Royal Belum Rainforest- A call of the wild !

[fishoman]

Visited this 130million old rainforest last weekend, it is even older than the Amazon basin. The resort is located in Banding Island, which seperate the forest reserve into Belum (to the north) and Temenggor (to the south) .
This trip was a memorable and unforgetable experience, where I manage to see the Rafflesia, many herbs in the jungle, not to mention aquatic fauna, elephants, barking dear, hornbill , insects and lizards. Lets come to see the pictures and hope this nature heaven can be known to more people!


This is the Rafflesia's bud, it will bloom in about 3 days time. This species is believe to be Rafflesia cantleyi . It is a parasitic plant species of the genus Rafflesia. It can be found in Peninsular Malaysia and Pulau Tioman, an island off the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia. This species is almost identical to R. hasseltii, except for the number of warts on the perigone lobes of the two species. Another distinctive feature of R. cantleyi is its ability to form flowers on the aerial portions of its host Tetrastigma. Luckily this species does not have a unpleasure smell and you can go as close as possible to take pictures and smell it.

This is the river where I found the Rafflesia.

Limestone hill in Temengor.
Next I visited the salk lick. A salt lick is a salt deposit that animals regularly lick. In an ecosystem, salt/mineral licks sometimes occur naturally, providing the sodium, calcium, iron, phosphorus and zinc required in the springtime for bone, muscle and other growth in deer and other wildlife, such as moose, elephants, cattle, woodchucks, domestic sheep, fox squirrels, mountain goats and porcupines. Harsh weather exposes salty mineral deposits that draw animals from miles away for a taste of needed nutrients.
Before I can see the saltlick, a milipede greets me at the river bank


Fresh elephants' dropping, beleived to have just drop the previous night. THey are not so smelly as most food consumed by them are fibre.

This is the saltlick, I can vividly seeing some foot prints of some animals

Another one nearby.

Floating house on the lake
After visiting the animal paradise, I continued my journey to Sg Nam. This is a base camp developed by EMKAY Group and they are building some jungle chalets made of woods and stilts.


The chalets are just beside the fast flowing streams


Beautiful rapids are everywhere in this basecamp.



Bridges

Spotted this lizard behind some bushes. Most probably Bronchocela cristatella.

Some small fishes on the lake

Fungus on tree log

Lovely couple

[fishoman]

After the base camp, I visited the Orang Asli settlement.

Thier houses are built along the water . With no electricity , no phone, no astro and no internet.




I finished my morning trip and went back to the resort and was greeted by this King Cobra

To be continued...........

[kuching]

Wow!!! That is the place I wish to go oneday!!! Envy u!!!

[fishoman]

Hi Mike....we can plan a trip to the Belum , if you are visiting Peninsula again..

[kuching]

Hi Mike....we can plan a trip to the Belum , if you are visiting Peninsula again..

May I know how much u need to spend? How many days? You are staying in Singapore? If u goto Belum, u need to fly to Penang then take bus to Belum?

If I'm coming, I need to apply leave for a long holiday....probably, a week.

[fishoman]

Mike, right now I am station in Penang, thats why I have the chance to explore the northen Peninsula Malaysia and Southern Thailand.

The Royal Belum State Park is 170km away from Penang or 2.5 hours drive.

The cost of lodging varies, if you want to sleep comfortably at night, then the resort is the only choice, one night stay starts from RM200.
Food in the restaurant range from RM20-RM40 . Free breakfast.

If staying on the floating boathouse, the cost is RM90-120 for a room( can accomodate up to 5 person) shared toilet. Bring your own sleep gear and mosquito repellents.Food is provided by the chef in the boathouse, usually the boathouse owner. Price is like normal hawker price or just slightly higher.

For the trips into the forest, there are simply too many packages, one half day package with boat and a guide is about RM150-RM200 .

If going into the Belum State Park, you need to apply a permit . Because that area is now control by the army. I believe that the Upper Belum has a lot more to explore and of course might have some new species of flora and fauna waiting to be discovered.

There is also a research centre at Banding Island , where you can use their lab for a minimal fee. I was there visiting and learnt about their kelah conservation project. Very interesting place and fruitful trip.

Mike, FYI, there will be a camp site ready for operation in April, that is in the middle of the jungle at a river side. lodging in the wood chalet and food , jungle trips will cost about RM400-RM600 per pax for a 4days 3 nights tour.

I will update about this soon, planning to revisit again next month.

[fishoman]

Miss out one of your question Mike, there is no direct bus going to Belum. But the place is accessible via East West Expressway. Meaning it is located at the middle , in between Penang and Kelantan. Driving is the only way , or alternatively, you can buy a bus ticket to Kelantan and ask the driver to drop you at Banding Island .

But dont worry, if you have a plan, we can work it out. I have talked to Pisces Lim and he shows great interests too. Maybe in July , when the water level is not too high, we can discover more things there.

[kuching]

Miss out one of your question Mike, there is no direct bus going to Belum. But the place is accessible via East West Expressway. Meaning it is located at the middle , in between Penang and Kelantan. Driving is the only way , or alternatively, you can buy a bus ticket to Kelantan and ask the driver to drop you at Banding Island .

But dont worry, if you have a plan, we can work it out. I have talked to Pisces Lim and he shows great interests too. Maybe in July , when the water level is not too high, we can discover more things there.

Thanks for the info!

[hwchoy]

Visited this 130million old rainforest last weekend, it is even older than the Amazon basin.

I just want to point out this fact which can confuse most lay people. I know many tourism agencies like to make such claims but the rainforest AS WE KNOW IT (i.e. containing the families and groups of plants we see today) are no more than 50 million years old. before that the composition groups of the forest are very different as there were no flowering plants so forest comprises of conifers, cycads, ferns etc.

I don't want people thinking that this same old forest has been there since 130MYA and has hardly changed. not to mention that even mammals did not exist then.

ok back to the beautiful rainforest of Belum