Day 89: Taman Negara – Day 3
For our last full day in the Taman Negara jungle, we booked a couple of boat tours to get us out of the resort. We shopped around town while checking the bus schedule for getting back to the KL airport the next day, and wound up chatting with the owner of the Rayyan Hostel, who gave us a much better deal that the resort prices – score!
For our morning tour, we met up with the long boat at the dock and headed down river to the Kelah Fish Sanctuary, where you could feed the fish. Too bad the water is so murky – you can’t really see the fish unless you are practically in the water. Naturally, that made Igor literally get in the water for a chance to interact with the fish. After the Kelah Sanctuary, we headed out on a short jungle path to Lata Berkoh – a series of cascades and swimming holes – for a refreshing dip, then a quick stop at an animal hide.
Heading off on a boat tour to the Kelah Sanctuary
Igor feeding fish-food to the kelah. Fishing is prohibited around the sanctuary, so hundreds of fish thrash around each time you toss in the food. But it’s too hard to see them from far away…
Naturally, Igor decides to jump in the water to see the fishies better! The fish were swimming all around him – he tried really hard to catch one with a borrowed sarong, but they outsmarted him.
Walking through the Taman Negara jungle. Technically, there are elephants in this park – as evident from the large poops found on the side of the trail! – but they are rarely seen.
The cascade swimming pools of Lata Berkoh
Swimming break!
View from the animal hide
Apparently this big hole in the ground is a salt lick (I was expecting a big chuck of salt-rock). Animals are attracted to drink the salty water, however the best time to see them is at dawn or dusk. In the middle of the day all we saw were butterflies.
We returned to Kuala Tahan for lunch, then headed out on a second boat toward the Orang Asli traditional village for a blow dart and fire-making demonstration. Normally Igor is very unimpressed by these “cultural activities,” but the Orang Asli village was fascinating – mostly because this was not a tourist re-creation – this was an *actual* aboriginal settlement. You could tell by looking at the huts, these people really lived there. Or at least, they do for now – we learned that the Orang Asli people are nomadic – they typically only live in one location for a few months before moving on to find new hunting & gathering locations. Their lifestyle is very barebones – it has to be if you need to pick up everything and leave at a moment’s notice.
Before returning to the resort, our boat took us “rapid shooting” – basically driving really fast through the rapids so that everyone gets splashed – and stopped on the riverbank for one last swim.
Our guide introduces us to the tribe elder at the Orang Asli village, and explains how the aboriginals make their famous poisonous blowdarts, which they still use today to hunt game in the Taman Negara jungle. Only the Orang Asli are permitted to hunt within the park – mainly birds, small rodents and monkeys (not tigers or elephants, although those do live in the park).
Show & Tell! The elder passed around a pipe and dart for us to hold
Our guide also gave us a look at some “live” darts with poison on them. Unlike the poisonous darts of the Amazonian tribes (who use the poison from frogs), the Orang Asli use the sap from Ipoh trees. The poison is strong enough to kill an animal within 10min of being shot.
Firemaking demo – using the friction from string rubbed on a special type of wood to create a spark in the tinder
The tribal elder shows the group how he makes the darts, melting tree sap to form the tail of the arrow, then using “sandpaper leaves” to smooth out the edges & point
No blowdart demo is complete without target practice!
The thatch-weaved houses of the Orang Asli
Heading back to the boat after a great visit to the Orang Asli village
Time for some splashy fun! Shooting through the rapids and swimming in the river
Our final activity for the day was our Night Walk, which we organized with the resort. However, had we known that the group size would be 12 people walking single-file down the same boardwalk we had hiked the day before, we would have saved our money. The sound of our massive group, and the two other tours ahead of us, would certainly scare away any self-respecting animal that might be in the jungle. The only thing we saw were bugs. Actually, Igor and Lindsay didn’t even get to see the bugs, because we ended up at the back of the line and with a group that size, we couldn’t see or hear anything the guide was pointing out. When the tour ended at another animal hide (yeah, don’t hold your breath), we took advantage of our spot at the end of the line to book it out of the jungle and beat everyone back to the resort. Oh well – not everything can be spectacular.
Seriously? What are we going to see on this Night Walk with this massive group ahead of us?
No animals at the hide. Big surprise.