Interested in natural attractions?  Looking to visit pristine rainforest in Borneo?  Then Ulu Temburong National Park could be a great place to visit in Brunei!

Ulu Temburong National Park is a 500 square kilometre protected area of pristine rainforest. This national park is full of wildlife – apparently there are 400 kinds of butterflies!  Plus plenty of other wildlife and vegetation.

Tourists are only allowed to visit a one square kilometre section of this park, and this can only be on a guided tour. It is reasonably accessible from the capital of Brunei, Bandar Seri Begawan (BSB), and it is well worth the effort to do a day tour or even longer on a visit to Brunei.

Getting to Ulu Temburong National Park

Inside of the speed boat between BSB and Bangar

The journey involves three stages:

1. Catching a speed boat from BSB to Bangar (about 45 minutes).
2. A drive to the river which takes you to Ulu Temburong (about 40 minutes).
3. A longboat ride up the river. The only way to enter the national park is by long boat which is part of its appeal (about 40 minutes).

This wilderness is surprisingly close to and accessible from BSB.

Activities in Ulu Temburong

Canopy walk

The main reason to visit Ulu Temburong, other than checking out the ecosystem, is to climb the aluminium walkway and walk above the forest canopy. This is an amazing experience, but I warn you, it’s not for people who hate heights!

Part of the rainforest canopy walkway

To get here, the long boat will drop you off at the a series of steps – over 1000. They seemingly go on forever, but I did not find it a tough walk. At the top, we were greeted with the site of a massive aluminium structure taking us far off the forest floor.

The start of the 1000 stairs to get to the rainforest canopy walkway

It is quite a climb to the top of the walkway, and I must admit that I was quite scared at first. The higher I was, the more the structure moved in the wind.  This was disconcerting, but I did become used to it fairly quickly. As well as a walkway, each end had a tower to view the forest from. The views from the top were quite amazing – check out the photo at the top of this post!

Walking along the rainforest canopy walkway

Waterfalls

Have you ever seen those fish that they often have in shopping malls which eat the dead skin on your feet?

Trying not to laugh while fish “eat” my feet

Well here you can have this experience for free at the base of one of the waterfalls. Just outside Ulu Temburong is a waterfall with many of these fish. I have never done this before and it was quite a bizarre sensation standing in the water while fish nibbled on me! They were quite ticklish.

Waterfall just outside of Ulu Temburong national park

There are also other waterfalls nearby.

Suitable for kids?

My kids would be too young for this, although I did see a family with young kids (maybe 5 and 7) doing these activities.  I am sure older kids would love these experiences.  Just getting here can feel like an adventure.

Read my complete post about visiting the pristine rainforests of Brunei which details the other activities and adventures you can have in the rainforest surrounding Ulu Temburong National Park, as well as my post all about things to do in Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital of Brunei.  While you are at it, you should probably also check out my guide to the perfect Brunei stopover 🙂

What do you like to do in the jungle?