M&C: Taman Negara & Kuala Lumpur

From Penang, we took a bus about five hours south to Kuala Lumpur. We stayed just one night in a bit of a strange part of town, kind of like a single forgotten dead-end street of older low-rise apartments surrounded by brand-new high-rises and active construction sites, weirdly inaccessible to larger roads and without much going on. It served our purposes, though, which were mostly planning, resting, and eating some really good Malay food. Plus, we had a nice chat with an Indonesian guy at our hostel who was working as a freelance marketing consultant and was in KL on a short business trip.

The following morning, we got up early to head east towards Taman Negara, a giant national park (in fact, Taman Negara just means “national park” in Malay) in the center of the peninsula. We took a Grab about 25 minutes south to a large bus terminal, hoping to catch a bus to Jerantut, the jumping-off point for the park. Turns out, no buses run from that terminal to Jerantut (despite what we had read online), and we had to take another Grab 30 minutes back north to another bus terminal. We made it just in time for the 10:00AM bus, but it was completely full. So we killed a couple hours in an Indian food restaurant and had actually quite a good meal before catching a noon bus and finally getting on our way.

In Jerantut, our plan had been to catch a second local bus another hour north to Kuala Tahan, the tiny town that basically provides accommodation only for tourists to the national park. Once again, despite what the internet said, we learned that no buses were running that route anymore, so we had to splurge for a cab to make the hour-long trip.

Kuala Tahan consists of just a few streets with maybe two dozen guesthouses and restaurants scattered along the south bank of the Tembeling River. The park starts on the north bank and stretches north in a huge swath of completely undeveloped ancient jungle. Our first night, we just got our bearings, ate a mediocre dinner, and signed up for an overnight trek into the jungle departing the following morning. We organized our things and went to bed early.

After a quick breakfast the next morning, we were shepherded down to the riverfront where we met the other members of our tour: a 19-year old German girl on a gap year, a 25-year old Dutch guy on an extended solo trip, and two Italian women in their late 30s on what was supposed to be a 3-week vacation, but which was looking to also become basically indefinite because of the lockdown back home. Our guide was a youngish-looking Malay guy, Ajip, with excellent colloquial English and a bit of a world-weary vibe about him.

We crossed the river in a boat to get our entry permits and also to register every piece of plastic we were carrying with us into the jungle in an effort to hold everyone accountable for any possible littering. Before starting our hike proper, we made a quick stop at the Taman Negara canopy walk, which is one of the park’s main attractions. This consists of a series of seven rope bridges that span nearly a kilometer of total distance, rising as high as 40 meters above the forest floor. Although slightly terrifying, it was very cool nevertheless, not the least because we could chill and look around from the little platforms where the bridges were connected to the trees.

From there, we got back in the boat and churned about an hour and a half upstream to the trailhead where we finally started hiking. The first day, we trekked over 8km through the jungle, stopping a few times for short breaks. The trail itself was relatively clear, though it was surrounded by impenetrably dense jungle, and we could never see more than 10 or 15 meters at a time in any direction. Also, we had to frequently scramble around or beneath giant tree trunks that had fallen across the trail as well as watch out for the maze of roots crisscrossing the forest floor. Despite being in deep shade for pretty much the whole hike, it was very hot and very humid, and we were utterly drenched in sweat within minutes.

We were warned that seeing large mammals is extremely rare, so we didn’t really have any expectations of spotting an elephant or a tiger or even a tapir. We did see lots of signs of them along the trail, though: large piles of elephant poop, some elephant footprints, bear claw marks on some of the trees, and even a cat print that could have been a tiger or a leopard. At one of our stops, Ajip walked over to an enormous tree and gently pulled off a millipede that was over a foot long. Although a bit horrifying, they’re completely harmless and we all took turns holding it, feeling its little feet scurry over our skin.

Eventually, we made it to our campsite, an enormous cathedralic cave set into the side of a limestone mountain. A huge jungle-encrusted fissure in the rock allowed plenty of outside light into the cave, so it didn’t feel claustrophobic at all. We set up our sleeping pads on the floor, washed off in a nearby stream, ate a nice candle-lit dinner all together, and went to bed. Just after we had fallen asleep, we heard some scurrying, and sat up to find two porcupines rummaging through some of our leftover food. According to Ajip, once they find some food, there’s basically no way to chase them off, so we just watched them happily for a while before drifting back off to sleep.

The following morning, we woke up a bit achy from the hard ground and found our cave beautifully drenched in sunlight streaming through the opening in the rock. The second day’s hike felt a bit easier (perhaps just because our packs were lighter), and we covered the 5 kilometers to our lunch spot quite easily. We had lunch by a small river where we cooled off and enjoyed the sights and sounds of the jungle around us. Chandler also got bitten by a couple of leeches (which are super prolific and basically harmless, though, again, quite creepy) and donated a little literal blood back to the jungle.

At the end of that day’s hike, we came to a small Orang Asli community (Orang Asli just means “original people” and refers to any number of indigenous groups in Malaysia). About 2000 Orang Asli people live in Taman Negara mostly as hunter-gatherers (supplemented with some purchased goods), and they’re the only people permitted to actually live in the national park. This particular community (only about 20 individuals) had decided to make a little extra income by interacting a bit with tourists, but most of the groups don’t want anything to do with the outside world at all.

We watched as one of the guys made a small fire using only wood-on-wood friction, which he used to heat a natural glue and assemble a small dart, which he then shot out of a blowpipe at a small stuffed animal about 20 feet away. Apparently, these blowpipes are actually how these people still hunt today, using poison-tipped darts to ensure that even a small hit will be fatal. We then each got a chance to shoot the blowpipe. Even though the whole demonstration was sort of arranged for the benefit of tourists, the people involved were definitely among those living full-time in the jungle, which gave the experience a bit of a flavor of authenticity, and it’s not often that you meet people living apart from the cash economy (at least in part).

From the little village (just a couple of shaded platforms, really), we hiked just 10 minutes back to the river where we hopped on a boat and sped about half an hour downstream back to Kuala Tahan. After a much-needed shower, the six of us who had been on the trip all had dinner together before retiring for the night.

The following morning, we got a boat back down river to Jerantut, where we met up with a minivan that took us the remaining couple hours back to Kuala Lumpur. We had booked just one night in KL, but found ourselves in a very comfortable place (Ahyu Hotel) located right at the border of Little India and Chinatown. After sorting out some coronavirus-related travel adjustments, we had an amazing Indian food lunch at a place right next to our hotel and just chilled for the remainder of the evening. The next morning, we allowed ourselves a slow start, doing a little planning and eating a quick but delicious breakfast of plain roti with curry, before heading to the airport to catch our flight out of Malaysia.

Next up: Singapore