Taman Negara National Park — Attraction in Pahang

We took a tour from Klook from Kl and overall liked our experience. The hike was beautiful, rapid ride was super fun and learning about the first people of South East Asia was amazing also. The food was also delicious BUT here's what I suggest.

Give yourself 3-4 days there not 1

Day 1:

bus to jernert can't remember how it's spelled then find a way to national park. Stay in one of the places doesn't need to be on the water. Not sure what time it arrives but possibly do the night hike or night boat ride. We did both in Sandakan and sarawalk and loved it saw so many animals.

Day 2:

Take the boat across and hike on your own or with a guide around the national park. The canopy walk was cool and we did see some monkeys flying but waste a good 3 hours on a weekend. My opinion would be to start the hike there early early in the morning when it opens or go before it closes like 230 pm. End the day with shooting rapids and some swimming. Great day to cool off.

Day 3: Can do some more hikes or just chill along the river, swim and kayak.

Day 4:

Back to KL.

Other notes:

This is a dry village don't be disrespectful and bring alcohol.

We liked the lunch provided from Kuala view floating restaurant but if your picky or particular bring your own. There were many floating restaurants.

There is a village you can see with the first people to come to SE Asia. Typically I wouldn't go to this on my own as I don't like people zoos. Often they aren't paid for you to learn about them and sometimes kept against their will in other countries and for me it doesn't seem right. This didn't seem to be the case here they are just hanging around doing their stuff. While it is interesting to see them and they are ok with photos be respectful imagine thousands of people coming daily with cameras in their faces. I chose not to film them. Learning to make fire and hunt was cool.

For all experiences Id plan accordingly don't go on weekends or school holidays as it will be very packed. For school holidays you should consider( public holidays, Chinese holidays, Muslim holidays, Hindu holidays and Malaysian holidays) ( European, Asia and US holidays)

Overall was a great trip since we only...

Taman Negara is nice but only if you realy want to see the jungle, you can go there. The ride is 3-4 hrs from Kuala Lumpur which is very long drive to visit Taman Negara. We paid ringit 1.300 (260 euro/280 usd) plus ringit 300 for 3 hrs waiting for the driver. In total ringit 1.700 (340 euro/370 usd) for 3 persons.

Plus the entrance with guide is ringit 600 (another 160 usd). The fee entrance is in total 5 ringgit plus 5 ringgit for the canopy walk. You can do much cheaper, but thats with all activities. Go by tour, bus, taxi, guide you pay a fortune. If you go by bus and do not mind the waiting on bus stops etc... your expense is 10 ringgit max, but be aware that you like walking in the sun and waiting for the bus otherwise, you will be frustrated plus arriving there.......

Its another walk in the jungle that takes 3 hrs. The first is a walk with 2 km stairscases to go to the top, which is tough and you are not focused to see where you are but only to take the next staircase. Thus, you do not much see of the jungle.After this, you can do the Canopy Walk. If you do not like heights. Do not do this. Its 45m above the ground.

All in all, to weigh the drive and visit to Taman Negara. .

I prefer to do sightseeing around Kuala Lumpur...

To drive in total 6-7 hours in a day during yr vacation is maybe too excessive. Plus real enjoying of the jungle is not part of the trip if you do this with a guide as you need to go to the top. Imagine if the staircase is not there, you probably have to walk 5 hrs to reach the top (without the staircases).

I suggest to take other sightseeing which is only 1 hrs drive from...

The national park as of May 23rd allows you till the view point on hill Teresek and few smaller trails around the park central office without a guide.For the rest of the trails,you need to hire a expensive guide or book through the tours of standard mafia of travel agents though they claim safety as an Issue that makes difficult to explore at reasonable price.The hike till bukit teresek view point is good as the stairs are in good shape to feel the dense forest having gigantic trees with deep roots here and there and I was able to spot Iguana suddenly on my trail around the park center area.Not sure what exactly 130 million year old forest means as the giant trees seems to be of few decades or atleast a century old and older trees might have fallen down and regenerated after fertilization.It could be also possible that species might have evolved independently and undisturbed if forest is untouched by the tectonic plates for such a long time which is rare possibility as malaysia is floating on the sea.As humidity is high with sweating makes you tired and entrance ticket is reasonable at 1 RM and for camera 5 RM.Even the public transport to the park from several places like Cameroon Highlands,kuala Lumpur etc is controlled by one agent on the top making it expensive to reach here directly.From jarantut you get public buses at reasonable price to kuala Lumpur and why they are not providing the same to the park is a big question left to...