Outdoors Malaysia

Gunung Kutu, 2nd Round

2011-08-21T01:10:00.001+08:00

I have covered Gunung Kutu in a previous post and this is just a short post to update the new developements on Gunung Kutu.

In July 2011, me and a couple of friends decided to scale Gunung Kutu again. We made our way there in 2 cars, and almost cancelled the trip as when we almost made it there, it began to pour. As we eased into the parking lot though, the rain let up and we decided to go ahead with the hike. There has been several improvements. The road leading to the parking lot had been improved and had been tarred.

Just compare the two pictures above and you’ll see the difference. The bottom picture was taken back in April 2009. The trail remained pretty much the same and more details about the hike can be found over at my older blog post regarding Gunung Kutu. We began our hike at 0855H and made it to the large rock at 1040H and subsequently the remnant chimney at 1135H and the peak shortly thereafter at 1140H.

The peak had been improved. There were new sturdier ladders leading up the peak. No more sliding down several branches.

The view at the peak was as amazing as the last time though, as we were balanced precariously on the large rock at the peak.

Nevertheless though, Gunung Kutu’s peak remain one of the more dangerous peaks to scale, similar to that of Gunung Datuk and as such, always take good care to prevent any untoward incidents.

As usual, the customary group shot before we headed home.

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Mountains & Hills

Gear & Stuff

Technorati Tags: Gunung Kutu,Malaysia,Peninsular Malaysia,Mountain Hiking,Dayhike

Gunung Murud–Mountain For The Soul (Part 6)

2011-08-21T00:54:00.001+08:00

The next day was the final hiking leg of our journey. We packed up and left at 0745H.

We began by following a 4WD trail. It was a rather steep incline from our hut and it was no fun indeed.

At about 0830H we left the 4WD trail and began to hike into the forest. At this elevation things were damp and sticky and little cool air was blowing. In addition leeches were aplenty too.

Finally at approximately 1045H, we reached civilisation! Ba’Kelalan. Civilisation is relative though, as the picture below is pretty self explanatory.

We stayed the night at the Apple Lodge, possibly the poshiest place in town. Again, relative to others that is.

Ba’Kelalan is well known for it’s highland apples. In addition, we picked up about 5 kilogrammes each of the highland rice here to bring back to Kuala Lumpur. We walked around the small town, which was basically a few houses and shops built around the runway. The airport though was even smaller than the one in Bario. Where else can you lay down on the airport runway? XD

The roads surrounding the area were in rather poor condition too, with some areas of the dirt road being full of mud.

We had a nice fruitful sleep that night, then awoke the next morning and caught the 9+am flight back to Miri aboard the tiny De Havilland Twin Otter again.

At Miri, we then hung around the town for the day, visiting the night market, gobbling up seafood etc before we finally flew back to Kuala Lumpur the next evening. With Gunung Murud done, all of the G12 mountains in East Malaysia were completed, and now all that was left was those in the Peninsular Malaysia.

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Mountains & Hills

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Technorati Tags: Gunung Murud,Sarawak,Borneo,mountain hiking,ba'kelalan

Everest Base Camp / Mount Kilimanjaro

2011-05-05T22:31:00.001+08:00

Am looking for partners to scale the following mountains

1. Everest Base Camp

2. Mount Kilimanjaro

Date of climbing is flexible, preferably within 2011 or 2012.

Anyone?

Skytrex Adventure

2011-01-24T20:08:00.001+08:00

I had actually planned a hike up Gunung Yong Belar on the weekend of 22/01/2011 & 23/01/2011 but unfortunately the hike was cancelled by the organiser. Left with nothing to do, I decided to try out Skytrex in Shah Alam, which I had been planning to for quite some time but never got round to it. I rang up several friends and finally managed to get Yiaw Hong and Einolzhen to tag along. Things got off to a bad start. We booked the 1000H slot via the Skytrex webpage, and at 1015H Yiaw Hong called me up to say that he had yet to find the place. With the Skytrex admin lady breathing down my neck I told them to stay put and drove over, then guided them back to Taman Pertanian Malaysia in Shah Alam (where Skytrex is located). By the time we made it to the Skytrex admin counter, it was already almost 1100H…

We got to signing the disclaimer forms, then boarded a rickety old bus which then drove us over to the Skytrex reception. Here we were given a brief briefing. The gist of it

Lockers are rented out for a refundable deposit of RM5
Water bottle holders are rented out for a refundable deposit of RM5
Gloves are recommended – new (RM3), or old ones (free)
Advised to go to the bathroom as it’s likely to be a 2 – 3 hour trek up on the trees

After renting a locker to keep our car keys and mobile phones, we made our way to the Gear-Up Deck where we were subsequently fitted with our harnesses. They were heavy rugged units, with multple humongous carabiners…

The staff there assisted us into getting into our harnesses. We had chosen the Extreme (the toughest, highest, scariest) Trail and before we began, we were given an introduction at the training site. It is of the utmost importance to pay attention here as they’ll point out how to use the assorted carabiners and pulleys which are the only thing between you, the forest floor, and SPLAT!.

As soon as our training was done, we gathered at the start of the Extreme Challenge Trail.

The first challenge of the Extreme Challenge was to scale a 14m high ladder. It doesn’t sound tough, but believe me, this was probably one of the most tiring segments of all!

After the tiring climb up the swaying and wobbly rope ladder, you’re treated to a panoramic vista of the area before the usher there urges you to hook your pulley and carabiners onto the single scary looking metal wire and step off into the void and hope that you manage to perform a “flying fox” across a ravine.

After we got across we had to scale several nets, making our way higher and higher up the canopy. This was probably the easiest part of the hike.

Soon though we came across a particularly hard section of the course. First it began with monkey bars. Arms almost pulled out of the sockets, we then came across a section where pipes were hung from cables over head and dangled free in the air, and we were to walk over them to cross to the other side.

This part was horrid, but the next one was no better. It was a series of cables tied in a U shaped loop, and we had to walk through them…

Later we had to scale another teeny weenie little ladder, this though was much less wobbly than the first, or maybe we were just getting more confident. XD

The next part – walking across a tightrope strung between two trees that were really really far apart!

Surprisingly though, this section was actually easier than those before. Thereafter the trek became easier though there remained one or two nerve wreckings one still. Take this log walk for example. Stepping from one log to the other always made me cringe in expectation of the log flipping up and slamming into my face.

Just before the end, the route splits into two, the right trail leading to series of Tarzan style leaps, while the left side was a simpler walk across several planks. I recommend trying the Tarzan leaps as they were a rather unique experience, though if you were to get tired, just cheat by walking along one of the ropes along the side. XD

After two hours, we finally made it back down to the starting point where a cold can of Coke (RM 2.00) was a godsend. I had sweating so profusely due to the adrenaline rush that I was probably dehydrated. In addition I was so nervous that I gripped the ropes and cables so hard, that even through my gloves, my hands were excoriated and peeling. All in all though, a unique Saturday morning, and one that’s well worth the admittedly rather steep admission. It looks though that maintenance has been well worked out for at no time was there any planks rotting or any platforms becoming rickety.

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Caves & Others

Technorati Tags: Skytrex,Taman Pertanian Malaysia,Skytrex Adventures,canopy walk,Shah Alam,Malaysia,rainforest

Gunung Murud–Mountain For The Soul (Part 5)

2010-12-03T21:39:00.001+08:00

Our hike the next day was to be a pretty relaxing hike. As we had time, we planned to head to Batu Linanit before heading down to Lepo Bunga. Waking up at about 0900H, we first began to explore Church Camp. The highlight of Church Camp would be the large church built at one end of the settlement. It was pretty large but was currently empty, save for a few forlorn chairs and several dead birds and a bat.

Church Camp was also equipped with one of the cleanest toilets I’ve ever seen on a hike. It is situated directly over a stream and bombs land with a satisfying splash…

Church Camp was pretty much built on stilts, and there were many buildings indeed which were on the verge of ruins…

Climbing up a nearby hill gave a better overview of Church Camp which was surprisingly large indeed especially for a settlement built way up on a mountain ridge with no assistance from heavy machinery.

We left Church Camp at 1130H, making for Batu Linanit. Batu Linanit was a couple of hundred metres higher than Church Camp though… That meant more climbing before going downhill… T_T

The route to Batu Linanit seemed to be mainly over scorched earth. We trod over multiple dried or drying roots with little vegetation. The ground was a dark black in colour, looking much like a fire had swept through this area.

We made pretty good time however, as we were fresh and invigorated after a good rest last night. As such, we reached Batu Linanit at approximately 1200H.

Me and Ye Ching could not resist a little cool posing atop the large rock outcropping there. Everyone got busy camwhoring. Batu Linanit was a peak of sorts, and we took several fold more pictures here than at the actual peak of Gunung Murud! This was because yesterday, at the actual peak, it was raining and fog completely enveloped the peak, leaving nothing but a gloomy gray vista.

At about 1215H we set off again. It was a short but steep downhill stretch here.

Several logs were placed alongst the slope and steps were carved into them. They were rather slippery though and it was a slow progress down.

As soon as we reached the landing at the bottom of the steps, we came across the promised planked walkway. It was called the Joy Bridge.

In less than two minutes the bridge became as such. More and more planks were broken and we were beginning to spend more time off the walkway than on the walkway.

