Mount Benom Pahang Mystical Mountain in Malaysia

Mount Benom with Bad Reputation

“The word benom is used by the Malays in the sense of hutan benom, which may be translated as ‘a faraway, dark forest of tall trees where no one lives’. Gunung Benom has a bad reputation for evil spirits. Noises of people talking and of rocks falling are heard? and there is a tale, terrifying to the credulous Malay peasant, of a large beruk, or monkey, which inhabits the mountain, a fierce animal standing five feet high on all fours.”

Noises of people talking, eh? Well, I could certainly hear my camping mates in the next tent! And the only primates resembling giant monkeys I saw were four campers who had stripped to the waist after laboring to put up their tents. Anyway, almost immediately after I crawled into my sleeping bag I dozed off, giant monkey forgotten.