Kuala Lumpur to Taman Negara

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Arrived into tropical Kuala Lumpur, staying in the centre of the bustling Chinatown district lined with street-stalls and markets, and dining on seafood at an excellent Malaysian restaurant. Early the next morning took a coach up to the Cameron Highlands, driving along steep roads lined with a huge panoply of election posters (the majority depicting the blue scales of the incumbent Barisan Nasional government). Took a hot walk through the jungle to find the world's largest flower, the bright red splash of colour (about 1m across !) incongruously standing out from the dense green undergrowth. Later had a tour and a great cup of tea overlooking the Boh plantation up in the hills, followed by cake with freshly-picked strawberries at a local farm.

Headed south to Taman Negara in the dense jungle heart of the Malay peninsula, taking a canoe down the muddy brown river to the small village of Kampung Kuala Tahan, arriving to shelter just as a torrential rainstorm broke. After dusk fell the rain eased just in time to join a guided night-walk, using torches to spot tarantula and huntsman spiders, stick insects and finally some grazing sambar deer from a jungle-hide.

The following day I headed back into the jungle, firstly gingerly navigating the walkway precariously strung up high in the canopy before heading deeper into the trees, surrounded by irridescent blue butterflies and distracted by nut shells dropped by monkeys far above in the treetops. En route back spotted firstly a wild boar snuffling in the undergrowth, then a couple of startled mouse deer and finally was surprised by a giant lizard that scurried out from under the boardwalk. That evening joined a night-safari through the nearby palm oil plantations, the guide's powerful spotlight illuminating a sleek leopard cat, large owl and a flying squirrel as we bumped along through the trees...

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Photos

Jungle from Canoe
Taman Negara

Malaysian Election Posters
Thousands of these...

Very big flower
Rafflesia

River canoe
Taman Negara

Storm
Taman Negara

Canopy walkway
Long way down...

View from Bukit Teresik
Taman Negara

Comments

[Mark]

Nut shells
Hi Steve, great photos as usual and a great description of your adventures. Are you sure they were nut shells??!!!!