INTRODUCTION

With only limited traveling/birding time available, Peninsular Malaysia came into our mind. Clearly, it wasn't sufficient to cover all areas and see all specialties. Luckiliy, it is an easy stopover option when coming from further East.

ITINERARY

Download kml file with all gps coordinates

PRACTICALITIES

Transport

We rented a reliable Proton Saga from Paradise Cars for 170 euro / 8 days, unlimited kilometers, 2 drivers and full-full, all through rentalcars.com. Driving is on the left. Most drivers respect traffic rules but expect some speeding vehicles on the highways. Roads are generally in good condition but beware for blind curves + overtaking vehicles. Petrol is cheap. Important to know is that you need to buy a Touch'nGo card to pay toll on the highways as soon as you hit the road. You can buy them in petrol stations. You load some money on the card and scan them at the checkpoints. Mostly the amount is around 1-5 MYR. We did not spend more than 70-80 MYR in total so do not put too much money on the card.

Accommodation & food

Bukit Tinggi: Colmar Tropicale - the only hotel around. A bit expensive but good value. 24hr reception and food available through room service). We didn't try to find beer and didn't use the breakfast voucher...

Bukit Fraser: Shahzan Inn - many options but the Shahzan is centrally located for birding, and has a buffet breakfast. Dinner options are, surprisingly, not as good. Beer can be found in Scott's pub and restaurant, in the little shop on the right side when coming up on the old road just before the clock tower, and in some restaurants near Arzed (number 3 or 4?). Probably the better places to eat are around Arzed, but maybe Scott's pub should be OK, too.

Kuala Tahan: Tebing Guest House - many lodging options as many Malay and foreign people stay here. The only beer in town can be had at the Wild lodge for 12 MYR.

Taman Negara: Mutiara Taman Negara Resort - only hotel / lodge across the river. It is possible to stay in cheaper places on the other side of the river as well and make day trips. We stayed at the resort to be more flexible at night birding as river crossings only start at around 7 AM and go until 22 PM. The Mutiara serves beer for 15 MYR (ordering 5 at the same time)

Money

The official currency of Malaysia is the Malaysian Ringgit. ATM's were easily found throughout the country. Paying with credit cards is commonly used.

Weather

We experienced dry weather at Bukit Tinggi and Fraser's Hill. Sometimes, it was a bit cloudy / misty at Fraser's hill (especially at night). At Taman Negara, we had a thunderstorm every night starting around dusk for at least 3-4 hours. Mornings and daytime in TN were without rain but very humid. Read more at the Climates to Travel website.

Health, safety and annoyances

Leeches. They were abundant in Taman Negara, especially when going off trail. Boardwalks were pretty leech-free but can be unstable / broken and are annoying to walk on (especially at dark). There is no real malaria risk on this tour, so no profylaxis needed. Read more at the site of Institute of Tropical Medecine.

Visa

We obtained our tourist visa upon arrival in the airport. Read more at the Embassey of Malaysia website.

Electricity

240V, 50Hz, type G plug. Read more at the Worldstandards website.

© Lieven De Temmerman

VISITED SITES

(mainly written by Lieven De Temmerman)

Below is a list of the sites we birded. Observado and eBird were scrutinized thoroughly. More up-to-date logistical information came from various trip reports on www.cloudbirders.com. These were the most useful reports:

• Berryman, 2018
• Collaerts, 2014
• van der Spek, 2009

Bukit Tinggi

Bukit Tinggi is, ignoring rush hour delays, less than 2 hrs drive from KLIAS airport. We got into contact with Adrian Lim through Whatsapp before visiting the place, as we wanted to be sure about the exact location and found it customary to let Adrian know we were visiting. Adrian was quick and very generous with information, and even though he could not be present, his help and advice was greatly appreciated.

Shortly after the turn off from the main highway, there is a road barrier at 3.372132, 101.854247. We could only pass the barrier late night when we told we had a reservation in Colmar Tropicale hotel. Without reservation, it seems impossible to be allowed to pass the barrier. There is a second barrier just before the Colmar Tropicale at 3.406501, 101.838419. That barrier was also only opened late night by showing our reservation for Colmar Tropicale hotel.

The third barrier is between the Hotel and the Japanese tea garden at 3.408728, 101.839108. This barrier will be opened by someone early in the morning if you let the reception desk of Colmar know you want to go up early (6AM in our case). If there is no one, the barrier can be opened as there should not be be a lock. We parked at the obvious parking lot on the right: 3.417729, 101.843104. We won't give the exact details for the feeding area, as it is requested by the local birders. Adrian Lim is a local birder/photographer and can be contacted in order to pay a visit to the feeder: +60 12-339 9980. He is happy to show you around or give details on how to get there.

Until early light (7.15AM), we birded between the parking lot and the way down (only some 2-300m) and got calling Mountain Scops owl and Blyth's Frogmouth.

Highlights: Mountain Peacock-Pheasant, Ferruginous Partridge (both at the Peacock feeding area), Blyth's Frogmouth (just below the large parking lot). We didn't hear / see Rail-babbler (probably seasonal).

Bukit Fraser (Fraser's Hill) and The Gap

Bukit Fraser is a well-known hill resort with pristine forest and good trails, and a convenient stop to or from Taman Negara. There is plenty of accomodation at Fraser, but during our stay the weekend was fully booked as it was a national holiday.

