2016 Day five – Kuala Tahan | West Malaysia loop ride

2016 Day five – Kuala Tahan

Day five – Kuala Tahan

*From memory…enjoy!

This is a very special place…Taman Negara (National Park in Malay). I have always wanted to come to this place…I have heard about it since I was in school and never had the opportunity to visit. It was awesome to be here and I was super excited to get on with exploring what this place had to offer.

We started with breakfast at the restaurant. It was your usual international buffet breakfast done very nicely at the edge of the forest. I found it to be a little ironic that we were having such an elaborate breakfast in what must be the most pristine forest in all of the country!

After breakfast, we went for our morning trek. Joe would be our guide. Joe is one of the locals who worked hard learning English and eventually qualified himself to be a guide here. He was very knowledgeable about the flora and fauna, very humourous and extremely passionate about the environment here. We went trekking into the forest, climbing up to the canopy walk…and then further upwards onto the summit before descending back to the hotel. Here are the pictures and videos of our adventure.

Please say Hello to Joe, our guide for the day

A group photo...but more importantly...this was a super duper old tree! — A group photo…but more importantly…this was a super duper old tree! It is tough for Joe to use a manual focus lens!

As usual, Chris had a knack for the funnies

Here is Joe talking about the Liana trees... — Here is Joe talking about the Liana trees…

Here is Joe explaining how the natives use the sap from the Ipoh tree as numbing poison on their darts

Lets have a break while we wait for our turn to do the canopy walk — Let’s have a break while we wait for our turn to do the canopy walk

The guides are having a nice break there

Finally! I get onto the canopy walk!

Ariffs turn on the canopy walk — Ariff’s turn on the canopy walk

This is where it gets a little tricky…

Not only is it wobbly...it is actually a ladder! — Not only is it wobbly…it is actually a ladder!

Then it is upwards to the summit…1.2km up to the top!

Bukit Terisek is the name of this mountain…

Are we there yet?

Taking a break before the final push

On we go! Why do I keep looking into the camera?

The beautiful sounds of the forest…and the wonderful antics of Chris…

The summit!!!

After that it was time to get down the mountain back to the hotel for some lunch!

This is one part of lunch... — This is one part of lunch…

This is the other part...the tasty part — This is the other part…the tasty part

After lunch, we got down to the jetty and onto a long power boat for some rapid shooting.

Joe seems to be having a nice and relaxing time…

And then it is time to get to work!

We made it through eventually…and then some more that were slightly easier…

Time for a video wefie…

A quick blast with some people getting wet…

Landed on the beach of an Orang Asli village

The beach looks nice…but it is BURNING HOT!!!

No, theyre not windchimes...theyre dart quivers — No, they’re not wind chimes…they’re dart quivers

This is how you make fire…

First you rub the rope against the wood to create heat

You know youre on the right track when you see smoke — You know you’re on the right track when you see smoke

Then as the kindling sparks put on some dry leaves

Gently blow onto the leaves to encourage combustion

Ariff’s blow pipe aiming is a bit on the high side…

Chris is just the opposite!

Now its time for Eric!

We headed back to the hotel after this. Back at the hotel it was free and easy time till dinner so I took a walk and also some photographs of the place.