March 15 (Setting off)
11:30pm Arrived at Jerantut Resthouse.
(Pic left: Before the expedition.)
March 16 (Day 1)
9:00am At Kuala Tembeling jetty. Boat departed at 9:40am. Water was shallow. Some of the guys had to help to push the boat at one point. 3 hours later we were at Kuala Tahan. Registered ourselves and had packed lunch from Jerantut.
2:20pm Beginning of the first of a series of long, tiring treks! 20 minutes into the walk and already panting, who should we bumped into but the ‘birdma
n’ Mr. Dennis Yong (fellow MNS member) himself! His comments when he saw us: ‘Ai yo, I worry for your guys. Why are you carrying so much? You’re overweight. The rain is just starting and you’re going to have problems.’ Great, just the kind of encouragement we need.
Trail was lowland, gradually sloping and ends after a hill. All of us felt exhausted halfway through the trek, largely due to the weight we were carrying (Dennis Yong was right). Arrived at Kem Melantai at 5:45pm. Weather was very good. Had a refreshing bath in cold river and had a good dinner. That night, we decided to bury some of our excess food the next morning – personal as well as communal – in anticipation of the 27 hills! Slept in the open as night was quite warm.
March 17 (Day 2)
Dumped excess food and stuff. One or two members buried their extra pair of shoes! Trek was pretty tough but not as bad as we expected. There are 5 major hills to go through, the rest being merely slopes. Finally arrived at the 27th hill, Gunung Rajah, at 1:40pm. Because of our good timing, we decided that we will continue on to Kem Peliting after Kem Kuala Putih.
From Gunung Rajah it was downhill all the way to Kem Kuala Putih. Heard the rushing water after nearly an hour’s walk but didn’t actually reached the river until half an hour later. Arrived Kem Kuala Putih at nearly 3:00pm. Dumped return dinner and breakfast. Continue on to Kem Peliting at 4:00pm after a well-deserved rest. Reached camp at 5:30pm after crossing 2 rivers. Kem Peliting is next to the 3rd river. Bathed in the river. River level was low. Had dinner and tea. Evening: threats of rain with fine drops and lightning and thunder in the distance but nothing happened. Most of us slept outside, under the flysheet. Had a short singing session. :-)
March 18 (Day 3)
Depart Kem Peliting at 9:00am. Went through remaining 5 rivers and random hills and reached Kem Teku at 10:45am. Had tea, dumped return dinner and breakfast and left Kem Teku at 12:10pm.
Uphill all the way to Kem Wray’s. This, for me, is the toughest part of the journey – the uphill climb, the lack of sleep and the weight we were carrying were finally taking their toll on me and my soles were beginning to ache with the weight bearing down on me. Finally arrived at Kem Wray’s at 3:45pm. On arrival, I just plonked myself down onto the groundsheet and refused to move for at least 15 minutes.
At around 5:00pm, went down to a 7-minute(!) side trail to the only water source to collect water and bathed. Extremely cold but very refreshing! The water tasted sweet! Had early dinner with mushroom soup (the first of the many that we had). Later sat and chit-chatted with Pak Teh, our guide, while having tea and tid-bits – and not forgetting the XO and whisky(!) – until 10:30pm. Had a bit of each myself, to help me get a good night’s sleep (which I haven’t been able to do so for the past few nights), but after a while could feel my eyes beginning to swell!!
March 19 (Day 4)
Woke up with swollen eyes because of the hard liquor the night before! :-( Left Kem Wray’s at 9:30am. Went through Gunung Pankin, Gunung Tangga 15 and Gunung Reskit. We had to climb up and down vertical ridges, which was very exciting at certain parts! At the very first rope climb down, I slipped and nearly fell, causing some anxious moments but was ‘saved’ by Pak Teh, who was just below me, by supporting me with one hand on my buttocks! Got a small cut on my knee. The vegetation here was very nice, very different from lowland forest, the air was cooling and it was misty at certain parts as we went higher. All these combined to make this part of the climb the most interesting part of our journey. Siew Wan, Chong, Lim and myself took our own sweet time at this stretch, taking photographs and generally enjoying the cool air and scenery, albeit swollen eyes on my part!
