rainforest treehouse adventure
October 26, 2020
After few weeks of tight schedule, our team decided to have a getaway from the city during last weekend and had an overnight stay at the ‘Rainforest Treehouse’ which is located at Mount Pulai. As an Entertainment Industry Designer, I would say the best side of our job is, you play while you work!
We started our journey with a heartful bowl of ‘Hakka Lei Cha’, which is said to have the best ‘Hakka Lei Cha’ in town. Their ‘Yong Tau Fu’ are favourites among the locals too, so we ordered some for sharing. A
After brunch, we headed off to Putuo Village, the Little Pratalaka. It is a serene and scenic place rich in Buddhism essence and cultural elements. Built as a unique cultural village to exhibit the splendour of Buddhism arts and stories, to attract tourists of different religion with the unique element of discovering culture and immersing in nature. During our visit, we actually spotted tourists from different religious and race came to visit.
~Welcome to the main hall of Putuo Village, the Guanyin Pavilion~
~This road is part of the pathway for ‘3 steps 1 bow ceremony’ which actually leads to the bamboo forest. During our visit, we actually spotted tourists from different religious and race came to visit~
After exploring Putuo Village, we headed straight to our main destination, The Rainforest Treehouse! The place is located at Gunung Pulai and it took around 40 minutes’ drive from our current location. The purpose we choose to visit the Rainforest Treehouse is to be connected with nature and experience the life out of the city.
As we enter the Rainforest Treehouse, we were invited into a small hut next to the entrance built on stilts. The comfortable hut is the lobby of the Rainforest Treehouse where guests can lounge around on their hammocks while waiting, and there is an earth kiln under the hut which is said they bake their signature cakes, breads and pizzas with it. There are some friendly cats relaxing inside the hut, seeking the guests for petting. We were then briefed on the rules and regulations. No smoking allowed, no trash should be left behind upon checkout and there’s only one rubbish bin throughout the whole premise which is at the entrance.
We were also briefed about the layout of the premise. There are a total of eight treehouses. We were the only group for the stay that night. Hence, we got Treehouse no.7 which come with a sunset view. The paths to the treehouse are uphill so we were lucky that our treehouse is located near to the entrance. Lucky us the library is located next to our treehouse too!
After 10 minutes of uphill ascend, we reached our treehouse no. 7 aka Sunset House. This is the only triple storey treehouse and is the best location to view the sunset. Shoes are not allowed in the treehouse and the other indoor common areas. After climbing up to the third floor, we were amazed by the mesmerizing view. The third floor is an open-air platform, with lush green surrounding the treehouse. The best part is we can get a view of Mount Pulai from our treehouse too!
The tree houses are furnished with electrical outlets, mosquito nets, table fans, folding mattress, pillows, blankets and a storage box for us to store our foods and belongings to prevent the monkeys from taking our stuff away. Each treehouse come with their own private toilet, though it’s detached just next to our treehouse. The water comes directly from the mountains and we can directly drink it from the taps. We can also get water from the main hall if we prefer boiled water.
After we settled down in the treehouse, heavy rain started pouring so we could only stay in the treehouse. Due to the strong wind, rainwater splashed inside our treehouse and we had to keep moving our things around to avoid it from getting wet. We couldn’t go anywhere due to the heavy rain, but thanks to it our team had an interesting and memorable bonding time together inside the hut, we even discussed solutions for this situation if we encounter this in our future project! After the rain stopped, we explored the library next door and stumbled upon one of the staff there. He asked if we wanted to change to another treehouse that is more enclosed because our previous one was all wet and uncomfortable after the rain. Hence, we decided to exchange good views for a better accommodation.
After moving all of our stuffs, we rested for a while and went down to the lobby for dinner. Dinner is at 6.30pm, we arrived lobby 30 minutes earlier so we decided to stroll around the surroundings of the village. Dinner was served when we got back to the lobby. We had vegetarian ‘Bak Kut Teh’ and some side dishes with rice. The chef explained they serve vegetarian here because all of their kitchen wastes will be transformed into organic compose after this, which is more friendlier to the environment.
After dinner, the forest became dark as the sun went down, we need to use our prepared torch light to slowly walk back to our tree house. There isn’t much to do at night in the forest because it was so dark, so we played card games, chilling and chatting together, without our phones! The sleep was accompanied with chirps and whirr of the natures with wind blowing, it was truly a memorable night.
Next day, while looking forward to our trekking experience up the hill, we had welcomed the day with awesome view!
During breakfast, there was a briefing by the owner on how he started this treehouse project with only two of his men and the challenges faced building treehouses to minimize the destruction on nature and maintenance on destroyed facilities by the monkeys. The owner told us his dream is to create a self-sufficient green community. They even have their own school inside this community!
There is also a playground located outside the main hall with handmade swings, obstacle and giant hammocks. Unfortunately, some parts of the playground are under maintenance during our visit. Hence, we didn’t get to fully enjoy the nature playground, hope that we have the chance to visit here again once it’s done.
After breakfast, we were lucky enough to have the owner himself led us for the jungle trekking with two other volunteers. He actually went on the trail barefooted and he recommended us to do the same too. Some of us decide to follow suit and went jungle trekking barefooted! The guided trek was quite informative and interesting! The owner showed and explained to us the different types of plants, trees and living species in the area. As we go further up, we spotted 3 hornbills in the area!
~We experience tree climbing during our jungle trekking too!~
We visited Mount Pulai Waterfall after lunch which was about 20 minutes’ walk from the treehouse. The waterfall was rather crowded on the weekends. Found a quiet spot that we would like to settle down for some fun. Water was cooling and refreshing, one of us even soaked himself in the water for a relaxing bath. We stayed there for an hour and got back to the treehouse for a quick washed up and headed back home.
It was a fun experience for all of us to spent our weekend connected with nature. We really enjoyed the whole trip despite the heavy rain splash on Day 1. Definitely going back again!