Our first 5 days were spent at Taman Negara national park in Pahang state. Getting to the park involved a 2 hour car journey from Kuala Lumpur to Kuala Tembeling, where we saw our first Malayan butterflies, Catopsilia pomona and the stunning Parthenos sylvia while waiting for the boat which took us to park headquarters at Kuala Tahan. During the 3 hour cruise we saw many kingfishers, blue-throated bee-eaters, and small groups of Grass Yellows Eurema hecabe assembling on the sandbanks.

On arrival at Taman Negara we found that butterflies were decidedly scarce along the narrow trails, so we used small boats to take us to various sandbank sites along dark-water tributaries. There we found huge aggregations of puddling Graphium sarpedon, looking like sailboards with sunshine streaming through the translucent green-banded wings. Many other species puddled on the pebble-strewn sandbanks including the gorgeous 5-barred Swordtail Pathysa antiphates, Polyura athamas, Eurema simulatrix, Papilio memnon, and the bright orange Pierid Appias nero. Other fascinating species included the intricately patterned Mapwing Cyrestis maenalis, and the beautifully marked Silverline Spindasis lohita.

One day, when exploring a narrow trail through dark dipterocarp forest, I glimpsed a tiny butterfly flitting from leaf to leaf, but then lost sight of it. After a few minutes of searching I located it again, and watched it settle on a leaf a few metres away. In the gloomy light of the dense forest I could see little more than a dark silhouette, but a close look through the viewfinder of my camera revealed it to be the Riodinid Paralaxita damajanti, a truly beautiful insect, it's deep maroon wings patterned with streaks and spots of brilliant glittering blue - a true jewel of the rainforest.

After returning to Kuala Lumpur we transferred by road to Tapah, in Perak state. Close to the town was a very crowded recreational park, Kuala Woh, which had an amazing number of butterflies, the highlight of which was the truly spectacular Rajah Brook's Birdwing Trogonoptera brookiana, a huge and glorious species whose long black wings are adorned with a series of brilliant iridescent green triangular patches. Hordes of local holiday makers were frolicking in the river, causing the butterflies to stay away from all but the most inaccessible areas, but we were very fortunate to find a group of 14 brookiana which had aggregated to mud-puddle at a sulphur spring at an undisturbed spot further upstream. Later trips to various tropical destinations have produced no end of wonderful species, but nothing will ever better the thrill of seeing those brookiana aggregations !

Our final destination was Tanah Rata, in the Cameron Highlands. The hill forests here were once amongst the best butterfly habitats in Asia, but were long ago destroyed to make way for the vast tea plantations which now cover the hillsides. Fortunately, at the highest elevations, unsuitable for tea cultivation, several fragments of temperate forest remain, and are protected as nature reserves. Amongst the most interesting areas were the summit of Gunung Brinchang, which produced Parantica sita; and the jungle walk to the summit of Gunung Jasa, where in a tiny clearing we saw several individuals of the beautiful Jezebel Delias ninus.

There were several other splendid species in the hill forests at Tanah Rata, such as Ragadia and Thaumantis, but the most attractive were seen lower down, where little pockets of forest along the steep banks of streams have escaped cultivation. Species seen here included the Purple Sapphire Heliophorus epicles, an incredibly pretty little Lycaenid, it's upperside marked with orange lunules on a gleaming purple background; and it's underside bright yellow, with red margins.