The Gap is located down the mountain at around 1000 MASL at 3.6928863, 101.74846. The bird composition is different here, with some birds shared with Taman Negara (e.g. some malkohas, broadbills, bee-eater, barbets, hornbills,...). From the Gap it's about 8 kms up to Fraser's hill along the Old road (uphill only). The New road can only be used for going down (both roads are one-way).

Almost within the village, there are some well-known trails cutting through very good forest. Down near the mosque, the Hemmant Trail (3.71394920244, 101.735272064) is fairly flat and easy to walk. At the end, one can continue down the Bishop's trail (start at 3.71680037375, 101.737667854) and further on to the Maxwell trail. Some smaller trails like Richmond can be handy shortcuts while walking in between birding areas. We mainly birded the Bishop's trail, the Pine trail (starts at 3.7117969, 101.72754), the Whistling Thrush stake-out on top of the Old road (3.7097828, 101.7359) and the Richmond road stake-out for the partridges (3.7117277, 101.74144). At the time of writing, there were no known worm-fed Whistling-thrush stake-outs, and the only reliable spot seemed to be on top of the Old road (but there must be other places). We shortly visited the Hemmant trail, the road down to the Jeriau waterfall and the Telekom loop (at night) but we found these places less productive. We also spent considerable time near the Gap and on the Old road going up, in search for some birds of lower elevation.

We birded the Pine trail (start at 3.7117969, 101.72754) as far as there were sightings of Cutia but didn't find one, and we also didn't hear any Long-billed Partridges during our afternoon visit.

Highlights: Malayan Whistling-thrush (stake-out at the top of the old road), Malaysian Partridge (at the stake-out), Malayan Laughingthrush (at the same partridge stake-out on the Richmond road), Rusty-naped Pitta (several heard and briefly seen along Bishop's trail + a very cooperative bird on the Pine trail at 3.7079621, 101.71877), Marbled Wren-Babbler (in a gully along the Old Road at 3.6955653, 101.73859), Rufous-bellied Swallow, Black Laughingthrush, Bamboo Woodpecker (all down at the gap or on the way up the old road). Night birds were not very active.

Taman Negara

There are two entrances for the national park. The main one at Kuala Tahan (4.38514444038, 102.401708877) and a secondary one at Merapoh (4.67964, 102.0571). The Kuala Tahan entrance is closer to Kuala Lumpur, but of course also busier. It seems that lots of birds (especially ground birds) are shy / taped out / pushed further from the trails as there is more disturbance. The trails close to the HQ are turned into boardwalks. Walking on these is a bit noisy and due to bad maintenance, some parts are are getting a bit tricky. Still, the birding can be rewarding.

Practical info: There is only one shop/bar selling beer in Kuala Tahan (Wild Lodge). The Mutiara resort also sells beer but it's a bit more expensive. There is a shop selling some food (fruits, water, cookies, ice coffee, ...) near the Mutiara. We stayed at the Kuala Tahan side for one night as the Mutiara was fully booked on our first night (a saturday night during national holidays), after that first night we spent 3 more nights at the Mutiara. The advantages staying at the Mutiara are no time constraints while night (or early morning) birding. In hindsight, the night birding was not very productive and we probably wouldn't have missed any species if we commuted with the boats from Kuala Tahan every day. First boat leaves at 7.00AM, last boat around 10.30PM (1 ringgit/person, 2 minutes).

Trails: There are only 2 trails starting at the HQ / Mutiara: the Tahan River Trail and the trail towards the canopy tower (). The first trail connects with the second through the Jenut Muda trail about here 4.3916, 102.3997. Starting either clockwise or counterclockwise, it takes a full day just walking the river trail + Jenut Muda trail + back to the Mutiara at birding pace. We never reached the Tabing Hide (4.4090816, 102.40384) further along the River Trail. The Kumbang trail and other trails are at least 2-3 hrs walking at birding pace, or one should take a boat (e.g. for the Kumbang hide at 4.4471997, 102.43694, the Bunbun Blau trail). One can also bird around the Mutiara + the Tahan hide (4.3868287, 102.40396) and the Swamp Loop trail (4.38688, 102.40248).

We birded the Jenut Muda trail, the Tahan River trail, the Bumbun Blau trail (only for one hour until a treefall blocked our path, we were droppe at the jetty 4.38475998755, 102.399402217), the Swamp loop, the Tahan Hide and the Lubok Simpon beach (4.3913416, 102.3993) at the river trail. Besides the official trails, we found two smaller trails branching off the Jenut Muda trail: the first one follows a ridge and ends at a small (research?) house. It almost connects with the Swamp Loop but one needs to do a little bit of bush whacking. The best (and one of the only) birds found was a (young?) male Malayan Peacock pheasant. The second one branches off to the canopy trail. Along this trail, we found Rail Babbler and Rufous-collared Kingfisher. Birding was slow but activity was OK throughout the day. Dusk and dawn were less productive than hoped / expected. Night birding was hampered by daily rain in the evenings.

Highlights: Rail-Babbler (4.3901005, 102.4063566), Garnet Pitta (at 4.395189, 102.40235), Rufous-collared Kingfisher (both at the shortcut between the canopy trail and the Jenut Muda trail), Large Wren-Babbler (at a gully on the river trail near 4.3962001, 102.4030014), Malayan Crested Fireback (Canopy trail), Large Frogmouth (Tahan hide), Gould's Frogmouth, Straw-headed Bulbul, Blue-banded Kingfisher (Lubok Simpon beach), White-crowned Hornbill (Swamp loop). We saw a Malayan Peacock-pheasant, a male that has been released approx. 5 years ago but refuses to moult into adult plumage. We didn't hear any Reddish Scops-owls.