After a while, the pathway then developed a roof. Jeepers, this was luxurious indeed, jungle trekking rain or shine without getting wet!

Unfortunately though, it soon became like this…

We made it to the end of Joy Bridge at 1330H, and stopped to have lunch and await See See and Simon Goh who had lagged behind as they were busy snapping photos…

A looong loooong hour later, we pushed off. From here it was purely downhill all the way till Lepo Bunga where we were to spend the night. It was nefariously slippery though, each and everyone at the end of the day recalled this particularly conniving log. It was lying flat on the ground, and initially everyone stepped on it gingerly, and upon realising there was pretty good grip, after a few steps, everyone began to walk at their normal pace. Just 1 metre from the end though, the log became extremely slippery and yours truly went skid, skid, skid, skid then KAPOW… We finally made it to Lepo Bunga at 1450H.

Lepo Bunga was the end of a large 4WD trail, and it appeared to be a logging site too, for much land around the hut was already cleared. The water supply was almost wiped out due to a landslide and water was murky and muddy… We decided not to stay there and we wanted to push till the exit. Our guide however told us that it would be quite impossible to make it before dark and recommended we make for Pa’ Rabata instead. The trail hereon was similar to the Neverending road of Gunung Nuang.

We finally made it to Pa’ Rabata at 1615H. It was a small hut built on the river side, just off the 4WD trail.

I got around to inflating my trusty Thermarest Neoair and prepared for bed. Worried that splinters in the floor might puncture the Thermarest Neoair, I decided to deploy my tent too as a layer of protection. In addition, this would help air dry the mildly damp tent too.

It was a comfortable fit in the cabin, and we even had an area to do our cooking.

Ye Ching got to cooking dinner, by torch again as night had fell by then. Today’s dinner was buttered rice with omelette and some greenish stem vegetables (sorry, I do not know my veggies…).

Part 1 2 3 4 5 6

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Mountains & Hills

Preparing Yourself

Gear & Stuff

Technorati Tags: pa rabata,joy bridge,gunung murud,sabah,borneo,church camp,malaysia,jungle trekking

Gunung Murud–Mountain For The Soul (Part 4)

2010-10-26T22:36:00.001+08:00

The next day would be our summit push. It would not be easy though for this summit push was to be done with the full weight of our backpack weighing us down. By 0800H, we were all packed and ready to hit the trail.

The trail immediately went straight up… By now it was mossy forest all around too and fortunately the weather was cool.

The going was tough. This route was rarely used and as such was extremely overgrown. More than half of the time, I couldn’t even stand straight. At times, the gap through which we had to squeeze through wasn’t even straight and we had to contort ourselves to make it through. Numerous fallen trees and low branches also kept snagging our packs as well as providing a perfect place to slam our heads into as we stumbled through the trail. At 0915H our trail crested the ridge and it was a sheer rock face down one side. It would have provided for an amazing view, but the confounded rain that came beating down brought in the fog with it, and with that, our viewing point basically vanished.

Super tough See See surveying the land beneath her…

By now the incessant rain had soaked my track bottoms, and the ensuing water runoff had seeped into my gaiters and soaked my shoes.. Sigh… All that hard work jumping over rivers yesterday, all for naught… Waterlogged, my waterproof boots lived up to their name and all the water remained sloshing around inside… Cold and wet to the bone, we finally made it to our lunch break point at 1200H.

We had just a quick lunch, for we were beginning to worry that we were lagging behind our schedule. We had yet to reach the peak. To make matters worse, we were supposed to descend to Church Camp after that… As such, at 1222H, we began our hike once again. We had barely went 20 minutes when we had to descend right next to a sheer rock face. It was one of the more defining sights so far.

From here on, the peak was approximately an hour away. The front runners of our group made it to the peak at 1325H, while poor old me only managed to reach it by 1340H.

L to R : Simon Goh, Ye Ching, Chee Keong, See See, Yee Yang (me not arrive yet T_T)

By then the rain, which had let up was back in full force. The peak was sparsely sheltered, and by the time I arrived, the front most people were huddled in a cornder, desperate to conserve body heat…

As soon as everyone made it to the peak, we immediately headed back down. This time, we took the route headed for Church Camp, our campsite for tonight. The first landmark we came across was Rock Garden. Rock Garden is a section of the mountain made up of huge boulders, which appeared to be rather similar to the rockface of Mount Kinabalu’s non vegetative zone. It was at time grippy but at times it could be completely grip-less (for wont of a better word).

If it weren’t for the rain though, it would have been a very pleasant and scenic walk indeed, but with the cold wind howling, we didn’t stop for much scenery enjoying though we did snap quite a few photos.

With the rain pouring down, the trails had become waterlogged. Not merely waterlogged though, it had become a rapids of sorts which we had to walk in (literally walking along the course of the rapids IN the rapids itself). It was harrowing as occasionally you stepped into hip deep pools of water while towards the end, around 1520H, we came across a segment that was several metres wide, had no handholds and was sloping downwards. We had to tiptoe down together with the flow of water. Any misstep would send you sprawling down like a fall down a waterslide.

Trudging on through the rain, we made pretty good time. The trail was pretty well marked after the segment where we had to walk downhill in a river. I was exhausted though, and with the incessant rain, I had not bothered to fill up my hydration bladder. At 1630H, while I was sucking greedily through the hose I heard a gurgling sound and F**K!! no more water!! Digging around my pack’s outer compartments for a energy revealed only empty wrappers DOUBLE F**K!! At this point I was seriously comtemplating opening up my pack to get to my Katadyn Vario to filter up some of the water from the puddles I was standing in as well as get to my reserve energy bars but the pouring rain threatened to inundate my entire pack and I finally deigned to do so. I continued my solemn hike and finally 30 minutes in @ 1630H, I finally saw Church Camp. Woohoo!!

Most of the buildings were rather run down and the planks were on the verge of snapping. Strangely though, the huts were mostly locked but our guides brought us to the other end of Church Camp where there was a large building which was unlocked. The upper floor of the building was one large hall, while the ground floor was divided into 4 rooms. The other side of the building was a enclosed firepit where our guides got to starting a fire and then cooking their dinner.

We bathed with water from the nearby pond, and filled up several pails of water to be used for cooking. Ye Ching got to work and in no time the building was filled with the mouth watering scent of mushroom pasta with cheese and capsicum… XD

By 2200H though, we had all turned in for the night. Tomorrow would hopefully be a less tiring hike, downhill most of the way, and apparently, according to our guides, one whole section would be walking on planking of sorts, kinda like the beginning portion of Gunung Mulu. Yeay!

Page 1 2 3 4 5 6

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Mountains & Hills

Gear & Stuff

Technorati Tags: gunung murud,church camp,sarawak,malaysia,borneo,mountain hiking

Gunung Murud–Mountain For The Soul (Part 3)

2010-10-15T23:53:00.001+08:00

The next day, we woke up at 0630H. We got dressed, packed up the tents occupying the hut and began to prepare breakfast. Breakfast was Mi Sedaap – Perisa Ayam Soto I think…

We took our own sweet time indeed, for it was 0900H before we bid adieu to Long Repun and began our hike in earnest.

Today we were to cross 5 rivers before reaching Camp 2, the place where we were to stop and stay for the night. the rivers were supposed to be rather shallow as it was the dry season, but yesterday it rained, and so did the day before… Less than 30 minutes later, we came across the first river, which fortunately was shallow enough by tiptoeing across the larger rocks of the riverbed, I managed to keep any water from crossing over my ankle height thus my feet remained dry due to the waterproof Columbia boots.

At 0945H we came across a rather nasty looking toad… It slept really soundly though, despite all the cameras snapping away and the flashes going off.

At 1030H, we came across another hut beside a river, Rabah Idang I think… Haha… Kinda forgot d. We decided not to stop but to continue pushing on.

Here the rivers became deeper, and it was harder to find a dry route across. The larger rocks were extremely slippery and everyone save yours truly had their shoes become wet, real wet… I made it through almost all the rivers but the last river was tricky. Attempting to move from large rock to large rock, I stumbled quite a bit. At one time I splooshed into the water. Fortunately, the waterproof gaiter delayed entry of water and I realised that if I quickly splashed through the water, I could escape with my socks and shoes being still dry. XD

At about 1130H we finally reached the lunch reststop, Long Resu. It was an open area just after the last river we were to cross that day.

From here on , it was a steep incline up to Camp 2. All this while, we had actually not ascended much and was still approximately 1200m ASL, less than 100m higher than Bario, which was 1100m ASL. We started trekking again at about 1145H. By the gods! This section was though! Having spent most of my energy hiking earlier in the day, the 2nd part of the hike had me exhausted and by the time we got to Camp 2 at 1415H, I was so exhausted the guides even offered to help me carry my pack. I declined, for I wanted to complete the entire hike under my own power. Camp 2 was located at an elevation of 1850m ASL.

