We start off our journey from Penang. From here we took the 12.00 am bus to Kuala Lumpur. There's no buses to Jerantut from Penang. However there's one bus company which has a ticket booth at Komtar (near the Super Komtar Supermarket's groceries department) has a bus service to Temerloh (RM35/person). I should have taken this bus! I thought that I can get a bus straight from KL to Jerantut at the Pudu Raya bus station. Guess I am wrong :( I think the best way to go to Jerantut is to start from Temerloh.

This is the route I took:
Penang --> KL --> Temerloh --> Jerantut --> Kuala Tembeling --> Kuala Tahan

4.00 am we reach KL, so early! There's no buses to Temerloh or Jerantut at the Pudu Raya station. Only buses to Kuantan. You have to go to the Pekeliling bus station for express buses to Pahang. To reach Pekeliling bus station from Pudu Raya bus station, you have to walk about 10 minutes to the Plaza Rakyat LRT station to take the LRT to Titiwangsa LRT station. The ticket cost RM1.20. When you reach Titiwangsa LRT station, cross the overhead bridge. The station is on your left hand side.

Well... there's only one bus company to Jerantut, which is the Perwira Express. Bus fair is RM10.85 from 10am, 11.30am, 2pm and 5pm. Since it's still early, about 7.00am and the ticket counter was still close, so we went for breakfast. We are so bad luck or what? At 8am, ticket for 10am bus has been sold out, only one ticket left!!! Oh dear.......so how? We can't take the 11.30am bus because it will reach Jerantut at about 3pm, and then we'll gonna miss the 2pm boat to Kuala Tahan. The best option now is to take a bus to Temerloh. From there take another bus to Jerantut. Bulan Restu's pink bus leaves for Temerloh every hour starting form 7.30am. We took the 8.30am bus for RM7.30 per person. Temerloh is about 2 hours from KL.

10.30am we reach the Temerloh new bus station. There's also another Perwira Express bus ticket booth there for buses to Jerantut that leaves at 12pm. I think it's the same 10am bus that leaves from KL to Jerantut which stop by Temerloh first before continuing to Jerantut. Somehow we didn't take the Perwira Express bus to Jerantut, instead we look for the local bus which is the Transnational Tanjung Keramat yellow bus. The local bus bus station which the local refers it to the old bus station is at the other side of the town, to get there take a taxi (RM1) or other local bus (RM0.60) to the station. We are lucky to be on time to catch the 11am bus to Jerantut. The bus fair is RM4.20 per person.

12.45pm finally we reach Jerantut. Next is to find a bus to Kuala Tembeling. However the bus left already, next trip is at 1.45pm. We surely gonna miss the boat if we take this bus, the best option was to take a taxi to Kuala Tembeling. It's about 20 minutes ride by taxi and cost RM16 for one taxi. It will cost RM4 per person if you can get 4 people to share one taxi to Kuala Tembeling. Kuala Tembeling is about 11km from Jerantut. Taxi from Jerantut to Kuala Tahan is about RM80 for one taxi.

1.15pm reach Kuala Tembeling jetty. We have been traveling all day now, it's time to have a rest and lunch before continue on the 3 hour boat ride to Kuala Tahan. I am so hungry! Eat lunch at a near by coffee shop. Boat ticket can be bought at the counter near the jetty. RM38 per person for 2 way. You can also buy the return ticket from Kuala Tahan. We bought our tickets from the NKS Hotel & Travel Sdn Bhd counter. You must have permit to enter the park. There's a Wildlife Department office here, you can get your park entry permit for RM1 and camera permit for RM5. You can also get it from the Kuala Tahan. The office is inside the Taman Negara Resort. The entry permit must be return to the department on your day of departure so that they know you had already left the park. If you didn't return it, they assume that you are missing in the park and will search for you.

2.30pm the boat depart from the jetty. Cruising up stream was fun and relaxing. The river water is yellow in colour. Trees, trees, really tall, big trees along the river bank. The view was amazing. If you are lucky, you got to see some wild animals. I saw an otter chasing a fish, water buffaloes bathing in the river, monitor lizards and king fishers. Don't drink too much water if you can't hold your bladder too long because there's no stopping for toilet. I learn my lesson well.

Our boat was fast, we arrived at Kuala Tahan about 4.50pm. The boat dropped us at the Ombak Floating Restaurant. "Welcome to Taman Negara" a dark, tall guy with sun glasses greeted all the passengers. His name is Sham I think. He gave us a list of activities conducted by NKS. It's a well plan package with reasonable prices. Besides NKS, there are other floating restaurants organizing trips and activities for tourists. Well if you have no idea what or how to plan your activities here, then just join their package. It's much easier. On the other hand, we plan to explore the park by ourselves.

Next thing to do is to find a place to stay. Where to stay?

Picture1:Kuala Tembeling jetty.
Picture2:Wooden boat to Kuala Tahan.
Picture3:Kuala Tahan. Opposite the river is the national park.

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