Taman Negara : Part 6 - Day 3 : Morning Hike to Bukit Indah

03052015 : We are spending the whole day in Taman Negara today! Yay! I am so excited. This is the reason I am here. At last, I can step foot onto Taman Negara, the oldest tropical rainforest in the world. We were so lucky to have a guide, Pak Hashim in our walk today. He knows the route, and the common animals and birds found here. In the morning, we will hike up a short route to Bukit Indah (translated as Beautiful Hill but no one translates the name unless to explain to a non-local). Pak Hashim tells us it is a 30 minute hike, but we took 40 minutes because we did birdwatching too. And saw monkeys along the hike.

Let's start for breakfast. We fueled up with fried glass noodles and a mug of hot coffee. Since we will be spending the whole day in Taman Negara, we brought packed lunch of fried rice and fried egg. We paid additional RM5 for the camera permit which my sister brought. There is an entrance permit into Taman Negara of RM2 which is included in the package. I am surprised that it costs RM2 for the 2 of us. I would have expected it to cost more because Royal Chitwan National Park in Nepal is RM55 (Rs1500) but wait, I cannot do that comparison because Royal Chitwan is a Unesco area. Then, there is Potatso National Park, a 5A tourist attraction in China which costs RM115 (RMB190). In Malaysia, I just checked on the website that Kinabalu National Park is RM3 for local and RM15 for foreigners, and Mulu National Park costs RM15 for local and RM30 for foreigners, and both are Unesco area. Also checked that Taman Negara is in the tentative list of Unesco World Heritage Area - submitted in June 2014. I am thankful that our entrance fees is affordable for everyone. Oh, I digressed so much from talking about my hike.

We took a boat ride to the entrance of Bukit Indah. It was less than 5 minutes. And we started our hike. The route is beautiful and the path is soft as we trekked further up. Not soft as in mud soft, but the fallen leaves form a soft carpet. Reminds me of the peak of Bukit Tabur. There were some parts of the trek which has a rope to pull yourself up.

The peak, the happy faces of the group, the view from the top.

Then, we continued our walk to the Canopy Walkway and the Headquarters of Taman Negara.