Having deployed our tents, the next order was to bathe and cook. The water supply at Camp 2 however was a little puddle of sorts, and any vigorous motion threatened to turn it utterly turbid. In the end, I decide to use my Katadyn Vario to pump the water out. The first thing I did though was to remove the filter catridges and just use the Katadyn Vario purely as a pump to pump the water into the 10L container I brought along. As the Katadyn Vario’s inlet hose has a small wire mesh filter, it helped to avoid sucking in debris and larvae. With the 10L water container filled, I could spare myself the luxury of a bath – a manual one though…

Tea was mushroom congee with chicken… Mmm…

Chee Keong and Yee Yang meanwhile set about preparing a smoky campfire to chase away the sandflies. You wouldn’t believe it but at 1850m ASL, there were still sandflies!!

Me meanwhile, had not been very successful at evading leech bites and by now my feet were bleeding freely indeed.

That night, just as dinner was cooked and served, rain poured down… Rushing into the tents, I was elated my 3 man MobiGarden Mountain Air tent had a vestibule, it sure made things easier, as I could place things outside the tent without getting wet. It also proved a godsend as a place to put a mosquito coil, for the fumes could enter the tent but I did not have to worry about rain putting it out nor it burning a hole in the tent floor.

P.S. This isn’t my tent. It’s a MSR Hubba HP. Just 1.4kg! That’s a vestibule there with the bag inside though.

Part 1 2 3 4 5 6

See also

Mountains & Hills

Preparing Yourself

Gear & Stuff

Technorati Tags: Gunung Murud,Mount Murud,Sarawak,Borneo,Malaysia,East Malaysia,Mountain hiking,jungle trekking

Gunung Murud–Mountain For The Soul (Part 2)

2010-10-12T16:49:00.001+08:00

Monday, the 27th of September 2010 was when we began our hike in earnest. First stop of the day was to head to the nearby fuel station of sorts where we filled up four MSR fuel bottles with petrol. We piled onto the pickup trucks and we were off on our way.

The reason why we brought along fuel bottles instead of gas canisters for this hike was mainly due to logistics reasons. To get to Bario, we had to fly there. However, as it was a very small village, there is nowhere to purchase gas canisters here. Most cooking by the villagers in face were using firewood still. As such our group decided to use fuel stoves for our cooking needs. Fuel is still the same price here as in Peninsular Malaysia – acutely missing though were the fuel pumps and here we had to pour them out of large barrels.

We rode the pickup trucks to the nearby village of Pa Ukat, saving us 1 hour of hiking. Here we dismounted in from of the local church and gathered for a group photo before embarking on our hike.

The hike from Pa Ukat to Pa Longan, which coincidentally was where our guides were from was along a trail used by buffaloes pulling sleds. Notice in the picture below the yellowish trail to the left side of the trail – that is the trail the buffaloes pull the sleds on while us humans walked on the darker part of the trail which was less worn down and in better condition.

Along the trails, occasionally, the ground became muddy and peaty; this being an area famed for highland paddy planting. At such places log bridges were helpfully placed to help transverse the muddy grounds while keeping from stepping in the mud.

We arrived at Pa Lungan at 1055H. It was a quaint little village where it is rumoured that the best of the Bario Highland rice actually come from. As our guides were from Pa Lungan, we stopped here for a lunch break.

We stopped for lunch at the home of our guide, Stephen Litah. Meanwhile, our porters and guide began to pack their stuff for the upcoming hike. The place was serene, so serene that I could probably suffer from severe boredomitis should I stay here for more than a couple of days.

At Pa Lungan, there was also a homestay, an alternative for those who would rather hike till Pa Lungan on the first day after tounching down instead of staying over at Bario.

For this hike, I was wearing my newly purchased Columbia hiking boots. Waterproof up till the ankles, I was determined to keep it dry throughout the hike if possible. A constant pain in the neck or rather foot in this case was the fact that twigs, pebbles and such always find a way into the space between your socks and shoes. As such, I bought myself a pair of waterproof gaiters and lo and behold, I was kept completely dry even when plunging through the bush and muddy trails.

We left at 1230H and continued on our hike. Close to 1300H though, we came across the remnants of an old paddy field. Here, the water had risen so much so that the log bridges we had used prior to there were also submerged beneath the water. Water was up to the mid shin but slip off the logs, and water could reach past your waist! It was tough going, trying to guess and feel where the logs were with your feet. Balancing was a big problem indeed but fortunately I had one of our porters/guides Lian help me along, supplying me with an additional wooden stick to use as my 2nd trekking pole.

That flooded field took up quite some time indeed, as some of us (me in particular) were not fond of getting our shoes wet so early in the trip. I had therefore elected to stop, remove my shoes and then put on a pair of sandals before tackling the paddy field. After getting through it, I had to put my shoes back on again. After a while, the guides, stopped for a drink. They cut down several bamboo trees, then hacked an opening at the side of a segment, and introduced a thin hollow bamboo shoot to use as a straw, thus allowing us to drink from the bamboo. Pictured below is Chee Keong enjoying his refreshing drink of bamboo juice, while Kok Tian stares jealously. XD

The hike continued, and by now the trail was a standard tropical rainforest trail, with mud and large trees overhead. Occasionally log bridges could be seen spanning crevasses that would otherwise need us to descent before climbing back up again.

At 1630H, we came across the largest bamboo trees I had ever seen in all my hikes so far. There were humoungous, about 10 – 12 centimetres in diameter, completely dwarfing us as we made our way around them.

From here it was just another 5 minutes before we came to the last river for the day. It was also incidentally our campsite. A large tree had fallen over the river, and several uprooted bamboo trees rested on it, forming a convenient if treacherous crossing over the river.

This place is known as Long Repun, and a hut was already built here. It was build by the local natives here as a place to stop and rest during their hunting trips.

We took a bath at the river, filling up our water supply. The water supply throught our hike was brownish in colour. Despite looking rather clear, it probably had a lot of sedimentation. My Katadyn Vario barely managed to fill up my 10 litre water container before the effort to force the water through the Katadyn Vario’s ceramic filter became all but impossible to perform. Kok Tian had a Katadyn Hiker Pro which perfomed much better, as it did not have a ceramic filter. To his dismay though, when he opened up the filter two days later, the fibre filter inside had turned all chocolately in colour.

As night fell, the stoves were fired up and Ye Ching set about whipping up a delicious fare for dinner that night.

We tucked in like gluttons and soon turned in for the night, bellies full and satieted.

The guides and porters meanwhile whipped up bamboo cups for each of us, chopping off segments of bamboos and subsequently using rattan to create a handle.

Part 1 2 3 4 5 6

Technorati Tags: gunung murud,mount murud,mountain hiking,sarawak,malaysia,borneo,long repun

Katadyn Vario

2010-10-12T16:14:00.001+08:00

Gunung Murud–Mountain For The Soul (Part 1)

2010-10-07T19:43:00.001+08:00

The last of the G5 mountains in East Malaysia was Mount Murud. We attempted it late September 2010. We began by flying AirAsia from the LCCT terminal at Kuala Lumpur to Miri on the 25th of September 2010.

Worried that our connecting flight to Bario would be delayed due to a delay in the AirAsia flight schedule, we planned to stay a night at Miri before flying off to Bario. We stayed just opposite the Miri Airport, at the Miri Trail Guesthouse. It was RM25 per person for a bunk bed.

We spent the day at Miri stocking up on food for the the hike. This trip was to be a gourmet feast indeed, for we had Ye Ching come up with the menu. Each dinner would be cooked from raw ingredients indeed, no more instant food. XD

Dinner that night was a scrumptous meal of seafood, mostly crab, which was subsequently washed down with beer.

Just before we turned in for the night, we gathered for a briefing session for our hike where we ran over the recent developments as well as important points. By this time Yee Yang who had taken a later flight had arrived and had joined us.

The next day, the 26th of September 2010 we woke up bright and early. We boarded the teenie-weenie deHavilland Twin Otter aircraft for a 50 minute flight to Bario. The plane was tiny beyond compare.

During my Gunung Mulu hike, I mentioned the Fokker we sat was tiny, but this was on another scale completely. It probably sat a maximum of sixteen people or so. The aircraft was such an archaic craft that it wasn’t even pressurised. As such we flew at a ceiling height of 9000 feet. Luggage was also limited to 10 kilogrammes per person. Every extra kilogram would be levied an additional RM1 per kilo.

We had a fun flight, probably annoying heck out of the remaining few passengers as we hooted around and snapped embarrassing photos of Yee Yang who unwary enough to fall asleep.

Bario was a teeny town too. The airstrip (it couldn’t even be called an airport) frighteningly short, the terminal was no larger than a decent sized house.

And boy, the roads surrounding – they were untarred! Further enquiries with the locals revealed that driving from Miri to here would take 14 hours; due to the fact that the entire road from Miri to Bario was a logging trail that required 4WD vehicles with offroad tyres and moderate lift to tackle the journey.

We stayed at Nancy & Harriss Homestay that day. It was a cozy home on the prairie (being in Malaysia, corn being replaced with padi fields) XD. It was a wooden house on stilts, with electricity supplied by a generator. Apparently constant and reliable electrical supply was still short in this place.

Just opposite our homestay was an old carcass of a plane. Initially I thought it had crashed there, but further enquiries with the locals revealed the place was abandoned there circa WW II aftre it was stripped for spare parts to keep other planes running.

We walked around the area, horsing around with the unusual stuff we found. XD

After settling in, we went for a walk around Bario, hoping to get the feel of the place and grab some bites. There were several grocery stalls, and stuff were expensive owing to the difficulty in shipping items here – a 325ml can of Coca Cola was RM3.

