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Taman Negara is Malay for "National Park". Malaysia
has several national parks but Taman Negara is by far the largest
and best known national park. It is a declared goal of Malaysia
to preserve this and other national parks for future generations.
Everything that's happening must be sustainable. Consequently,
littering is heavily fined and access is (somewhat) restricted.
I'm writing these lines sitting in a Starbucks in KL on Day 12, five hours after I returned from four days "in the jungle". I have mosquito bites all over my body, but I am happy. Despite my usual quarrels and remarks that you will find below, visiting Taman Negara was a pristine and unique experience for me.
I had booked a standard package in Nusa Holiday Village, the former Nusa Camp. Not knowing what to expect, I had decided to just do "the tourist thing". After they confirmed that "Nusa" does not stand for "New U.S.A." it seemed like my jungle experience was on track. The package was advertised as four days/three nights, but that's a marketing gimmick. What it is are two days in the camp, and two beautiful boat rides on the Tembeling river on day 1 and 4.
The first day consisted of a tiresome four hour bus ride to
the Kuala Tembeling jetty, from where a boat brought us to Nusa
Camp, in about three hours. This boat ride was very relaxing.
I got the front seat in a Sambal boat and enjoyed the lush rainforest
scenery passing by.
Once at the camp, I checked in into my "Malay House",
and the whole package took its turn. We did a night walk into
the jungle, in which we were shown several spiders, including
a black widow and a tarantula. Well, of the tarantula, we only
saw one leg, as it didn't want to come out of its hideout. The
guide was understandably respectful in his attempts to make it
come out, because tarantulas are among the most dangerous spiders
there are. If you get bitten, even today you don't stand much
of a chance of survival, certainly not in this remote area.
Probably the highlight of the evening was a porcupine that
joined us for dinner in the camp. If you've never seen one live
and in color: Trust me, its spikes are impressive. Fortunately,
porcupines are vegetarians and quite peaceful, so we all had a
good night.
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