Category: hiking and mountaineering

Into the biggest national park of Malaysia, Taman Negara (January 2026)

We went with the minivan from Kuala Lumpur to the long tail boat and then further up the river into the biggest national park of Malaysia: Taman Negara.
The ride with the boat took quite a while and it was nice to observe the shore, the jungle and how the driver had to put quite some effort to find the deepest paths through the river to not touch the ground.
The restaurants at the heart of the tourist area were mostly on floating platforms.
On the search for the best french fries.
Our accommodation was very nice but the geckos did not enjoy their stay so much. At least not the ones getting trapped in the fuse box.
Jungle explorers.
In the junge.
We found a lot of interesting stuff, sounds, and animals.
Some suckers were not our friends.
One evening, we went to an observation post and waited and observed for a hour in the hopes of seeing some jungle elephants …
… but didn’t see any.
On a guided night tour we saw a lot of interesting animals. These are sleeping birds.
Techno party scorpion.
Our guide showed us a photo of the biggest flooding that took place in Taman Negara in 2014 and was about 75 meters high.
To go into the national park, we had to take a boat to cross the river.
Dumbfuckery all the time!
Meeting other travelers.
The jungle rollercoasters …
… and highways.
My favorites: the big trees.
Some up to 80 meters high.
Some leaning over.

To the tropical beach on Marina and Pangkor Island in Malaysia (December 2025)

We took two busses from the Cameron Highlands to the coast.
The first one was very comfortable and the second an older line bus. The driver delivered packages as well 😁
As always, we took the cheapest apartment we could find. This one was nice and had a nice view.
No hot plate, but we managed to buy a gas canister and pot for our camping stove so that we could cook from time to time on our balcony 🍳
The view was very beautiful and several times we spotted a pretty big waran. We called her Clementine 🐊
It was beautiful at night as well. The whole apartment complex was almost abandoned for most of our time there. So we had the pool just for us 🌌
We found a nice restaurant and had very good dinners there 🥳
Tom and I had some fish 🐟
And on the small Marina Island, which seemed to be an artificial Resort Island, was this: the funtasiland!
The most neon place we have ever seen! The sand for the kids to play in was neon pink and blue as well 🤣
One day we went into the small town of Lumut. Very much deserted in the off season 😁
With nice graffiti pictures …
… and robots 🤖
In an Chinese temple we put some wishes on the wishes tree 🙏🏼
Another day we went to Pangkor Island. A customs free island where you can mostly buy sweets and fish. No alcohol or cigarettes 😁
They had a whole lot of scooters on that island. New and old 😳
A mosque in the ocean 🌊
A gang of goose that went rogue and had to get caught 🤣
And we went to this magnificent tropical beach 🏝️
It was very beautiful ❤️
Hammock, …
…
… this nice blend of jungle, sand, and ocean …
…
… and some animals to discover. There was a wild boar as well 🐗
And this nasty monkey who wanted to steal some stuff from us. But we fought him back ☮️
After some hours at that magnificent beach, we started our way back to civilization ✨
At first, the jungle trails was like the ones we already took before 😀
But the trail developed into a very rough one. The photo doesn’t do it justice. The path was marked by small pieces of barrier tape wrapped around trees. But sometimes big trees had fallen covering the tape and blocking the trail. So we spent a lot of time searching for markings, going around the fallen trees, breaking our way through the plants who had taken over the path, and sliding down muddy slopes. It was adventurous and in the end it took us almost three hours to walk almost three kilometers!
Here is our tour on Komoot 🌿
But we made it in time so that we could head to the last ferry going back to Marina Island 🥳
On our way to the ferry we came across another nice beach ⛱️
And at home we treated Racki’s and Tom’s wounds from leeches. For some reason the leeches did not suck on me. Maybe the mosquitos already had taken all my blood 😳
And in the jungle there were all the saw, and blade cutter noises 🤯🤪

In the jungle of the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia (November, December 2025)

We took a bus to the Cameron Highlands. The bus engine was not that bad when it was moving, but in neutral the engine got pretty loud. And we were almost crashing into the roof when the bus hit the many bumps on the road 😄
The jungle was very different from what we’d seen in the last years 🌿
And the jungle trails were pretty cool and interesting. It was never boring to walk there. More like an agility walk 🥳
And they were actively maintained and some parts had even ladders and, or ropes 🪜
The plants were amazing 😍
So much green and besides the trails there was the impenetrable jungle 💚
We made it up to a view point. The viewpoints were mostly not so impressive because there was mostly not much to see. More covered by trees 🔭
All these patterns, …
… colors …
… alien shapes, …
… crazy ones, …
… mushy ones, …
… more mushrooms, …
… and psychedelic ones 🌺
So many 🥳
And reptile friends 🦎
Another hike brought Racki and me …
… to a peak at 1840 meters 😁
Meanwhile Tom got lost a bit because I accidentally put the wrong location in his navigation app.
But we made it and reunited 🤗
But still I was very sorry for my mistake because the path to the wrong location was very slippery and we had to walk a lot longer to avoid taking that path again 🙃
But in the end, we made it and on the way we met a lot of jungle-assimilated old cars 🌿
The weather was awesome. Not one rainy day in the rainy season in the jungle. Our apartment was in one of the big living houses in the Cameron Highlands and we had a lot of good food in the small restaurants 🥳
And we pitched up our new tent in our apartment. Tom brought it from Germany and we applied sealing to it ✨