We came across the local health clinic… and I shuddered when the thought of being posted here and subsequently marooned for the foreseeable future crossed my mind. Brr…

A little later in the evening, our guide, Stephen came over to explain to use the route to be used. We decided to try to push till Long Repun on the first day. We would begin our hike at 8am sharp.

Dinner was soon served and it was not for the faint of heart. We had chicken, some kind of fern as vegetables, sliced pineapples for dessert and to top it off with a flourish, fried python! How does it taste? Extremely tough and stringy, kinda like very poorly cooked beef.

We turnd in that night, full of anticipation for what would be surely an exciting hike in the days ahead!

See also

Mountains & Hills

Gear & Stuff

Part 1 –stay tuned for part 2-

Technorati Tags: Gunung Murud,Sarawak,Malaysia,Borneo,mountain hiking,Bario,Miri

Thermarest Neoair, Large

2010-10-04T22:19:00.001+08:00

During my Gunung Trusmadi hike, a fellow hiker recommended me the Thermarest series of sleeping mattresses. He; Chin Guan was using a Thermarest Prolite Large, which was a approximately 630g self inflating mattress which gives a 1 inch thick mattress pad when fully inflated. It had a R-value of 2.2 which meant it could be used on virtually all surfaces, even icy ones yet able to insulate you against the cold.

Price was an issue and when I stumbled upon a China designed imitation pad, I paid RM150 for it. 2 other friends joined in for the bargain. Sadly though, in about 3 months, the cheap imitation pad began to leak and by mornings I was sleeping on the jungle floor on a deflated mat.

With my Gunung Murud hike coming up soon, and the possibility of sleeping at a 10 degree Celcius region, I placed an order for a Thermarest Neoair, Large size over eBay. The Neoair did not disappoint. It arrived in a small cardbox box. Weight was 550g, it had a width of 63cm by 196cm and thickness was 6.3cm/2.5 inches.

When rolled up, the Thermarest Neoair took up little space indeed, and was actually just slightly larger than a 1L water bottle.

The Thermarest Neoair when inflated is made of a really thin fabric. It is coated with a propriety reflective barrier returns warmth to your body and reduces heat loss to the ground, keeping you three times warmer than any other uninsulated air mattress. In addition, when inflated it’s Triangular Core Matrix technology creates an internal truss system, resulting in what is claimed to be the most stable non-self-inflating air mattresses. What makes this mattress extremely light though is the lack of insulation inside. Achieving thermal efficiency without down or fiber insulation means the NeoAir mattress can be inflated directly without the added weight of a pump, or worrying about exhaled moisture wetting insulation and decreasing performance. In fact it’s R-value is 2.5, even better than that of the Thermarest Prolite!

The Thermarest Neoair made me the envy of the group. Despite any pebbles or twigs or roots on the ground, it gave me a great 2.5 inches of cushioning and was extremely comfortable. Insulation wise it was impeccable and I could not feel the surface coolness at all. A recommended tip for inflating the Thermarest Neoair would be to inflate it several hours before sleeping. Just before turning in, the air inside the Thermarest Neoair would have cooled a little and shrunk in volume. Top up the Thermarest Neoair with several breaths and you’ll be good for a night of uninterrupted sleep.

In comparison with the Coleman Sunrise Single Airbed the Thermarest Neoair was about 1/4th the weight, and provided comfort that was on par. In addition the Thermarest Neoair provided better insulation though at a much higher entry cost – RM600 for the Thermarest Neoair as compared to RM100 for the Coleman Sunrise Single Airbed.

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Gear & Stuff

Technorati Tags: Thermarest,mattress pad,Thermarest Neoair,insulated sleeping pad

Gunung Ulu Sepat–Freaking Sandflies Galore! (Part 3)

2010-08-31T22:14:00.001+08:00

Come Sunday morning at 0730H, we were up and about. Breakfast was Maggi instant noodles fortified with peanuts and anchovies. The camp was slowly packed up and at 0930H we made our way down.

Naturally, before we went on our merry ways, first up was a group photo.

Now, witness the magnificent jungle monopods we used to position the cameras. XD

I made leisurely progress downhill, not needing to rush, for our 4WD pickup would only ready round 1400H. Meanwhile I took the time to snap some photos, for on the way up, it had been raining and thus cameras were kept in the pack, and photo opportunities were far in between.

On the way, we came across several weird looking mushrooms…

Most of the shallow streams were actually bridged over by bamboo bridges for the motorcycles going to the Orang Asli village to pass.

We detoured at a fork in the trail at 1045H to head over to the nearby native village, where we distributed more goodies before making our way back down.

As we crossed the river back to our original trail, I stopped to clean out my shoe; for sand had made its way into the shoe and was profoundly difficult to remove indeed. At this point in time, I promised myself I’m so gonna buy a gaiter for my next hike.

I finally made it to the log bridge at 1210H. Here, the quicker people were already bathing and cleaning up in the river. I stopped yet again to clean my shoes…

After cleaning out my shoes, I decided not to bathe and swim in the river and made my way back to the Orang Asli village with Phoebe Chen. We finally reached Kampung Lelar at 1300H. Fuuh!! FIRST TO MAKE IT THERE. XD.

At XXXH, we were dastardly wishing for a spot of ice cold Coca-Cola. Imagine my elation when I found that there was a grocery store in Kampung Lelah! Unfortunately though, no Coca-Cola and I had to make do with warmish 7-Up instead… Ahh… The refreshing taste of carbonated drinks.

Our truck finally appeared at 1400H, and we were then back on our way to civilisation. Gunung Ulu Sepat conquered, next month Gunung Murud. XD

P.S. the sandflies on Gunung Ulu Sepat were the worst we ever encountered. I seriously encourage everyone to bring either really good tents like the MSR Hubba Hubba used by Ye Ching or wrap yourselves like mummies like Chin Guan. Me for example suffered a week of itchiness and was probably scaring everyone away for they probably thought I had some sort of really ugly infectious skin disease. Social life pwned…

Part 1 2 3

See also

Mountains & Hills

Preparing Yourself

Gear & Stuff

Technorati Tags: Gunung Ulu Sepat,Ulu Sepat,Malaysia,mountain hiking,Sandflies

Yong Yap–Surprisingly Sandfly Free. XD

2010-08-31T18:44:00.001+08:00

Gunung Yong Yap was the 2nd G12 class mountain that I scaled in 2010. Mount Yong Yap is a relaxing 3d2n hike, one that starts from Pos Brooke in Cameron Highlands. This was a larger hike than usual, though we had a core group that remained from our Gunung Trusmadi & Gunung Tambayukon hike.

We gathered at the Chinese Temple at 0830H. Here two Land Rover Defenders came by to pick us up at 0900H.

From there, we made our way down to Pos Brooke. Just opposite where we turned off the main road, is a rather large and modern school. Off the main roadwe travelled down a 4WD trail.

The sun was beating down strongly indeed, any many seeked shelter in all sorts of improvised manner.

We finally made it to Pos Brooke at 1000H. A single span suspension bridge of sorts provided the only means of crossing the river to where the village was.

To our dismay, the 4WD driver refused to ford the river; claiming that rain had made it swollen and impassable. To get off the 4WD at this point in time would mean an extra almost 1hour hike. As such, several brave souls such as our taikor Chee Keong decided to walk into the river and prove to the drivers that it was in fact passable.

Thanks to their heroic gesture, the drivers had no choice but to concede and we were soon back on our way.

Thanks to their heroic gesture, the drivers had no choice but to concede and we were soon back on our way. Pass the river, we stopped for a while to chat with the elders of Pos Brooke. Here they showed us a humongous tongkat Ali root (Malaysia’s natural equivalent to Viagra). XD

Another 20 – 30 minutes of bumping along the 4WD trail, we finally came to the end of the trail. We commenced our hike at 1050H.

Less then 5 minutes later – our first river. The first of possibly 30 river crossings? (I lost count of the number of river crossings…)

We stopped for lunch at 1215H. Naturally it was next to a river…

A word of caution; if at this point you are even harbouring any hopes of keeping your feet dry, dismiss them completely from your mind. I lost count of the number of rivers I had to actually wade right through – there was one freaking river we crisscrossed 5-7 times consecutively!!

We were blessed with good weather and made good headway. At 1335H we came across the last major river crossing – it was a rock and pebble strewn riverbank punctuated with fallen logs. Here we took a break and had our lunch.

After our lunch break, the group set off again at 1400H for our campsite that night. Needless to say, it was mere moments before Chin Guan sped off with several faster ones… By the time I arrived at our campsite for the night at 1515H, the tents were all set up and ready. XD

Quite surprisingly, despite the fact that the campsite was named Kem Agas (Sandfly Camp), there was a dearth of sandflies around which surprised a few of our veteran hikers for there used to be quite some sandflies here. It was probably due to the season? Nevertheless we decided to count our lucky stars and still went around starting smoky campfires just to make sure.

Dinner that night was a hearty meal of nasi lemak with anchovies, peanuts and eggs, with a helping of clear broth on the side. A nearby banana tree supplied plenty of leaves for us to turn the area into a mini picnic site.

Meal over we then got down to several games of “cho tai ti” whereupon the loser would have to carry out several errands –> wash all the dishes, replenish the camp’s water supply, etc.

