A Four-Day Roadtrip through Malaysia

continued from One Night in Kuala Lumpur.

The drive from Kuala Lumpur to Taman Negara National Park took us 3 hours and 45 minutes. It was easy driving, and very similar to driving in the United States aside from the whole driving on the wrong side of the road thing.

Balai Serama Guesthouse

Our stay for the night was at the Balai Serama Guesthouse, located about 10-minutes from the entrance to Taman Negara National Park. The guesthouse was not easy to find. Google took us to some guys backyard. Luckily the man was friendly enough and waved us through the rest of his yard and to the side street. (Clearly we weren’t the first ones to make this mistake!) When we arrived, our guesthouse had all the necessities, but quite basic and incredibly stuffy. After a few hours of cranking the A/C, it became more manageable.

The owners of the guesthouse were a couple of both Dutch and Malaysian descent. They were not particularly warm and fuzzy, but they were okay. The dinner that was prepared as a part of our stay was fabulous (Thai food), and they were very clear with what was gluten free and what wasn’t. The kids ordered “smoothies”, which were marginal.

Teman Negara Night Jungle Walk

That evening we had booked a “Night Jungle Walk” at the Park. Just after dark, we drove from our guesthouse to the river, that we would need to cross, to enter the National Park. Talk about adventure. Reaching the end of the road, we weren’t really sure what to do. There were a number of locals hanging around on their motorbikes, but no one spoke English. I decided to leave the the car to explore and quickly noticed that there was a path down to the water. At the end of the path was the “ferry” to take us across the river to the resort (at the entrance of the Park).

I should point out that in Malaysia, Singapore, and Hong Kong all felt very safe to us. While I would not have gone on an expedition like this in Baltimore, I had no problem doing it in the middle of a jungle known to have both elephants and tigers. Go figure.

Anyway, we paid .50 cents a person to cross the river. We had been told to wear long pants and long sleeves because of the bugs. This was not optimal with temperatures in the 90s and near 100% humidity.

The staff of the resort were not the friendliest. They harshly told us that they had no record of our reservation and were not about to allow us on their tour. We had to go to the reception to get it all sorted. We were then put into a group with a family from Singapore and one from Germany. During our 90-minute sweat-filled night walk we spotted one scorpion, a number of spiders, a few ants, some sort of small snake, and a bird. We ended the tour on an observation deck whereby we unsuccessfully tried to spot an elephant. The tour group then dispersed back to their respective hotel rooms and we were left in the middle of the resort with no idea how to get back to the water. Long story short, skip the night walk.

Teman Negara Boat Cruise to Lata Berkoh

After eating a delicious breakfast prepared at our guesthouse, we headed back to Teman Negara to take a boat cruise to Lata Berkoh.

After purchasing a National Park Pass, we boarded a wooden boat to cruise up the Tahan River. The Tahan River is full of rapids and very shallow, so navigating the river was the highlight of the trip. There was also a nice breeze as we sped up the river that kept us cool in the heat. We made stopped at a gigantic Tualang tree, the Kelah Fish Sanctuary (to feed the fish), and then onto Lata Berkoh. We foolishly hiked 45-minutes from where we docked to Lata Berkoh which was neither here nor there. No matter how hot and sweaty we were, we wer NOT about to swim there. The trip cost around 250 RM ($50 USD) for all four of us.

After our boat ride, our plan was to jump in our car and drive to the Cameron Highlands. However, our unfriendly guide from the night before, insisted that we do the “canopy walk”. It was not to be missed. So we purchased tickets.

Teman Negara Canopy Walk

The Canopy Walkway was a 45-minute walk from the resort. It was hot, and we were in flip flops so the trek was not optimal. The Canopy Walk was worth it though. We were able to see the magnificent forest canopies that cover the hills and valleys of the area. We had the opportunity to walk the world’s longest suspension bridge at 530 meters long. It was also 40 meters above the ground. The cross the bridges, there are specific instructions to never have more than four people at a time, and that you must stay 20-feet apart. This is not possible for two brothers who are constantly arguing over who gets to go first so there was a bit of yelling. In addition, Doug and I may have questioned Malaysian engineering a few times whist crossing the bridges.

Cameron Highlands

It took us 4-hours to drive to the Cameron Highlands. Cameron Highlands are meant to be akin to Napa Valley, but we may choose to disagree on that point. We can verify that they do have much cooler weather, and a number of orchards, nurseries, tea farms, and a mossy forest. There are also a large number of Land Rovers here – remnants from the British. On the drive in, there were numerous farms lining the hillside, but also an abundance of plastic tarps and garbage littering the side of the road.

We had booked a room at the Strawberry Park Resort which was high up in the hills and offered a beautiful view of the valley. Greg had been craving pizza, so he ordered room service, while Roy and Doug chose to eat at the onsite Steak House, Tudor Grill. For less than $40 USD, they had filet mignon, prepared and seared directly in front of them, fruit smoothies, potatoes and an ice cream. After dinner we played a game of ping pong and retired to our room to watch a soccer match on TV. (It was either that or ping pong championships.)

