Malaysia - Taman Negara National Park

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David here...

The flight from Bali into Kuala Lumpur was uneventful, slightly late taking off and landing but nothing major. We landed and disembarked (I still find the way people get off planes strange, with each row from the front standing up and getting their hand luggage despite people standing in the gangway ready to get off right to the back of the plane) and got through immigration, security and bag collection easily before finding an ATM and then buying a bus ticket to KL Sentral.

The journey into KL should take about an hour but traffic was horrendous so took almost 2 hours. We were a little worried as we had one goal for the evening, to get to Valentine Roti before it shut or ran out. Once at KL Sentral we knew we had to get the monorail to Chow Kit where our hotel was but could we find any sign of it? Nope. In the end I did what any sane person would do, I asked a policeman. He gave us probably the best directions we've ever received - down, straight, up, straight, down, straight. We did as he said and found the monorail, bought a chip each and away we went, 20 minutes to get to our hotel, the Cross Roads.

We checked in with no trouble, though the reception area smelt a little of fish, and found our room to be small but perfectly clean and would do us for the night we were there. As it was now nearly 21:00 we headed straight out to Valentine Roti, a 20 minute walk away. Again the walk was uneventful, except for one old man who asked me where we were from. When I said England he just replied "lovely" and carried on his way. We didn't realise that our hotel was so close to the Petronas Towers and we had a great view of them for pretty much the duration of the walk along with other nearby towers that were lit up with coloured lights. We arrived at Valentine Roti, settled down at an outside table and were handed a menu, but we both knew what we wanted already. Ever since our last trip to Malaysia we had been craving Roti Canai and that is what we went for, twice. It was delicious and well worth the walk. Feeling full and pleased that our plans had come together, we strolled back to the hotel and settled down for a restless nights sleep as we had an early bus to catch the next day.

We were up, showered and out of the hotel by 08:00 the next morning as we were planning on getting a local bus out to Jerantut and then another bus onto Kuala Tahan in the Taman Negara National Park. It was a quick 10 minute walk to Pekeliling bus station where a bus was waiting to go. We jumped straight on and were away by 08:15. It felt really good to be using local transport again and it was a whole lot cheaper at RM 17 each. The journey took about 3 hours and was a really nice way to travel and see the countryside.

We arrived at Jerantut bus station and immediately were shown the bus to Kuala Tahan and told the ticket price (RM 7 each). What they failed to mention is that it was not due to leave until 13:00, an hour and a half away. We whiled away the time by finding an ATM and having a Ramly burger for lunch. While I was away getting some money Suzanne stayed with the bags and got harassed by an old man who wanted her to show him her lip balm. It seems bus stations all around the world attract weirdos. Anyway we finally got on the bus and set off. It was another 90 minute journey, which again was uneventful and a pleasure. It is worth noting that even local Malaysian buses have air conditioning and tons of leg room. We arrived at Kuala Tahan and made our way to the jetty as we believed we could get a boat to our guesthouse. We asked around but no one knew what we were talking about. In the end, we popped into a tourist information centre who rang the guesthouse who came and picked us up.

We had actually passed the Balai Serama guesthouse entrance on the bus but didn't realise it until it was too late and it was too far to walk back so we appreciated the pick up so much. We got shown to our room which was clean, spacious and had luxuries like tea and coffee in it. The stay is quite expensive for a backpacker budget at around £50 a night but that does also include breakfast and evening meal, which makes it better value. We did nothing else except relax, clean up and recover from 2 days of travel before dinner at 19:00. We made our way over and found a little buffet set up that included rice, beef rendang, sweet and sour fish, spring rolls, veggies and salad. It was all delicious. Home made banana bread was available for dessert and again was tasty. We chatted with the owner for a while about the guesthouse and the cats they have. I asked casually about snakes and found out that they do get snakes around the guesthouse but the owner doesn't like them, especially the King Cobras. He then proceeded to tell me about the time a 4 metre King got into one of the rooms and had to be killed to get it out. The owner showed us the pictures and the thing was huge.

After the lovely meal we ended up on our big porch area, listening to music and drinking our rather tasty whiskey. At £7.25 a litre it should be awful but it is actually pretty good. By the end of the evening, we were half way down the bottle. As we were sat outside it proceeded to hammer it down, and I mean hammer it down. It was still raining when we settled down for bed after a hot chocolate in the room.

