Monkey Feeding and Firefly Watching in Malaysia

One late night in our Kuala Lumpur hostel after a long day of exploring and eating, we decided to book a tour to fill up one of our remaining days in the city. We googled tours and settled on the group Firefly and Silver Leaf monkey tour through a company that had very high reviews on TripAdvisor. Time to relax. Tour Day -- we made our way to the Malaysia Tourism Centre at 3pm to meet up for our one and only tour of our 2 week adventure. We were the only ones there (how strange!) and after a bit we were approached by a man wearing a polo shirt, jeans and aviators, informing us that we were the only ones who signed up for the tour. I found that to be a bit odd, as the website had us on a waitlist when we signed up for this tour. But oh well, we were already there. He knew Amy by name, at least. I semi-reluctantly climbed into the backseat of a creeper van and off we went.

Our first destination, monkey feeding, was approximately an hour and a half drive out of Kuala Lumpur to Kuala Selangor. As exhausted as I was, I wouldn’t let myself sleep and made sure we were heading into the right direction lest we get unknowingly kidnapped. An unspoken agreement was had between Amy and I to not fall asleep, to stay aware.

We fell asleep about half an hour into the ride, while watching the scenery of palm trees and coconut trees, and rubber plantations pass us by. Haha.

We didn’t talk much with the tour guide, regrettably. He tried to make some conversation but I was quite exhausted from the past week and a half of traveling. I was happy to be able to sit down for a bit and unwind... And catch up on sleep. I'm sure we were some of his more quieter tourists.

So we made it to Bukit Melawati (or Fort Atlingsburg, as named by the Dutch). Lots of silver leaf monkeys around. Monkeys errwhere.

These monkeys are a very friendly bunch who will gently tap you on the shoulder or tug lightly at your pants to ask for food. One of them sat near me, got real comfortable and chilled out with his foot resting on my knee. We did a bit of exploring around the area (it used to be a fort... my hand is resting on a cannon, actually) and the monkeys followed us wherever we went.

A local cookie seller (to feed the monkeys) who has been around for decades told us a bit about the 100 something monkeys who inhabits the area. He claimed that he knew each individual monkey, and told us the story of how the leader of the pack became the alpha male.

The alpha male and cookie seller:

Another 10 minutes was spent telling us that these are the more well behaved, polite monkeys, as opposed to the macaques who have the propensity to steal off of you, which he called the “naughty monkeys”. He gave us some more cookies for free to feed the monkeys before we left, what a nice guy.

After the monkey feeding, our tour guide drove us off to what Amy and I have deemed to be our romantic platonic sunset dinner by the Selongor River. The river made it romantic. Probably one of the most romantic platonic dinners I’ve ever had, despite the mediocre food and the you-can-see-the-river-underneath-you bathroom. Amy calls it the "open floorplan bathroom". This river is supposed to be known for it's fresh seafood, but our tour package included fried rice and orange chicken.

We were told we could order other dishes from the menu for extra cost if we wanted, but we decided to save the money. We ate our food and watched the fishermen pass by in their boats as the sun started to set behind the mangrove trees. Tea time was had, and it was good.

Also, a couple sitting one table away happened to be on the same exact tour schedule as us. They paid a bit extra to have a private tour, but little did they know that by doing so, I got to pay less for basically the same thing!

To top off this romantic tour, the last stop would be a firefly cruise at one of the largest firefly colonies in the world, at mangroves of Kampung Pasir Penambang. Yes. On a boat. At night. To see fireflies.

We had about another half an hour or so until the sun set completely set, but we donned our lifejackets and waited by the entrance with the other bigger tour groups which mainly consisting of older, retired Korean and Japanese couples. We were definitely the youngest. The couple from dinner earlier was also present. They were on the same boat as us. They took the front seats.

Sadly, it was so dark I couldn’t take any videos or pictures during the actual firefly boat ride. To put it in words, it looked like hundreds of thousands of mini flickering christmas lights on humongous mangrove trees. My writing doesn't do it much justice, but floating by on a moonlit river at night with only the sound of nature around you, and looking at fireflies really added to the serene atmosphere. It was pretty awesome.

The ride home was scary. It was pitch black, and the firefly resort was not on paved road. To get back to the main road, we drove through 15 minutes of insane bumps and small hills at daredevil speeds. I was sure that if we had gone any faster, the car could’ve toppled over. I held onto my seat for dear life, but at the same time it felt quite exhilarating.

We made it back into KL, safe and sound... and ready for more exploring!

Featured Photo: Dining by the Selongor River, waiting for food. Tour: Look up Kuala Selangor tours to find a handful of companies offering the same tour we did. We paid approx 190RM/45USD per person. A deposit may be required.

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Monkey Feeding and Firefly Watching in Malaysia