Malaysia – A Visit to a Tropical Rainforest Taman Negara

Visiting one of the oldest tropical rainforests, Taman Negara in Malaysia, is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. A walk through a green jungle, a visit at native villagers, and night camping in a cave – that’s just a snatch of what this jungle offers. Since there’s a constant destruction of forests, there’s not much time left to visit the last place on Earth where nature hasn’t been conquered by the human yet.

Taman Negara National Park is the oldest and largest park in Malaysia. Astoundingly, its age is put at 130 million years (compare – the extinction of the dinosaurs occurred 65 million years ago), which makes it the oldest rainforest on the planet. Scientists assume that it hadn’t been affected by any volcanic activity, neither by a glacial period. There is an incredible amount of animal species and plants in the forest. As for big mammals, there is, for example, the protected Sumatran rhinoceros, the Indochinese leopard, the Malayan tiger, and the Asiatic elephant. Also, there you can find the plant species with the biggest flower – Rafflesia, or the largest tree, Tualang, of height up to 80 meters. In the forest, the aboriginal people still live, who stay aside the modern civilization, avoiding contact with white people. On the other hand, the natives who settled down in villages on the edge of the forest – Orang Asli – always warmly welcome visiting tourists.

Tropical rainforest Taman Negara

All ways leading to the rainforest go through the city of Jerantut. An administrative center is the village of Kuala Tahan. I recommend jointing a visit of the park with a visit of the Cameron Highlands.

A Canopy Walkway

The longest hanging bridge (up to 500 meters) leading through treetops in the height of 40 meters above the ground. It is the perfect opportunity to admire the forest from bird’s eye view – if you don’t feel dizzy at the moment. It is almost a necessity to walk through this bridge, however, don’t expect that there will be parrots flying or monkeys jumping around you. Animals in the forest are very shy and any sound will frighten them away, so they stay away from people.

Among the trees

Trekking through the jungle (2 days/1 night)

Before entering the national park, the custodians went through the contents of our backpack. We had to count the exact number of plastic wrappers, bags and cans and even socks. The custodians took a note of it all and told us that we need to bring the exact numbers of things back. I think that that is great way of protecting the forest from the waste but, unfortunately, nobody checked us out when we came back.

Due to the high temperature and humidity is quite exhausting journey through the jungle

The temperature is around 30 degrees and the air humidity is 90%, so the walk through the forest was really exhausting. I you keep quiet enough, you can come across monkeys swinging in tree crowns, various kinds of small mammals, and lizards. What you probably won’t miss are the leeches. Even though they are innocuous, they cause unpleasant bleeding wounds on feet and ankles. Put on high socks and firm shoes in order to make it harder for those little creatures to get to your skin. Also, poisonous snakes and scorpions live in the forest. However, chances are low that you will get hurt. Our guide was prepared for such situation and had a suction device with him, to use it in case of a snakebite.

Cave, where we spent the night

At the end of the day spent in the forest, we were supposed to stay in a large cave complex which had been inhabited by ancestors of humans several thousand years ago. Our guide cooked us a simple dinner and we got the chance to have a wash in the river nearby. After dusk, we went on a night tour through the jungle where we came across a few small mammals, lizards, frogs and we even frightened away a scorpion. The night spent in a cave was little adventurous because some strange sound woke us up in the middle of the night. A family of porcupines had just stolen our breakfast from the backpack, and at that moment, they were enjoying the only bread we had with us. We tried to frighten them away but they obviously had no plans of leaving the cave, so we were wakeful as they were moving around.

Abandoned dwelling the local people from the jungle

The next day, we set off on a journey and chanced on an abandoned dwelling of nomadic aboriginals from the jungle. Their men are moving from one place to another every day as they hunt game. You can spot their presence by simple dwellings made of reed and a fire pit that they leave behind them. It is very hard to meet them because they avoid white people.

The village of Orag Asli

Towards the end of the second day, we arrived to a small village right next to a river where aboriginal people live. We got a chance to see their ability to set fire in a few minutes and to have a look at their weapons that they use for hunting.

Simple homes of local residents

A blowpipe is a hollow slim pipe for blowing darts with poison. They spread them with poison from a frog’s skin. It functions as a perfect killing substance in case it gets into a victim’s body. The advantage of this weapon is the absence of sound when you use it. We had an opportunity to try this primeval tool but I have to say that it is not that easy as it seems. I didn’t even manage to blow out enough air for the dart to hit the target. You must have a big lung capacity to make the dart fly where you need.

Eva tries blowpipe

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