Konni & Matt - Perpetual Travellers: 21 Jan

Southeast Asia

Flawed-Democratic Federation of Malaysia

Kelantan Darul Naim

Gua Musang

Kuala Koh National Park

National Park Chalet/Hostel +6013 9707 639

Basic and clean double room in a chalet for MYR 50.- or US$ 14.60 per night.

Basic and clean twin room in the hostel for MYR 24.- or US$ 7.- per night.

Click below for an interactive road map of the National Park Chalet/Hostel in the Kuala Koh National Park and for directions:

N 04° 52.23' E 102° 26.42'

Exploring together with our Malaysian friends Christina & Liau the (i) rickety “airways” (thus walking across the park's 300 m long canopy walkway [entry permit: MYR 5.- per person] with its profusion of tropical butterflies, hugging a majestic tualang tree at an altitude of 32 m above the ground and spotting distinctive rainforest birds such as greater racket-tailed drongo [Dicrurus paradiseus], long-tailed sibia [Heterophasia picaoides] and chestnut-breasted malkoha [Phaenicophaeus curvirostris]), the (ii) turbid “waterways” (thus hiring a wooden boat with outboarder for MYR 60.- and going on the Sungai Lebir river upstream over the Sinar rapids where we spotted a large crested fireback [Lophura ignita] as it crossed the river in front of the boat at a low altitude of only 2 m), and the (iii) slippery “landways” (thus hiking on the tiger-leech ridden jungle trails to the salt lick near the camp) of the Kelantan National Park (entry permit: MYR 1.- per person, camera license: MYR 5.- per device) which covers an area of 1,034 sqkm and forms the northern, less travelled and less touristed section of Malaysia’s Taman Negara.

“Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity; and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life.”

(John Muir)