The next morning, we broke out our daypacks and hit the trail at 0800H. It was a severe uphill trek and soon I was panting, out of breath and sweating profusely.

At about 0930H, we came across another alternative campsite which is also sometimes used. We took the opportunity to grab a quick break and a bite from our energy bars.

From here on the trail became mossier, though the dry spell we had the past several days had made it rather dry and unmossy. There were one or two sections of steep inclines and ducking under fallen logs but it was otherwise unremarkable.

The group finally made the peak just as noon blazed it’s fury down on the fast ones. Me, I made it there only at 1220H

Yong Yap’s peak was at 2160m, and was surrounded by all sides by thick shrubby trees. Not much overhead cover, and as such we were hiding along the edges of the vegetation.

After waiting for all the group to arrive and have a short break, we left the peak at 1335H. It was a mad race down for some of our team, but even the more leisurely ones made it down back to our campsite in about 3 hours. Everyone took a well deserved dip in the chillingly cold river at the campsite, and then it was time for dinner and back to bed.

The next morning, we broke camp at 0900H. The sun was filtering through the canopy and it was breathtaking. Ye Ching meanwhile was basking the glow of the morning’s rays.

By 1016H, we had made it back to the lunch stop site, and decided not to rest for we were feeling fresh and full of energy –> cue Energizer Bunny song. XD

There were some horribly muddy sections that had a couple of bamboo plants thrown across to use as a plank. Needless to say for the balance challenged people like me, this part was no walk in the park.

Many many river crossings later, we finally made it back to the original drop off site at 1220H. The trucks were nowhere in sight and so, we stopped to frolick in the water.

This trip was also when I stumbled into a bamboo trunk which had been chopped by a parang. It etched 3 long scratches down my right arm about 10 – 15 cm long. I still bear those scars till today.

See me in the black T with the large scratch marks down my right arm.

The pickup truck did not show and we finally gave up waiting. We took to the trail and made our way back to the native’s village, hiking the trail in about 45 minutes.

With no cellphone reception, there was no way to contact the truck driver and to enquire about the delay. It was frustating, and extremely so as we had already forewarned the drivers to be there by 1300H. Finally they came but it was already 1530H before they appeared. Needless to say, I do not recommend them should you attempt to hike Yong Yap.

It was finally close to 1700H before we were back at our cars and we then bid adieu and went back to the chaos and tiresome reality of work.

See also

Mountains & Hills

Preparing Yourself

Gear & Stuff

Technorati Tags: Yong Yap,Malaysia,mountain hiking,jungle trekking,Gunung Yong Yap,sandfly,sandflies

Gunung Ulu Sepat–Freaking Sandflies Galore! (Part 2)

2010-08-29T02:05:00.001+08:00

The next day, we got up at 0700H, and started on our trek at 0850H. As soon as we left the campsite, we had to cross the one and only river for the 2^nd half of the trek. It began initially with a slow comfortable ascent, which quickly became a steep climb uphill.

The last water source was about 2 hours into the hike (1.5 hours before the peak). It did require scrambling down a slope for a not inconsequential distance, and as much we just decided to bring extra water along instead of having to make our way to the water source.

Last campsite. Water source far far away…

At 1200H, the forest became mossy indeed, and soon there was a lot of scrabbling over mossy rocks. I was definitely out of shape and took a breather almost every 10 – 15 minutes.

As we neared the peak, it became definitely Gunung Irau or Gunung Mulu like, for there were deep pits of muck blocking the path. To compound matters, Chin Guan and Simon Goh who were the appointed paper trail markers decided to sabotage us by placing the paper markers right in the path of the deepest pools of muck. Trudging along, I finally gave up all pretense of hopping around to keep my shoes clean. I finally decided to just plough right through the mud puddles on my way to the peak.

I finally made it to the peak at 1230H. Here we had the Nescafe Latte that Chin Guan unfortunately brought up while snacking on chicken curry and bread. The pesky sandflies had even followed us up all the way from Kem Agas. We made a very smoky fire, just to chase the sandflies away, while we munched away. Lunch break lasted until 1330H, before we made our way back down again.

On the peak – freaking fat already!! Must diet gao gao.

Heading down was a much easier prospect in comparison to the uphill hike. Nevertheless we took it at a careful pace, and even then most of us slipped and fell at least once on the way down. About an hour into the downhill hike, the skies began to pitter patter. Fortunately the rain did not get any heavier and the trail did not get too slippery to handle.

Our front runners got back to the campsite at 1520H, only to be greeted by a whole buzzing group of sandflies… We went frolicking in the river which today was much less turbulent and turbid as compared to yesterday.

Ye Ching meanwhile got round to whipping up a mean meal of sardines with kunyit powder, omelette and some veggie soup. XD

That night, we set up a large smoky campfire, hoping to keep the sandflies at bay. While it seemed to work to some extent, I did get really hot and stuffy in my tent though…

Page 1 2 3

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Preparing Yourself

Gear & Stuff

Technorati Tags: Gunung Ulu Sepat,Ulu Sepat,Malaysia,mountain hiking

Gunung Ulu Sepat–Freaking Sandflies Galore! (Part 1)

2010-08-28T20:46:00.001+08:00

The next mountain in line was Gunung Ulu Sepat located at the border of Perak & Kelantan. We planned for a 3d2n hike, for though it was only about 8 hours up, the 4WD ride itself added another 2 hours to the trekking time. Me, Chin Guan, Phoebe Chen & Simon Goh made off from Kuala Lumpur at 4am on the 20^th of August 2010. We sped down the North South Expressway and turned off at Ipoh. We had breakfast at a roadside stall at Sungai Siput, then gathered at 0845H. We then made our way to our pickup point at Lasah.

Today’s hike was a total of 11 strong. The first couple of hours was spent bumping our way on the bed of a single cab Toyota Hilux. Fortunately, the skies were cloudy and we were spared from being sunburnt to a crisp. As the tarred road gave way to gravel then to laterite, and potholes and ruts became the order of the day, Chin Guan began to turn a nauseous green in colour. Breakfast soon found its way over the side of the truck.

Midway through the ride, we came upon several rivers that we had to ford. The water level weren’t all that high, and we made it across without much fuss. A little further on, we came across a section where several tonnes of soil had been deposited across the road due to a landslide. Fortunately though, three bulldozers were already working their magic, and a 15 minute wait later, we were back on our way.

We had barely gone another 15 minutes when rounding a bend, we came across several trees that had fallen across the road.

We alighted and the more industrious amongst us got to work, hacking away with parangs. This set us back another 15 minutes or so and we finally made it to Kampung Lelar at 1200H.

Here, we met up with the village head and signed a guest book of sorts and distributed snacks to the village children.

We munched away at our lunch and then finally made our way to the trailhead. The trailhead was along the 4WD trail, about 200 metres before the village. We began our hike at an elevation of approximately 600m ASL. It was about 1230H when we began hiking.

The trail was a shallow depression surrounded by waist high weeds. The trail was unfortunately much damaged by motorcycles used by the natives to get from village to village. The motorcycle tyres made grooves right in the middle of the 1 foot wide trail, making it difficult to place your feet; a matter that was compounded on slopes as the added erosion caused the tyre grooves to be about 4 inches wide and almost 8 inches deep.

About 1.7km after the hike, we came across a large bridge spanning the river. Despite the sturdiness of the bridge, the planking was already old and weakened, probably by termites and the persistent dampness. There were multiple forks in the road, and the correct route is the one most worn out. To be safe though, I would recommend that you try this hike only with a guide present or with a GPS trail.

In total, there will be 3 rivers large enough to necessitate you getting your feet wet. Most of the others are small streams conducive to some dexterous hopping over large rocks and moss covered logs. As soon as we crossed the 3^rd river, the skies opened up and torrents of rain began to pour. It was around here that Chin Guan took a a breather and while looking for some stuff in his pack, dug out a 4-pack of Nescafe Latte – I had earlier placed it in his pack planning to consume it during lunch at the Orang Asli Village. It had slipped our minds though, and Chin Guan had then ended up lugging the 1kg of Nescafe Latte up the mountain.

About 2.5 hours into the hike, we crested a small hill. Here we came across a bamboo fence about 4 feet high. Surrounded in the fenced up area were several huts and the natives’ tapioca farms.

Our campsite for this hike was Agas Camp. Also known as Kem Agas, it was located at approximately 1100m ASL.

Water source was from a nearby river. It was almost 1630H by the time we made it there. Just like it’s namesake, the place was buzzing with sandflies (agas). The nearby river was a torrent of turbid brownish water. All that crossed my mind was Thank god for my Katadyn Vario water filter – or I would be drinking that milk tea coloured water…

Tents were pitched up in the short lull in the rain. The rain finally let up and we were able to cook dinner. Me and Chin Guan were tentmates and for dinner we had pasta with chicken frankfurters. That night was a sleepless affair. Sandflies squeezed their way through our tent’s mesh screen and I was bitten to pieces, waking up at 0230H and scratching crazily away. Chin Guan meanwhile had mummified himself to protect himself…

Part 1 2 3

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Mountains & Hills

Preparing Yourself

Gear & Stuff

Technorati Tags: Gunung Ulu Sepat,Ulu Sepat,Malaysia,mountain hiking,Sandflies

My Water Moments

2010-06-12T15:00:00.001+08:00

Hiking has been particularly perilous especially in regards to electronic equipment; in particular the digital which is pretty much an absolute necessity for the modern hiker. My initial hikes were accompanied by a Canon Digital Ixus 700. It was the star of it’s day but by 2009 it was beginning to show it’s age. Though it was capable of crisp colours, it lower light conditions, the camera was prone to shake due to the conspicuous absence of an Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS) system. Back then, this camera set me back approximately RM1700.

