t+l journal
| adventure of someone who’s been asked the same question too many times. “Bigfoot? I don’t want to talk about this. If people come here and we tell them it’s real, we are cheating them.” I was glad to get that out of the way, and Long’s manner suggested he would be happier if I didn’t bring it up again. Having grown up in the Jakon village of Kampung Peta just inside peninsular Malaysia’s Endau-Rompin National Park border, he felt there should be enough interest in the real animals inhabiting this precious environment without fussing over a mythical hominid. The media have been getting flustered over bigfoot “sightings” and “footprints” here in recent years, yet surely there were enough rare creatures to get excited about. The Jakon, one of the indigenous tribes given the blanket label orang asli, have been living here for centuries. If there were bigfoot here, they’d know about it. Endau-Rompin is one of peninsular Malaysia’s last surviving lowland forests. Covering 870 square kilometers, this ancient volcanic landscape, one fed by multiple rivers, is the »
L
ONG SMILED THE SMILE
Rumbles in the Jungle Endau-Rompin National Park in Malaysia is home to many secretive animals, few tourists and maybe, just maybe, a mythical beast. Story and photographs by MAT OAKLEY
MALAYSIA
Seasonal Solitude Clockwise from above: Upriver by boat; the Tasik Air Biru pool; Upeh Guling’s unearthly formations.
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