TAMAN NEGARA PAHANG - THE UNDERESTIMATE

I'm very new in blogging. Others might treat their blog like diary...telling everything about their daily activities. Mine is different...I only blog whatever things that I love to do. No wonder it's been almost a month since the last posting, eventhough i've gone through a lot of interesting, though hectic phase in my life.Some of the interesting past events on top of my daily routine at the office:

1. Emotional Intelligence Course at Cyberjaya

2. Being an usherette for VIP during MMU Convo...(this is my first time and hopefully the last)

3. Managing funeral of an international student who died of an unidentified cause in Melaka.

However, last weekend, I managed to spend time doing what I love to do...TRIP to Taman Negara Pahang.

14th August 2009, Friday

Only 4 of us i.e. Azmir, Izham, Bob (last minute) and I were able to go. Faizol cancelled last minute due to health problem. At around 6pm, pick up Bob at his house and headed to Cyberjaya to pick up Izham (the long lost outdoor enthusiast). We had our dinner at Sri Kembangan...(Ir. Izham yang belanja).

Dinner at Sri Kembangan. On my left is Ir. Izham...makan nasi goreng ayam utk mengelak kejadian bakso berulang...hehe..

After dinner, headed straight to Jerantut via Karak Highway. Exit at Mentakab & Temerloh and at the first traffic light after toll, turn right to Jerantut. The journey was very smooth.

We reached Jerantut at around 2 am(if i'm not mistaken). Had some hot drinks and 2 sets of Bob's roti bakar at a 24hr Mamak restaurant. At that time, all eyes were very tired...in our mind, next thing to do is to find a decent place to sleep...yeahhh, budget hotel. After some late tour at Jerantut town, we finally found our place to sleep...Inderapura Hotel (this is the best hotel in Jerantut I guess). RM88 a night for a room with 2 queen-size beds....that's good enough for us and the room did not disappoint us. My mind shut down as soon as I closed my eyes.

This is the best hotel in Jerantut I presumed...but it didn't disappoint us.

15th August 2009, Saturday

Woke up as early as 9am (tido balik lepas semayang subuh) and got prepared. Check out from the hotel and took our breakfast at the same mamak restaurant. After breakfast, moved straight to Taman Negara. To go to Taman Negara from Jerantut, we can either take a boat from Kuala Tembeling Jetty for a 3 and a half hour ride to Kuala Tahan, or, drive for about 1 and a half hour to Kuala Tahan. The way to Taman Negara from Jerantut is very easy since there are a lot of signboards along the way....it shouldn't be a problem.

We reached Kuala Tahan Jetty at around 11.30am. Personally, when I reached Kuala Tahan jetty, the scenario was different from what I expected. I didn't know that we have to cross the river to get to Taman Negara from Kuala Tahan. Anyway, it is just opposite the jetty. You can easily find many boat operators to get you to the opposite side of the river at RM1 per head.

This is Kuala Tahan Jetty...Taman Negara is just across the river.

RM1 per person to get across the river...what a profitable business.

Across the river, we have to register ourselves at the info counter and pay a minimal charge of RM1 per person for entry permit. They also charge RM5 for a camera. If you want, you can hire a guide to guide you to the many interesting places in Taman Negara. Among the interesting places to go are, canopy walkway, bukit teresek, lubok simpon, lata berkoh, kelah sanctuary, rapid shooting and so on. Before going there, I planned to go for canopy walk, lata berkoh, kelah sanctuary and rapid shooting. However, we were told by the officer that all boats that will take us to Lata Berkoh, kelah sanctuary and rapid shooting are fully booked for that day. So, we had to make do with only jungle trekking and canopy walk. It was quite frustrating for me.

Before going there, Iwe thought that all these places are at one place i.e. near to each other. That's why we did not prepare anything before going there. We didn't bring any food, water and some of us even wore jeans. I myself wore jeans at first, but I changed to track bottom at the beginning of the trekking. However, Bob did bring some chocolates, bread and water but just enough for himself only. Before starting our trekking, I bought 4 bottles of mineral water at RM3 per bottle since the officer said that there'll be no shop whatsoever along the trekking. But later on we found out that it is still not enough.

