Our fairly meaty transfer from the Perhentians mentioned in the previous post ended with the unexpected pleasure of being dropped off at a travel agent in the wild-west frontier town-esque Jerantut to be sold tours and accommodation – neither of which we needed –before transferring our bags to a smaller bus as it was deemed our coach was too big for our group of 10! After a half hour of faffing, we eventually headed North from Jerantut towards our destination of Kuala Tahan, the entry point for the Taman Negara National Park. Originally founded as King George V National Park during British rule, it was renamed Taman Negara following Malaysian independence in the ‘50’s – ‘Taman Negara’ literally means ‘National Park’ in Malay so English speakers in effect call it National Park National Park – catchy! From Jerantut onwards the roads became considerably more snake-like as we wound our way up and down the hilly terrain. Wide, rich browny-orange rivers cut ravines between the palm-covered hills in this region, more and more of which are being turned into huge palm oil plantations (a big earner as oil reserves dry up). Whole swathes of land seem at first to have been deforested but upon closer inspection it appears that it is all replanted again with new palms that, being much shorter than the 50 foot mammoths, are a bit easier to harvest! Anyway, we arrived without any further changes of bus and checked into our hotel. As we’d been forced to splash out a whopping 30 quid per night (as everything in Taman Negara is super-pricey), our hopes for a palatial suite were soon dashed when we entered our dated and slightly grubby room. Our frowns were compounded upon the discovery of a colossal cockroach living in our bathroom – nice! Having dealt with the creepy-crawly issue, we headed out to Kuala Tahan to find some tucker. Initially this tiny village seemed devoid of any eateries, however heading down the steps to the river we were relieved to catch sight of a number of floating restaurants. We chose a particularly bargain one, wolfed down the usual fried rice / noodle fare and headed home for a much-needed night’s sleep.
View over the river from the floating restaurant as night falls
Having drifted off nicely, we awoke at 3am thanks to the room becoming boiling hot – a power cut meant our air con was off for the rest of the night! Being seasoned pros at having less-than-optimum quantities of sleep, in the morning we did the usual of sinking a few litres of syrupy coffee and propping our eyelids open with cocktail sticks before heading out to the jungle! We headed back to Kuala Tahan and walked the plank to one of the floating restaurants where tiny boats ferry you 20 metres across the river (for the equivalent of 20p) to the entrance of the National Park. Climbing the hundred or so steps from the pier to the park headquarters was enough to put you off, however the lush manicured gardens of the swish Mutiara Resort at the top gave you a taster of the greenery that was to come.
Enjoying the lightning-quick trip across the Tembeling River
Looking back over tiny Kuala Tahan
Having paid for our admission to the park at a bargain 20p each (and bizarrely an extra quid to use our camera), our first destination was to be the famous canopy walkway – a 450m long rope and ladder-based Tarzan affair suspended almost 100m above the forest floor. To get there we used the centre’s slightly small-scale (and low accuracy) map and the somewhat misleading signs that seemed to lead you in circles. The first few hundred metres of the track are on a raised walkway, weaving you a speedy and safe path through the trees and over the roots and foliage beneath. This walkway thankfully soon disappears and your focus switches from glancing at the jungle to watching that your foot doesn’t disappear down a big hole in the ground! Luckily it hadn’t rained the night before so the ground was dry, otherwise the blood-hungry leeches come out in force – yum! Anyway, the jungle vegetation was thick and offered some shelter from the blazing sun as we made our way down the zig-zagging path, leaping over babbling brooks and keeping an eye out for monkeys at every opportunity. The path to the canopy walkway flanks the river so you can hear the reassuring buzz of outboard motors as the boats passed (this meant we weren’t too lost!), though this was often drowned out by the crickets, birds and other weird jungle creatures’ noises - awesome!
Into the jungle
Close encounters of the creepy crawly kind
A poor attempt at jungle hide and seek by Rich (please admire the schoolboy shorts and sock look – both fashionable and leech resistant!)
