025. TAMANNAYEIN : A travelogue - Taman Negara (Malaysia)

Dear Readers & Well wishers,

This is my 25th blog post.  I thank all my readers who have been reading my blogs, commenting on them thereby motivating me and my humble writing.   Its still amazing to realize that I could post 25 blogs,  starting October 2009!!  THANKS A MILLION !

Kindly continue your valuable support.

Best Regards,

Renjith P Sarada

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After umpteen attempts, I could get my friend on phone - who is a Travel Consultant by profession.   He was extremely busy in his work due to the holiday season.   Flights are fully booked, many holiday destinations are booked and many hotels are booked !!

Tamannayein

Wishes (Tamannayein) are  immortal

Like my Taman Negara memories …

Honestly, I have not been on a holiday for long.   Perhaps, the feel of guilt in myself during our conversation took me to December 2002 - my holiday with some friends to Taman Negara during my Malaysia tenure.  Taman Negara (meaning National Park), formerly known as King George V National Park is located in the State of Pahang in Malaysia.  According to historians Taman Negara is more than 130 million years of age – older than Congo or the Amazon !!  This is said to be the oldest rain forest in the world and  is preserved to stay the way nature intended to be for exploration.

Our band was an amalgamation of cultures from various parts of Indian subcontinent.  My good friends (my colleagues/room mates etc. in Malaysia)  gave me an apt company.    

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  Desikan with a strong inclination for hats with strong sense of timing, emerged as our leader. 
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  Brijesh Patil, who exhibited enthusiasm on botanical stuff and ecology was instrumental in ensuring our boarding and transportation activities.  
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  Gowrishankar was the center of attraction and as ever, he was the connoisseur in the matter of serving of drinks to keep the company cool.   
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  Ravi remained a silent spectator, but we all were able to witness his photographic skills.
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  Sushil and Bindiya – the young, wonderful, photogenic and newly wed couple had their own way of making people comfortable, but at the same time, enjoyed their own personal romatic moments.
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  Shiva, the chubby, sweet and enthusiastic friend - you guessed it right, maintains his well built body which is looked by others with envy!
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  Vinayak, another friend of mine, came down all the way from Singapore to join us.
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  Shameek also contributed his part in keeping us good company with his collection of some Indian jokes.
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  Myself -  could share light moments with the team - finishing the jokes in a lackluster way (sometimes with a bad landing!!) 

When I draft this blog post, I remember all of the above friends - now located at different places across the globe.  May this blog post, help us to re-unite!

On Friday, the 6th of December morning, we assembled at the door steps of Hotel Malaya @ China Town in Kuala Lumpur to kick start the voyage to Taman Negara.  Being true Indians, we started our “look out” for breakfast, just when our bus was about to start!  Not to mention, our take off got delayed, but managed to get hot parattas and chicken curry “bangoosed” (Malaysian word,  meaning, parceled)  for passing our time during our journey! The bus, happened to be a typical yellow coloured “Bas Sekolah” (Malaysian word, meaning, School Bus) as most of the schools were closed for Hari Raya (Eid) and annual holidays in Malaysia.  The bus were loaded with “phirangis” (Hindi word, meaning, foreigners) belonging to the West and China/Japan/India in the East!   The intensity of Indians was observable from the head count as well as the decibel level on board the six-wheeler.  As a pastime, we had a round of “dumbcharads” , which later became intolerable to the driver and subsequently made us switch over the pastime to sleeping !

After a journey of nearly 4 hours, we had a sojourn at Jerantut (Gateway to the National Park).  There, in Hotel Emas, we had lunch and also a classic, class-room style briefing on Taman Negara and the optional activities for the next two days.  During the briefing, the tour co-ordinator (NKS – the expansion of which is still being investigated!) set our expectations very high by boasting about the density of the forest. (Later, we realized that we were fortunate enough to see some domestic cats in the wild forest!!!). We were dropped at the Ferry point at Kuala Tembeling Jetty, which was a 20 minute drive from Hotel Emas.  The 3-hour long ferry journey to Taman Negara was admirable – a 25 seater high speed wooden boat with mere cushions to sit on!  The ferry passage made us revisit Hindi tunes by virtue of Anthakshari, which was participated by us, barring a few.

