Taman Negara, the nature kingdom

The (second) oldest tropical rainforest in the world. Truly raw nature. Beautiful and possibly dangerous. Worth to explore.

Soon after our almost midday arrival to the Tanah Rata (3h drive from the Batu Caves) we have accommodated ourselves in simple bungalow of the "Greenland guesthouse" (15 € / night) and had a lunch. Than took a river crossing boat (1MYR/person) to the National Park (translation of Taman Negara) headquarters. Signed in and payed for an entry permit (1 MYR / person), a photo permit (5 MYR) and a Canopy walk (5 MYR/adults).

Walking on a boardwalk towards the canopy for about 2km. Slow and careful observing. Rewarded by spotting one bigger greenish spider (Heteropoda boiei) and two snakes (one of them Gonyosoma oxycephala). Which made all of us really positively excited. And the excitement got even bigger when walking high (30m?) on the Canopy walk. Especially for Kaczi carrying sleeping Olivia. But, as we had already observed, Oliv does not want to miss anything so she always wakes up at the right moment. Also this time. At the highest point . And as she insisted to walk on her own we had to let her go at least for the very last and descending section. Careful but without any fear.

Coming back to the park HQ Lukas has decided that he wants some more and arranged himself a permit to stay overnight at the park observatvatory hut- "Bumbum" - Tabing (5 RM / night), only 3km from there. He had packed himself, we all had a dinner and after he, together with comming dusk, crossed the river and entered the forest.

"It was first a nice boardwalk. But it ended after the first km. And it became instantly quite wet and muddy. Headlamp on, walking relatively slowly, observing carefully not to miss anything. Feeling adventurously and focusing on the present moment. Sounds of frogs and cicadas, though somehow quiet. Dark humidity quietness. Small bats hunting in my headlamp light and flying by very close. Everything going fine and me moving forward pretty well. Maybe too fast as at a certain point I have realised that I should already be there. The full dark and me swetting. And rationality pushed forward to calm down and think. I have used GPS and Mapy.cz (with pre-downloaded turist maps of Malaysia) and saved picture of a .basic local map. But it still was not enough to be sure so I choose to walk almost one more kilometer to the path crossing. My mind started to produce thoughts of various facts like tigers pass through here (extremely rarely), there is a lot of leafs on the trek for snakes to hide (fortunately none) and that what looks like an elephant shit really is an elephant shit here (a few days old though). Reaching the crossing I have found a sign telling me that I have walked some 2 Km past the Bumbum turn. So, already a little tired and stressed, I have turned back and swiftly walked to find the right turn. Halfway back, suddenly (how else), two relatively big and higher positioned front eyes lighted some fifteen meters in front on the trek. And, they did not start to move away. Watching my direction even I have switched my ligh off for a second. They apprently did not fear. But, I did. I was feeling truly uncertain which resulted in making a loud noise towards those eyes instead of taking my camera out of my backpack. And as a reaction they have moved forward and walked away. I truly do not know what it was. Maybe a deer, possibly a tapir or some bigger wild cat as black panther (the eyes might fit). (Not an elephant, nor wild pig. Do not believe to be "lucky" with a tiger either.) Anyway, whenever I have "just" survived or missed some great encounter and shoot possibility I have found the right turn and Bumbum Tabing soon after. A very simple accomodation. All "windows" open. Wifi password tattooed on the wall: LeaCH666. Washed myself (water provided = luxury), managed to get rid of 4 leaches, went to a simple toilet (to greet a Huntsman Spider once again) and somehow managed to put up my mosquito net on the upper bunk (took me half an hour). The bed was just a wooden one. Though everything mentioned I may say I have just falled down to sleep and with minor position changings I slept till the 6am. When I woke up it was still dark. The time when sounds of frogs start to give away towards the waking up birds. Observing the day being born in the middle of a rainforest and a light slowly helping a contures to become a details. And feeling a rewarding meditation of it all.

On my way back I have stopped at a place where boardwalk starts as it was a great place to have a swim in the river." And we have all returned to the very same spot later that afternoon to have a rainforest riverside beach relax chill. At least till the downpour started and all the leeches wanted to grab a bite on us.

In the evening Lukas took Tadeas to the night walk on the forest boardwalks to find out that among other species a big black scorpions live in the forest.

Love nature. True nature. We Love Taman Negara.