Tamana Negara

In Bahasan, "Taman" means "park" and "negara" means "national", so Taman Negara is literally "park national". Taman Negara is the first and largest national park in peninsular Malaysia. The 4,343 square kilometer park lies within three states Pahang, Terengganu and Kelantan. Taman Negara is thought to contain one of the oldest rainforests in the world (> 130 million years old).

I took a 4 day/3 night trip to Taman Negara during the Thaipusam holiday and shot over 400 photos while I was there (don't worry,I won't post all of them). The rainy season in this part of Pahang usually ends around the middle of January and luckily the weather acted according to form so the weather was bright and sunny for the entire visit. Overall, I would classify the activities that I took part in while I was in Taman Negara as "adventure light" with some hiking, boating, wildlife viewing, and a trip to a local Orang Asli (idigenous people of Malaysia) village. This will be the first of many posts about things that I did, saw, and learned there.

Getting There

Although it is possible to drive from KL to Taman Negara, most people take the journey via a combination of bus and boat. The journey started with a three hour bus ride from KL to Kuala Tembelling in Pahang. As usual, travelling by bus in Malaysia was very comfortable and uneventful. At Kuala Tembelling you check in with the National Park office to get an entry permit for 1 ringgit, about 30 cents, per person. In addition, there was also a 5 ringgit fee per camera carried into the park.

We ate lunch here.


After lunch, we boarded a long wooden boat for the more than 2 hour trip up the Sungai Tahan (Tahan River) to Kuala Tahan, the access point to Taman Negara. Because we sat on cushions in the bottom of the boat I have to say that I have had more comfortable journeys in my life, but the scenery along the way and the excitment of heading to Taman Negara made the trip ok. I stayed at the Taman Negara Resort which is the only hotel located on the National Park side of the river.

Looking down at the boat dock.


The boat dock from the river.


Another boat heading upstream to Kuala Tahan.


Looking upriver from the boat.


Some Views Along The River

Sungai Tahan forms an eastern boundary of Taman Negara. About half of the journey was completely outside of the park and for about half of the journey Taman Negara was on one side of the river whereas the opposite of the river was outside of the park and thus had a bit more development (villages, farms, hotels).





Water buffalo.


Arriving at the hotel.



Return Trip

The return trip was the same, but in reverse. Because the morning boat trip started at 9 AM there was more bird activity along the river and I saw one monitor lizard swimming as well. We passed the water buffalo herd again, but I still wasn't able to get a very good photo.



The bus.


Interesting rock outcrop on the trip home.


I arrived home at about 4 in the afternoon on Sunday. While I was opening the door to my apartment I heard the sound a honking cars coming through the window at the end of the hallway. When I went and took a look I saw this traffic jam of shoppers headed to the mall for a Sunday afternoon of shopping. Welcome back to civilization!