Our accommodation was at Ekoton Chalet, another typical chalet made of wood and ply wood, in Malaysian architecture.  Ekoton comprises fan/air condition hostels in the local village of Taman Negara. We revitalized after having a cup of Teh Tarik (Malaysian word, meaning, tea drink) and got ready for our much awaited Night Safari.  Unfortunately, the night safari in a 4 wheel drive was a real disaster (I am not getting the apt word to express the quantum of the feeling!) in terms of expectations and results , but we enjoyed being befooled.  The guide showed us ‘child-leopard’, but it took the sun to come out next day, for us to understand that the ‘leopard’ was just another animal from the cat family!!

As soon as we returned from the Night Safari with dejected moods, we got indulged into the favourite activity (of whatever expeditions) – drinking.  The session of drinking – no matter it be Pepsi or Gin or Rum or Whisky or Brandy or Beer or  mineral water, seemed to be the real morale boosters. After sometime of enjoyment, we closed the chapter of our  Day One activities.

Day Two started with a sumptuous breakfast at the LBK floating restaurant. LBK happened to be the center point for us for everything at Taman Negara – to start the day or to start trekking or to start boating etc. etc. After breakfast, we started jungle trekking from Canopy Walk. The 45 metres high, 510 metres long walkway is the longest canopy walk in the world. The forest canopy allows you to view the rich and diverse flora and fauna at the very summit of the forest. (Honestly, I had my blood pressure shot up because of tension during the walk!!) This was one of the most physically challenging activities which I had undertaken in my life.

The trekking was equally interesting, and at the same time, tiring. The network of the trekking trails were clearly marked, so it was easy and safe to trek in the jungle and surround oneself in the virgin jungle. Our guide, Mr. Naziruddin was a  much experienced guy in his trade. We ‘marched’ till the hill top and reached the apex after nearly one hours and more. We reached chalet at 2 pm to have another enjoyable lunch. The lunch was very well enjoyed, because of the trekking effect.

After lunch we set off for Cave exploration.  For reaching Gua Telinga - “The Ear Cave” (Telinga Cave has a rock formation like a human ear), we had to trek almost 1 kilometre. Cave exploration was real adventure.....the cave exploration made us to crawl, slide in swamplands and the place was stinking. The inside of the cave was pitch dark and we had only 3 torches.  We saw bats and saw them hanging just 2 foot away from us..... Bindiya and myself  did not join because of slippery and fear respectively !!!!

Rain started in the forest when we were trekking back to the boat point from the caves. We saw some branches of forest trees falling off in the wind and showers.  It was  scary!!

Next interesting event was to meet "Orang Asli".   In Malay language, Orang means Man and Orang Asli are the original inhabitants of the jungle.

The Orang Asli of Taman Negara call themselves as Batek – the people of rain forest.  Some still lead a semi-nomadic life.  Their settlements are along some of the forest trails or by the river. The Batek are gentle race of people, short in stature, dark skinned and with tight curly hair. The chieftain of the group whom we met, showed us the method by which they kill animals using their weapon which is operated by blowing.

We were lucky enough to see the making of those weapons too. We will be surprised to know their ‘technology’ using very simple unbelievable things! Ironically, we saw them smoking Marlboro cigarettes !! (may be gifted by some other visitors..??)

Some of us were interested in another activity, called rapid shooting.  Rapid Shooting is a boat ride wherein - we would be taken in a boat through rapid currents in the river.  Those who are adventurous can return through the down stream in rubber tubings.  For that, we need to sit on the rubber tube and would be automatically pushed towards the lower level of mountain side due to the flow of the river.   That marked the end of our slated activities at Taman Negara.  (Once again, I remained a silent spectator !!)

By evening, our team, gathered near our chalet after dinner for Camp Fire.   Naziruddin, our guide,  helped us in getting firewoods for making the dream of Camp fire a reality.  Desikan was the main person behind the camp fire episode.  Energy spurred out from the friends throughout the camp fire. There were elements of holiday mood – all of us participated and showed their indigineous skill sets.  The day was, of course, tiring and once we hit back to the sack,  we all had a session of glorious snoring.

Day Three was a retreat.

After breakfast, we came once again to LBK floating restaurant, which is also the Ferry Point at Taman Negara.  

Said bye to the forest, said bye to the loving people there and said bye to the host and hostesses at LBK.  Started our cruise back to Jerantut.   Because of down stream, we reached Kuala Tembeling in just two hours time.  After Indian lunch at Jerantut,  we got into the same Bas Sekolah to come back to Kuala Lumpur and to resume our routine operations the next day……

 
(C) Renjith P Sarada 2010.  All rights reserved.
 
For more information, please google "Taman Negara" and make a trip.

My special thanks to my friend, Shameek Ghosh who helped me in compiling this travelogue!