Not So Crazy Going To Tanjung Rambutan

---

 
THROUGHOUT my secondary school years from 1963 to 1967 in La Salle Klang, my classmates and I would be quick to mention Tanjung Rambutan whenever we saw or heard someone or something we deemed as crazy or odd.
Then, it was common knowledge that lunatics were sent to Tanjung Rambutan. The facility was called the Federal Lunatic Asylum when it was established in 1911. To counter negative perceptions, the name was changed to Tanjung Rambutan Hospital in 1928.
Today, there are four large mental hospitals in Malaysia, with Hospital Bahagia Ulu Kinta in Tanjung Rambutan, Hospital Permai in Johor Bahru, Hospital Sentosa in Kuching, and Hospital Mesra Bukit Padang in Kota Kinabalu.
With decreasing use of the name Tanjung Rambutan over the past decades, the place has faded from my consciousness until it popped out after reading the recent report “Perhilitan advises Tanjung Rambutan villagers to reduce night activity after tiger attack on livestock”.
Earlier, there were reports of elephants spotted near Kluang in Johor in 2021, 2022 and 2023, with the latest this year of a wild elephant recorded on video on Jan 27 at 2.13am strolling past shophouses and residential houses there. There are around 150 wild elephants in Johor.
The Gunung Lambak Recreational Forest is right at the edge of the town, and further east is the huge Gunung Belemut Recreational Forest.
As such, Kluang offers a great potential for nature-based tourism, especially for Singaporean tourists and the large community of expatriates based there, as they could easily reach after entering the peninsula without having to deal with heavy traffic at Melaka or the Klang Valley.
Likewise, Tanjung Rambutan could draw large numbers of visitors from the Klang Valley, not to Hospital Bahagia but to Ulu Kinta Forest Reserve and directly east is Gunung Korbu at 2,183 metres tall, is just four metres less than Gunung Tahan, the tallest mountain in peninsular Malaysia.
From Ipoh to Tanjung Rambutan is less than 16km, passing by Tambun and famous attractions such as the Lost World of Tambun – another theme park built on a former tin mine by Sunway Group, The Banjaran Hotsprings Retreat and TUI Blue The Haven, both are 5-star hotels.
(Image: AMI Travel & Tours)Those looking for more affordable accommodations have plenty of options, from camping in the wilderness to glamping in safety for a fee, walk-in homestays to private residences booked online, and the usual budget hotels, which can be surprisingly good or disappointingly bad.
In any case, going to Tanjung Rambutan and staying there is not a crazy idea but can be one of the best destinations for a domestic holiday. And visitors must pass by to view Hospital Bahagia, which was built on 544 acres of land, which look peaceful and calm, befitting the name Bahagia.
At night, tourists can be excited that tigers are on the prowl, bearing in mind that our national animal is near extinction.
When I was born, there were an estimated 3,000 tigers in the country. Now, fewer than 150 are in the wild. Since 2023, six tigers have been killed in road accidents.
Sadly, most visitors to natural sites behave like lunatics by plundering, picking up whatever they fancy and damaging the ecosystem indiscriminately.
Yet the authorities and operators had the audacity to label all nature-based activities as ecotourism, which actually means nature-friendly tourism.
If I am back to my secondary school days, I would again be uttering “Tanjung Rambutan”. However, it will not slow down the extinction of species. More than 99% of all species that ever lived on Earth, amounting to over five billion species, are estimated to have died out.
Tragically, even homo sapiens have been and are still trying to wipe out each other based on tribalism, territory, ideology and false beliefs.
Hence, lunatics are not confined to mental hospitals, with many of them in positions of power destroying societies and promoting conflicts. 
YS Chan is master trainer for Mesra Malaysia and Travel and Tours Enhancement Course and an Asean Tourism Master Trainer. He is also a tourism and transport business consultant.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of  MMKtT.
- Focus Malaysia.

---