The last climb was the steepest, with loose rocks at certain parts and goes through a mossy forest before it took us on the way to Gunung Gedong. Gunung Gedong is flat-ish and was misty (and fantastic!) on arrival. Had photo snapping session before we took a left turn at the junction and headed down towards Kem Padang. Few of us again took our time and went down leisurely while taking photographs and watching the mist came and went. Arrive at Kem Padang at nearly 5:00pm.
The first thing that strike my eyes just before we reached Kem Padang was our water source - the pristine, unpolluted, beautiful tea-coloured Teku River, looking so inviting, and where we were to take our baths later – and immediately changed our minds and decided it was not so inviting after all! (The water was ice-cold and I couldn’t take more than a few scoops of it!)
Heard a lot about the rats in Kem Padang but didn’t realise how atrocious they were until just before dinner one of the members went into the tent to get something and heard some rustling sound and, upon checking, saw a rat scurrying way. Found a small hole at the back of the tent and Lim’s sleeping bag! The rats were early today!
Had early dinner. Had early night myself, too, mainly because it was too cold outside and the tent was cosy and I was tired.
That night the guys placed our food in a cone-shaped container which they improvised from some scrap metal pieces they found as an anti-rat measure. Middle of the night we could hear the rats trying to get at our food.
Was told the next morning that the night was very nice, with starry skies.
March 20 (Day 5)
9:20am Set off for Gunung Tahan summit. Felt so nice that for once we did not have to carry anything except our water bottle. Went through series of open grounds and 2 small streams and mossy forest as we crossed ridges and saddles to our destination. Saw some fresh cat prints. Lim, Giam, Chong and myself did a leisurely walk, enjoying the scenery and vegetation as we made our way up.
12:55pm
WE FINALLY REACHED THE TOP OF GUNUNG TAHAN! WE HAVE CONQUERED THE HIGHEST PEAK OF PENINSULAR MALAYSIA!
The rest were already up there an hour ahead of us and were waiting impatiently for us to take the group photo. That done, they went down and the 4 of us stayed for a while longer and finally started to walk down at 1:30pm.
It was windy and misty on the way down – very nice and cooling but not much could be seen. Was glad I took my time on the way up and took photographs because there was nothing to shoot on the way down due to the mist.
Back at Kem Padang at 4:30pm and the guys cooked Maggie mee, which never tasted so delicious before!
Wanted to celebrate our achievement with liquor, green beans soup and jelly that night but had to change plan. The rain that had been threatening to pour for the last few evenings finally unleashed its fury on us that evening halfway through our cooking! All we could do was hurriedly finished our cooking and dumped everything into our mess tins. The mushrooms, fried dace, dehydrated vegetables soup and French beans with onions all tasted the same. What a waste of all our efforts in trying to make the dinner a special one. :-( Huddled together under the small flysheet with the rain beating down on us and the strong wind blowing, some of us had to make do with gas canisters as stools while others squatted because the groundsheet was soaking wet as we gobbled down our dinner, including Pak Teh, our supposedly ‘guest-of-honour’ for dinner!
Rushed back to the tent one by one after dinner. Didn’t do any washing up. (The rats were going to have a feast tonight!) After the rain drizzled out, we went to the big tent and had another of our sing-song session and celebrated with miniature bottles of brandy, whisky, beer and 100 Plus - but no alcohol for me! Not after the swollen eyes!
Decided we would postpone the actual celebration until the next day.
Note: Siew Wan’s jelly still haven’t hardened by the time we went to bed!
March 21 (Day 6)
Left Kem Padang at 10:00am after much packing and re-packing and cleaning our rat-shit infested mess tins. (Looks like the rats had a field ‘day’ the previous night!) Had thought our bags would be much lighter without any more dinners to carry but somehow they still weighed heavy on our weary shoulders. Went through another session of climbing up and down vertical slopes and then the looong(!) downhill climb from Kem Wray’s to Kem Teku. Down and down we go, myself not stopping to rest at all, despite aching knees and a slight sprain on my instep. The pain which had been nagging me since the first day was now more pronounced and the effort to put less weight on it made me clumsy and I fell so many times that I got fed-up. (Knowing very well that I will have to go at a slow pace because of the pain, I decided to carry on walking on my own without stopping in order not to slow anybody down and the slowness of my pace meant I didn’t actually have to stop to rest at all.)
