Jementah Hill, 140 meter, route for hiking exercise

This is a very popular place for locals to have morning or evening walk. The gentle slopes with few stretches of steep ones are suitable to children and old folks alike. There is one stretch of very steep slope that I treat it as 'hill run' in marathon preparation. For a beginner who never exercised this may pose a challenge, and can be expected to reach the first resting hut with no problem with slow pace.

The routes pass through rubber plantation and durian orchard. I had once bought a durian for RM5 during a fruiting season while doing morning walk. Certain part of the hill is secondary forest and here I spotted a bright red minivet, dollar bird and other wild birds.

Needless to say the air is very fresh, except occasionally stained with exhaust fume from the rubber tappers' motorbikes which ramped up the steep slopes. The laterite treks are well used by vehicles and are hard and firm even after a heavy downpour. Many mountain bikers are seen to come here to test their skills.

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Gunung Liang East & West, 3Mar2012, Day trip (12 hours), 1933 meter

Another KL Hiking Meetup event organized by Alex and Ray Lee

After a grueling six hours, I finally reached Gunung Liang West summit. This peak is lower than Liang East, which is another 15 minutes further away.

Trail head- After parking our cars and walked a short distance we reached the gate of water treatment intake point. The sign read 'No trespassing' but there was no guard here. We had to skirt around this gate and its perimeter fence by climbing a short and steep slope on the left (a hiker was seen on that part).

Kem Lubok Hantu- This campsite is quite big to accommodate many tents.

Next to the Kem Lubok Hantu was the ferocious river crossing where many of us were scrambling over the rocks to avoid getting the boots wet. Some did not succeed and fell to the stream of fierce current and swept down to the swallow pool below- much to our amusement after an initial panic for fear of drowning.

Kem 7E (Seven Eleven) at 1200 meter, five tents could be pitched here. Normally hikers will stay overnight here- not many are as crazy as we are to do Liang in a single day although it is doable. See here is Tee Kong Tiong and Vincent.

Summit of Gunung Liang East, 1933 meter, at 1:30pm, with Ray Lee, who hikes mountains like Siao Fei Xia (Peter Pan).

With Chun and Ez Paul. Notice the fairy tale-like mossy forest at the summit. I took lunch (some nameless bun and Kitkat bar) here at 1:30pm, rest for a while and follow the rest to descend at 2pm (turn around time).

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Gunung Pelepah waterfall, 5 Feb 2012

 

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Birding trip to Bukit Tinggi, 28-29 Dec 2011

 

Gunung Rajah, 7Jan2012, 1683 meter, Pahang.

Everyone loves to take photo with this beautiful tree at 'False Peak'. From here one can have a vantage point of Gunung Rajah summit. We all took a short break here, replenished our energy, before the final assault to the summit, which was an hour journey away- by first descending a steep slope for 15 minutes, then reached the rock face that was the final obstacle before another hour hike that passed through LWP (last water point).

My first meeting with Ray Lee, at the summit of Gunung Rajah, it was he who invited me for this day hike to such a high mountain. I had tried a day trip to Gunung Ledang summit few years back, but its height of 1276 meter has no comparison to Gunung Rajah.

Behind me is the summit of G Rajah. One can easily get discouraged by the look of its looming height, especially after trekking about six hours. The vegetation here has changed to that of 'bonsai' types- low and kinky trees with tiny leaves, and at the height of 1300 meter the air here is quite cold.

En. Abdul Hamid was seen standing next to the dreaded Rock Face. Everyone queued up here for his or her turn to pull the rope up the near vertical rock, made precarious by loose soil pasted on the underlying surface and the uncertainty of next foothold. Each one had wasted about 20 minutes here.

Slipper orchid, Paphiopedilum sp, most likely barbatum. Found along the trail.

