Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
TOP SIGHT
FOREST RESEARCH INSTITUTE OF MALAYSIA
Covering 600 hectares, and popular with locals who come to stroll in the shade of
soaring trees, the Forest Research Institute of Malaysia (FRIM) was established in
1929 to conduct research into the sustainable management of Malaysia's rainforests.
The junglelike park is planted with a wide variety of native flora including indigenous
fruit trees, conifers and rare, old dipterocarps. Swinging through these trees are
macaques and langurs (leaf monkeys).
Canopy Walkway
FRIM's highlight is its canopy walkway, hanging a vertigo-inducing 30m above the forest
floor. It is reached by a steep trail from the information centre, where you should go first to
register and to pick up maps of the other trails in the park. The 200m walkway will take
you right into the canopy, offering great views of the rainforest, with the towers of KL
rising in the distance behind.
Heading down from the walkway the trail picks its way through the jungle (follow the
water pipe) to a shady picnic area where you can cool off in a series of shallow waterfalls.
The return hike incorporating the walkway takes around two hours. Bring water with you.
Wooden Houses & Museum
Elsewhere in the park there's a couple of handsome traditional wooden houses, relocated
from Melaka and Terengganu. Drop by the museum to learn a bit more about the work of
FRIM and the make-up of Malaysian forest. Paths run through several arboreta highlight-
ing different types of trees, and a wetland area. Next to the information centre is a pond
containing a giant araipama, a South American freshwater fish.
It's best to bring a picnic but, if not, there's a canteen in the park.
Rimbun Dahan
For most of the year only the Hijjas family, their friends and a handful of talented writers
about a 20-minute taxi ride west of FRIM (or a 28km, 30-minute taxi ride from central
KL). The artists' residency program, set up by architect Hijjas Kasturi (who de-signed the