Arrived Kem Teku at 4:00pm. Had dinner with Pak Teh after the opening of his fast. Decided we would stay up a bit longer today after last night’s disappointment. Had the green beans soup meant for last night for supper. Had another small sing-song session before the drizzle drove us back into our tents again.
March 22 (Day 7)
First thing I felt when I woke up was my aching backside, due to the falls I had the day before!
Left Kem Teku at 10:20am. Did the 7 river crossings safely though rocks were slippery and water current was slightly swift at some parts. This is the only part of our journey where we came across leeches which we tried to outrun!
9:00am At Kuala Tembeling jetty. Boat departed at 9:40am. Water was shallow. Some of the guys had to help to push the boat at one point. 3 hours later we were at Kuala Tahan. Registered ourselves and had packed lunch from Jerantut.
2:20pm Beginning of the first of a series of long, tiring treks! 20 minutes into the walk and already panting, who should we bumped into but the ‘birdma
n’ Mr. Dennis Yong (fellow MNS member) himself! His comments when he saw us: ‘Ai yo, I worry for your guys. Why are you carrying so much? You’re overweight. The rain is just starting and you’re going to have problems.’ Great, just the kind of encouragement we need.Trail was lowland, gradually sloping and ends after a hill. All of us felt exhausted halfway through the trek, largely due to the weight we were carrying (Dennis Yong was right). Arrived at Kem Melantai at 5:45pm. Weather was very good. Had a refreshing bath in cold river and had a good dinner. That night, we decided to bury some of our excess food the next morning – personal as well as communal – in anticipation of the 27 hills! Slept in the open as night was quite warm.
March 17 (Day 2) Dumped excess food and stuff. One or two members buried their extra pair of shoes! Trek was pretty tough but not as bad as we expected. There are 5 major hills to go through, the rest being merely slopes. Finally arrived at the 27th hill, Gunung Rajah, at 1:40pm. Because of our good timing, we decided that we will continue on to Kem Peliting after Kem Kuala Putih.
From Gunung Rajah it was downhill all the way to Kem Kuala Putih. Heard the rushing water after nearly an hour’s walk but didn’t actually reached the river until half an hour later. Arrived Kem Kuala Putih at nearly 3:00pm. Dumped return dinner and breakfast. Continue on to Kem Peliting at 4:00pm after a well-deserved rest. Reached camp at 5:30pm after crossing 2 rivers. Kem Peliting is next to the 3rd river. Bathed in the river. River level was low. Had dinner and tea. Evening: threats of rain with fine drops and lightning and thunder in the distance but nothing happened. Most of us slept outside, under the flysheet. Had a short singing session. :-)
March 18 (Day 3)
Depart Kem Peliting at 9:00am. Went through remaining 5 rivers and random hills and reached Kem Teku at 10:45am. Had tea, dumped return dinner and breakfast and left Kem Teku at 12:10pm.
Uphill all the way to Kem Wray’s. This, for me, is the toughest part of the journey – the uphill climb, the lack of sleep and the weight we were carrying were finally taking their toll on me and my soles were beginning to ache with the weight bearing down on me. Finally arrived at Kem Wray’s at 3:45pm. On arrival, I just plonked myself down onto the groundsheet and refused to move for at least 15 minutes.
At around 5:00pm, went down to a 7-minute(!) side trail to the only water source to collect water and bathed. Extremely cold but very refreshing! The water tasted sweet! Had early dinner with mushroom soup (the first of the many that we had). Later sat and chit-chatted with Pak Teh, our guide, while having tea and tid-bits – and not forgetting the XO and whisky(!) – until 10:30pm. Had a bit of each myself, to help me get a good night’s sleep (which I haven’t been able to do so for the past few nights), but after a while could feel my eyes beginning to swell!!
