Welcome to the Jungle (Taman Negara)

February 15, 2008

We are students from UiTM when to Taman Negara to experience and explore the nature. After a long bus ride we arrive at Taman Negara and everybody was excited. We can see the greenery of nature that calm our mind after long hour journey.

We had a dorm room to ourselves and even had air conditioning. The resort (Pesona Village Resort) we were staying in was right on the edge of the park and often sees some of the animals roaming around it but unfortunately due to number of tourists it is much less common these days.
Taman Negara National Park is Malaysia's premier National Park which covers 4343 square kilometers. It is 130 million years old and said to be the oldest rain forest in the world. The park in home to elephants, tigers, leopards and many other large creatures but because of the scale and density of the jungle you'd be lucky to see any of them.

Jungle Trekking

High Canopy Walk

As we were finding our way round the resort we noticed a sign saying "monkey crossing" and wondered what it was for, we didn't really think that monkeys would cross there everyday. As we walked back towards our room we spotted a monkey on the roof of a resort bungalow, one by one more monkeys followed heading in the direction of the "monkey crossing". There must have been about 12-15 monkeys climbing across the bungalows and swinging from the trees. As well as monkeys there was looked like a family of wild bore roaming around the resort looking for food.

In the evening we went for a night walk trough the jungle. Our guide did his best to scare us about the leeches in the jungle and most of the girls seemed worried enough. We saw many different creatures on the walk the most interesting being huge ants, big scorpions and a large snake sat in the tree about a meter from our heads and move down.


I sat at the back of the group waiting to take a picture from underneath the snake. As every one moved on it was pitch black as I aimed my camera, I had no idea where the snakes was but thought it was probably best to take a quick shot and then get out of there. Apparently it was a poisonous snake but as our guide said "not that poisonous...but it can kill you .".

February 16, 2008

The next day, we went on a longer trek to view the jungle from high on a hill. In the day time there were far less creatures around but the jungle was far from quiet. I had my first leech crawling up my leg, but I managed to flick it off before it started sucking any blood (Just like John Rambo!). In the afternoon we went to visit a local tribe who showed us how to use a blow pipe to kill monkeys and other creatures as well as how to make a fire from a couple of pieces wood.



Although they were a genuine tribe like most tourist places they have changed due to the contact with people and money. They still hunt with the blow pipe but they probably use a lighter to start a fire. Their village had several hunts and as a couple of tents, one of those modern ones that you can put up in about 60 seconds! The imagine of tribe living in the jungle doesn't quite seem to fit with the tribe that now makes money from tourists. They seemed to have a good life anyhow, getting high all and shooting a few monkeys now and again.

After the tribe visit we headed down the river rapids for something called "rapid shooting", basically a trip for the tourist to get splashed by waves and go home soaking. It was quite good fun but we had much rather have spent the time trekking further out into the jungle and maybe staying overnight in one of the many hides. The size of this rain forest is incredible and we only saw a tiny fraction, it seemed there was so much more to see. It was a good experience but we wish we had money to actually trek with a guide deep into the jungle.

February 17,2008

After we had breakfast, we go back to UiTM. Everybody has a great pleasure of this trip although it was tiring experience.