To set the context it is important for me to specify that I am on a business trip to Malaysia. Haven’t done the punch in by 9, 5 days a week schedule for a while and I had almost convinced myself that I had seen the last of that routine. Though, handling multiple roles and one of them trying to get a fledgling new set up on its feet is no easy ask. It does take its own toll on ones time for other interests. I am sure the ones who know me well would be laughing away on reading this, but here in KL, we surely had earned ourselves an indulgent and relaxed break. Asked around and were told of the Malaysian rainforest at Taman Negara. Did our research and thought it suited us fine. National park, river cruise, rapids, birds and breath taking scenes – that we thought would do for us.
Looked for some reasonable accommodation and found a lovely little resort on the banks of the lake and the review promised sure sightings of famed hornbills there. So we thought we were all set till I ran my plans with a local friend. Unfortunately we were booked in a Taman Negara (national park in Malaysian), but one which was about 200+ km from our planned destination! There was no way to get the thing reorganised. Not to let the mix up ruin our plans, we decided to still get to our planned place and take a call based on the options there. I did revisit the resort I had booked on the net and the attractions the review had mentioned still held true. I was a bit unsure of making a 1000 km trip for a two day plan but I was not entirely against the idea.
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We kicked off early from our residence at Petaling Jaya to avoid the weekend traffic trying to get out of KL. We managed a 7:30 start and we were on our way. The city posed no big challenge to manoeuvre with the GPS lady giving us timely shouts. We reached our first milestone – the Gombak plaza toll quite quickly. That was the last of city sights and the scene changed rapidly as we continued on the highway. I must acknowledge the quality and design of the roads & the first sights of nature made it even more enjoyable as the driving was relaxed. As the road curved and stretched through some mountains and valleys, we were really happy that we were out to explore the country.
Our first stop was Taman Negara, the rainforest reserve of Malaysia. A lovely sight of the Tembeling river branching off greeted us. We hired a boat and started our experience of the place. One of the first attractions was the canopy walk – a 585M walk on a rope suspended bridge from the top of tallest trees seemed an exciting thing to do. Surely a new experience, but one should do it early in the morning to have a chance of spotting some birds and animals. The views of the national park from the top were surely worth the efforts. We spent some more time exploring the place and preserving a few frames in our cameras to relive the experience.
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Our next plan was to get some lunch and find a place, if possible, to stay over. Both efforts were futile and we just decided to get back to the road and make a run to Tasik Kenyir resort. The GPS gave us a distance of about 250km and we were hopeful we could make it before dark. We never found any maps of Malaysia we had hoped to buy on the way and we were heavily reliant on the GPS with Google maps on my smartphone. To our surprise it was directly pointing to the resort all the way even when it looked like the middle of nowhere. To add to that the paid licence GPS could not see anything more than a road going in that direction!
The drive was enjoyable. For the less informed, the Malaysian country side is actually a huge palm farm and you can see miles of continuous rolling hills of palm all around you. Few miles out of the city and you would have no doubt that the country would be ranked among the highest producers of palm. However this in no way reduces the scenic appeal of the countryside. In fact, if you run a quick search, you will be surprised (like me) to find that there are over 2700 identified species of palm. Many of them are rated as huge draws among horticulturists as ornamental plants. The setting sun added to the views and I was happy soaking it all in and letting my camera have a field day.
As the sun set we realised that we would not be able to make it to our resort in comfortable time. The fact that we were not on the express highways made the scenes more enthralling but it brought our average speed significantly low. As the evening began to unfold, so did a sudden deluge of fog and it further compromised our progress. We continued to push as hard as we could hoping that the resort would hold our room and we would have someone at the desk to give us the keys. Last of the journey was a miracle of technology. There were barely any lights or signs to guide us other than the small point on my phone GPS screen and I thanked myself for having the foresight to pick a phone charger (paying a decent premium) on the way. We still needed a few U-turns but eventually we started seeing the signs for the resort and eventually the resort too. To our horror we were greeted by an empty reception with no soul around. Luckily we had seen a security guard at the entrance. Just when we started getting into our car to drive back to the entrance, a golf cart magically made an appearance with a typical hospitality groomed service executive at the wheel. He even knew my name!
