Trip to Endau-Rompin National Park

Part 1 : Kluang 5-7 June 2008

The Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) Selangor Branch organised a 3 days 2 nights bird-watching activity at the Endau-Rompin National Park. I immediately registered with the organiser.

Heard so much about Kluang, so I decided to go there with my family 2 days earlier.

On arrival at Kluang, the first place to visit, of course, is the railway station, its cafe.

Railway station was packed with travelers waiting for the train arrival. I was told that the train was delayed - as usual.

Unfortunately, the cafe was closed for business for the day, instead, we went to the cafe outlet in the town.

The next morning, went over to Gunong Lambak Eco Resort for a walk. A group of health-conscious citizens practicing Tai Chi.



Went up to the place where hornbills ?spp. were spotted for nesting, but no sight of them. People around there told me that the hornbills had not appeared for quite some time.

Coming down from Gunong Lambak, went to a coffee shop in the town for breakfast.

Name of this shop was "Old Market". Inside the shop, a giant cup of coffee and food were displayed. Very unique and fascinating.



How about food served? Mostly hawkers' type of food. We ordered the famous fish ball & 'yong taufu' soup noodle. Taste? OK la, They had their preparation in favour of the locals. I still prefer the Ipoh mee soup or mee curry, served together with various type of fish/meat balls, fupei, sar-gord-yun etc.


We also ordered the famous kluang coffee and toasted kaya bun. Quite different from Hainam style.

A delicacy that was specially promoted in the shop.

Taste of coffee? OK also la, but it stimulated my urge to go back to Ipoh for the old town white-coffee.

After breakfast, drove towards Kahang. Just before Kahang town, turn left into the oil palm estate.

The road was quite bad due to last night's heavy rain. My 4WD proved to be very handy.

Quite a number of birds seen, which includes Greater Coucal, Red Junglefowl etc, and an injured White Collared Kingfisher.

The king had apparently injured its left wing. It couldn't fly high or far, but I saw it picking up some food from the ground. Hope it would able to hunt for food, otherwise it would die of hunger.

Back from Kahang, drove straight to the Kluang Railway Station.

Look at the signboard. It was Kluang Rail Coffee, not the usual one we saw in KL - Kluang Station.

We were told that Kluang Station Cafe had nothing to do with them.

We ordered the nation-wide famous coffee, bun and kaya.

The most recommended food – Nasi Lemak wrapped in banana leaves, really tasty and cheap. It’s only RM0.70 per packet.

On the 7^th morning, took a walk at the little Genting as described by the locals. This place was located on the northern part of Gunong Lambak.

I saw a flock of Great Hornbills. Soon, they flew further away from me. As I could hear them calling, I knew they were quite near but unfortunately my view was blocked by the slope. I tried to climb the slope, but failed, because the path of the slope was covered with thick bushes.

There were also a lot of Pink Neck Pigeon. I too saw a raptor perched at a dead branch far away, believed to be Changeable Hawk-Eagle.

Trip to Endau-Rompin National Park

Part 2 – Endau-Rompin National Park, 7-9 June 2008

After a palatable breakfast at the station Café, and took away a few more packets of nasi lemak, we proceed straight to Kahang town, where all the participants of the trip were supposed to meet up before 11am.

To locate the office of Endau Rompin National Park, once you enter Kahang town, watch out for the two-storey shop-lots on your right. The said office was squeezed in between a restaurant and a motorcycle repair shop.

Many of us had lunch at the restaurant. The owner should be very pleased over the sudden increase of customers.

We were packed into five 4WD vehicles that brought us into the National Park which was 56 km away from Kahang.

There had been raining for the past few evenings. The road to the National Park was not accessible with normal vehicles, especially at the site where we need to slope down to a flooding bridge.

On arrival at the visitors centre (VC) of the park, we were welcomed by a heavy downpour. It caused us much inconveniences. With lots of difficulties, we finally checked into our chalet,

To access to the canteen from the chalet, we need to cross a hanging bridge. The planks of the bridge were wet and very slippery. In fact, someone slipped and fell.

Rain had not stopped the bird-enthusiasts from performing their act of bird watching. As the rain began to retreat, they had put themselves into actions.

It was dinner time. We cater food at the only canteen available in the park. Very expensive, cost us RM12.00 each. After negotiation by the organizer, the next day’s dinner was much better.

This was Rm12.00 food – an improved version on the 2nd evening


On the 2nd day morning, lorry ferried us from Visitors Centre to NERC as early as 7:00am. From there, we did bird watching along the narrow tar road.

While we were concentrating on birds’ activities, one young lady in a motorcycle informed us that there was a herd of elephants ahead of us.

Cautiously and silently we walked by. True enough, a herd of them which includes a mother and its young were enjoying their breakfast at the bushes just next to the tar road, and were about 30 feet away from us. We speed up our steps. Fortunately, they were quite comfortable with us, never attempt to charge. In fact, this was my first experience of close encounter with the wild jumbos.

Freshly manufactured. Awful, isn’t it?


Around 100 species of birds were recorded during this trip. Amongst them:

Banded Broadbill. It was carrying some nesting materials.

Red-bearded Bee-eater, a juvenile.

If you wish to know more about birds of this trip, I suggest that you visit:

http://wcm-birding.blogspot.com/2008/06/birding-at-endau-rompin-kg-peta.html

A trip-report wrote by Susan Wong. She is a very experience and enthusiastic bird watcher.

Observe the rule of the park,

otherwise our next generations don't have a chance to see this.

We had to bid farewell to the park. On our way back to Kuala Lumpur, we stopped by at the Kluang station again for a cup of coffee and nasi lemak.