schools of Kuala Lumpur to try to overcome their obvious fear of heights and SLOWLY creep one by one across the gently swaying walkway before getting a go at it ourselves. After finally reaching it to the top, we were able to take in some incredible views and see what every nature lover in these parts would be remiss not to do at least once in this town....but maybe call ahead first and make sure there aren't any field trips planned that day! And in other jungle news, Will and I did see something that day that might have put an indefinite hold to my hiking days and left me forever scarred. I can't believe I'm actually going to type this word because I fear/loathe/fear/detest/fear these things so much, but it has to be said....a snake. Yuck, ooh, gross. I hate snakes. I hate them with a passion. And we saw the biggest one that either one of us have ever seen either in real life OR on tv. It was ridiculous. This thing put Anaconda to shame. Ok, so that's a big of an exaggeration, but this thing really was gigantic. I only saw the diameter of this thing as it slithered in a ravine nearby, but Will saw the entire thing from head to tail (or whatever the end of a snake is). He swears it was at least 10 feet long. He told me to "GET BACK" as calmly as he possibly could and while I stepped back and momentarily lost consciousness, he watched this thing slither away until he was a safe enough distance away for us to continue. 
I'm sure once the nightmares stop and I find some top-of-the-line-snake repellent/weaponry around here, I'll be able to make it back into the jungle one of these days, but right now I think I'll stick to the buckling sidewalks and take my chances with the gaping holes.

View from the Canopy Overlooking the City

"Hanging out" on the Walkway

The Line for the Canopy Walkway

Low Clearance

The school kids going for a dip