Mossy Forest

The morning took us first to the Mossy Forest. The Mossy Forest is tucked in the highlands of Mount Brinchang, the second highest peak in the Cameron Highlands, located 2,032 meters above sea level. It is incredibly difficult to get to the Forest without a pre-arranged tour, but we weren’t deterred. After a failed attempt to arrange a 4×4 jeep, we decided to throw caution to the wind and drive the route ourselves in our rental car.

The road to the Mossy Forest is incredibly narrow with blind corners. It is also full of stray dogs. We got as far as we thought we could safely go, parked, and walked the rest. The dogs were being fed by the guys driving the Land Rovers so they left us, and other tourists alone.

We paid 90RM ($18 USD) for the four of us to enter the Mossy Forest. Our first stop was to use the restroom. The bathroom situation in Malaysia could use a lot of improving. It was then into the forest, which was adequately mossy.

Sheep Sanctuary and Ragu’s Strawberry Farm

The Sheep Sanctuary was next on our agenda. What we expected to see and what actually was, were very different. For a nominal fee, we were given food for the animals, and then guided down a paved walkway to the “sanctuary”. The “sanctuary” was a platform built into the hillside, directly adjacent to a construction site where large concrete chunks were continually dropping yards from where we were standing.

The platform had several hundred people squeezed onto it, with about fifty sheep and a handful of alpacas. It was not ideal for anyone, animal or human, but it did make for some cute pictures.

After the sheep thing, we trekked over to Ragu’s Strawberry Farm. Greg wanted the “world famous strawberry milkshake” so we obliged. It was “world famous”. Nor were the strawberries. I guess we are spoiled with the strawberries back home in California!

DoubleTree By Hilton

Leaving “Malaysian Napa” we had a 3.5 hour drive to the coast and the DoubleTree By Hilton Damai Laut Resort. Along the way we stopped at a convenience store where I got a bunch of odd looks from the men there. As a female wearing shorts, a t-shirt and flip flops it was like I was walking around naked. I also want to point out that while I saw plenty of little boys attending school while we were in the country, I never once saw a little girl going to school. Another thing we noted on this drive was that the red lights were optional. We seemed to be the only car that ever stopped for them.

Our hotel was located on the beach in the coastal town of Lumut, overlooking the Straits of Malacca. It had its fair share of monkeys and a pretty nice swimming pool/slide situation for the kids. Roy and Greg spent the evening swimming.

Pangkor Island

The next morning we headed to Pangkor Island. Located on the west coast of Malaysia, Pangkor Island is known for its scenic beaches views and laid back lifestyle. We caught the ferry there from Lumut. It was very crowded and we were the only Westerners. We were in a “several people taking pictures of our kids” type of place. For Doug and I, we spent the journey plotting our escape if the ferry were to capsize. We figured we were the only ones on there that could swim, particularly with the amount of clothing the women were forced to wear. If we went down, we would each grab a kid and swim as far away from the boat as we could. Doug was worried about our passports getting wet and us being stuck in Malaysia.

Anyway, we survived. When we exited the ferry, everyone was trying to rent us their own personal motorcycle to tour the island. These were serious motorcycles, and I was a bit intimidated, so while we debated what to do, a random shop owner said he would give us his car for the day for $10 USD. He never asked us our name, didn’t want to see our drivers license, no proof of insurance, just took us out back and handed us the keys to his car. (Roy was taller than said car.)

While we were pretty sure the car was going to die and leave us stranded on the island somewhere, we decided to circle the island anyway. Our first stop was at the Masjid Al-Badr, an iconic monument of Pangkor Island as it is the first floating mosque in the area. It was also the prettiest mosque that we saw in the entire country. We were able to tour it after Doug and I covered ourselves up a bit. This mosque had toilets like the ones you find back home (so it was a extra good use of time).

The Pulau Pangkor Kota Belanda (a Dutch Fort from 1670) was the next thing we came across. It was a fort. We then drove to a beach where Greg and I were going to swim, but then a snake swam by our feet and that was it for us. Driving the rest of the island, the highlight was the guy riding his bicycle with his fishing rod and the fish he caught, all while smoking a cigarette. We returned our “rental car” and gave the guy a few extra bucks for gas and caught the ferry back to the mainland.

That evening, Greg continued to swim while Roy read a book and I floated around in the adult pool feeling insecure in my bathing suit. (Most women were more covered up). Greg made a few buddies on the slide and played with them while also “drinking a lot of pool water”. This came back to haunt him in the morning where he started getting “pukie sick” every 30-minutes from about 9AM until 1PM. We were not sure how we were going to get him on a flight to Hong Kong that night but he rallied by mid afternoon. Hey, it isn’t a vacation until someone gets sick, right?