Thoughts on Taman Negara

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Gua Gellinging
Taman Negara Pahang is one of the few rainforests left in South East Asia. The thing about setting up National Parks is that everything around the National Park then become fair game. Taman Negara is surrounded by very serious deforestation and oil palm plantations. This and the horrific litter in Jerantut were the most distressing aspects of the trip. Otherwise the boys and I really enjoyed ourselves... so here are the highlights.

We had to have durian

The look on Oisin's face says it all
So if i was EVER going to Taman Negara again i would stay in the Mutiara. I would also not book any tours until i got there. It is probably much better to go for the inner jungle trip than for anything else. The places which most tourists seem to go are devoid of any wildlife.

Thge guys who booked us in were catering to very very basic experiences of the rainforest. In fact i would say it was a minimal experience of the rainforest. But that's cos i'm a bit harcore. The boys though really enjoyed themselves and so i really enjoyed myself because they did.

Sungei Tembiling is the border between rainforest and non-rainforest

The canopy walk

Gunung Tahan in the background

How to make fire

My baby!

Wonderful moths!

Our moth hospital

The best experience by far that we had i think!

Swimming in the river

Post a full day's fun

River trip


Chilling

Rainforest on the left side as we head back to Jerantut



Entertaining themselves with low tech

Station at 2.30 am

Plastic balloons

We love to draw...

...yes we do

View from the train

View in the other direction
For all our fussing this trip to Asia always makes me think how human beings can settle for so little. How we can make do with almost nothing and accept being treated like dogs for no good reason. Usually that reason involves money... either getting more of it or simply just surviving. The construction workers who toil in the heat of the day and through the night, the traders who sits in the heat of a corridor of shops, sweltering, the families who live beside drains clogged with rubbish and filled with mosquitoes... how come these people accept that this is the way things are and don't demand better? There seems to be no waste management system so to speak in Jerantut and KL. This is very basic - and if you have chosen to live with disposables, including disposable diapers, surely disposal is critical if you don't want to end up catching some horrible disease. Or dying of malaria.... it is baffling.

Anyway, it is not my fight, but i do wonder. How come we don't demand better?

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