In the later half of 2008, I got my hands on a Panasonic DMC-LS80; a freebie from a Panasonic Plasma TV. It retailed at approximately RM500, sported 10 megapixels and had OIS. It sported a 3x optical zoom, and had a handy intelligent Auto system that worked fine most of the time. It quickly became my default camera for hikes, when the limitations of an entry level camera began to make itself evident. I could not adjust focal points, exposure settings, colour balance, etc. In short all I could do was take decent portrait and scenery shots, but no bokeh, artistic or long exposure shots.

Hands itchy, I decided to upgrade. I like the brainlessness of Panasonic’s intelligent Auto and was therefore looking for another Panasonic camera. At the same time, I wanted have more control and was therefore eyeing a DSLR. After playing around with several Nikons and Canons I decided that a DSLR just wasn’t practical for hiking. It weight a ton (figuratively speaking) and those lenses were ginormous and terrifyingly fragile. 1st quarter 2009 – I got my grubby paws on a Panasonic DMC-LX3, a prosumer camera that had most of the functions of a DSLR minus the weight. Naturally there were tradeoffs, and the LX3 had a smaller sensor than SLRs leading to more noise as well as a miserable optical zoom of only up to 60mm. A plus though was it’s wide angle lens of only 24mm, which meant that self portraits were much easier and included more of the background and not just your face filling up the whole screen. In the tight constraints of the forest, the wide angle lens made for more options in framing pictures. The full set of DSLR features including overexposure alert, manual focusing, ability to shoot in RAW, and large aperture of F2.0 meant that many shots were amazing. Not to mention the LX3 looked like a cool retro camera too.

It was after using it for a while that I realised the LX3 was still not optimal. Firstly, though smaller than a DSLR, the LX3 is still large by modern point and shoot (PNS) cameras. This meant putting the LX3 into the Deuter Camera Case involved much squeezing and causing unsightly bumps. It is also by no means pocketable, unless you’re wearing huge baggy cargo pants… Yet another drawback to the LX3 was the fact that it usually rains in Malaysia. That meant that the moment it rained, the camera went into a Ziplock bag, then was placed into the backpack – ie: no more pictures until the rain stops… And that meant whole legs of hikes went by without any pictures as it rains almost every other day here in Malaysia. My most horrid experience came during my Rainbow Waterfall hike at Sungai Lembing as during the hike across the river on the way back, I slipped and fell forwards. The LX3 was in the Deuter Camera Case strapped to the front of the shoulder straps and it went ploop into the river. I stood back up and saw to my horror, water dripping out of the Deuter Camera Case. I immediately took the LX3 out, pulled out the battery and the SD Card, then wiped it as dry as I could. ZOMG… At that time the camera was less than 2 months old…

That’s me in the black tanktop. See the Deuter Camera Case on the
right shoulder strap? 5 minutes later, it was in the water… T_T

I was devastated. The next day I realised that there was condensation inside the LCD of my LX3. I then devised a contraption to extract the moisture out from my camera. I bought an airtight container from the nearby Carrefour, then placed a Thirsty Hippo desiccant inside it. The LX3 then went into the same container and I closed it for 2 days. When I opened it two days later, YEAY! there was no longer any moisture in the camera.

Late 2009, I got myself a Garmin Oregon 500. Basically an outdoor GPS, the Garmin Oregon 500 was a waterproof GPS unit that Ta-Dah! had a 5MP camera with geotagging features too. By now my shoulder straps were weighed down by

1. Deuter Camera Case with Panasonic DMC-LX3

2. Garmin Oregon 500 on a carabiner clip

3. Hydration pack hose and nozzle

4. Occasionally a walkie-talkie/ham radio

I was beginning to look ridiculous with so much gear dangling off my chest and therefore decided to leave my LX3 at home and use the Garmin Oregon 500 as the main camera.

The Garmin Oregon 500 was damn near indestructible, but then the pictures taken by it were also nowhere near those taken by the LX3. The Garmin Oregon 500 also did not have a flash, nor long exposure modes nor the colour gamut of even lowly modern PNS. Below are comparison pictures between shots taken by the LX3 (above) and the Garmin Oregon 500 (below). Click on the pictures for the high resolution image.

The Garmin Oregon 500 couldn’t hold a candle to the LX3. During my Gunung Trusmadi and Gunung Yong Yap hike, I was introduced to a segment of camera’s I never paid attention too; the outdoor PNS camera segment. I went green with envy when I saw my fellow hikers bringing in their Olympus’s into the waterfalls and rivers, fishing them out even during a downpour.

And so began my search for a camera that would generate good photos, be waterproof, dustproof and generally indestructible. It would be best if it was small so I could slip it into a pocket instead of dangling it off my chest. Even better if it looked good too, as I could also use it for snapping photos at normal occasions without looking like I was lugging an underwater camera along. Reviews pointed at the Canon Powershot D10 as a good candidate, but it looked much like a blowfish – a strict no-no in a fashion conscious world.

I stumbled onto the Sony DSC-TX5 on a large advert at Lowyat Plaza where it was declared the world’s slimmest waterproof camera. It was quite a looker too.

Basic stats first - The DSC-TX5 comes with a 10.2MP sensor, 4x optical zoom, 25-100mm lens, 3 inch touchscreen LCD. This has got to be the best looking waterproof camera. No exposed screws, ugly rubber seals, bulky plastics, or the lot, instead being one nice sleek sheet of metal. Amazingly, the DSC-TX5 had almost as wide angle a lens as the DMC-LX3 despite being much slimmer in size. In addition, unlike most Sonys, the DSC-TX5 can run on SD and SDHC cards instead of Sony’s propriety MemoryStick format. It also comes in a wide gamut of colours, though I won’t be going anywhere near the pink or red ones.

Of particular interest to me, in part due to hiking were two features found on the DSC-TX5 – Handheld Twilight and Intelligent Sweep Panorama. According to Sony’s literature Handheld Twilight works by taking six photos in rapid succession with one press of the shutter button. The BIONZ image processor then combines the data from all six shots into a single image with extraordinary detail and low noise which is exceedingly handy for night campsite shots or shots during dusk or dawn especially under thick cover of foliage. The Intelligent Sweep Panorama works pretty similarly too, shooting a burst of frames as you sweep the camera horizontally or vertically and automatically stitching them together. Perfect for those vistas atop the summits!

Look at the panorama view from Mount Kinabalu… (courtesy of http://mount-kinabalu-borneo.com)

Surprisingly despite such a petite size and lack of any rubber mouldings or visible seals, the DSC-TX5 is waterproof up to 3m deep for 60 minutes (hello waterfalls and rivers!), able to function up to –10C (perfect for my hike up Mount Kilimanjaro in the future), dustproof and shockproof from 1.5m high. I can’t wait for my next white water rafting expedition… I finally can bring along a camera instead of paying them RM50 for a photo, XD.

I can just imagine the sheer number of possibilities with a good waterproof PNS.

Hmm… should I take the plunge and get myself one?

Technorati Tags: waterproof camera,DMC-LX3,DSC-TX5,Ixus 700,DMC-LS80

Sabah’s Last G Series Mountain – Gunung Tambayukon (Part 3)

2010-05-17T06:22:00.001+08:00

Coming down, we began to realise just how steep and dangerous some of the trails were. At the similar to Tabur Hill East segment, a small misstep would pretty much mean a helicopter medevac back to Kota Kinabalu.

Heading downhill was meanwhile rather uneventful. Though me and Chin Guan set off first, by the time we reached Jeneral Camp, Chee Keong had already caught up to us and went thundering down. At 1530H I made it to Kem Musang where we took a short break, hydrating ourselves after the rationing due to the water scarcity up there.

The trail between Musang Camp and Kem Kepuakan was fiendishly steep! As we had hiked up this trail early in the morning, we had not realised how steep it had been, and should we have attempted this in the daytime, it would have been mental torture indeed. Finally at 1700H, me and Chin Guan chanced upon the river that marked the border of our campsite.

With some sunlight to spare, we got to cleaning up ourselves and preparing dinner. With a reasonably easy trek out tomorrow, we hung around the camp, chatting and enjoying the company.

Come 0600H the following morning, our resident paparazzi Phoebe Chen could be seen skulking around the campsite taking more indecent photos of the group (these photos are not published here to protect the innocence of the violated parties) – what happens in the forest, stays in the forest. XD

Our guides and porters were up and about really early indeed, and had pretty much had breakfast before we even started to cook ours.

Our guides even went the extra mile. They managed to source a dozen or so durians and pried them open for us. Nice! Most had just several pieces, while I devoured at least 3 whole durians. Woe betide the person who follows close to me on the hike later…

Breaking camp began at 0900H.

Naturally, group photo at 0940H, and we were off.

