On Malaysia’s toughest trek, through Malayan tiger’s last refuge, the rainforest of Taman Negara national park, a sweaty climb and muddy descent

It pays to go the long way through the rainforest of Taman Negara national park, one of Southeast Asia’s last wildernesses and home to tigers and other wildlife

Climbing the park’s highest mountain is a wet, muddy test of endurance, but the journey brings unparalleled natural beauty and a sense of euphoria

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Malaysia is home to some of the oldest rainforest on earth - the last natural home of the Malay tiger and habitat for wild animals such as the Asian elephant. Trekking though this unspoilt jungle makes for the journey of a lifetime. Photo: Chan Kit-yeng

Published: 1:15pm, 30 Jul 2022Updated: 1:17pm, 13 Aug 2022

I don’t want to believe Piyan when he stops to tell me that I have just missed the proverbial needle in a tropical haystack.

One of my guides and a Batek Orang Asli – the original peoples of Malaysia – he claims he has just glimpsed the orange back of a Malayan tiger, which then shot off into the jungle. It can’t be possible; I was just a few metres behind him.

Piyan walks me back to point at a sizeable footprint with four very fresh claw marks indented into the soil. I gulp, and believe. As we return silently to the trail and catch up with the rest of our group, I obsess over the near miss, an encounter I’ve craved for the 14 years I have spent scouring Malaysia’s remaining jungles.

“Consider yourself extremely lucky nonetheless,” says guide Angie Ng. “The last tally found evidence of only 60 tigers living in the 4,343 square kilometres [1,680 square miles] of Taman Negara.”

Batek guide Piyan (left) and the author on the trail in Gunung Tahan, Malaysia. Photo: Chan Kit-yeng

Sixty-year-old Ng is the only female professional mountain guide in Taman Negara, the largest national park in Peninsular Malaysia. The park is about 230km (140 miles) northeast of the nation’s capital, Kuala Lumpur.

She is leading our group of six adventurers through one of Southeast Asia’s last remaining wildernesses, on a 71km trek from Kuala Tahan to Merapoh, over Gunung Tahan.