March 19 (Day 4)
Woke up with swollen eyes because of the hard liquor the night before! :-( Left Kem Wray’s at 9:30am. Went through Gunung Pankin, Gunung Tangga 15 and Gunung Reskit. We had to climb up and down vertical ridges, which was very exciting at certain parts! At the very first rope climb down, I slipped and nearly fell, causing some anxious moments but was ‘saved’ by Pak Teh, who was just below me, by supporting me with one hand on my buttocks! Got a small cut on my knee. The vegetation here was very nice, very different from lowland forest, the air was cooling and it was misty at certain parts as we went higher. All these combined to make this part of the climb the most interesting part of our journey. Siew Wan, Chong, Lim and myself took our own sweet time at this stretch, taking photographs and generally enjoying the cool air and scenery, albeit swollen eyes on my part!
The last climb was the steepest, with loose rocks at certain parts and goes through a mossy forest before it took us on the way to Gunung Gedong. Gunung Gedong is flat-ish and was misty (and fantastic!) on arrival. Had photo snapping session before we took a left turn at the junction and headed down towards Kem Padang. Few of us again took our time and went down leisurely while taking photographs and watching the mist came and went. Arrive at Kem Padang at nearly 5:00pm.
The first thing that strike my eyes just before we reached Kem Padang was our water source - the pristine, unpolluted, beautiful tea-coloured Teku River, looking so inviting, and where we were to take our baths later – and immediately changed our minds and decided it was not so inviting after all! (The water was ice-cold and I couldn’t take more than a few scoops of it!)Heard a lot about the rats in Kem Padang but didn’t realise how atrocious they were until just before dinner one of the members went into the tent to get something and heard some rustling sound and, upon checking, saw a rat scurrying way. Found a small hole at the back of the tent and Lim’s sleeping bag! The rats were early today!
Had early dinner. Had early night myself, too, mainly because it was too cold outside and the tent was cosy and I was tired.
That night the guys placed our food in a cone-shaped container which they improvised from some scrap metal pieces they found as an anti-rat measure. Middle of the night we could hear the rats trying to get at our food.
Was told the next morning that the night was very nice, with starry skies.
March 20 (Day 5)
9:20am Set off for Gunung Tahan summit. Felt so nice that for once we did not have to carry anything except our water bottle. Went through series of open grounds and 2 small streams and mossy forest as we crossed ridges and saddles to our destination. Saw some fresh cat prints. Lim, Giam, Chong and myself did a leisurely walk, enjoying the scenery and vegetation as we made our way up.
12:55pm
WE FINALLY REACHED THE TOP OF GUNUNG TAHAN! WE HAVE CONQUERED THE HIGHEST PEAK OF PENINSULAR MALAYSIA!
The rest were already up there an hour ahead of us and were waiting impatiently for us to take the group photo. That done, they went down and the 4 of us stayed for a while longer and finally started to walk down at 1:30pm.
It was windy and misty on the way down – very nice and cooling but not much could be seen. Was glad I took my time on the way up and took photographs because there was nothing to shoot on the way down due to the mist.
Back at Kem Padang at 4:30pm and the guys cooked Maggie mee, which never tasted so delicious before!
Wanted to celebrate our achievement with liquor, green beans soup and jelly that night but had to change plan. The rain that had been threatening to pour for the last few evenings finally unleashed its fury on us that evening halfway through our cooking! All we could do was hurriedly finished our cooking and dumped everything into our mess tins. The mushrooms, fried dace, dehydrated vegetables soup and French beans with onions all tasted the same. What a waste of all our efforts in trying to make the dinner a special one. :-( Huddled together under the small flysheet with the rain beating down on us and the strong wind blowing, some of us had to make do with gas canisters as stools while others squatted because the groundsheet was soaking wet as we gobbled down our dinner, including Pak Teh, our supposedly ‘guest-of-honour’ for dinner!
