Blogs from Taman Negara National Park, Pahang, Malaysia, Asia - page 7

The last time I wrote I was in Koh Samui, which already feels like such a long time ago to me. On my second attempt I managed to make the journey from Samui to Kota Bharu in Malaysia. The whole journey took me 15 hours by way of bus, ferry, minibus, tuk tuk and taxi. By the time I got into my room in Kota Bharu I literally passes out. My travels continued early the next morning as I made my way to Kuala Besut to catch a speed boat to the Long Beach on Pulau Perhentian Kecil. I stayed at a cool backpackers place called the Matahari, a short concrete walkway from the beach. I stayed here for 2 days, snorkelling, sun bathing, eating, drinking etc...it is quite possibly the most beautiful beach I've ever ... read more

Today would be our first full day exploring the oldest rainforest in the world and we were very excited. Promptly at 8am we were at the floating restaurant where we sat down to breakfast. Egg and toast was presented to us along with traditional iced tea, not exactly to rachael's liking, in fact Rachael has developed a strong disliking for egg ever since a 'don't talk about it again' incident back in Vietnam. anyway, 2 portions of egg later and i was ready to go. First on the agenda was a trek up the nearest mountain to a viewpoint near the top. In order to get into Taman Negara we used the river taxi service operated by the restaurant. As the boat drew close the wake wobbled the restaurant making it clear that we were in ... read more

The Lonely Planet describes Taman Negara National Park as "a buzzing, leech infested mass of primary forest" and though we avoided leeches due to the dry weather, the forest is definitely buzzing! The park is virgin primary rainforest which is over 130 million years old and in the more remote parts of the park are Malay tigers, Asian elephants, and Sun bears. We stayed in a nice hostel here called "The Yellow House" which had dorm beds in an AIR CONDITIONED room for only 10RM (just over $3). We were pleased to find resident geckos in our room as this always means less mozzies, though they make some very strange noises at night. We arrived in the park via a 3 hour boat ride from Kuala Tembelling. The boat ride was stunning as the Sungai Tembelling ... read more

We got on our bus to the Taman Negara rain forrest/ jungle/ national park and when we arrived we along with Loida booked in to our own hippie commume guest house that was great with feel good signs everywhere. After dinner along the river we got an early night in our room painted with bright birds and colours. The next day we relaxed all day then we went on a night sufari in a 4x4 pick up and saw a slow monkey, 4 leopard cats, some squirrels, a small sleeping bird and a snake. it was so cool. We then got up early the next day and got the boat across the river and walked through the jungle to the canopy walkway which is the longest one of its kind in the world 450 metres long ... read more

Taman Negara National Park is spread over 4343 sq km of dense lowland forest. We arrived here just as the heavens opened and when i mention heavans, its not like rain we have at home, but luckly we found a motel to stay in, as where we wanted to stay were all fully booked, school holidays or something for the Malay people. We got up and got our permits to be here and did a walk through the jungle to a canopy walk, which is 30m off the ground and is 500m long swaying bridge, made from aluminium ladders bound by rope, supported at 26m intervals by 250yrs old trees. It took a couple of them to get used to the walk but after that it was good fun, the views were great, but didnt see ... read more