Blogs from Taman Negara National Park, Pahang, Malaysia, Asia - page 15

Water level ran nearly six feet higher the day I traveled up river towards Taman Negara National Park. After a brisk three hour bus ride from Kuala Lumpur, I quickly realized that the Jungles of Malaysia was not the type of place that would have ATM machines on every corner and I’d literally be up shit’s creek without a paddle. Before boarding a glorified canoe with a canopy and a motor, the local booking agent was able to coerce the chef of bus station to give Royal and I a thirty minute ride into town to acquire some cash for the trip. Ringgits in hand, I began what is normally a two hour ride upriver but took nearly three and a half due to the speed of the current downstream. After waking from my nap aboard ... read more

I arrived in Kuala Tahan, Taman Negara, on Dec 13. It's wet season here, so the wheather promised to be less than reliable, but the first few days were actually excellent. While in the dry season the place must be packed with tourists, there were hardly any of them around now, giving the village a rather local athmosphere. My first little jungle adventure was the canopy walk, elevated up to 40 meters above the ground, a must-do out here. That night I met a swedish-english group of travellers, whom I joined on a 2-day hiking trip to one of the hides deep into the jungle, where you are supposed to be able to spot some amazing wildlife. The trail was about 13 km long, but that is jungle km, which means steep hills, fallen trees, wide ... read more

Hey everybody, sorry I kept you waiting, but due to circumstances beyond my control I was unable to upload any pictures until now. I am currently in Taman Negara, the big Malaysian national park (details on the next blog) to update you on what I have been up to in the past 10 days. I stayed in Kuala Lumpur for 3 days, sharing a room in Chinatown and spending most of my time with a Brit. What struck me most about the city is how civilized the traffic was compared to Bangkok: it was actually moving ! in lanes !! with hardly any honking horns !!! Apart from loads of roaming KL's streets we went to visit the giant Bathu caves with implanted Hindu shrine and religious artwork, just north of town, went up the skytower ... read more

We drove out to Taman Negara in Landrovers with Francis & Kumar. On route we stopped at the tea plantation to have a look at the terraces & learn about the different grades of tea that are produced, it would appear that the quality of tea is inversely proportional to the amount of milk you have to add. We made a note of the flowering orange pekoe (the highest grade) for later. After looking down through the clouds over the national park from the mountain lookout we walked through the mossy forest learing about the medicinal & narcotic uses of the various plants that grow there. Kumar knew the common & latin names of all the plants that we passed & the exact quantities to take to poison or cure. Having precariously trudged through the forest, ... read more

Some people travel solely to experience the great rail journeys of the world - the Orient Express, the Trans-Siberian Railway and the Jungle Express. The Jungle Express for me turned out to be a 4 hour leg of the Singapore to Thai border train, on a local train. Hot sweaty, confined, slow, but with exotic scenery from every window, we made progress snail like towards the Taman Negara National Park, stopping at every reed shack in the jungle (or so it seemed). The Taman Negara National Park pulsates deep in the heart of the Malaysian Peninsula, more land life than any place I've seen. The park is home to tigers (100 est), Rhinos and Elephants (400 est), unfortunately these larger animals are wary of human contact (justifiably given our record of hunting species to extinction) - ... read more