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Malaysia: The Interior
A home to many
cultures...
Peninsular Malaysia’s interior
comprises a vast swathe of territory, stretching northeast of Kuala
Lumpur all the way up to Kota Bharu on the east coast. Until recent
times this was a remote region of steep, sandstone peaks with
knife-edge ridges and luxuriant valleys inhabited by Orang Asli
groups. Colonial administrator Hugh Clifford described the terrain in
the 1880s as “smothered in deep, damp forest, threaded across a
network of streams and rivers.” Indeed, rivers were the sole means of
transportation until prospectors, investors and planters opened the
interior up through the twentieth century; companies built the
earliest roads and a railway arrived in the 1920s, helping to
establish the townships of Temerloh, Gua Musang and Kuala Lipis.
Much of the interior has now been logged, settled and tamed, though
Clifford’s deep, damp forests survive in the dense chunk of
undeveloped jungle that is Taman Negara (literally “National Park”).
Gazetted as Malaysia’s first national park in 1925 and covering 4343
square kilometres, Taman Negara forms by far the largest tract of
rainforest in Peninsular Malaysia; it contains some of the oldest
rainforest in the world, which has evolved over 130 million years as a
home for a fabulous array of wildlife. Some of the Peninsula’s one
thousand Batek Orang Asli live here too, many as hunter-gatherers; the
park authorities generally turn a blind eye to their hunting game.
Reached via the transport nexus of Jerantut, Taman Negara’s main entry
point, the riverside township Kuala Tahan, is the trailhead for jungle
hikes lasting from anywhere between a few minutes and two weeks. With
so much to see here, it’s easy to overlook the rest of the region, but
outside the park you can ride the “Jungle Railway” north through the
interior, touching on lesser known sections of wilds – caves and
waterfalls at Kenong Rimba State Park; remoter areas of Taman Negara
at Merapoh and Kuala Koh; and more forest, waterfalls and views at
Stong State Park.
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