A slow, relaxing hike saw me reaching Sungai Wuluh at 1030H, approx 50 minutes after leaving Kem Kepuakan. Matin, a porter who accompanied me scrawled my name onto a rock.

Along the way, the guides plucked several fruits that looked kinda like longans. Not to my taste though.

Interestingly, we also came across several unbloomed rafflesias, which looked pretty much like little red footballs…

The trek back was pretty much uneventful, thought I did nearly get lost multiple times for I was not paying attention to where I was going.

Finally at 1320H, I made it back to the starting point. There was a big rush for the two sole bathrooms but by 1500H, we were all packed and done, and rolled out of Substation Monggis and headed back for civilisation.

Part 1 2 3

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Mountains & Hills

Gear & Stuff

Technorati Tags: gunung tambayukon,sabah,malaysia,substation monggis,mountain hiking

Sabah’s Last G Series Mountain – Gunung Tambayukon (Part 2)

2010-05-17T06:18:00.001+08:00

Waking up before the cocks were even crowing, we set off circa 0515H. Me cheated and while the rest were delayed crossing the river just after our campsite, me and Chin Guan sped off ahead with Sakius and another porter. I was definitely slowing down the gang, and I could see Chin Guan tapping his feet impatiently as I struggled uphill. We finally made it to Musang Camp at 0700H, where Chin Guan got to work trying to get phone reception to make a phone call.

A quick break, lasting less than 15 minutes and we were off again, making for General Camp. After Kem Musang, the trail continued upwards at a steep incline and it was 0815H by the time I made it to the 12km marker.

It was then that I realised there was a big conjob… The original map marked Jeneral Camp at the 12km marker, but we happily trekked, thinking that Jeneral Camp would be just around the corner. It was 45 minutes later at 0900H that we finally came upon Jeneral Camp! By this time Chee Keong had made up the deficit of almost 30 minutes and caught up to us… and that’s in just less that 2 hours.

Meanwhile water reserves were running low. Due to the dry season, there was not expected to be any water sources after Kem Musang, where the water source was a heady 20 minute trek from the campsite. As such, I had filled my 2L hydration bladder in my High Sierra Kahuna 70 to the brim and passed another 2.25L of water to the porter. It was also on this hike that I began to realise the limitations of the High Sierra Kahuna 70 – with the 2L hydration bladder filled up and a jacket, there was precious little space for stuff like my Garmin Oregon 550 and my Pansonic DMC-LX3, not to mention other necessities such as a headtorch.

Circa 1000H we began to realise there was something seriously wrong with the trail markings. Our next camp, Rajah Camp was supposed to be at the 13km marker. Yet, it had been more than an hour and we were still not there!! WTF is this – 1 hour and we couldn’t even cover 1km?? Nevertheless, at 1015H, we reached the rocky outcropping section which was reminiscent of Tabur Hill West – with great all around views – this was undoubtedly the highlight of the hike, not to mention rather dangerous as like in Tabur Hill West, sheer vertical drops lined both sides.

At this altitude, there were plenty of pitcher plants, but the dry season meant that whole clumps of them were already drying up.

Finally, the elusive Rajah Camp was reached at 1045H – almost an astounding 2 hours for 1 kilometre! Either the markers were seriously off or we were really tired…

I made off from Rajah Camp at 1110H, finally making it to the peak at 1150H. Chin Guan had already reached here at 1100H…

The rest of the gang meanwhile made it to the peak about an hour later after a leisurely hike.

Naturally it was time for camwhoring.

This was especially so as Gunung Kinabalu could be seen in clearly from the peak of Gunung Tambayukon.

Me and Chin Guan left the peak at approx 1300H, fearing that it would be dark before we reached Kem Kepuakan as I am particularly slow on the descent. The other meanwhile buzzed around the peak until approximately 1330H before starting on their downhill hike.

Part 1 2 3

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Sabah’s Last G Series Mountain – Gunung Tambayukon (Part 1)

2010-05-17T04:13:00.000+08:00

After our hike up Gunung Trusmadi, next on our agenda was Gunung Tambayukon. We made our way from TVRC to Aristo Resort.

There we spent a night repacking our stuff for the next day's hike to Gunung Tambayukon. Meanwhile, an unfortunate turn of events meant that we had to squeeze our Gunung Tambayukon trip from 4d/3n to 3d/2n as one of our fellow hikers had to rush back to Peninsular Malaysia. As such, for the first day, we had a 5 hour hike to Kem Kepuakan where we wound spend the night. The next day, it would be a 6 hour ascent up to the peak starting at 5am, and hopefully we would be back at Kepuakan Camp by 5pm. Subsequently we would then break camp the following morning before reaching back at our starting location. We left Aristo at approximately 8am and set off for Gunung Tambayukon in a pair of 4WDs.

The route there was actually on a new under-construction highway. We sped along gravel trail as huge machinery hummed alongside the road, laying the groundwork for a future highway that would probably lead all the way to the starting point in several years to come, negating the need for 4WDs in the future. Meanwhile, we still had the fun of fording several shallow rivers along the trail, fun indeed for a group of city boys and gals, for the only rivers we forded back in Peninsular Malaysia were the infamous flash floods of Kuala Lumpur.

The 4WDs dropped us off at Sub Station Monggis, the starting point for the hike up Gunung Tambayukon. Surprisingly, Gunung Tambayukon was also under the purview of Kinabalu Park, and was a World Heritage Site.

In an effort to reduce our load, our group hired 2 porters to help lug the tents and heavier items up. Me, Chin Guan and Simon Goh decided to fork out a little more and hired Sakius, our personal porter to help reduce our load even more – that’s him in the green shirt below, pack stuffed to the brim with our stuff. XD

The hike began at 9.50am. It was pretty much a standard lowland tropical rainforest hike; humid, damp and hot.

It was apparently common knowledge to everyone but me that Gunung Tambayukon was leech central and according to the guides, the average hiker manages to snag approximately 60-70 leeches on a hike up Gunung Tambayukon; thus everyone came prepared with leech stockings and long pants, while I had on ankle height socks and shorts...

Fricking hell, the route was horrendously long; or maybe it was because I was tired from hiking up Gunung Trusmadi. The first rest stop was 2.2km into the trail; Kulat Shelter, a squarish gazebo like sort of structure.

I was exceedingly fortunate though. The dry season had caused all the leeches to go into hiding, and miraculously I did not get a single leech bite. XD Muahaha!! And as I had not wrapped my legs in layers and layers of thick cloth, it was all breezy down there. XD

40 minutes later, we came upon Pondok Kera – 4km in. Yea! This time it was a hexagonal gazebo instead of a square. No elevated flooring this time, but with tap water supply! Meanwhile, for me, it was pre-cramps again and cue long break…

Here things got funky. Due to the steep inclines, there was a segment of the trail which was cut into the hillside in a hairpin manner, much like the roads in the Alps. From above, they are virtually the same like the roads below, but imagine the roads to be just 3 feet across and surrounded on both sides by tall humongous trees. Unfortunately in the forest, I could not get the appropriate angle to capture the trail.

At approximately 1300H, I made it to our lunch break station; the Sungai Wuluh campsite. Here we all took a much needed breather and devoured our lunch. Most of us had packed lunch from Aristo Hotel in the morning and I was tucking into my fried rice with gusto.

It was obvious the dry season had taken it’s toll and the Wuluh River had pretty much become a stream. Fortunately though, according to the guides, Kepuakan Camp, our campsite for the night had a large river that would not dry up. We took a long 30 minute break here and only started off for for Kem Kepuakan at 1335H.

More boring hiking ensued, and my pace dropped drastically… Chalk it up to the full stomach and the post-lunch sleepiness… Fortunately I still managed to make it to Kem Kepuakan by 1430H.

Kepuakan Camp was located by a large river which meant that we could have a cold freezing bath prior to turning in for the night.

We set about cooking lunch early for we had a long and early day ahead of us. By 1715H Chin Guan and me were already almost done with our dinner – I think we had pasta for dinner but my memory fails me…

By 2000H, the Kem Kepuakan was bathed in darkness and snores, with the exception of one Phoebe Chen who was running around taking indecent pictures…

Part 1 2 3

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Gunung Trusmadi aka Terus Mati (Part 4)

2010-03-28T06:15:00.001+08:00

The next morning, we awoke to bright sunny skies. Surprisingly the night had not been very cold, the temperature merely dropping to approx 17C. Having been told that the cabin might drop to 4C I had brought a fleece vest, an autumn jacket, a Gore-Tex jacket, windproof pants and a beanie…

Important matters first – breakfast was the order of the day. We got to it with such gusto we were probably behaving like famished refugees. As usual, inedible foods back in civilization become meals worthy of a Michelin star when you’re 2 kilometres up in the sky and shivering you a** off. XD

It was also then that we realised that we had finished the water in both the tanks, and were out of water. Fortunately, most of us had some spare water we filled up yesterday, and it was enough to carry us till the next campsite where water was available from a tank drawn from a different stream

Realising I would be left way way behind should I start with the group, I managed to CONvince Chin Guan to accompany me downhill ahead of the main pack. We left at 0900H, and began a slow careful trek down with the main intention of keeping our knees osteoarthritis-free until our golden years.

