Taman Negara is the oldest and largest National park in Malaysia I believe. It is about 4 hours north of KL.
Now, I contemplated getting a car and driver for this trip as I did not want to park a hire car up in the carpark just sitting there for 3 or 4 days. Prices for a car and driver were around 550mr and I figured that was kinda ridiculous for a 4 hour trip. One taxi dude came down to 450mr and then called back and asked what I was happy to pay. But by then we had made other arrangements.
We decided to hire a car and drive myself for 120mr a day plus fuel obviously.
Departing Sunway Lagoon I made sure I got a map with the car and directions from the concierge and the car rental dude.
Car rental dude sat down with the map and I asked where was TN….he said…oh so sorry sir I cannot read a map….so off to the concierge. He diligently called the hotel we had booked in TN and got specific directions, then gave us a small printed map of the local roads leading out of Sunway to the highway we needed to get on and follow.
His map consisted of very specific directions, 4 U turns or so and follow this etc and you will get to this toll gate and just go through and follow it.
No problem, we followed the map, got to the toll gate and thought hoorah….easy peasy.
About 30 minutes into it I could not see one sign with familiar names in the direction we should be going. Hit another tollway and asked the girl if this was the way to TN…oh no sir you need to do U turn and go back that way.
Meanwhile, in the rear my daughter of 3yo is yelling ‘I need to do pooh’ and my 6yo son yelling ‘daddy your daughter just shit in her pants’….how are you supposed to navigate a strange country under such pressures.
So how the fcuk we ended up all arsed up I have no idea, I figure the fcukin concierge had the map upside down when drawing on it.
Filling up with petrol, we stopped at the pump, self serve here, bugger….get out and stick the hose in, I have not done this for 6 years, so wondered what the go was when nothing comes out….looked at the gun, pushed all the buttons on the bowser, looked into the hose, put it back in, back out. Decided pump bloken so drove to other pump, same same, hose in, hose out, punch buttons.
Finally little Indian chap sauntered over and says ……sorry sir oh my goodness you have to go pay deposit first….I say deposit for what….deposit for gas sir…fcuk me ok so I go pay deposit and go back and pump and go back and pay and go back and get in the car and we is off.
The rental car dude was also 2 and a half hours late delivering the car, so a leisurely trip up there turned into hell, rushing to get the boat across the river before dark and getting lost another 2 times, turned a 4 hour trip into 6 hours and me being pissed orf to the max. Combined with not being able to drive to fast as this car did not have rear seat belts for the kids, I nearly did not go simply because of this, against better judgement I decided to go and just try to be extra careful.
Best thing was there was not one hero pickup driver on the road, you know the cnuts here that speed up behind you flashing their lights to get by even when there is traffic on your left. I love doing that here. Very good drivers, much much better than Los.
To get to Taman Negara you used to have to go to a pier down river and get a boat up to the resorts as there was no road, but now there is a road to an area opposite the resorts and you can just get a short ferry ride across the river. We opted for this, however you can still do the river trip and I would highly recommend it, although it is 2 hours long.
The resort we stayed at was at the park headquarters, apparently the nicest one there and would want to be for the price, 580mr from memory for a family bungalow with 4 beds. While the resort was located in a great area, the actual resort is not so flash, nice and comfortable, but I have had much better bungalows in Los in the national parks for between 800b and 2500b, so it is relatively expensive.
This is the resort....clouded in early mist but...
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The highlight of the park is the elevated suspension walkway amongst the tree tops of the rainforest, it is about 30/40 meters above the ground and runs for approximately 5/600 meters throughout the tree tops. Very nice experience.
View from the top down the river...
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Lucky there is a net here, bit wonky on the legs...
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Missus got 'air' sick walking on the wonky walkway...luckily below was only birds, elephant poo, bugs, lizards and the odd yank that she chundered on...
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The canoe back down the river to the resort....
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It was actually very nice to wake up to the peace and quiet of the rainforest jungle…..but then at 6.15am the mosque over the river blurted out the call to prayer….luckily it only lasted a few minutes and that time of the morning is the best time of the day. I looked at the clock and thought thank fcuk I can go back to sleep for a coupla hours.
Big leaves in the jungle...
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Now, the ‘call to prayer’…. I used to live in Sathorn near a mosque and we got the call to prayer headache everytime and it was that sad fcuking shrieking shit that annoys over a tinny loud speaker. This CTP at TN was actually very pleasant, never heard it before and the guys voice was really good and the melody was actually a pleasant way to wake up, I listened for it each morning and enjoyed it very much in the early light. I tried and really tried to get up early enough one morning to actually go and record it, but alas each morning came and went and the bed was warm and nakedness lay next to me with only a hard lump between us. So the CTP is only a pleasant memory now.
The bungalow...
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This pic I had high hopes for when I took it and saw it briefly in the viewfinder....but when I got home unfortunately it was somewhat out of focus...We took a canoe up the river to a rapids area where we had to walk nearly a kilometer to an area to swim, had a natural spa bath there...
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My new muslim bride...
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The colour of this river I had never seen before, it was red throughout and guess it is from the tanins from the jungle and such, I have seen many a waterhole or pond this colour, but never a huge flowing river...
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This was my first real play with my new camera, could not get the 'flow' of the river as I wanted, but here tis above.....below the colour of the river...
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My daughters idea of bushwalking...
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Nice local drink....someone else can probably agree to the fact that joy juice is tasty...
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Early morning on the river....
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Arty farty shots of the rangers mode of transport...
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Miles and miles of palm oil farms we drove through to get to the river and resort at the National park. Just shows how much original jungle has been lost to this when on one side you have the TN rainforrest and then on the other you drive through hundreds of miles of palm oil trees.
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