Taman Negara, the largest national rainforest reserve in Malaysia, was one of the few remaining adventures still on my list of things to experience while in Malaysia. I was almost worried that I wouldn’t have a chance to explore it before my time here was up, until last week when my friend Mark Laabs who is working in Shanghai emailed to arrange an impromptu visit to both Malaysia and the forest. Only a few emails and a long boat ride later we were welcomed to the jungle.
Mark, an accomplished hiker and outdoorsman, made an inadvertent but apt observation while comparing the forests back home to Malaysia’s rainforests. “I prefer hiking in temperate forests; they’re just more comfortable.” Rainforests certainly come with a few more hazards than our familiar deciduous forests back home. Constantly checking socks for leeches can make it hard to appreciate the canopy above. During the day, most of these hazards can be managed. The real challenge comes after dark when some of the more deadly creatures in the forest, vipers and their ilk, come alive for their evening hunt. Thanks to an overzealous commitment to intensity, Mark and I almost had the privilege of experiencing the forest at its most intense – i.e. over night.
Our first morning in Taman Negara, we asked the park rangers to recommend a good trail for a day hike. They recommended Latah Berkoh as a nice out and back that would take about six hours. However, only an hour after setting out, we came to a fork where the signposts revealed we had already gone halfway down the Latah Berkoh trail. At this pace, we figured we could easily hike the Kuala Terenggan loop and be back in time for an evening at one of the river restaurants right outside the park. Pleased with our decision, and that we would be putting more space between us and a loud group of tourists, we set off down the trail. After another hour of hiking we found the second fork on the trail, which should have put us half way around the loop, close to the Kuala Terenggan lodge, and already on our way back to the main camp. Unfortunately, soon after leaving the second fork we discovered two things – that the distances on the sign posts and on our maps were ridiculously inaccurate, to the tune of a couple of kilometers off, and that every time I led we would end up losing the trail. (Here, I blame Mark’s height advantage – tall people have an easier time surveying ahead, totally not a difference in skill . . .) By the time we found the trail after our second time losing it, we were both running behind on time and behind the group of noisy tourists we had passed earlier.
While the noisy group took an ill-advised swim break in some pretty leach filled waters, I chatted with their guide about the remainder of the trail after the lodge. Standing wisely with his socks still on atop a rock just barely jutting out of the water, he informed us that the trail ahead was both more difficult and would take us five hours. At this point, the last thirty minutes of those five hours would be after dark. Our options as we left the tourists in the stream seemed pretty limited – push on at top pace to make it back, spend the night at Kuala Terenggan or hope that somehow we could catch a ride with one of the boats coming down the river.
Our first sight of Kuala Terenggan made the overnight option seem out of the question. Instead of a nicely functioning lodge, the trail spilled out of the forest upon an absolutely shattered building, destroyed in a giant tree fall with no sign of even an attempt at restoration. Fortunately, the next two or three chalets we came across were in much better condition if equally abandoned. It wasn’t until we came to the last two chalets that we found any sign of recent occupancy – a solar panel installation, drying laundry, and a pride of mewling cats. Our second attempt at knocking on the doors of the two occupied chalets finally produced a sleepy-eyed older man who agreed to take us in his boat back to camp. Even scruffy from sleep, he was at that moment one of the most welcome sights in the world.
After a quick smoke break, he piled us into his boat and we set off down the river. On our way through the rapids, just the two of us and our rescuer, we passed scores of boats loaded down with a dozen tourists each. We could tell from their envious waves that they were wondering how the two of us had scored a private trip down the rapids. Instead of a hard night in the forest, we ended up maximizing our time at Taman Negara by doing both an extended hike and the rapids all in the same day – a much better outcome than we deserved after trusting the signs over the advice we received in the morning!!
That night, after our river boat dinner, I slept harder than I have in a long while. If the students in the room next door reformed their midnight drum circle from the night before, I had absolutely no clue. All I know is that I woke up the next morning just in time to enjoy the breakfast buffet that, among other, perhaps more serious hardships, we would have missed if we had spent the night in the forest.
On our last day, after a brief stroll around the canopy walk, we wound up hiking to the top of Bukit Indah (literally “beautiful hill”). After clambering over granite boulders and under fallen trees we emerged from the deeper forest into a thin copse of trees with the most incredible brilliant red bark that looked like sheer slices of crimson parchment but were moist and pulpy to the touch. Looking out from the hill top clearing, we could see wooden boats rounding the river’s curve on their way to the rapids. That restful moment seemed like a perfect time to think about why we hike and why we venture, despite the hazards, into the forest.
For Mark, the answer was reflection, the chance to explore his inner world away from the noise and chaos of the daily press. Mine was a desire to get closer to the incredible intrinsic beauty of the forest. There is an intricacy of design and a fitness of purpose layered within a living breathing freshness that makes the forest both wondrous and stunning. A few ant bites and thorn spikes, and the occasional risk of an overnight stay are more than worth it to experience such vitality firsthand.
To check out photos from the trip, visit Mark’s photo website at http://photos.laabs.net/ under Taman Negara and Kuala Lumpur
I want to go to Taman Negara right away after reading this post! Great writing!
Thanks Chee Ming!! You should definitely go – but if you do make sure to go farther along the trails than most of the tourists. A good twenty minute hike out and you’ll have left the crowds behind. That’s when you can see the best wildlife!