KL Forest Eco Park: Real Rainforest

• KL Forest Eco Park
• VEXIMUS

Ihave been wanting to visit the KL Forest Eco Park for a long time (mainly for its instagram-famous treetop canopy walk). Information about the KL Forest Eco Park is quite scattered and inconsistent (some said it was closed down). So I decided to try my luck there last month and indeed it was closed due to maintenance. Fortunately I managed to speak to the maintenance officer there and he told me that it should be reopen in November.In the KLCC area, the two closest and most accessible points of green space are KLCC Park, and Bukit Nanas forest reserve.One belongs to Petronas, Malaysia's national oil company. It is located in the shadow of the iconic Petronas Twin Towers, and is a flat landscaped park with fountain shows near the Suria KLCC mall. Fireworks are shot up from here at festive occasions.The other is a permanent forest reserve in Bukit Nanas. It is the only one in the city centre, and one of the oldest in Malaysia. It is undulating, and spreads down the hill where the almost equally iconic KL Tower stands. I began my hike from the top. That morning, I decided to just wing it. Even so, I still managed to pick up all the trails easily. went along the Penarahan trail first, where I found cool twisting lianas on the ground. They look like someone trained them to grow that way! I saw this again in the Philippines, on a trail near Vigan. Looking up, at the right spot you can also see KL Tower through the gaps in the rainforest canopy.The Merawan trail goes down into what feels the most like real jungle within KL Forest Eco Park. The path slopes, but it's stabilised by turning it into retained earth steps. So it is much easier than a raw jungle trail.Back at the intersection between the two main trails of Penarahan and Jelutong, I headed for the latter one next. At an intersection, I detoured and surprisingly found myself in an open lawn area with gazebos. The footpaths in this area had concrete paving stones imprinted with rainforest leaves, together with their species names. There was an interesting hanging bridge before me, all done up in red. It seemed to rise into the woods. I wondered where it led to.I began having ambitions to hike up it to find out. With renewed motivation, I got up and approached the beginning of the bridge.And stopped. On the first span, I could see a monkey. It was a sort of black-grey, with a long tail, and was sat right in the middle. And then, I noticed the other monkeys - balanced on the cable 'banister' of the bridge.As I hesitated, some of the monkeys began to creep closer. Coming right to the very front, yet no more. Not leaving the bridge. Just staring at me.All in all, Bukit Nanas is a fairly easy half-day hike, at most. Very suitable for a quick break from a tour of the KL urban jungle.