Expedition in the Malaysian jungle | Part 1

George Town - Kuantan - TAMAN NEGARA NATIONAL PARK/ KUALA TAHAN - / Merapoh - Kuala Lumpur

🎥Video for the post:

https://youtu.be/SmG9JO_1_jk

We arrived in Kuala Tahan, although it was different from what we planned. Originally, we planned to take a bus to Jerantut and from there take a 2-3 hour boat ride over a river to the national park. But the boat decided to leave earlier, so we missed it and took a taxi with a woman from Singapore. In the end, it wasn't that bad because we were hungry and arrived in the village faster, plus we saw the huge palm oil plantations. Besides petroleum, rubber, and tin, Malaysia benefits greatly from palm oil.

Although it is very versatile, we are theoretically against palm oil and have tried to buy as few products as possible in Germany that contain palm oil. When you pay attention to it, you realize how difficult it is and how palm oil is used in so many products. When you see these monoculture plantations and know that there used to be rainforest and how aggressively it was cleared, it strengthens our determination not to support it.

But now let's get to the actual story. We were in a village called Kuala Tahan right in the middle of the national park, and from there we started our two excursions.

The first excursion was a jungle tour to the so-called "Canopy Walkway". The absolute highlight was the suspension bridges at the height of the treetops. However, you need to have a head for heights because it's quite wobbly, especially when two people walk on it at the same time. Only four people are allowed on one bridge at a time, with a minimum distance of 10 meters between them. We had some thrills because it didn't feel completely safe 😅. Fortunately, there were only a few people on the walkway. But it was really cool.

During the hike, we didn't see any large animals, except for monkeys, but we saw countless insects of all sizes. I (Emely) even saw a snake and Finn saw an oversized millipede. But the trees themselves are so impressive and imposing. Whether it's the different barks, the gigantic buttress roots, or the leaves, flowers, and mushrooms. We are always fascinated by what nature has to offer.

The second excursion included a thrilling and very wet boat tour to an indigenous village (Orang Asli) in the jungle. Their tribe name is "Batek". They have a strong African influence in appearance, but no one is really sure where it comes from. However, there are several theories. They still build their huts very traditionally with rattan stems and palm leaves. Many of the 30 residents cannot read or write. Their official language is Malay. For about three months, the children have been going to school in Kuala Tahan, traveling by boat just like we did. Occasionally, the Batek also go to the weekly market in Kuala Tahan. As for how they make money: through visits like ours. After all, we had to pay for this excursion. The village is only visited in the afternoon, but every day and on some days with a lot of people. We cannot imagine that it's a pleasant experience for the residents. But it was very interesting because our guide told us a lot about them, and they showed us how they hunt with blowpipes and how they can start a fire in just 2 minutes using natural products. They also showed us how they make their arrows with natural materials, and in the end, we even got to try hitting a stuffed animal with the blowpipe. Finn and I were very close, but if it had been a real animal, we would have had to go hungry that day.

In the end, we were allowed to roam freely in the village, but that was the absurd part. We looked at them, they looked at us, but the difference was that we took pictures. We felt so uncomfortable and felt like we were in a human zoo, so we avoided taking obvious pictures. We preferred to stay further away and use the telephoto lens. It was a really weird feeling.

We both agree that it is certainly a good source of income for the indigenous people, but with the many visitors, it will probably lose its charm.

Those were our first two excursions in Taman Negara National Park, and the next episodes are already coming, but from a different location.

On the way back, we took the boat because we didn't want to miss that ride 😉.

Off to Merapoh.