Teman Negara jungle, Malaysia: by day and night

Taman Negara jungle by day

After being woken at 5am by the Imam blasting his call to prayer from the mosque next door, came a trek into the jungle to Taman Negara's forest canopy walkway. It didn’t start as the adventure I hoped it would, along a well-trodden and sometimes wood-decked path, and myself, Jo and Jen were a bit miffed. But it certainly finished as a real adventure, and you can’t grumble at the chance to trek in the jungle.

The jungle was quite dense, and comprised of 3 layers or zones of vegetation: the uppermost (canopy layer), somewhere near the heavens; the secondary layer, growing to a tree height I’m familiar with; and the forest floor layer of ferns, plants and new-growing trees.

The uppermost foliage layer is held 70-80m high by giant trees appearing to be racing upwards towards the sunlight, many like 1m diameter telegraph poles: dead straight until the first branch 10m or more above the ground. The largest trees have 3 or 4 triangular buttresses, shaped like giant European noses, to support their weight.

Buttress supporting massive tree

The second layer is of (for me) normal-size trees, some palm-like but with saw-blade thorns on their trunks. Down at the dimly-lit forest floor, the plants and flowers. Smothering and choking all are creepers that scale then hang from all trees: thigh-thick; plaited; creepers on creepers on creepers; and curving and spiralling around on the ground like fire hoses.

Typical jungle and Tarzan creepers (maybe 20m above the ground)

There were few flowers so little fragrance, only that of a damp forest. It was much quieter than I’d imagined too, with only rare bird chatter and mostly insect whistlings. Compensating, there was plenty of colour in butterflies and in leaves. Who said growing leaves had to green? I saw reds, yellows, shades of purpley green and even light sea-blue. A family of wild pigs shuffled and snuffled across our path and through the undergrowth and dense litter of brown leaves. Unfortunately, they were the only 'big' animals I saw, but I was content to watch the 2-cm body length ants, hairy caterpillars and British ant-sized black bees drinking the sweat from my forearm.

An opportunity to explore the forest’s high canopy couldn’t be missed, and was utter fear and exhilaration. The canopy walkway is 530m of rope-and-plank walkway (think Indiana Jones escaping the Temple of Doom on that rope bridge across the deep gorge, burning stones in his bag) as 9 sections hanging between 10 wooden platforms that circle giant tree trunks (think Ewok village, Return of the Jedi) about 45m above the forest floor (think 11 storeys up). [The forest’s values of measurement as quoted by a jungle warden.] As the rope bridges bounced and swayed I had infighting between my instincts: to keep going for the buzz and bolt from this toes-over-the-edge-of-a-cliff like situation. They compromised, with me tip-toeing along the foot-wide planks and only occasionally looking down, having minor heart failure every time the planks creaked. Stunning views of the jungle and river though.

45m high rope walkway through the jungle canopy

After a lunch of peanut butter and jam sarnies, we took a 6km hike through the stifling heat and humidity to the summit of Bukit Teresik hill. I’ve never been so saturated with sweat before, though really felt it’s cooling effects. Palmy fronds resonated to the shrill, metallic whistling of a cicada-like insect (1 or 1000s together?) of a pitch that resembled 12,000 Stretford Enders urging the ref with finger-in-mouth whistling to end a closely-fought match, and increased to that of a dentist’s drill. I had to put my fingers in my ears at times, and was thankful when all were silenced by the torrential afternoon downpour. And then the real adventure began.

Our steep descent down Bukit Teresik was on mud, using arm-thick creepers as handrails. We had to search for footprints to discern our route at intersections of animal/human tracks and dry stream channels. The leafy branches of recently fallen trees smothered all evidence of the track in places, and our way was occasionally blocked by 20m long and 1m thick Cadbury’s Flake bars: the decomposing, crumbling-in-the-hand remains of other fallen trees. Comparing the din made by the rain striking foliation above, with the little rain water that reached us at the forest floor, the canopy catches almost all precipitation, explaining the apparent urgency for creepers and leafy plants to get up there.

Cadbury’s Flake tree

I was so drained back at Kuala Tahan village I could hardly comment even about the leeches Joe found in both his socks, so engorged with his blood that it dripped out of them as he flicked them off. The anti-coagulent they injected to ease his blood flow into their mouths certainly worked, as his wounds tricked blood for an hour after. I then had 23 hours sleep with only 2 hours awake time between, before deciding to explore the village for the rest of the next day. I emailed from a wood and corrugated iron shack where the husband yelled and groaned at his WWF wrestling Playstation game and the kids, in Spiderman outfits, watched violent sound TV or washed the Ssangyong Musso SUV out the front. I thought this was a jungle village?!

Kuala Tahan riverside village

A chap in the next dorm room, who’s been here weeks and done all the ‘deep’ jungle treks, talked about the efforts employed to preserve this jungle national park, or not. Poaching Thais, who cross their border and enter the north of the park, have reduced the tiger population to around 50 and logging continues, contributing to the erosion into the muddy rivers. Timber is transported away by local boatmen (and who wouldn’t take the offer of a fistful of cash?), with boat licenses that can only be granted by the national park. Yet 3 years imprisonment awaits a tourist who enters the park without a camera or fishing permit!

I hope the Malaysian government looks at the ugliness of most of its deforested and palm-tree plantation landscape and makes tighter measures for preserving this minor patch of remaining jungle.

Taman Negara jungle by night

As the jungle wasn't as noisily alive as I'd expected by day, I decided to investigate its symphony by torch and star light. I could have employed a guide for the evening for 20 Ringgit (3 quid), but with only 23 Ringgit to get me tomorrow's breakfast, lunch and potential 6-hour train journey to Kuala Lumpur, I went accompanied only with my sense of direction and 'no snake or spider bites please' wishful thinking. I wasn't disappointed.

There was much more activity than during the daytime, mostly insects as the loud, guided groups of Germans and Chinese kept the bigger animals away. I saw Huntsman spiders (I was told) camouflaged against licheny tree trunks, crickets with antennae many times their body length, thorny stick insects, caterpillars so hairy they were wearing Afghan hound coats and best of all, rows of glow-in-the-dark mushrooms (no, I hadn't eaten one first) that resembled a luminous row of mini-UFOs parked up on a parking lot log.



Spider at night (10cm across)


Camouflaged Huntsman spider (10cm across)

Who says a night foray into the jungle can't be fun? Kuala Lumpur next...