Panorama of Chamang waterfall recreation park. Free of charge at the moment.
A- The tiled table where we slept on. It was used by food peddlers during the day. The car park was clean for pitching tents.
B- The trailhead, up a steep slope.
C- Bathroom, clean and odorless, where we showered our mud-stained body.
D- Campsite across the river, via a hanging bridge. Saw a few tents pitched there.

A

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Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore 2011: my second full marathon.

Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore medal front

Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore medal back

ChiRunning Simplified!, Efficient and Injury Free Natural Running Form Technique Video

Facebook groups on trekking in Malaysia

Penang Bridge International Marathon 2011 - Finally, my first full-marathon finisher.

Date: 20-11-2011

Time: 2am

Timing: 6'39"

 

Penang Bridge International Marathon 2011 medal front

Penang Bridge International Marathon 2011 medal back

Gunung Tahan, 24 Oct 2011.

finally..after two nights camping along the ascent trek and hurling up 10kg of backpack.. on top of every mortal in Peninsula Malaysia at that moment..

Gunung Irau, 3 Sep 2011.

Ascent duration (with camping equipment): 4 hours to Mini Irau, another hour to Gunung Irau.

Descent duration: 4 hours.

Night temperature at summit (Mini Irau): 15 C

Water point: Nil

Amount of drinking water used: 1.5L

Difficulty: Moderate to tough, lots of climbing over tree roots, which will become slippery during rain (once I slipped and fell on the back during descent). Not for first-timer.

'Mini Irau'-some people call it false peak, may be in the past climbers thought they reached G Irau summit here. We camped here as it has nice flat and spacious area. From here to G Irau will take about an hour.

The famous mossy forest. Only a short stretch of the trail- about half an hour- are like this.

Mini Irau. On the left was where we came from the starting point after four hours of trekking, proceeded to the right to scale Gunung Irau, then back here again to pitch our tents. Notice the Pahang-Perak border pegs on the ground.

Planning to hike Gunung Semangkok

 

(Facebook conversation)

 

Hamid: By the way when are you going to Semangkok? Never been there, myself. Don't mind tagging along if that's ok.

Me: I had researched terrain map of Semangkok yesterday and have few observations:
1. To go without guide if want to be adventurous.
2. I have been to part of the trail last time when I overshot the way to Pine Tree Hill, and found the trek recognizable but slight bushy due to ? lack of use
3. From the above map it shows the trek from PTH to Semangkok may take 6-8 hours, so either start from PTH early morning (camp there first), or pitch tent/hammock btw PTH and Semangkok.
4. Waterpoint. I have another JUPEM map that shows there are lots of stream left and right of the ridges, but still need to get down slope to search. I don't think we can possibly bring enough water from start point.
5. Need two GPS to avoid getting lost.
6. Not sure of need for permit.
7. Prepare to abort mission if trek becomes unpassable (though this is a state border and the pegs should be there).
Your comments pls..

Hamid: Doc, my humble opinion, we should get a guide.He should be able to show us the best campsite between PTH and Semangkok with or near water source. Trekking 5 to 6 hrs to Semangkok will be daunting enough without having to go up and down the ridge slopes to look for water. He too can help clear the bushy trek you mentioned. Should it be necessary to get permits and the likes, we can then ask him to settle it for us.

May be later, on a second trip, we'll be more confident to test our map reading and orienteering skill.

Me: Yea you are spot on, Hamid. Sounds very logical and sensible- from an experienced hiker, luckily I talk to you first, otherwise another repeat of getting lost like in G Irau haha.. In fact me and Mr Tan already hiked twice unguided- PTH and Irau, both quite eventful. So I will skip Semangkok for the mean time until we can sit down and work it out properly together, may be for next/ next next year's MNSJ outing. Can discuss it further during our Tahan train ride

Common flowers along Gunung Irau summit trail

These are the commonly seen flowers along the Gunung Irau summit trail:

Impatiens oncidioides

Argostemma sp.

  Henckelia sp.

Sonerila rudis