The Rainforest of Taman Negara
Taman Negara is an 130m year old rainforest (apparently the oldest in the world) that has recently been made into a national park. Kuala Tahan, the base for our stay in Taman Negara, lies about 100km east of Tanah Rata (in the Cameron Highlands), but the journey still took all day thanks to the limited road network. Firstly we had to travel north-east for two hours in a minibus to Gua Musang where we stopped for an early lunch and changed buses. Then we went south for two and a half hours to Jerantut where we changed to a third bus in which we went north along a very bumpy road through the rainforest. It wasn't a bad journey though as it was broken up into short stints and we enjoyed talking to Hayley and Richard from London who were doing the same journey. We arrived in the early evening giving us plenty of time to find our very colourful guesthouse (it looked like a nursery school!) which was positioned across the river from the park headquarters.
As in the Cameron Highlands, the main activity in Taman Negara is walking. With the rainforest climate we knew that it was going to much tougher so we decided to start off gently. We crossed the river by boat and walked a couple of kilometres to the Jungle Canopy Walkway. This is basically a series of ladders and wooden planks wrapped in a springy mesh and suspended from the trees. It is laid out in a circuit along which you walk from platform to platform, between 5 and 10 metres behind the person in front. Once we got used to the feeling and found some trust in the bouncy canopy it was great fun. At points we were 45 metres above ground level, so the views of the jungle were pretty awesome too.
We found more great views at the top of a nearby hill called Bukit Teresek. The climb was a bit of a challenge in the heat and humidity and it certainly did not help that that we'd only taken one bottle of water. We came down the back of the hill and walked around to our starting point, thereby completing a 4km circuit. On our way down we found the track was wetter and we came across leeches for the first time. They were sat on the ground, waving their heads at us. Thankfully though they didn't get too close. This may have had something to do with the industrial-strength cockroach repellent we had sprayed all over our shoes, socks, trousers and lower legs - a tip from 'Father' in the Cameron Highlands. We also passed a confused English family who had come to a stop and were consulting their map and compass. They obviously didn't realise that it was a signposted trail and seemed to have abandoned all directional and common sense; the end of the trail was around the corner! Worryingly, we later found out that the father was ex-army.
After an active morning we were hungry and dehydrated so we went back to the Kuala Tahan floating restaraunts, which was basically the only place you could get food. Although very scenic, the restaraunts became quite an annoyance as they all served the same food (rice and noodles, which we were fed up with by now anyway) at the same prices.
We had intended to stay in Taman Negara for 3 nights, and had planned to do a long trek on the second day. However it proved to be quite difficult to do a walk independently as the trails are longer, harder to get to, and apparently quite unclear at times. If you have the money, or enough people to split the cost with, it is possible to hire a guide for the day, or hire a boat to drop you down river. This wasn't really an option for us so we looked at joining some sort of tour, but these were very limited and the only day-time walking tour that was offered was basically what we had done on our own. In the end we realised that we were both probably too tired to undertake and enjoy a long walk anyway and we were satisfied with what we had seen. We therefore decided that we would leave Taman Negara a day early.
There was still time to see more of the jungle, however, and so we signed up for a night-time jungle walk. Armed with our torches we walked through the jungle for an hour and a half, with the guides (who were strangely named Dragon and Mr Bad) stopping every so often to excitedly show us something. Sometimes the groups see monkeys or deer (or at least green eyes in the distance) at the salt-lick hides but as Dragon kept reminding us, we weren't so lucky. We did however see several insects that can only be seen at night; big spiders, termites, crickets, a scorpion, a giant centipede and a millipede. It was quite an experience being in the jungle at night and it was worth it just for the sounds alone.
Our next destination was Kuala Lumpur but first we had to get out of the park, which we did by getting an early morning boat. The boat took us to the Jerantut river jetty which was a couple of hours downstream. The ride was very soothing and the views were stunning. It was an ideal way to leave the rainforest.
Chris
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