Taman Negara home of the Tapir

Taman Negara literally means National Park in Malay. It was established as the king George V National Park by the British in the late 1930s and renamed after independence.  It is the largest national park in peninsular Malaysia and plays an important conservation role in a country in which the forests are rapidly disappearing.

Clearing in forest

I was lucky enough to visit the park over a long Deepavali weekend staying at the Mutiara Taman Negara resort. This is the only resort on the National Park side of the Tembeling river and is on the site of the park headquarters and the start of the walking trails into the park.

Inevitably there were many opportunities to photograph the wildlife within the park. The highlight for me however was an encounter with a semi tame tapir within the grounds of the resort. This animal often visits the resort in the evenings where it has become accustomed to the safe environment and promise of food, before slipping away into the jungle by day.

This beautiful animal sat down, rolled over and promptly went to sleep on the lawn outside of the resort restaurant.

The next evening the tapir returned but appeared to have been attacked by a predator, possibly a leopard or sun bear. It had sustained injuries consistent with a bite to the thigh as well as a large claw mark across the back.

Teeth marks in the tapir's thigh

A tame argus pheasant also wandered around the resort restaurant feeding on dropped crumbs.

There were a number of dung beetles feeding on the droppings left by the large animals.

Walking through the forest at night revealed large numbers of arachnids including this unusual specimen, possibly a tailless whip scorpion.

A Blue Begum butterfly found flying at dusk.

I took a relaxing boat ride along a tributary of the main river followed by a short walk dodging the numerous leeches to a set of rapids called Lata Berkoh.

The Lata Berkoh rapids

With the start of the monsoon season numerous fungi were fruiting in the forest.

One of the quietly distinctive sounds of the jungle is created by thousands of pairs of tiny teeth chewing their way through the fallen logs and leaves. The noise of the termites is something akin to the snap, crackle and pop sound of a bowl of rice crispies.

The Mutiara Resort was a little disappointing on account of it's expensive, average food and average service, however this was made up for by the fantastic location and wildlife.

Siem Reap Cambodia

Siem Reap is well known for the nearby archaeological park and world heritage site Angkor Wat.
This is an extraordinary place and a must see attraction for anyone spending any significant time in SE Asia.

The main walkway into Angkor Wat

Visiting the temples is a fascinating and moving experience. The buildings are simply quite beautiful and the intricate carving of detailed patterns, people, animals and mythological figures that still remain are a testament to the aesthetic sensibilities of the builders.

Sunset over the centre of Angkor Wat

Wall carvings within Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat still remains a place of worship and pilgrimage for many Buddhists although it was initially conceived as a Hindu temple.

Monks relaxing near a Buddhist shrine inside Angkor Wat

The countryside surrounding Siem Reap is beautiful, very flat and wet, with numerous rice paddies, orchards and small pockets of jungle.

View from the road just outside Siem Reap on the way to Beng Mealea

There were plenty of opportunities for spotting wildlife around Siem Reap, particularly butterflies which were locally abundant around the temples outside of Angkor Wat and around Angkor Thom.

Gateway to Angkor Thom. 12th Century Khmer city.

Papilio demoleus (The Lime Butterfly).

Junonia hierta (Yellow Pansy) 

One of my favourite temples within the Angkor site was Bayon. Built in the 12th-13th century it was constructed when Buddhism was gaining prominence over Hinduism in the area.  The huge number of enigmatic stone faces carved into the towers and walls of the site were utterly incomparable to anything I had ever seen before.

Stone faces of Bayon

On the walls of Bayon were some wonderful stone engravings.

From the walls of Bayon

Beyond Bayon lay the ruins of Ta Prohm which were used in the set of the Tomb Raider film. These have been maintained in a 'reclaimed by the jungle' state, but work has been done to restore the ruins.

In the trees around Ta Prohm were large flocks of Parakeets, their raucous screeches adding to the lost in the jungle atmosphere. Staying high in the trees they were a real challenge to photograph.

Psittacula alexandri (red-breasted parakeet)  

Pachliopta aristolochiae (Common Rose) female laying eggs at Ta Prohm.

Some 70km or so beyond the the Angkor Wat Archaeological Park lies Beng Mealea, a smaller copy of Angkor Wat, but abandoned and overgrown by jungle. The road to Beng Mealea passed through some lovely countryside.

Water Buffalo still used in agricultural work in Cambodia. Water Buffalo carving from Bayon below

Water Buffalo swim against the backdrop of the Phnom Kulen mountains.

An Overgrown temple building at Beng Mealea

Window architecture at Beng Mealea

Multi-headed Naga Serpent Statue

Naga detail

Cethosia cyane (Leopard Lacewing) male 

Siem Reap was a friendly bustling town full of markets and well set up for tourists.  All of the archaeological sites were well worth the visit.  I would thoroughly recommend them and I hope I get the chance to visit them again someday.

Palau Kapas - Bats and Beach

Back in April I took a trip to Palau Kapas, an island on the Malaysian east coast.  I stayed at a great boutique resort called Turtle Valley, which because of it's idyllic location combined with the fantastic hospitality and great cooking of the owner Sylvia, is probably my favourite spot to chill out in all Malaysia.

The beach is small and secluded with great white sand and good reef within a few meters of the shore which provided great snorkelling with stacks of colourful fish, rays, moray eels, octopus etc.

A second beach cove can be reached either by swimming around the rocks at the end of the beach or by climbing over them.

This beach was a little more stoney with lots of great shells washed up on the strand line. The snorkelling here again was excellent with lots of clown fish that would swim up to my mask as I dived down to them and loads of blue and orange giant clams and live tiger cowries.

At both ends of the first beach were caves containing sleeping bats that could be reached by clambering over the rocks. As night fell it was a spectacular sight watching them all streaming out to feed. Although nervous of me, I was able to creep up on them in the day and get these shots.

Beyond the beach was a forest trail across the island that led to a rocky beach after about 40 minutes of leisurely walking.  Kapas is only small and the interior covered in dense monsoon forest that was rather dry at the time I walked through, with little wildlife worth shooting.

I took this photo of a male Great Mormon butterfly (Papilio memnon) on the bougainvillea flowers near the resort on the way back.

Another shorter walk led from Turtle Valley to the main beaches of Palau Kapas. The name Kapas means cotton and refers to the soft white nature of the sand which feels wonderful underfoot.

The beach here was very sandy and the water shallow, extending out some way into a large area of sea grass.  I took a Kayak out and managed to see a number of turtles swimming past and surfacing near me, no doubt attracted by the sea grass.

There are only a few low key resorts along the beach and it was great to walk to the end of the three or so coves at the end of a day as the sun dimmed and enjoy the sight of jungle meeting the sea with the beach practically to myself.

Definitely somewhere I would go back to.