Bamboo the Panda Travel Tag

A fantastic visit to this 22 year old cache; twice in one day, 12 hours apart to the T.

Our big road trip begins yet again; Laura and I have been long awaiting a bit of time off, and to start ourselves off, we headed for the weekend to Taman Negara, to visit one of the oldest rainforests of the world. We would do a bit of trekking, a bit of boating, a bit of exploration over the weekend, before saying goodbye to our friends and driving further east. 
along the drive on the very first day, and after making a stop in Bentong for lunch, we drove together to Jerantut for supplies, and then through the windy forest road all the way to Kuala Tahan, where we would be spending the next two nights. 

Yesterday, we came to the pier to go for a night walk through the jungle, finding scorpions, giant ants, stick insects, and lots of interesting fauna which we rarely see outside of terrariums. When we woke up, I was determined to bring the group to the only surviving geocache this deep into the forest park. Coincidentally, a nearby EC was published earlier in the day, so we could also stop there. But we left a little earlier to our walk to Bukit Teresek so we could visit this stash. We arrived to GZ at 9:21 am, only to find the location closed, seemingly abandoned, lifeless. We searched for about 15 minutes, and had to draft a DNF as it seemed that the place was completely abandoned. I didn’t let that stop us though, and the entire time hiking, I tried to sleuth out some details. In the end, our guide knew exactly who to get in touch with, and soon enough I was texting with the establishment, arranging how our plans could line up. This was a fantastic all-in effort, to get us to the real cache, without having to place a replacement here.

After some rest a few hours later, our group was playing cards and resting in our hotel, and we decided to go for a night walk to find this cache. We were pleased to meet Pak Hamid, who was setting up the place for tomorrows guests, and the area was transformed for the perfect quick and easy find. The cache which was hidden away in their absence was now back right where it should have been, and we were happy to bring a muggle friend into our world for her first find, along with the group (all of whom obviously know a thing or two about the game, since I cannot shut up about it). While here, we thought it would be finally the most suitable place to leave this Panda, who has been traveling all over Malaysia with us; been in three countries, four flights, and countless driving, until it finally met the most perfect new home; this stash. Safe travels, and thank you for accompanying us on such lovely trips! Hope you meet some lovely new people here, and I’m happy you were our friends first encountered trackable!

Safe journey!

Our big road trip begins yet again; Laura and I have been long awaiting a bit of time off, and to start ourselves off, we headed for the weekend to Taman Negara, to visit one of the oldest rainforests of the world. We would do a bit of trekking, a bit of boating, a bit of exploration over the weekend, before saying goodbye to our friends and driving further east. 
along the drive on the very first day, and after making a stop in Bentong for lunch, we drove together to Jerantut for supplies. Between those two stops, we stopped at the peninsular center point, here making a brief stop to check out this cache. It got me thinking for the whole day, all into the night, about this interesting location and what it actually means. 

On the spot, we gathered a bit more of an idea of the park, and realized that not everyone needed go visit from us, so it was only me (the prolific geocacher) who paid the 5RM entrance fee as the others waited by the side of the road, since their parking lot was awkwardly closed. I walked past the pond and was in awe and surprise at the amount of chickens and other fowl which are in little cages alongside the short path up to the monument. There, I gathered the information, read the signage, measured the location, and was happy to draft the answers as the third to find the cache a year after it was published.

truly unhinged!
I don’t think I would’ve found it if it weren’t for all the people mentioning opening a door. I did actually open two doors, but it was in the third one which I did not check. After finding the cash quite quickly and not getting hit by a bike, we had to wait for a local gang of boys to leave us that were very curious to find out what we were doing and where we were from. The container is in good condition, the cost is in good condition, I just was really not expecting it to be hit here. I don’t know what I would do. If I were to be the first to find it here, I don’t think I would leave with a fine. It’s an interesting little bike only root all around here!

Our last stop turned to a DNF, and the last stop of the day was here, and this unnamed cache with no CO, no listing, no attributes and no hint, but one which my field notes say I had solved on October 12th of last year. The link to the photo hint didn’t work for me, so after parking at GZ, I had to take two or three minutes to re-solve on the spot. That was buggy fro a while, and we tried to use our instinct. Laura checked around first, but didn’t manage to spot it. However, I went to scout out the area and found that a muggle had perfectly covered the cache to make it much harder to sniff out. I retrieved it, opened up the DIY containers and saw that the little logsheet is in good condition. I appreciate that there aren’t that many caches coded to display absolutely nothing; so was happy to log this one. It’s in great condition, I unrolled the logbook and we added our nick to it, but nothing else other than the tiny logsheet could fit here.

Let's continue our journey, Panda!

while I thought we were here in a new area for the first time, I quickly started realizing that I’ve been here before; not too long ago on a solo expedition. Now though we’re back, together, and after our tailor appointment, we headed for lunch, and along the way I made a short detour to come check out this stash. After a nearby DNF, I decided to avenge it by coming to this stash, only 270 meters as the crow flies, but a 1.7 kilometer detour on wheels. We Drove through this higher end neighborhood and thought it reminded us of our leap-day adventure through the fancier parts of Singapore. After getting to GZ I was a little confused at the listing, not seeing the connection to the location, however instinctually quickly finding the container. It’s in great condition and the high quality container is hiding in (plain) sight very well. I unrolled the logbook and we added our nick to it. Glad to have stopped by.