Ohai. So we woke up the following morning on time for our day of activities. The MilkADeal package included some things for us to do, namely guided jungle trekking + canopy walk + rapids shooting.
First, guided jungle trekking. Our group had 8 people, all from the same resort. We were taken to the river banks of Kuala Tahan where we crossed the river (usually RM1 per crossing) to the side of Mutiara Taman Negara, where the jungle ‘trekking’ begins. Our guide was chatty and amiable, led us through the luxurious resort where a dorm bed costs RM80 a night.
If I had money to spare, I’d stay at Mutiara also lah… 😉
Can’t tell you much about the trek as it was… like that lah. Parts of the path had proper wooden stairs and there was work for more to be added. The guide did pinpoint some more interesting things, e.g. big trees, big barks, sandalwood, rotan, the natural insect repellent for orang asli etc. The trail itself was very tame. The only exhausting part was a few giant steps leading to the canopy walk.
The canopy walk was the highlight of the morning. It’s separated to two parts: the 1st section newly reopened after extensive refurbishments. So now they closed up the 2nd section to do the same. There was a queue to get on the canopy walkway as it could hold a limited number of people at one time.
Quite fun la. If you’d done Skytrex, this should be a walk in the airpark. We had an older couple from Bavaria for company who were very pleased to know that we’re familiar with BMW and Oktoberfest.
After that the group continued the hike to reach the top of the hill. I followed for about 10 minutes then decided that I wasn’t going to go on because: feet in pain after a prolonged period of inactivity + forgot to trim my toenails + not in the mood for leeches. So I went back down myself on the same road, about 2km each way.
Halfway back I was cursing myself at my stupidity. It’s generally a safe trail but who knows, right? I got freaked out at one point when I was alone and two men were catching up fast behind me. Thankfully a nice young German couple appeared and I asked if they could stay with me for 2 minutes.
So yeah, have to deploy more brains next time 🙂
At the entrance of the jungle, I walked back to the resort with a local guide. He lives in Kuala Tembeling and journeys to Kuala Tahan everyday for his guiding work. He told me about Gunung Tahan and the week-long journey to get there. “How many times have you done it?” I asked. “Oh a few times,” he replied, “I like going there myself but not as a guide because too many people underestimate the difficulty.”
At the river bank, I chose a different floating restaurant to chill at while waiting for Joyce to return.
High tide
My choice turned out to be a good one as the food was delicious. My nasi goreng padprik ayam was like champagne and caviar compared to last night’s dinner at the restaurant next ‘door’. I don’t remember the name of this floating restaurant but it shouldn’t be too difficult to spot: yellow on the outside with IKEA tables and chairs on the inside.
SO YUM
By the way the food at Kuala Tahan is not cheap. But biasa lah, tourist (like me) place.
After Joyce came back, we had lunch and walked back to Rainforest Resort. This is a random photo of the entrance to the jetty via cars. On its left and right are cheap digs for backpackers, i.e. RM10 a night.
Walk walk walk.
In the afternoon, we had our other activity, rapids shooting. Say like I know what it was but actually I didn’t. Turns out, shooting the rapids means navigating your boat through series of rapids. The brochure said it would be a fun experience, be prepared to get thoroughly wet! They just neglected to mention that if the rapids didn’t get you wet, your guide definitely will. A bit boh liu but whatever lah, join the boh liu ‘fun’ lor.
As a visit to the orang asli settlement was not included in our package, we opted not to visit it when we stopped by for others who’d paid to visit. Took a photo of some of them from afar.
Got back to the river bank jetty, tried to book a night cruise activity but not enough people and didn’t feel like paying for 4 for 2. Oh well 🙁 Walked back to hotel again because walking allowed us to buy this on the way:
Coconut jelly! RM1 each, light, cooling and refreshing, Joyce’s favourite.
For dinner we went back to the floating restaurant, it was high tide. Saw this floating shop quite stranded out.
By the way, I must address a Taman Negara fallacy: there are NO animals in Taman Negara ok.
I decided to bring this up because earlier today, I was telling my mom about Taman Negara.
She said she’d like to bring Ryan there. I asked why.
She said, “Oh cos can see the animals mah.”
Thus I told her, “Ma there are NO animals in Taman Negara. You’re better off going to the National Zoo.”
Now you know.
Canopy walk, awesome! The foods served at floating cafe with Ikea furnishes, awesome! Ter-“wet” by the quide, awesome! Coconut Jelly, awesome! No animals in Tmn. Negara…… eh…… awesome!
‘ter’ wet by guide, not awesome!