Rushed back to the tent one by one after dinner. Didn’t do any washing up. (The rats were going to have a feast tonight!) After the rain drizzled out, we went to the big tent and had another of our sing-song session and celebrated with miniature bottles of brandy, whisky, beer and 100 Plus - but no alcohol for me! Not after the swollen eyes!
Decided we would postpone the actual celebration until the next day.
Note: Siew Wan’s jelly still haven’t hardened by the time we went to bed!
March 21 (Day 6)Left Kem Padang at 10:00am after much packing and re-packing and cleaning our rat-shit infested mess tins. (Looks like the rats had a field ‘day’ the previous night!) Had thought our bags would be much lighter without any more dinners to carry but somehow they still weighed heavy on our weary shoulders. Went through another session of climbing up and down vertical slopes and then the looong(!) downhill climb from Kem Wray’s to Kem Teku. Down and down we go, myself not stopping to rest at all, despite aching knees and a slight sprain on my instep. The pain which had been nagging me since the first day was now more pronounced and the effort to put less weight on it made me clumsy and I fell so many times that I got fed-up. (Knowing very well that I will have to go at a slow pace because of the pain, I decided to carry on walking on my own without stopping in order not to slow anybody down and the slowness of my pace meant I didn’t actually have to stop to rest at all.)
Arrived Kem Teku at 4:00pm. Had dinner with Pak Teh after the opening of his fast. Decided we would stay up a bit longer today after last night’s disappointment. Had the green beans soup meant for last night for supper. Had another small sing-song session before the drizzle drove us back into our tents again.
March 22 (Day 7)
First thing I felt when I woke up was my aching backside, due to the falls I had the day before!
Left Kem Teku at 10:20am. Did the 7 river crossings safely though rocks were slippery and water current was slightly swift at some parts. This is the only part of our journey where we came across leeches which we tried to outrun!
Arrived Kem Putih at 1:30pm with only two leech bites on me. At last, we could take a longer break than usual and even had the sun to dry our bags and clothes. This camp has lots of bees, attracted by the sweat and grime attached to our bodies and bags. Had a relaxed bath and an afternoon nap. Late evening after dinner some of us went down to the river bank and watched the stars appeared. Had early night again myself while the rest enjoyed tea and hot chocolate. Rained slightly again tonight.March 23 (Day 8)
Woke up and discovered the river had swelled during the night (at least by 2-3 feet) and the water was murky. Thank God our timing was good. If we had planned things a day later, we would have been stranded on the other side of the river. Left camp at 8:30am. For once we had dry clothes on us. :-) Had to bandage my ankle with crepe bandage because it was beginning to feel more painful. Took about 1 hour – uphill all the way – to reach Gunung Rajah. From here it was up and down the 27 hills again before we reached Kem Melantai at 12:30pm. Time taken: 3 hours – very good indeed – had thought we would need at least 4 hours. Lunch break at Kem Melantai and retrieved dumped food and stuff. Refilled water bottle and started to head back for Kuala Tahan at about 1:30pm. This part seemed to be the longest walk in all our days here. We were like zombies, walking up and down the undulating trails which seemed never-ending. About 2 hours later saw a sign that says 5 km to Kuala Tahan. Good, will soon be there. Walked and walked and saw another sign – 4 km it says. What, I thought I’ve covered more distance than that? Never mind, continue on. Another sign! 2.5 km (Oh, God!) … 2 km (No!) … Grr… who’s the smart alec who put up these signs? Would gladly wring the fellow’s neck (and tear the signs down). Finally heard some humming sound – the generator! We’re nearly there! AT LAST(!) we saw the first human being besides ourselves at 4:20pm. Hip Hip Hooray! Was at the storeroom by 4:30pm to collect our bags.
TOTAL DISTANCE TRAVELLED: 130km
NO. OF HOURS OF WALKING : 47 hours (approximately)
WEIGHT LOSS : 4-5 lbs (approximately)
Went to Park Office to settle our guide and storage bills and registered ourselves again for the certificate of achievement, booked the boat back for Siew Wan, Yong and Wong, and asked about accommodation for the rest of us who are staying back.
