A 130-million-year-old rainforest

Malaysia: Taman Negara. Wednesday was a sightseeing day for us. We left at 5.30 am and drove about 4 hours to Taman Negara, a 130 million year old tropical rainforest. Our guided tour included a 1.5 km walk through the forest, during which we saw a beautiful green, patterned, Wagler’s viper on a branch and various useful trees and plants, e.g. wild ginger (with stunning red flowers), sandpaper leaf (used for making blowpipes and darts), hairy melastoma (an antiseptic), sandalwood (for incense) and ghost-foot leaves.

We also did a canopy walk on suspended walkways up to 45 metres above the forest floor. Then we took a motorised canoe up the Tembeling river to visit the Bateq negrito, an indigenous village which still lives fairly traditionally. Their houses are made from wooden poles and palm leaves (although donated plastic tarpaulins are increasingly used as well). They still hunt with blowpipes and poison darts in the forest (supplementing what is brought from shops in the town), cook on open fires and do not see any need to send their children to school.

The forest was, of course, incredible, and is fortunately protected for now. Yet, it is hard to ignore the signs of nearby logging and palm oil plantations stretching to the horizon on all sides. And while we were delighted to spot some long-tailed macaques in the trees along the river, we also drove behind a truck with two monkeys chained to the bars and sitting on a pile of coconuts; apparently they are trained to fetch the coconuts from the trees. Another telling insight from our guide, who grew up around the forest, was that the river used to be clear enough to dive in, but has been a murky brown ever since the logging began upstream around 20 years ago.