The next morning was clear and bright and we were up for breakfast at 08:00. Breakfast included cereal, fruit, toast (including every spread known to human kind) and fried eggs. We had our fill and then got ready for our first trip. The guesthouse organise many activities in the park and we had decided to start with the boat trip out to Lata Berkoh, a cascade of water over rocks that you can swim in if you desire. After the rainfall the night before we knew the water level would be too high but didn't feel like it much anyway due to the leeches. The guesthouse drove us out to the jetty area and we were met by our boat. We went over to the visitor centre and paid our RM 7 for passes and a camera pass and then had the most amazing 40 minute boat ride along the river through the rainforest. Words cannot sum up just how much fun it was to be in that boat, zooming up the river with rainforest either side of us. It was so exhilarating and stunning, the photos will not do it justice at all. We arrived at the sandbank to get to the water cascade and walked another 20 minutes or so to get to Lata Berkoh itself. It was not as impressive as most waterfalls we've seen but it was nice to sit on the rocks in the sun, with water crashing around us. We stayed for about an hour before making our way back to the boat and then back into town, the boat trip back just as much fun as before. We didn't see much wildlife while on the boat, a couple of big monitor lizards, but we did see a Stork Billed Kingfisher in the trees, a big, blue bird that flew off before we could get a picture.

Once back in town we bought some Diet Coke cans and had some noodles before asking a tour guide to ring our guesthouse to pick us up again, which they promptly did. As we were planning on going on the jungle nightwalk that evening we decided to spend the afternoon on the porch with music and whiskey and coke. As we were finishing up we read the news about Donald Trump winning the election - really, what is going on with the world?

About 2 hours before the rainforest night walk it started to rain heavily again, we were worried the walk may be called off. We went for dinner at 19:00 and spoke to the owners who said they would keep us informed. Dinner was again delicous, consisting of chicken in a red sauce, black pepper fish, grilled fish, curry puffs and salad and veggies again. By the end we were full. At 20:15 we were told that the night walk was going ahead so off we went with a German couple who arrived that day off to the town where we were met by our guide. A quick hop over the river and we were walking along a wooden walkway through the rainforest. There were a lot of other groups in the area, most of them small and quiet, but one larger group were extremely noisy, how they expected to see anything is a mystery. After letting the larger group get way ahead, we spotted stick insects, lots of spiders, a green tree snake, millipedes and the most fascinating of all, a scorpion. I know that doesn't sound amazing, but under ultraviolet light, the scorpion glowed in the dark, it was pretty cool. After an hour and a half we were back at the start point, back over the river and whisked away by our guesthouse transport back to our room. We resisted the remaining whiskey and stuck to coffee and hot chocolate before settling down to bed.

After another tasty breakfast we took our time in getting ready before heading back into the National Park. The passes we bought the day before are valid for a month so we just needed to buy some water to stay hydrated. The first port of call was the canopy walk which was 1.5km into the rainforest along a raised wooden walkway. We strolled there in about 20 minutes, trying to spot wildlife but failing miserably. We passed a number of people on the walk who are staying at the same guesthouse and when we arrived at the start of the canopy walk, we bumped into the German couple who were on the night walk with us. There was about a 30 minute wait before we could take our turn so just chatted with our new friends until our names were called. There was a lot of people on the walkways which were quite high. You couldn't really stop to take pictures as you would cause a jam (not that some people cared) and it did feel a little perilous, even more so when Suzanne was stung on her hand by an insect, leaving it raised, swollen and sore. The walk was good fun and cheap at RM 5 (about £1). After this we decided to tackle the hill, Bukit Terisek, which was a 2km slog uphill, admittedly mainly on fairly comfortable stairs and walkways but it was still very hard work in the heat. Once at the top I took off my t-shirt and wrung it out it was so wet. Anyway, the view across the National Park was pretty amazing and it felt like we had completed a challenge and earned our evening meal...and whiskey later on.

Once back on the town side of the river (the National Park is on the other side of the river and is only accessible by boat, which costs RM 1 per person, per journey) we asked HAN Travel to call the guesthouse for us to say we were ready to be picked up and then picked up Diet Coke supplies for the evening. The jeep came promptly and we were soon back at the guesthouse, showered and relaxed looking forward to dinner and the evening. We do feel a little guilty with the to-ing and fro-ing between the guesthouse and town but it is a service that they offer knowing that the walk is too far and there is no regular bus service. It does make for a relaxing time knowing that you do not have to worry about getting back to your room. We're even getting a lift in the morning to the bus stop to catch that 10:00 bus back to Jerantut where we hopefully can connect with the 12:00 bus back to KL.

After a bit of time resting we went for dinner at 19:00 and stuffed ourselves with beef rendang, it truly is the rendang we'd been looking for. The evening was spent listening to music, finishing off the whiskey and just enjoying the evening. We did have a cat and a katydid join us, the latter was more than a match for the geckos. The next morning we got to breakfast at 08:15, fueled up for the day, got packed up and were on our way to the bus stop by 09:45.

It was a 5 hour journey to Taman Negara fro KL, not including the waiting time at Jerantut and we had our doubts about that long a trip for 3 nights. It was well worth it! The days have felt full yet relaxed, the guesthouse could not have been better and we've thoroughly enjoyed our time. A real highlight so far.

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