Does what it says on the tin

Tropical Rainforest

Tropical - geographically true, and hot and humid to go with it

Rain - Oh yes!

Forest - The oldest (130million years apparently) rain forest in the world

Mid way across the Malay peninsula is the most famous national park in Malaysia, "Taman Negara". Getting off the bus, we chose to take the boat up to the park, as this is the most scenic way to arrive.

Jetty at the River Tembeling

Our patience with travelling has improved a lot on the trip, to the point where 10+ hour plane journeys don't really faze anymore, but even so the 3 hours sat on the wooden floor of a smallish boat was a bum numbing episode I wouldn't repeat in a hurry. The last boat we went on that had an outboard was the NZ dive RIB with 250bhp, so despite its best efforts, the 40bhp engine struggled upstream against the monsoon powered river flow. It didn't help that the boat was full of heavyweight western tourists and their luggage.

Arriving at the park, we realized that we didn't have enough cash for the hotels, so would have to pay on CC. Only one resort took cards, and this happened to be the best and most expensive (the Taman Negara Mutiara). After the previous nights awful beach accommodation, this was a mistake we were happy to put up with, especially when we got a free upgrade to a beautiful ensuite chalet in the jungle.

Mutiara Jungle Chalet

We stayed two nights, and were treated to Wild Boar and long tailed Macaques running (and climbing) free amongst the chalets.

Long Tailed Macaque

The rain and mud dampened any desire for long forest hikes, but we did make it to the "Canopy Walkway" near to the resort. Although in reality the walkway is made up of aluminium ladders strung up 40-50m above the forest floor, it felt quite safe, if a little bouncy, and was an excellent insight into a monkey level view of the forest. The walkway is the longest of its kind in the world, at 550m, and took quite some time to navigate.

Canopy Walkway