Met a ranger friend, Halim, who recommended a place on the other side of Sungai Tembeling called Camp Tembeling. Decided to stay there tonight and the next few nights. That night a much-deserved satisfying meal awaits us at the floating restaurant. We ate like pigs, trying to regain what we’ve lost during the past few days and I for once had two plateful of rice, something which I’ve never done before!
March 24
Siew Wan, Yong and Wong left by the 9:00am boat. The rest of us went with them to the jetty across the river so that we can wait for Sherry, Joseph and Carlene who were joining us for the next few days where we were going to just have a relaxed time around Taman Negara, but of course that’s another story .....
TOTAL AMOUNT SPENT: Approximately RM160.00
REFLECTIONS, REFLECTIONS...
During the whole journey our timing was good. We were always 1-2 hours ahead of schedule and reaching camp on most days well before 5:30pm. This, therefore, left us enough time to rest before preparing dinner. Pak Teh, our guide, rated us 2nd among the groups he had taken up to Gunung Tahan, the first being a Scottish guy who did it in 3 days in the rain, so we were mighty proud. :-)
The only problem we had was with our weight. It would be worthwhile emphasising for future extended trekking trips that personal stuff should be as minimal as possible and that communal weight should take precedence.
The only discomfort was that we had to wear the same piece of clothing (with swimsuit underneath) everyday, which means slipping on wet clothings every morning! (Our only other piece of clothing which we have to keep dry was for sleeping.)
The trip was tough, tiring but a worthwhile experience. Reaching the peak was an anti-climax, so unlike Mount Kinabalu with its beautiful scenery at the peak. After all the beautiful terrain we passed through, there was nothing to see at the peak. Although I did not feel the sense of achievement I had expected to feel when I reached the top, I enjoyed the climb throughout tremendously in-spite of all the knocks and cuts I got on my legs. (And talking about my legs, it was unsightly(!), with bruises and blue/black marks all over them throughout the whole time.) The vegetation, especially, was beautiful, my favourite stretch being the mossy forest on the way from Padang to the peak.
I was especially glad that I took my time going up from Kem Wray’s onwards because I got to enjoy the place and cool air to the utmost. I didn’t want to rush like we did in Kinabalu and did not see all that we should see, something which I regretted very much.
All of us lost weight, the most obvious being Duncan, Lenny, Lim and myself and especially Don, who went through the most, with sores on his groin and hips and sand-flies bites all over his legs. Don had been experiencing difficulty since the first day with his bag which was too big for him and chafing his skin and Yong had been helping him with his share of the communal load. Yong was the most consistent in the group, always staying ahead of us no matter how heavy his bag was.
We reached the peak on 20th March 1991, but it would have been marvellous if we had planned things a day earlier and instead reach Gunung Tahan on 19th March, exactly on the same date as we reached Mount Kinabalu last year – what a wonderful anniversary that would have been for some of us who were up there in 1990.
And to answer the question which everyone was asking when we got back, ‘will you go back there again?’, my immediate reply was: ‘No, thank you. Once is enough.’ But then, a lady is entitled to change her mind….. :-)
VL
March 1991
vanessa, many2 tks for this posting ! truely wonderful to re-live the pain, excitement, anguish, laughters ... & much more, which i've totally forgotten abt. how i miss that trademark colorful shorts i've journeyed with on so many journeys of self-enrichment .. but mostessst of all, this 'special' journey i shared with such wonderful & great frens. don, "will you go back there again?" ... darn, YEZ ... by helicopter !Cheerzzz !!!
ReplyDeletehahaha, yes! You and your Hawaiian shorts! Is it still around? My 'Snake! Snake!' T-shirt is, and it's been 19 years!
ReplyDeleteI remembered sharing the tent with Don at Padang campsite , while I was asleep Don woke me up by calling me, Giam! Giam! Giam! I woke up and he said Diam! I was snoring too loud for him!!! I was so confused ...but I think I fell back to sleep again after that...Don I'll never forget that!!!
ReplyDeleteYes! We remembered, too! And we thought the Giam-Diam rhyme rather funny, :-)
ReplyDelete