We depart Kuala Lumpur by minibus to Taman Negara National Park, four hours north. We're going on a tour with a local company we booked in Chinatown and they take clients up to Taman Negara every day. It's one of the most popular trips outside K.L. aside from the Cameron Highlands (we're there going next). When we reach Jerantut, the 'entrance' town to Taman Negara we change to a riverboat, or Sampan, to journey two hours upstream to our accommodation at Kuala Tahan. Kuala Tahan is a small settlement on the banks of the Sungei Tembeling comprising mainly of hotels, restaurants and boat tour desks. It's a relatively new set up.
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They're still building new places and the cobbled beach with only a few higglety pigglety steps up suggests its in the process of development. It's all here for the tourists visiting the park and we do hear that ten years ago it was in fact a traditional tribal settlement. These bits of information do make you feel a bit guilty to be part of the destruction of a way of life and sanctity of the forest. We're allocated a room in the Teresek View motel and we have our own toilet! This is more luxurious than staying in a city. The walls could do with a paint though! but you can't complain. We head back down to the riverbank for dinner on the Mamachop floating restaurant then we're driven across the river by sampan to enter the National Park for our night jungle trek. Amar, our guide, takes us into the rainforest, forewarning us of leeches and big ants. The leeches come out after rain and are attracted by the vibration of movement on the ground. They're much smaller than the ones you get in rivers but they'll still try to get inside your shoe to have a little suck of your blood. Some of the bigger ants can bite you and leave you feeling quite ill. Amar finds stick insects, spiders, scorpions, a snake and a moss deer for us to view. He tells us there are bigger animals in the rainforest, like leopard, tapir and tiger, but they have moved deeper into the jungle since the daily tours of visitors started. The following day we are taken on a guided hike to Bukit Teresek from where we have a pretty good view across the miles of rainforest. We find the noises from the trees to be very interesting, from what could be the call of a gibbon in the distance to closer exotic bird songs and the intense alarm sounds and clicking of the sekada. The humidity is high in the jungle and all our party are dripping in sweat before long. Before going back to Kuala Tahan for lunch, we try the canopy walkway, a rope swing walk through the tree tops for 450 metres.
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It's a little rickety in places and I plan how to grab hold of the rope if the bridge should break in two! After lunch we pile back in the boat to go upstream through the rapids and it's all part of the experience for the driver to rock the boat as we go through the waves to get us all soaking wet! Herman, our guide, finds this hilarious because he's remained dry in the front of the boat. We arrive at our destination upstream, the Batek tribal settlement. As part of the tour we're visiting this aboriginal tribe to see how they live and for them to demonstrate some of their skills to us. Herman assures us that he has already asked the chief this morning if it is acceptable for us to visit and that if, for any reason, he chose not to let us, he would respect the chief's wishes. The Batek tribe are a nomadic tribe who live in the Taman Negara National Park and are the only people allowed to do so. They have been given a special pardon from the government to live and hunt here. They move around every few months when the food supply dries up and they may return to the same place every few years. They are only eight families in this small village but there are other factions of the tribe living in other parts of the forest. Their houses are made of palm leaves and will be left to degrade when they move on, Each time they move they build new houses. They still hunt, using blow darts and fish for food, but they have been introduced to money, which they use to buy clothing and fruit from Kuala Tahan. They didn't used to wear western clothing though and the plastic litter on the village site shows how the modern world conflicts with traditional tribal life. The palm leaves of the houses will biodegrade but the plastic will not. Herman tells us that the Batek people choose this lifestyle. With the introduction of money they could choose to leave behind the traditional ways, but they choose not to. Instead choosing to live in the same way they have for years but with a passion for learning from the outside world. Herman asks us if we feel awkward here. When we're silent in response he reassures us that the chief and his people are proud of their way of life and want to show us how they do things.
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It's okay for us to walk around and take photos if we want to. And, sure enough, the chief is full of smiles and jokes for us and encourages us to take a shot at the blow dart
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and Greg even has an attempt at making fire. We take a walk around to see the women, babies and children in their houses and they are very accommodating to us taking photos and gawking at them! We make sure we try to communicate, saying 'terima kasih' (thank you) at every available opportunity. On the whole it was a very warm hearted and welcoming experience because we felt they did actually want us there. I'm sure, in many tribes, visitors are not so welcome.
