yijia's once-in-a-while blog

just got back gunung tahan. a totally once in a lifetime experience. despite the term 'trekking' turning 99% of the people off, it was hella fun there. true enough, it was rather daunting to climb up a 2189m mountain over a distance of 30+ km. but the time spent together and the scenery up there was almost worth it. =p

day 1
went for 'last civilised meal' at lao pat sat (lol?). met with the other tahaners at tanjong pagar railway station at 8.30. train set off at 9. excited little chickens that we were, none of us could get any sleep on the almost 12 hour train ride. except for one of us... who seemingly is able to sleep on any terrain.

day 2
by the time we got to the town, gua musang, it was already 7-8 i think. saw a kfc signpost and knew that was where we were gonna replenish ourselves after the climb. haha. had breakfast at a kopitiam, wasnt good but wasnt bad either.

at the hq, we had to declare everything non-biodegradable we have in our bags (omgwths!). took some time but still managed it in the end. rationale was to not leave any plastic or metals behind to polute the national park (taman negara).

then the climb began after a 15min jeep drive into the wilderness. crossed 5 rivers today. but since it didnt rain recently, the rivers were quite shallow and got through them with ease and even ecstasy. had 3 leech bites, gross (the way they move) disgusting (the way they look) pieces of shits (the things they do). glad to say it was the last few drops of blood i lost in the whole camp xD. covered about 13.5km today, to a campsite (kem kor) approximately 700m in raw height.

this campsite was undoubtedly the best. the river about 2.5m in width, shallow enough to sit in, next to the camping grounds contributed to the natural ambience at first, but became our best friend in the whole camp. it was the only campsite with such a large source of water, to cook, bathe, drink, clean in.

at first i was rather worried about the kinda food we were gonna get. but what the hell. the orang asli (or whom we termed gods) cooked very delicious food considering the limited resources given. after that, i kept looking forward to mealtimes.

the sleep that night was quite okay if i remembered correctly. but it rained. wow. our tents were less than waterproof. omg. but it was pretty much like this for the next few days, so looking back i would say this is the best day.

day 3
packed up the tents, and left for another campsite only 6km away. kubang. the initial "very hopeful" plan was to travel all the way to botak, the summit campsite. but it was 22km away from kem kor. but since one of us *cough* galer *cough* had some problems so we had to camp at kubang. this campsite was sorta in the midst of a dense forest and on very sloped ground. there was no direct water source, so the 'gods' had to climb through some difficult terrain to get water for us.

nothing much done today, since the trekking ended at 2pm, and we had until the next day's 9am to rest. so we stoned the whole day away.

but this was going to be the worst night if not for the next night's disaster.

our tent was on a slope o.o around 2am in the morning after some rain, our tent slided off almost 1 m. so the midnight adventure began, and we went around hunting for pegs (our tent had none). after pegging though, none of us could sleep well for awhile. because we didnt close the tent door whenw we went out, the whole jungle went into the tent. so we spent some time clearing the flies.

day 4 (the day everyone almost died, 23 august 2005)
after the very difficult night, we had to hike 16km, from 1.4km height too 1.8km. and the paths along the way was not just up up and up. it was more like up up down down up up up down down blah blah you gettheidea.
very tough walk all the way. but once we reached like 3km from the campsite, botak (there were no trees there), the scenery was very beautiful and everyone was rejuvenated.

after setting up our tents, putting down our bags, getting sunburnt (yes!!! wth?!). we went up to the summit after 30mins walking. at first it was rather warm, the sun was up and everything. so most of us went up without ponchos, and some half naked. reached the summit, took some pictures, signed our names. boom, the heaviest rain we ever saw came. it was almost a mad rush. everyone started running. torrents of water gushed down from the top. the gradient of the path was like 70 degrees when we came up. wind was freakenduly strong because of no trees and it being the highest point in the region. it was freezing, like almost sub 10 degrees. the floor was slippery, rocks were loose and fell like the rain. numbed, i painstakingly found my way down before nightfall, one of the few . but i came alone so it was very scary, almost got lost =x. at 8pm, half our group was still up there helping changboon down because he's sandal tore apart. their story is rather long, haha but it was very dangerous as it was already dark and they werent back at the tents.

maybe its hard to feel the danger now that im safe. but the experience was horrifying and mindnumbing.

the night was spent in the rain, slept in a puddle of water, praying for the next day to come.

day 5
today's hike was just down down down all the way to kem kor making it 22km downwards. easier than going up but the knees and ankles felt very achey after the climb.

reaching kemkor was like divine acsension (ok, abit moronic but wth it was what it felt like). the river was just heavenly, despite the cold, we all managed to bathe with shampoo and soap, after the past few days of bathing in powder.

oh, and yes it rained again in the night. the river overflowed and became very deep the next day.

day 6 (homecoming)
the trek was just homosexual. the 5 rivers we were supposed to cross were very deep after the rain, and 13.5km is a rather long distance especially after the last few days of chiongiong. but we still made it in the end (duh). nothing much worth mentioning, other than the immense sense of relief.

went back to gua musang, had kfc treat from mr lim!#!%!%!$! took the train at 11.20pm and came back to singapore.


today would be day 7, but i rather not associate this happy day with the camp =p.
don't know what to say now, just feeling damn good after prawn noodles and hot bath. clipping my nails now.

randomstuff: love without pain isn't really romance
ciao~