GETTING TO THE PARK:
Taman Negara Park is located just across a river from the small town of Kuala Tahan. Kuala Tahan itself has only a couple of thousand people at most. The town features a couple of small restaurants and a number of small hotels and guesthouses.
To get there, people either take the public bus from wherever they are to Jerantut (a larger town to the south of Kuala Tahan) and then transfer to the local bus to KT proper. Bus schedules can easily be found online.
You can also organize transport through a tourism company like Cameron Secrets (running mainly out of the Cameron Highlands), Han Travel, or others. These companies will typically bring you in a small van with other tourists to the Jerantut pier, where you'll take a boat for a further two hours to Kuala Tahan. The boat is OK. You'll see some water buffalo and probably fall asleep. I did it on the way in and skipped it on the way out.
Once you're to Taman Negara/Kuala Tahan, you can either elect to stay at one of the resorts on the park side of the river or just stay in town at one of the many guesthouses.
MY RECOMMENDATION: 1. Skip the boat and just take the public bus system into Kuala Tahan; 2. Don't stay in the resorts - they're overpriced and I heard the food was complete crap. 3. DO stay in Kuala Tahan at Tebing Guesthouse and just take the 1 ringit/30 second ferry across the river in the morning when it starts running at 8 o'clock.
I can't recommend Tebing Guesthouse highly enough. I learned the sandlewood trick from the owner and he even let me borrow one of his blades. He's a retired Navy guy and very reliable - when I told him what I was doing he said he'd be more than happy to call the park if I didn't come back by the evening of the 8th day. He also has a cousin who was a guide for 20 years; he took me to meet him after the trek and we talked for hours. Oh, lastly, I lost 10 or 15 pounds during this hike...and on my first day back this guy took me to his family home and just fed me course after course. It's also perhaps the newest hotel in the town, with clean modern architecture, beds and showers. It's the way to go.
GETTING INTO THE PARK:
If you stay in Kuala Tahan proper, then you'll want to take the ferry across to the park/resort side of the river. The ferry is just a shallow bottom boat that seats about ten people. It runs from 8 AM-5PM and it'll cost you a ringit to get across the, like, 50 m river. It's not an issue.
You may need to buy a pass into the park on your way in if you haven't purchased it at the bus stations or piers on your travels towards KT. The park permit costs about 5 ringits as I recall.
If you can then simply proceed to the back country then go for it. If they don't let you walk away or start questioning why you have such a big pack, just say you're training for a longer hike in the coming days. If they say the back country is closed, then say you'd still like to walk on the paths close to the headquarters area. Take the path to Bukit Teresek. It's 1000 foot climb up the hill which is kind of a waste of energy, but on the backside there's a trail leading down that connects to the main back country trail and then you're off.
Taman Negara Park is located just across a river from the small town of Kuala Tahan. Kuala Tahan itself has only a couple of thousand people at most. The town features a couple of small restaurants and a number of small hotels and guesthouses.
You can also organize transport through a tourism company like Cameron Secrets (running mainly out of the Cameron Highlands), Han Travel, or others. These companies will typically bring you in a small van with other tourists to the Jerantut pier, where you'll take a boat for a further two hours to Kuala Tahan. The boat is OK. You'll see some water buffalo and probably fall asleep. I did it on the way in and skipped it on the way out.
Once you're to Taman Negara/Kuala Tahan, you can either elect to stay at one of the resorts on the park side of the river or just stay in town at one of the many guesthouses.
MY RECOMMENDATION: 1. Skip the boat and just take the public bus system into Kuala Tahan; 2. Don't stay in the resorts - they're overpriced and I heard the food was complete crap. 3. DO stay in Kuala Tahan at Tebing Guesthouse and just take the 1 ringit/30 second ferry across the river in the morning when it starts running at 8 o'clock.
I can't recommend Tebing Guesthouse highly enough. I learned the sandlewood trick from the owner and he even let me borrow one of his blades. He's a retired Navy guy and very reliable - when I told him what I was doing he said he'd be more than happy to call the park if I didn't come back by the evening of the 8th day. He also has a cousin who was a guide for 20 years; he took me to meet him after the trek and we talked for hours. Oh, lastly, I lost 10 or 15 pounds during this hike...and on my first day back this guy took me to his family home and just fed me course after course. It's also perhaps the newest hotel in the town, with clean modern architecture, beds and showers. It's the way to go.
GETTING INTO THE PARK:
If you stay in Kuala Tahan proper, then you'll want to take the ferry across to the park/resort side of the river. The ferry is just a shallow bottom boat that seats about ten people. It runs from 8 AM-5PM and it'll cost you a ringit to get across the, like, 50 m river. It's not an issue.
You may need to buy a pass into the park on your way in if you haven't purchased it at the bus stations or piers on your travels towards KT. The park permit costs about 5 ringits as I recall.
If you can then simply proceed to the back country then go for it. If they don't let you walk away or start questioning why you have such a big pack, just say you're training for a longer hike in the coming days. If they say the back country is closed, then say you'd still like to walk on the paths close to the headquarters area. Take the path to Bukit Teresek. It's 1000 foot climb up the hill which is kind of a waste of energy, but on the backside there's a trail leading down that connects to the main back country trail and then you're off.
I am reading this blog with adrenaline, with passions and feeling of excited or anxious uncertainty about what may happen next. You keep me in suspense as if I was hiking into the woods together with you. Kudos and proud of you, man!
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ReplyDeleteThanks
ReplyDeleteGreat.Well done. Thanks for sharing
ReplyDeleteA lot of good hiking information. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteDid it. Between teku camp and the top i couldnt find any source. I camped between the summit and teku camp on pangkin camp. In the morning i had 1.5 liters of water left and i had to decide if i go back to camp teku to take refill (i would have lost 2-3 hours) or to risk it to go to the top expecting to find a source on the way. I did second option and luckily i found it on the top then after my waterbox was empty. reat experience at the end i was lucky with the weater and missed the way just one time because on maps.me app it was drawn on the wrong site of the river. greez
ReplyDeleteI forgot to say thank you. I supposted to go with a friend but he left to laos. Your article gave me courage to do it alone and im very happy that i did it.
ReplyDelete@ Lila Luke: I (actually) yelled "F*** YEAH" out loud when I read this. Good on you! Count yourself proudly among the brave (idiots) who have tamed Endurance Mountain solo - and good luck on your future journeys!
ReplyDeletei'm curious if you have any further crazy adventures . The solo hike to Tahan is not something anyone could do, but just reading sorta ignite the fire to hike .
ReplyDelete