I decided to spend the weekend in Kuala Lumpur as my next intended stop was the Taman Negara National Park, and I wanted to make sure my bowels were completely under control before arriving. As I had done much of the sightseeing and exploring when I was last in Kuala Lumpur, I had a pretty relaxing time, although I did go out and watch the fountain show at Lake Symphony on the Saturday night, and the football on Sunday night. By Sunday my bowels were a lot better and I was back to eating normal food without any problems, which I very happy about because Asian food is so good.
On Monday I set off towards the Taman Negara National Park, which is apparently the world's oldest tropical rainforest. Getting there was the challenging part however as the primary way in is to go with a tour company, and I wanted to go self guided. After a bit of research I found the best way to get there self guided was by catching a bus to the town of Jerantut, before then catching another bus to the small village of Kuala Tahan which is the main gateway into the national park. Luckily when arriving at the bus station in Kuala Lumpur there were a few other backpackers there doing the same thing as me so I knew I was on the right track.
The drive to Jerantut was a nice scenic one as it went up via the Genting Highlands. This is where many Malaysians come on holiday as being at altitude the temperatures a lot cooler. There's therefore lots of entertainment complexes and high end hotel resorts up there. When arriving in Jerantut the bus to Kuala Tahan was waiting for us and was a nice and swift swap before continuing into the national park. The drive in went through these extensive palm plantations. When arriving in Kuala Tahan I soon found somewhere to stay and picked up a map of the walking trails in the area so I could plan my time there. The village itself was only small, with a busy river jetty offering boat transfers across the river into national park, accompanied by these floating restaurants and tour companies trying to sell you stuff.
I had several options of walks to do in the national park, before arriving tempted to try the challenging trek to the 2100m or so summit of Guning Tahan via the Four Step Waterfall. I opted against this in the end and decided I would stick to the trails in closer proximity to Kuala Tahan. The national park has a pretty extensive system of hides which are basically the equivalent of huts in New Zealand, but more like an actual hide so you can look out for wildlife, so I left the bulk of my kit in Kuala Tahan and went in with plenty of food and water, with the aim of staying out the night in the jungle somewhere. I had a vague idea of my route and several potential spots to stay the night.
After crossing the Tembeling River into the national park, I headed out towards the swimming hole at Lata Berkoh. En route I passed another swimming hole at Lubok Simpon, as well as my first hide at Bumbun Tabing. It was very hard work trekking though as the humidity was just crazy. I know when I left the weather forecast was quoting 38 degrees, and I least got out the direct sunlight by being in the trees, but it was still an absolute sweat box inside the trees! When arriving at Lata Berkoh it wasn't the most tempting place to swim, the water being brown, so I headed back on myself towards Bumbun Kumbang.
In a navigation sense it was actually really challenging as I got deeper into the jungle, as there weren't really any signs to help you, just these faded yellow spots on trees were all I had to follow, which disappeared constantly. I had a few occasions where I didn't see any for ages and wondered if I had gone wrong, but I was extra careful to make sure I followed the most obvious looking path. I did see a lot of humongous lumps of dung though which was obviously left by a large animal of some sort, I wasn't sure what though! Eventually I made it to the Terenggan river crossing which I had to paddle across, from here heading over to Kuala Terenggan where I rejoined the Tembeling River.
From Kuala Terenggan I wanted to do part of the Keniam Trail to explore and even possibly spend the night in these caves, but I couldn't find the path. I found some kind of small track but I wasn't confident enough to pursue it as I knew getting to Gua Kepayang, the cave I wanted to explore, was on paper 6km away and I didn't want to follow an unmarked path based on a hunch and risk getting lost. I therefore decided to base myself at the nearby hide of Bumbun Kumbang for the night. I still had a good 3 hours of daylight to play with, but I had already been out for about 8 hours so knew I probably should rest, and staying in a hide was far more appealing than camping after seeing some of insects crawling on the floor, the hide itself on stilts in the jungle canopy. I was pleased I did stay there as not long after arriving I spotted some monkeys, I think they were Gibbons, which were very fun to watch!
Overnight the jungle came alive and there was an absolute racket! There were some really unusual noises, and I was glad I pitched my mosquito net section of tent on the bunk bed and slept in that as I would have got eaten alive otherwise! It was let's say an experience sleeping in the heart of the jungle. Come morning my plan was to follow the Tembeling River back to Kuala Tahan, although when reaching the river crossing to cross the Terenggan River I couldn't see a realistic way across without physically swimming across, which wasn't the most attractive prospect as I could see eels in the river. There was this old collapsed bridge which I tried to use to decend to river level but it started giving way. As I couldn't see any alternative way both down to the river and then across, I decided to head back to where I crossed the river the previous day.
On my way back to the river crossing I saw a snake, although unfortunately it slithered into the bushes before I could get a picture. I think it was some kind of Krait. As before, navigationally it was challenging, and I soon reached this stream crossing which I knew I hadn't crossed the previous day. After retracing my steps I found a less obvious path which took me to the river crossing. I think I found the Keniam Trail as it was marked with the yellow dots the path I followed to the stream. There was no indication of a path the other side of the river, but I knew I'd come from that way, so nevertheless crossed the river which was luckily just a paddle, and eventually soon found the yellow dots again.
I followed the same path all the way back to the turn off to Lata Berkoh, and although it was navigationally tough I remembered certain things I'd passed on the way the the previous day. There was just one point I struggled as the path appeared to just stop, but when retracing my steps found a less obvious path and was back on track. Eventually I reached Lubok Simpon where I finally started seeing people again, and from here went out to Bumbun Tahan and the canopy walkway. The canopy walkway was unfortunately closed which was a series of swingbridges through the canopy, something which looked really fun. I was tempted to do a walk to summit of Bukit Teresek but by that point a nice cold drink in a cafe was far more appealing than trekking through the humid jungle.
By the time I got back to Kuala Tahan it was late afternoon, and with the local bus to Jerantut leaving each day at 10am and 5pm, I had the option to leave on the 5pm bus. In terms of exploring the national park I had actually explored a fair bit, and the only other realistic hike I could do was the Tenor Trail to visit a cave and further explore the jungle, although that would have required a full days hiking. As I was kind of done with hiking in humidity, I caught the bus to Jerantut for the night, mainly so I could get WiFi to plan the next few days, something not possible staying another night in Kuala Tahan.
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