Belum Park is a large protected area of tropical forest in the northern part of Malaysia. The forest is shared with Thailand that also protects it as a national park, placed on T-list as well. As a transnational proposal, both parks have higher chance for inscription, although the path has not been announced yet (Malaysia placed it on T-list only in 2017).

 It is quite easy to get to Belum State Park with a rental car. From Penang it is about 2.5-hour drive and the nearest WHS of Lenggong Valley is only 1.5 hours away. It is not the most popular part of Malaysia and the tourist base is quite small. It seems that the park cannot be visited on your own, as it requires boat transport on Temenggor lake. Interesting thing is that the lake is artificial and was created by Malaysian government to make life harder to local communist militias (this is what our guide told us, official reason was to generate electricity). The rebelliants applied hit and run strategy escaping to Thailand, what was obviously much more difficult with the huge lake in the center. Since 1989 there are no fights in this area.

 The most convenient way to visit is booking one of the trips offered by Belum Tropical Resort. This is what I did and the experience was really pleasant. At first the guide took us (all transport by boat) to Rafflesia, giant parasite flower whose pitches may reach over one meter of diameter. Unfortunately …