The Underestimate...all of us wearing jeans.

Still wearing jeans...except Bob.

I changed my jeans to a more comfortable track bottom.

The trekking was very easy at the earlier stage. We were busy taking pictures along the way. Our first destination was Canopy walkway. It is 1.5km from the info counter. At a later stage before reaching canopy walkway, the trekking involved a lot of stairs climbing which made it quite taxing. Pity to Izham who expected that the trip was a leisure trip. He struggled a little bit during the trekking although not as struggled as he was during the Kinabalu hike. It seemed that all of us had underestimated Taman Negara...again!!!.

Bang, jauh lagi ker bang?..Dekat sudah.

We reached at the canopy walkway around 12.30 pm. There, we saw some people queuing to get their turn to do the canopy walk and some people were just sitting at the benches. Since there is no written instruction telling us what we are supposed to do, we queued up. We thought that the people sitting at the benches had done the canopy walk. Later on, we found out that we have to register first and make payment (RM5 per person) and wait until our name will be called out by the officer for our turn. The canopy walk was very interesting though it's quite challenging for those who are afraid of height like *** (hehe..sape tu?). However, half of the canopy walkway was temporarily closed for maintenance at that time. Mineral waters and some soft drinks are also available here.

Here, we must register first for canopy walk, then they'll call our name.

At the canopy walkway...Bob, be careful!

After that, we headed to Bukit Teresek. Azmir and Izham didn't want to go since they were not feeling comfortable to trek wearing jeans. Moreover, our stomach is already making its sound. Only Bob and I went there. I reached Bukit Teresek but I was confused whether it is really Bkt Teresek since no signboard indicating that the place is Bkt Teresek. Some of the pictures of Bukit Teresek that I found on the internet showed that there is a signboard and a hut there. Maybe the signboard and the hut are no longer there.

Is this the real Bukit Teresek???

Then we proceed to Lubok Simpon...another 1.5 km from Bkt Teresek. The weather was getting dark at that time signalling that the rain will come down anytime. We reached Lubok Simpon before 4pm. The view at Lubok Simpon was very nice..suitable for swimming, relaxing, camping and barbequeing, but the weather did not permit us to stay long there. After taking some pictures we moved back to the info counter..about 500m from Lubok Simpon. On the way back, the rain started to fall down. We reached the info counter at 4.15pm...prayed at the surau and headed back.

At Lubok Simpon...can swim here.

Just came back from "Tahan".

Conclusion and advice:

1. Even it is Taman Negara, never underestimate it.
2. Do some preparations and research for whatever trip you are going for...or else, ask people who have been there.
3. We've got our group name..."The Underestimate"

For those who read this posting, I hope that you will not make mistakes like we did.

Happy fasting.

Mount Irau & Mount Brinchang Expedition

Day 1 17/7/2009

Gathered at MMU campus at 10.00pm. Initially, 8 persons gave name to join but only 5, i.e Azmir, Bob, Faizol, Shafiq and I, turned up. None of us had climbed Mt Brinchang and Irau before. We only had some ideas on how to trek the mountains by reading from various blogs of those who had climbed the mountain before..but we're still blur. I called Jabatan Hutan Cameron Highlands earlier but was told that Mt Irau was closed since the track was terribly destroyed. I was very frustrated but still positive that the track will not be closed and carry on with the plan.

So, 5 is just nice....just need 1 car. We departed at around 11.00pm but we stopped by at Azmir's shop (http://www.xtreme-gear.blogspot.com/) to get some camping equipments.

Stopped at Seremban R&R for some late dinner and proceed to Tapah R&R. At first, we decided to spend the night there but, since the time is still very early and the weather was very nice, we decided to proceed to Shafiq's house at Brinchang, Cameron Highland. The journey climbing up Cameron Highland from Tapah was very smooth with only a few heavy vehicles to be overtaken. We reached Shafiq's house nearly 5.30pm. After Subuh prayer...sleep until 9.00 am.

