Taman Negara Transportation

Daily departure from Hotel Malaya, Chinatown at 8am. Cost RM30

The bus makes one stop in Mentakab Mobil petrol station for about 10 minutes and then straight to Jerantut town.

2 choices, bus to Taman Negara (1 & 1/2 hours) or long boat ride from Kuala Tembelling Jetty (3 hours)
Cost RM22

The boat schedule from Ping Anchorage, the travel agency that I bought my KL-Taman Negara bus tickets from is as follows:

Kuala Tembeling to Kuala Tahan 09.00 hrs, 13.00 hrs and 14.00 hrs (Sat-Thu)
09.00 hts, 14.30 hrs (Fri)

Kuala Tahan to Kuala Tembeling 09.00 hrs, 14.00 hrs (Sat-Thu)
09.00 hrs, 14.30 hrs (Fri).

But on our trip, we only departed from K.Tembeling at 2.30 pm. On the other hand, we arrived at Kuala Tahan 2 hours later, much faster than what I read.

It is possible to book ahead the bus seats for the Kuala Lumpur-Taman Negara-Kuala Lumpur trip. Of course, to be more accurate, the bus just goes till Jerantut and returns from there.

The travel agency I used was Ping Anchorage and they have their own bus. There is a web site that you can check out if you wish to know more about them and their Kuala Lumpur contact number.

I made my booking at the Seberang Jaya office (near Butterworth). Their office there is on the second floor of the row of shops just opposite Billion Supermarket at Seberang Jaya. It is also behind The Ship (Westrern food restaurant). All locals know that supermarket so there is no problem getting to the office if you aren't familiar with the location.

The bus ticket costs RM50 one way and RM100 return.

The employees are helpful. I was able to phone them to book the tickets first before going directly to the office to pick them up. You can also bank in the money if you aren't able to visit the office soon after booking. They were willing to hold the tickets for a few days for me.

In KL, we waited for the bus at the lower lobby of Crowne Plaza Mutiara Hotel. The taxi driver said it was formerly Hilton Hotel. There are benches to wait in comfort and you can use the hotel's toilets to freshen up if necessary.

2 more images

From 1 April 2007 there is an express bus service from Butterworth bus station (adjacent to the jetty to Penang island) to Jerantut. It will in the future end at Kuala Tahan. The present condition of the road is not good enough for it yet. Actually the bus starts from Kuala Perlis and allows passengers to embark or disembark at Alor Setar, Sungai Petani and Butterworth. After Butterworth, it goes to Ipoh, Bentong, Temerloh and ends at Jerantut .

From Jerantut, you can take the long boat or van (NKS, Green Leaf) to Kuala Tahan. Both cost (RM25). Jerantut is about an hour away from Kuala Tahan by road.

The bus to Jerantut is supposed to be at Butterworth at 10.30 pm but tonight, when I was at the bus station, it came at 11.05 pm. The name on the bus is Kuala Tahan and there is only one trip a day either way right now. The tel.no. of the counter at BW is below.

The return trip (Jerantut-BW etc.) begins at 6.00 pm.

Cost of BW-Kuala Tahan ticket is RM45.00 but at Jerantut. the ticket to BW is only RM37.50. The BW-Jerantut cost more bec the agent wants to earn more. There is no return ticket. You can buy the bus ticket at Kuala Tahan from Pakcik Nor at R & R.

My pal and I boarded the bus at Kampung Piol at 5.30 pm when we got a lift from Pakcik Nor's friend. The bus company is at Kpg. Piol.

Getting to Taman Negera is relatively easy these days. All you need to do is to take a bus or a train to a backwater town called Jeruntut and from there, you proceed to Tembeling Jetty where you take a boat ride into Taman Negara.

Like many other ignorant Singaporean travellers, we romanticised train rides and were more than eager to take a train from the Tanjong Pagar Station (S'pore) to Jerantut Station ( M'sia ). The journey quickly dispelled all of our positive feelings. First, it took 9 bloody hours and secondly it was pockmarked by frustrating delays and blackouts. To top it all off, we waited at the train station from 1am to 4.20am on the last day for our train!
Guess that says a lot about efficiency at Malaysian Rail. Well, having said that, I'll recommend that you take a bus from Larkin Station at JB to Jerantut. The journey will cost half and it'll be shorter and faster. The rest of our journey was taken by the guide so we didn't worry about it....

Here's how our journey went:
Singapore->Jerantut ( rail )
Jerantut ->Tembeling Jetty ( guide's van )
Tembeling ->Kuala Tahan /T.Negara ( chartered boat )

Useful Websites

1)Bus schedules from Jeruntut Bus Station.
http://www.journeymalaysia.com/ptajerantut.htm

2)Train schdules to Jeruntut
http://www.ktmb.com.my/

You can drive all the way to Kuala Tahan across from Taman Negara; you don't need to take the 2-hour river-boat up. The people at Kuala Tembeling Jetty don't advertise the fact that the road is good all the way to the village, and is shown on the road maps. You do not need a 4-wheel drive vehicle at all for this road, as stated on some web sites (it's all paved except for a short stretch of smooth gravel).

You can park in the village for a very reasonable rate, stay there, or check yourself into one of the resorts. There is a small ferry that takes you across the river, between Kuala Tahan and the park entrance, which is also the entrance to the Mutiara Resort. It costs RM 1.

The map shown is very roughly drawn.

Besides boat from Kuala Tahan to Jerantut there is also a minivan each morning at 8:00 (20 RM) and public bus at 7:30 (probably not every day - ask local people; much more cheaper than minivan). The problem may occur in rainy season when road is often closed because of floods, so you can not rely on this option - probably you will have to go by boat.

The cheapest way to go from Kuala Lumpur to Taman Negara is to take the public bus to Jerantut at 5 pm from Kuala Lumpur Pekeliling bus station. Then you can stay in one of Jerantut guest houses and on the next day you can go to NKS office in Sri Emas hotel where you can buy the bus ticket to Kuala Tembeling jetty and the boat ticket to Kuala Tahan. But there is also public bus from Jerantut to Kuala Tahan.