Days 4-6 Taman Negara

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Taman Negara – I was up early, jetlag or not to catch the bus from Uncle Hans, to be found in Chinatown unsurprisingly. My destination was Taman Negara, which is purported to be the oldest rainforest in the world (130 million years old). The journey initially involved a drive of 4 hours from KL to Kuala Tembling and then a 3 hour boat journey up the river to Kuala Tahan. Most of the occupants of the bus/boat had taken the package that Uncle Hans offers which is 3 days 2 nights but I didn’t see the point in travelling 2 days to spend just 1 day in the park plus I wanted to do some exploration on my own so just paid for the travel and a night jungle walk.The journey in the boat was bum-numbing but very pleasant and I found some new chums, some girls from France and South Korea and Ed from back home.

On arriving at Kuala Tahan I had to find somewhere to stay as I had not been able to book anywhere (not everyone has internet out here). I found a real gem in Durian Chalets, named after the famous fruit (more of that later). They offered ensuite bamboo huts, by ensuite I mean squat toilet and cold showers (no basin though). I really liked this place it is the furthest place away from the centre so the only noise you hear are the wildlife humming away in the background. The grounds were well tended and were full of different types of plants including Cocoa trees and chilli plants.

After checking in the omnipresent matriarch cooked me up some veggie fried rice and then I made my way to Mama Chows to get ready for the night walk. The walk took just over an hour and a half and to me was unsatisfying, we saw a stick insect, a scorpion (which I know only too well) a snake and a tarantula. If you haven’t been in the jungle at night before then I would say it’s probably worth going on it but if not then you aren’t going to see anything of note. I didn’t think the guide was up to much either as I was spotting stuff that he had missed including a huge spider web with a strange horned spider at its centre.

After the walk I relaxed with a diet coke (booze is hard to find here and ridiculously expensive when you do come across it) and managed to get a semi-normal nights sleep for the first time.

I was in for a long walk today so I filled up on carbs and protein (omelette and chips) and I wasn’t going to be have any lunch. I was going to visit Lata Berkoh which is a scenic waterfall where you can also go for a plunge. Uncle Hans sold this as one of their tours and said that it was too long to walk in a day as it took 5 hours there and another 5 back but I had my typical backpacker cynical head on and didn’t believe a word of it. When I got to the ranger station after I set off they said it took 3 hours which seemed more reasonable, it was only 9 km away from the ranger station but this was through hot and humid rainforest which would take its toll on any trekker.

So I headed off into the jungle with its sounds enveloping me. The path gets gradually worse, it starts off boarded then soon turns into mud with exposed roots waiting to trip you up. I had read that the park was famous for leeches but an hour in and I didn’t know what the fuss was about as I kept checking my legs and I couldn’t see any of the little beasties attached. However this was to be short-lived as I did my regular check and found a little hole in my leg with blood coming out of it. In a few minutes one of the little buggers had hitched aboard, took its fill of my blood and jumped off. Like mosquitos they deliver an anaesthetic when chomping down on you but also an anti-coagulant so once you get rid of them you keep bleeding for ages.

There is very little wildlife to see in this area of the park as it’s so big so they gravitate to the less visited area of the park where there are no tourists. So I didn’t see much on my 3 hour trek, there were loads of leeches though, they wait on the forest floor and can sense you approaching and start whirling their bodies and attach to your shoe and work their way up till they find flesh. At this stage I had my socks rolled fully up looking like a typical Brit abroad. The path ended abruptly at a river and there I found my new chums, 2 chaps from Finland. To continue our walk we had to cross the river and me being the adventurous type said it should be easy just to wade across it. So I volunteered to go first, as I was getting ready I took my boots off to find a whole host of leeches having a party – nice. I had tied my boots to my rucksack to keep dry and started to walk across the fast flowing river after a few metres my toes were getting sliced open on the rocks so I thought it would be a good idea to lie in the water and move along with my hands. This did work for a few more metres until the current became so strong that I was using all my energy just to cling on. When I was bang in the middle I realised I wasn’t going to make it and gave up and headed back to the bank. By this stage my boots were soaking as they had dipped into the water and I probably could have much easily walked across in them!!

Luckily a boat turned up dropping some passengers on the other bank so we asked him to take us over instead. Once on the other side we had to walk another 1.5km to get to the falls which were nice but it had taken nearly 4 hours to get there. We took a few snaps of the falls and then jumped in to the river for a well earned reward. A little later some very nice young ladies came over and were umming and argghhing over getting in the water so being a gentleman I gave them some assistance in helping them into the water. Some cynics might say that this was just to see them in their bikinis but au contraire I just wanted them to have the full experience:-)

After play-time we headed back to the boats and got one of them to drop us back on the other side and started off again on the long walk back to Kuala Tahan. On the way back I found a Durian fruit that must have just fell from a tree as I didn’t see it on the way to the falls. Durian fruit are famous as they absolutely stink, they smell like rotting flesh and are banned in many public places. The fruit inside though is supposed to be nice so I took it back to the chalet. This was a task in itself as it weighs around 6kg and is covered in a spiky, painful outer coating. This meant I could only hold it by its stalk which proved difficult. After saying goodbye to my Finnish chums I took the fruit back to the chalet and they were amused to see me wandering in with it, especially after I asked them to prepare it as I hadn’t a clue how to do it. Soon after Mama Durian comes out with a huge meat cleaver and starts attacking the fruit and hands me a white slimy egg-shaped fruit that was inside, it looked a bit like a testicle if I’m honest and that combined with the smell was a little off-putting. It’s one of the oddest things I’ve eaten it was crunchy and tasted like onions and unfortunately for me kept repeating on me for the rest of the night!!

My body clock still hadn’t adjusted to Malaysian time and I didn’t sleep much during the night, this was getting tiresome. Nevertheless I headed out for the park’s main attraction – the canopy walkway. The walkway is suspended around 100 feet amongst the trees and provides a view that you wouldn’t normally experience. It was fun, especially as the walkway tended to move around a lot. After that I continued the route up to the main hills overlooking Kuala Tahan – Bukit Teresik, it was only 344 metres high but after my walk yesterday plus the heat it nearly killed me. I continued the trail and on the way back fell on my ass a few times. I then ended up on the trail I was on the day before but just before I reached the ranger station I ran into a whole host of animals I hadn’t seen during all the hours of trekking I had done previously, there was two adult wild boar and their piglets and a troupe of monkeys swinging between the trees – that was a bit of a find! The walk took around 3 and a half hours and I was just in the mood for relaxing for the remainder of the day. So I headed back to the Chalet for some food and a rest.

I’d been really lucky with the weather as it was pouring down on the trip to Kuala Tahan but cleared up by the time I arrived and stayed clear from then on and there was even some sun for some of the time.

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Photos

Durian Chalets
My room