If you “belum lawat” BELUM, tunggu apa lagi?

Martian Girl and I kayaking into the sunset

Translation from Bahasa Malaysia, If you have not yet visited Belum, what are you waiting for?

      The Royal Belum State Park holds a tropical rainforest ecosystem where an undisturbed land mass of over 130 million years awaits you. It is designated as one of the world's oldest rain forest. We were there when Savvy K was still Martian Girl, a geeky and fun teenager who believed then, that her mother was always right. Now, this mother can do NO RIGHT!

        The resort is rustic and if you are the Indiana Jones type, adventure awaits you. Be warned, if you are a city-slicker where mere ants upset you, don’t bother to come to the Royal Belum cos’ the Kerengga (Weaver Ants) will eat you alive.

          It was her first kayaking experience and she did good in the Temenggor Lake. I sat behind for her to lead, also so she could do all the paddling and did not suspect I just enjoyed the glorious sunset while pretending to paddle.

           
           Martian Girl wanted to try the bamboo rafts but I had traumatic experiences with these. Consisting of bamboo poles tied together, these rafts are transportation for the “Orang Asli” (indigenous people living in the forests). The rafts will sink immediately into the water when you step on them, but they will slowly float back up when an equilibrium with the water is reached.

            I had to used such rafts when we went into the jungles to collect blood samples for our research. Imagine 4 city scientists with our research gear strapped to our bodies squatting on the raft floating across rivers. There was nothing to cling on to, we didn’t twitch a muscle in case we rolled over.
        We opted for an entire day programme into the forests with our guide, Samad

       where we visited the Orang Alsi who lived next to rivers

     and interacted with the families. 

          The indigenous groups here live in wooden homes close to the river for easy transportation. They still hunt small mammals using their poison tipped blow pipes.

        Humidity was very high in the untouched Belum-Temenggor, but it was cool beneath the towering trees. We shared the day with every imaginable creepy crawly - centipedes, millipedes and leeches.

        We trekked for hours in the forests as we booked for a seven-hour activity,

       over suspended bridges where we showed our kung fu moves 

(I am doing the praying mantis stance)

     and beautiful butterflies as they came in droves to lick the salty sweat on our arms.

    Different types of butterflies on a rotted mushroom with only a lattice remaining.
    We were provided with packed lunches in the jungle huts, but I must be honest and say it was difficult to share you lunch with unknown crawling creatures!

          The Ruok water fall surprised us and

        as we did not have our swimming suits, we just waded in the icy water, but the Caucasians in our group just could not resist. So they stripped down to their underpants and scaled to the top in all their glory! 

          And when one of them needed to dry his underpants, what an ingenious idea he had. Also served as a very eye-catching red cap from the afternoon sun while on the boat. As they say, necessity is the Mother of invention!

        I won't tell what Martian Girl thought of this but she learnt much from this Lara Croft expedition.