Monitor lizard making a better attempt at jungle hide an seek
After a disconcertingly long but enjoyable hike through the forest (the signs said 1.5km but it took over an hour and a half!), we eventually arrived at the turning for the canopy walkway. A pretty gruelling flight of about 200 steps wended its way up the forest-covered hill to the summit, ensuring we were nice and sweaty by the top. We paused a number of times to check out a few armies of ants that were efficiently munching their way through a few of the plants that lined the walkway. Some of the little critters were termites – you could literally hear them chomping on the leaves as you passed! Fascinatingly (or not!) we found out that the termites here build mounds which house the perfect dark humid environment for fungi to grow, resulting in them growing food for themselves – impressive! Anyway, leaving the bugs to it, we paid our entry fee and ascended the wooden tower to the start of the walkway.
Ant squadron on a mission
The walkway led us on a slightly wobbly path high above the forest floor, with hanging vines (just about resisted leaping off in a Tarzan style) and huge waxy leaves either side of you for company. Unfortunately we were unlucky with the monkeys on this occasion, however we spotted some particularly acrobatic mini red squirrels and a few colourful woodpeckers in the trees. Most of the time however you were too busy clinging on to the rope to be wildlife spotting! Each span of the walkway led to a wooden platform built around an enormous tree – a welcome break from the swaying bridge! We made it to the end in one piece, though the last few steps were particularly rickety plus another bit of the disused bit of the walkway was falling apart! It was a great way to see the jungle from a bird’s eye view (or monkey’s eye) and was a thoroughly exhilarating experience (thanks Max / Nunu)!
And they’re off (to a shaky start)!
Look no hands!
Looking down on the jungle canopy
Tempting vines!
Anyone for the more extreme walkway?!
Our next port of call (which again took far longer to reach than it looked on the map) was Bukit Indah, a big rocky outcrop. Once we’d battled our way through the jungle, the path turned uphill and became more of a scramble as we pulled ourselves up over the rocks on the helpfully positioned but slightly decrepit ropes. After about 20 minutes heaving ourselves up the hill we reached the summit, looking out on the vast expanse of dense jungle with boats battling the white waters on the river far below. A packet of our favourite ‘emergency sweets’ was well deserved as we refuelled for the long trek back to base. On the return leg we spotted another monitor lizard, more squirrels, a few stick insects, loads of butterflies and dragonflies, a woodpecker and heard a call in the distance of what sounded like a monkey or gibbon (though my David Bellamy beard doesn’t give me his wildlife spotting powers unfortunately).
Massive and well camouflaged butterfly
Fran’s ‘jungle chic’ look (sporting my trousers!)
Fairly enormous tree
Laughing in the face of danger – mwa ha ha!
‘Ropey’ ascent (sorry!)
View from the top of Bukit Indah
Hungry lizard finds some delicious termites
We stocked up on calories at one of the floating restaurants when we got back and after a great deal of rebellion from both our legs, we set off for an afternoon of jungle exploration, this time heading for Bukit Teresek – another hilly viewpoint over the jungle. The scenery was different on this ascent as you’re constantly climbing over exposed rock-solid tree roots which cling onto the soil to stop it washing away, leaving a series of uneven natural terraced steps for you to negotiate – quite a feat without spraining an ankle or two! The climb was an exhausting one as the humidity and heat were pretty intense by that time, however the view from the top was pretty spectacular and worth every step!
Horrendously sweaty schoolboy Tarzan impression
Curly vines
Rooty path to the top
Exhausted faces on the way up…
…and happy (and shiny) faces at the top!
Fran doing her best ‘Garden of Eden’ impression!
We made it back to base camp just before sunset, cooled off by a welcome drizzling of rain en route and headed back to our resort for a well earned dinner followed by a full night of air conditioned sleep – hooray!
The following morning we set off for the big smoke – Kuala Lumpur. We first hopped on an awesome 1960’s public bus from Kuala Tahan back to Jerantut. Though the retro vehicle had lots of character, the fact that it looked like it hadn’t been cleaned since the sixties wasn’t quite so endearing. Once the old bus engine had strained its’ way up and down the jungle roads, we were dropped at Jerantut bus station where we had just enough time to use one of South East Asia’s most horrible toilets (why are the toilets you have to pay for always the worst?) before a much more pleasant 3 hour trip on a super luxurious and clean coach (phew!) to Malaysia’s capital. We were excited about the prospect of being back in a city and the impressive sight of KL’s striking skyline in the distance gave us a taster of what was to come! We’ll update you on our experiences in Malaysia’s metropolis in the next post!
Lots of love, Rich & Fran x
Next stop Kuala Lumpur…!
