The Bintang Range that divides the towns on the east - Grik and Lenggong and west Taiping and Kulim has the most  remote part of the country at its lopes. Therefore, these areas are great destinations for those adventure seekers and those looking for pristine forest.

The western slopes just east of Kulim is one such location. The Expressway from the Penang to Kulim makes traveling to Kulim a breeze and in no time. Next, travelers have to be acquainted with the handful small township just to get their orientation of direction right.

I made such a trip recently in April of 2005. The lonely and narrow stretches of road  that was upgraded from old buffalo trails were almost gone. In were nicely paved road and on many stretches straightened. What remained unchanged were the rustic scenes of small cowboy towns. Their looks reminded of the last time I had seen the places. the name of each places were "Greek" to me.  Another new features were the numerous erection of sign post indicting the direction to those newly opened recreational parks.

1 Ulu Paip Forest Reserve

2Sedim Recreational Forest

3 Bukit Hijau Waterfalls Park.

As ardent travelers and adventures junkies, we should not disappoint the Kedah Government's efforts in bringing such destination closers to us.

For the first part, we ourselves find that getting to the Park itself, was an adventure. The long drive into unfamiliar territory. Turned out as I expected. The Expressway to Kulim was fine quite straightforward. Then at Kulim town, the skeptics took a better part of me. I did not trust the road sign that says Kulim town. But remembered the direction given "Go on until the second traffic lights." There, three sets of lights within a short distance. By instinct, I turned right after the second intermediate sets  of lights and into a dual carriage way with rubber estates on both side. Am I moving the right way to the Industrial Park? Have faith!

Towards the end of this dual carriage way look for the sign that leads you to Malau. Yes, there was a small sign. What came after that was another surprise. The road were very well paved and there were much more road signs than I had expected. Of course, not this one on the left. Something like this one.  It was sign taken some distance away as an example to the quality of road signs in the region.

Beside the regular blue road signs there were another set set of signage, the brown type.

Must be an all out effort by the State Government to popularize the district as an eco-tourism destination. Each jungle stream and river that has potential was developed to attract and tap the resources. There you are. If you are unsure where can you choose to be for the weekend, this is one place that offer you multiple choices. The board speaks for itself.

The signs was updated or rather more appropriate signs were planted along the road leading to each destination.

This Ulu Paip Forest Reserve was newly made available. Overshadowed by the other larger Parks While the latter had larger rivers from the same higher Gunong Inas, Ulu Paip was drained by stream from a low isolated hill - Gunong Bongsu [658 m].

No! The colour for the signage had not changed. The earlier pictures were taken through the windscreen glasses.

Interesting here is that the road serving the few Parks were all State Roads. At the place where this sign was placed, the road was skirting the fringes of Gunong Inas [1,801 m] and Gunong Bintang [1,862 m] Interesting enough too, was that the distance to the 2 Parks were almost the same.

Drawing closer to the destination, the next set of signage would appear. This is the standard sign - Green letters against a white background- adopted throughout the country

Bukit Hijau Forest Park had the country most beautiful waterfalls. At the time of my visit, the whole facilities in this destination was privatized. They had food outlets and accommodations for those coming here. More on this Park can be seen on a dedicated page.

The State Government is now actively promoting the latest additions to their list of Parks. Sedim was the "place".

Cannot explain to you why this signboard for Sedim was still write letters on brown background. Must be something to do status and legislations. This Park occupied an area twice in size of that in Bukit Hijau. The Park's core activities started with White water. The only one in Kedah State or northern Peninsula. Then the Government will also put in the longest canopy bridge in the world. More on this Park - on a dedicated page.

More on Sedim, they intend to promote this place as a birding destination

Very good paved roads were already installed. One for use trail to transport those doing white water. Another leading hikers up the summit of Gunong Inas. On the way there was also a chance to drop by a picnic destination with Waterfall.

Kedah is already known for having quite a few exotic destination like Lake Pedu and Gunong Jerai. The couple of park opened earlier like Bukit Hijau and Lata Bayu were very well managed. In fact these were the only parks managed and best in the country. Today, more Parks in Kelantan and Selangor are picking up that habit of maintaining Parks. Coming back to Kulim, these couple more destination mentioned merely add on to the list to make your visit up north, a program filled with endless trips.

Khong's pictorial guide - More here !