Rompin-Endau National Park

My wife and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary deep in the Malaysian forest without any telephone connection. The road there from Kahang turned out to be much worse than we expected, potholed all the way once we transited from oil palm plantations to jungle. It was pitch darkness until we arrived at about 8.30pm. The small cluster of chalets which welcomed us was a spot of civilization in the vast wilderness. We had a good dinner of Malay food and very good durians which a group of Kulim planters generously shared with us. We slept well even though the giant geckos crawling on the walls outside made frequent noises. A symphony of bird calls woke us up in the morning. When we entered the toilet to wash, gecko droppings were everywhere even though we did not see even one throughout our stay there.

After a breakfast of nasi lemak and pratha, we took a boat ride on a nearby river. It was shallow. In flood, the river gets much wider. Floods during the monsoons in the last two years had washed away most of the bridges and scoured the road surfaces. The pristine forests on both sides, with their abundance of vegetation, were magnificent. We were tiny creatures on a bark intruding into Mother Nature.

After the boat ride, my two younger sons and I were brought on a trek, along a loggers' trail to the bank of a river. My wife and her parents wisely opted out because it turned out to be quite a strenuous hike. On the dry boulders of a waterfall, we had our lunch of nasi minyak, fried chicken and sambal udang. We then forded a stream to see the habitat of a protected species of fish, the ikan kelar. Leeches were everywhere, on land and in the water. They clamber on to our legs and go about their meals silently. I wasn't bitten but my driver Hassan discovered one that was an inch long and a quarter inch fat on his ankle. He poured salt on it which caused the parasite to disgorge the blood that it had sucked, a disgusting sight which we all watched with the greatest fascination.

Throughout our day's adventure, our guide Francis from the National Park Authority pointed out all kinds of wonderful things to us, from the tracks of wild animals to patterns of plant growth, to rock formations. We also learnt much about animals that we were happy not to see like tigers and snakes. We ended our trek by rafting back to our starting point. As hardly any rain had fallen in the previous weeks, the river carried little water and we had to do some hard paddling.

George Yeo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

[MQube]

I like your idea of a holiday. Makes you seem real..:)

[Anthony Chang]

Thanks for sharing and glad that you and family have a wonderful trip. Just want to caution that when taking photos, be cautious of what is in the background. For example, photo 4 of you and wife, there is a crane in the background and it look like some funny shape sticking out from your head.