Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Royal Belum National Park

My family has been talking about where to go for post-exam holidays couple of months back and I thought we are going somewhere special; somewhere none of them has experience before, and Royal Belum Park was therefore decided.

There are 2 tour operators in Belum Park, being Belum Rainforest Resort and Belum Eco Resort (eg. Tasik Temenggor Discovery Island). I checked the patron reviews on internet and decided with Belum Rainforest Resort, for reasons that were not very obvious as both charters offered price that were not too much different. I was told the food quality of BRR is not as nice as BER but I have no complaint about food from BRR after my stay there.

We took tour package where accommodation and visits to spots are included, with price of RM 650 per head. Seems not cheap but actually not really so, if you add up all the cost for each activities that is.

5 of us drove in my AWD to BRR, a bit tight perhaps but was ok. The journey took us 5 hrs plus and my trip meter read 389km, where I reset when we left USJ. We stopped by Lenggong for freshwater fish lunch. The most impressive meal was a 900g half-sliced baung (redtail asian catfish), with fairly nice freshness, smooth solid flesh and no soil-smell. I told myself that was a wild baung, and I felt happier :-). Price was ok, we paid RM45 for the awesome baung, 2 plates of veges, an assam belida (feather-back) belly, a belida fishball soup, a fried noodle and deep fried ribs. Paid around RM 120 for the above.

I did not do any fishing but got the fishing camping trip information from the local people, perhaps I will come back with enough fishos. Let's see.












My brother played with his photographing skill on the waterfall and snapped this. Not bad huh?















Peaceful lake of Belum Park.













Another unique waterfall not far from the 1st one.













Rafflesia. Don't believe my facial expression, it was some 45 deg. inclined and the charm was purely for good nice fun photographing effect, or something like that

The parasitic flower will take more than 18 months to bloom and the flower will lasts for only 7 days. More information about Rafflesia here: http://www.mytropicalvisions.com/animality/rafflesia.html














Take out my tummy, I would say this is a nice photo, what do you think?















Something you cannot avoid if you are doing jungle activities

Leech it is, plenty of it; you get rid of one and you will see one or two more, moving towards you with its very own way. My sister and wife were terrified with it but surprisingly my daughter was not. This pitifull slimy creature ended up as her pet, but they did not last for long.


Our group photo at entrance point of Sungai Papan.

I went to Sungai Tahan September last year and observed all the local jungle tracking guides were using the rubber shoes, or "rubber tapper shoe" as we called it. October same year I saw this shoe in Gua Musang and thought that I want to get one pair for myself too, and bought it at RM 8.90. I thought I will get to use it in my next jungle fishing trip and only this time around I get to wear it in Belum Park. The shoe is now cleaned and wait for my next freshwater fishing trip, cheow-lan reservoir, or so I hope.













A nice fat kelah at sight, 1 kg-ish at least.

Took the photo of this beautiful fish at resort pond. cool...














A typical scene in jungle tracking.

Take the leech out, the jungle walk was enjoyable. Each of the inhale was so fresh, light and my skin felt the difference in the air. Shoes are very important in jungle tracking; a pair of shoes with thick rough sole and preferable high-cut would help a pleasant walk.
On the way to waterfall.