Day 2 18/7/2009

Woke up at 9.00am. The weather was freezing...some of us took bath but some.....!!! Nearly 10.00am we took our breakfast at Brinchang Medan Selera. Since last night, we've discussed the route that we're going to take to Mt Irau. At first, we decided to trek from Brinchang Town using Path 1 (next to army camp and JBA at Brinchang Town) to the peak of Mt. Brinchang and climb down a bit and proceed to Mt. Irau. Another option is to drive up from Brinchang to the peak of Mt.Brinchang and take the route to Mt. Irau just before reaching the Mt. Brinchang's peak (this is presumably a shorter route). Luckily, Bob, who is a more experienced climber, advised us not to underestimate the mountain and we decided to take the second option.

After finishing our breakfast, we drove straight away to find the road to Mt. Brinchang. The road is a few hundred metres from Butterfly farm. It is the same road that leads us to Sg. Palas tea farm. About 5 km climb and before reaching the Mt Brinchang peak, we can see the starting point to Mt Irau on our right. We parked our car there and did some preparations before climbing. After reciting some prayers, we started climbing up the stairs for an estimated 3 hours climb to the peak.

The road leading to Sg. Palas tea centre and Mt. Brinchang


On the way up to the peak of Mt. Brinchang..you'll see this place on your right. This is the starting point to trek Mt Irau

The view along the way was so magnificent even during the early part of our climb. The trees covered with mosses remind us of the Lord of the Rings movies and we felt like walking through a world of fantasy.

Lord of the Ring-ish view

Another LOTR-ish view along the way

The trekking was not as easy as expected. Eventhough the weather was superb that day, but still we need to take extra cautious on every step that we take. Some part of the trek was very muddy. If we mistakenly stepped on it, we'll be sinked right up to our knee. Fortunately, I wore my Rm7.00 Bowling rubber shoe which is of much help to me along the journey. It is advised not to wear sandal on this type of the trek since it will be very much slippery. A lot of times we have to step on or hanging to slippery roots to climb. We spent quite some times taking photos along this serene and beautiful trek.

Mine was the cleanest one...

Along the way there'll be signboards showing the distance to the peak...but 1.55km there will take us nearly 2 hour to finish...sometimes we feel that the signboard was wrong or.. somebody might have intentionally removed the signboard to confuse others. Anyway, we kept on moving until we reached Anak Irau (I guess) where a group of climbers from Kuala Langat was resting. From Anak Irau, we must continue climbing for about an hour to reach the peak, but be careful to select the correct trek. Our group had nearly chosen a wrong trek, thanks to Bob and the Kuala Langat group who had shown us the correct route.

One of the signboard..

At Anak Irau with Kuala Langat group

We reached the peak at about 2.00pm. We cooked our lunch (maggi, mushroom soup and teh O) and spent about 2 hours there taking pictures and resting. At around 3.40pm we started our journey down the mountain and it took us about 2 1/2 hour to reach the base. We clean up ourselves and proceed to Mt. Brinchang for about half an hour to to take photos. We drove back to Shafiq's house.

Finally, we made it to the peak

At Mt. Brinchang peak

At night, we had our dinner at Nur Kasih Raihan Restaurant and had some durians just next to Brinchang's Petronas.

Day 3 19/7/2009

We woke up at 9.00am and prepare ourselves and proceed to Tanah Rata for breakfast. Then, we proceed to Strawberry farm at Tmn Sedia and Kea Farm for some shoppings.

After shopping, we proceed to Sg Palas tea farm for some refreshments up there but was disappointed since there were too many people up there. Took some photos and proceed our journey back to Melaka via Simpang Pulai.

At Sg. Palas Tea Farm

Conclusion:

As a whole the trip was very successful. The weather was unexpectedly great. All of us were very excited and satisfied. However, I think I have underestimated Mt Irau since we did not bring enough water up there thinking that it's going to be a simple and smooth trekking. For your info, there's no water supply along the way. Furthermore, the trek was quite challenging compared to Datuk or Ledang...so, some mental and physical preparations are definitely needed. The only thing that didn't make us so tired is the breezing temperature. If it is as hot as at Mt Datuk, definitely we'll be flat. I also wonder the difficulty that we'll have to face if it rained that day.

Lessons learnt:
1. Don't wear sandal for slippery trek like Irau.
2. Never underestimate the mountain.