Our check-in was smooth and the check in girl seemed no less than an angel giving us the best possible rooms since they had a fairly low occupancy for the evening. The buggy took us to our rooms and luckily we had thought of packing some sandwiches for our dinner. The room was huge and well appointed, what mattered most was the bed was inviting and AC effective. Can’t even remember when I passed out like a puppy. Lucky had set the alarm beforehand…
Got up early though I was willing to catch a longer sleep… We had checked in late and the night was too dark to give us any idea of the place; meant we only a few hours to soak in the beauty of this majestic lake and the flora-fauna around. The GPS also showed a golf course right in the middle of the lake, didn’t have the time to catch a game but I would certainly want to do a walk through if I could. Just too much of excitement to be able to laze in the bed and I had to be out there… I was glad I did that, the resort was a beautiful one. Lovely tree cover, our cottages were really beautiful and the scene around was as soothing as could be.
The first thing to catch my attention was the bird calls. Melodious and very different from the ones I was used to in Indian forests. First on my agenda was to get to the sunrise spot as I was primed to expect a really spectacular one. Got in just in time and the scene didn’t disappoint me. A misty lake just about lazily woke up as the day broke out from the tips of the trees. Glad I had a great vantage to get some good clicks. The morning lake is a sight to soak as it begins to interact with the surroundings. The mesmerising play of hot lake being drawn out by the atmosphere creates a fine mist almost hiding the lake and makes it look like a cloud instead.
The trance was interrupted by my next big draw – the hornbills! I could not believe my luck as I saw one landing atop a tall dead tree trunk at the other side of the resort. I must confess, having just been updated about the possibility of sighting about 8-9 species of hornbills, I was really keen to spot one at least (given that I had all of one morning to spare)…
My next hour went chasing the hornbills and trying to get as close to them as possible to get a clear shot and do some justice to their magnificience. I had a decent camera and a 300 MM lens to take a picture but that needed me to get close and I soon realised that the birds were not very used to being photographed. I continued my pursuit and in the process got to spot a Malayan giant squirrel, some common squirrels, few sun birds and loads of Mynahs, Bulbuls, possibly Oriole and a Minivet too. After a long pursuit, I did manage to get some good pics.
After a good look at the pied hornbills, I started longing to see some more of the species , but then I was happy I saw at least one. Without a big lens and a binoculars, there is only so much one can hope for. The rest of the resort was equally exciting and I thought it was a good time to explore that too. I certainly was not disappointed as I made my way to the main building where we were scheduled to have our breakfast.
The lure of the blue lake and the sight of the boats speeding around them was too difficult to ignore and we decided to make a quick dash to the jetty and hop into a boat if possible. As the luck would have it, we managed to find a boat and a captain willing to take us around. He promised us a few added attractions around the lake. I was keen to get onto the golf island too, but unfortunately the course was abandoned a few years back and there was little if any sign remaining of it as the rain forest had reclaimed its lost area. But there were far too many things to keep me excited.
As we kept manoeuvring around the big and small islands, our captain cum guide kept pointing us to the various points of interest and the love for the place kept getting stronger and stronger. I asked the captain about the hornbills and he just broke my heart. He had a collection of almost all the hornbills pictures and he gladly shared them with me. If I had managed to meet him the last eve he would have taken me to that part of the lake where I would have surely seen a few of them!
Well the captain did see the utter disappointment in me and tried to make up by taking us to some really great places, but I was already planning my next trip to the place. As if for solace, a white bellied sea eagle made a sudden appearance and I added another lifer to my list of birds. I continued to capture all the great sights around the lake including a lovely waterfall, a herbs garden and sights around the main Tasik Kenyir jetty.
The trip was after all just a dekko to plan a proper trip to Malaysia. For starters, this was a reaffirmation of the fact that there is more, much more to Malaysia than just Kuala Lumpur. It seems that sometime around February-March, once the rains subside, it’s a bird lovers paradise. With all that new information and first hand feel, we left the Lake resort resolving to return soon.
https://plus.google.com/photos/115456665894830036652/albums/5574200850611099105?banner=pwa is just an idea of what one could see and experience here!
Pratima & Randhir's blog 