Halfway down the mountain, we came across a clearing where we could see Mount Kinabalu in the background. It so happened the clouds parted then too and it was an amazing view indeed… Unfortunately a prosumer camera like my LX3 could only catch so much, and the pictures just do not do it justice.

Downhill went by without much ado, and close to the bottom, we bumped into a couple of porters carrying up a signboard to be placed at the aforementioned meteorological station. I tried to heft the poles and the signboard, and boy, were they heavy indeed!

Also, as a sidenote, much of the trail up Gunung Trusmadi is reinforced by wooden planks held in place by a pair of PVC stakes which are pretty much impervious to rusting and termites. However, quite a few of the planks slid as then soil anchoring the PVC stakes gave way.

Me and Chin Guan finally made it to the starting point at 1150H, while Simon Goh had sped past us on the trail and had subsequently reached the campsite much earlier, and was already having his morning tea!

By 1220H though, the whole gang was there. A compulsory post climb group photo!

Half an hour later, we were back at the entrance to the Gunung Trusmadi park, and were filling out the forms declaring we left no rubbish behind, and then we were busy collecting our certificates. Yippie Yay!

From then on, it was back to TVRC, where we had lunch, cleaned up and got ready for the next part of our 8 day trip – Gunung Tambayukon next. XD

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Gunung Trusmadi aka Terus Mati (Part 3)

2010-03-28T02:59:00.001+08:00

At 1545H, we broke camp and made for the peak with our daypacks. Incidentally we started trekking, not realising Chin Guan was still at the camp. Upon realising the camp had become unnaturally quiet, he put two and two together and in true Roadrunner fashion, in moments we could see him pounding up the trail behind us.

The trail was moderately steep, with the usual assortment of roots and rocks to make life a little more difficult. The cool weather however, helped to make progress easier.

From here on, pitcher plants became more abundant, and some were almost as large as a person's head! The larger pitcher plants were generally available in two shapes, one which looked like a toilet bowl and another which was a slimmer, taller version.

We had a field time taking photos, and we probably set the record for the slowest group to reach the peak. There were a couple of false peaks before reaching the peak, the largest being a flat outcropping with a solar powered meteorological station atop it. I couldn’t seem to access the data from the meteorological station on Accuweather.com though.

We finally reached the peak at 1726H. The peak consisted of a trigonometry station aka triangulation station (a fancy word for a three sided pyramid like structure..)

It made quite a good photo point though, and us monkeys were crawling all over it in no time.

Here we had to unfurl our sponsor’s banners for a group photo. After much dallying, we finally got it done with, thought it was almost dark by then.

The BROs bottle did come in handy though, for the Chivas Regal we tapaued from Peninsular Malaysia was great for warming us up on the cool cold peak as we watched the sunset.

At 1800H, the sky was beginning to darken; me and Chin Guan started down ahead of the main group for we wanted to minimise hiking in the dark due to the inherent increase in likelihood to slip and fall. The rest of the group meanwhile set up camp at the peak and cooked some noodles while watching the night sky.

The main group left the peak at approximately 1900H. By 2130H, our hut was alive with noise and the sizzling of an omelette! Note our resident bionic woman whipping up a mean omelette with fresh long beans, onions and sausages thrown in the mix too…

By 2230H though, the tent was filled with a different, the droning sound of snores…

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Gunung Trusmadi aka Terus Mati (Part 2)

2010-03-22T02:16:00.001+08:00

Waking up at 5.30am, we had our breakfast – Nasi Lemak thanks to the great cooks in Chalet C1. XD With just one toilet per chalet clean up was a slow process, and all too soon it was 7 in the morning.

We piled into a pair of double cab pick-ups and were soon threading our way across gravel trails towards Gunung Trusmadi. Apparently the trail had been much improved, and a big leap from the old logging trail it once was. We made pretty swift progress.

Before long, we came across the entrance to Gunung Trusmadi. It’s unmissable, for it has a huge butterfly for a gate. Here, we had to alight and register our names as well as pay an entrance fee. The shocker was the entrance fee for each 4WD is RM100!!

To the surprise of Kok Tian, who had been here before, the logging trail had been repaired, and a layer of gravel poured onto it, allowing us to head straight until it was just 4.9km from the peak, shaving 2-3 hours of hiking time. We were ecstatic about this sudden turn of events for it meant we could push onwards to the peak before nightfall and avoid hiking up to the peak in the wee hours of the morning.

Our crack group of hikers decided then to take a break, break open a watermelon and enjoy ourselves before the hike. We started up the trail at 0915H and very soon, the group split up with the excessively fast Chee Keong, Chin Guan & Weng Kiong spearheading the group and pestering the guide to go faster. There were rest stations situated approximately every kilometre on the hike, and I reached the first rest station at approximately 0940H. It was a small hut of sorts with water piped from a stream further up as well as a bathroom. The bathroom didn’t look too clean though, and there were no takers.

After a 10 minute break or so, we moved on. Pretty soon we came across the 4000m marker. By then, the forest was beginning to look rather mossy.

Being the dry season though, it was clear the mossy forest took a beating for even the moss was rather dry and already turning yellow and withering away at many spots. Realising that we were ahead of schedule, most of us slowed down save for the front 3 roadrunners.

We made the 2nd rest point at 1040H, clearing 1km in about 1 hour as compared to the 1st 900m in 30 minutes. Here we realised the perils of hiking in the drought for a twist of the tap at the rest point yielded little more than a drop of water.

Kok Tian then radioed Chin Guan who was already more than 600metres ahead (told you this group was prepared – we had walkie-talkies to keep in touch) to ascertain the water supply status of the 2000m rest stop. Questioning the guide revealed that the campsite was supplied by a different stream and tough the stream had dried up, we still had 1 full tank of water left at the campsite. At 1105H I made the 2500m marker, spending 30 minutes on the past 500 metres.

Subsequently I faltered. Having not hiked a mountain for almost a year, my quadriceps began to betray me and I could feel a cramp coming on. A sudden misfooting of my left foot then caused my right quadriceps to overcontract, triggering a cramp, leading me to readjust my left leg then shift my weight over, then causing the left quadriceps to cramp in turn. Faced with two excruciatingly painful legs that could no longer flex at the knee joint, I dragged the human equivalent of two longs, using my hand to pull myself from tree to tree until I could find a resting spot. Tellingly my speed faltered, as every 5 – 10 steps, I had to rest for 2 – 3 minutes. The next 500 metres took me 50 minutes, almost halving my pace – it was 1155H by the time I reached the 2000m marker.

From the picture above, you’ll notice my shins were rather fair and smooth, with just a scratch or two from the hike. It wouldn’t last as you’ll see at the end of the two mountains. I was now traversing a ridge, hence the sharp vegetation became scrawny and irritatingly in danger of overgrowing the trail. I reached a particularly large rock which served as a false peak. Descending the steep descent required some careful hand and foot coordination.

From here it became ala Tabur Hill West – there were multiple false peaks and in between the rear, camera happy group got to snapping photos of each other on the respective descent and ascent phases.

By then I had exhausted my drinking supply. Wondering if my cramping was due to an electrolyte imbalance, I sucked on my hydration bladder incessantly, and before I knew it, I head a gurgling sound and it was empty. ZOMG! I finally dragged myself to the campsite at 1220H. Dumping my pack on a bunk bed, I emptied out it’s contents, refilling my water bottle and drinking to my heart’s content.

Fearing that my near sprain of my left ankle and the bilateral quadriceps cramp would impinge on my subsequent hike, I decided to break out the big guns. Being the OCD person I am, I brought along several vials of painkillers, adrenaline and steroids. I took out a vial of diclofenac (Voltaren) and subsequently injected myself with the NSAID, thus providing my with 8 hours of painlessness and reducing any potential swelling or inflammatory reaction.

The rear, camera happy group finally made it to camp at 1330H.

We planned to make a slow walk to the peak at 1545H. As such we had a couple of hours to burn. We got around to snacking on french toast with dried meat. It was delicious. XD

Amongst us, we had 4 Casio Protreks – 2 PRG-110, 1 PRG-110T, 1 PRG-80. The Suunto team meanwhile had two representatives (sorry models unknown ^^).

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Gunung Trusmadi aka Terus Mati (Part 1)

2010-03-19T00:34:00.001+08:00

My first hike in almost a year!! This was a 2-in-1 hike, and we were to climb Gunung Trusmadi and Gunung Tambayukon back to back. This time I joined a serious group of enthuasists. All mountain hiking pros and really experienced. The difference shows. The trip was planned down to the T. The menu was planned by Ming Ming and every meal during the trip was planned weeks in advance and the necessary ingredients bought. Simon Goh then worked his magic and got Nature Valley, NT-Flam and BROS to help offset some of our costs. We met up a week in advance to distribute the weight of the foodstuff and to collect the Nature Valley energy bars – 40 bars per person!

On the 6th of March 2010 at 4 am, I was to gather at Simon Goh’s place to meet up with See See. I ended up being late though… as the night before, having been working from 8am to 10pm for four straight days in a row, I had only completed packing my stuff at 2am. Embarrassing and a bad impression to say the least for my first meeting with this group of experienced hikers. Fortunately things then went without a hitch, and we were soon at KLIA LCCT checking in. Here we met the rest of our group, numbering a strong 10 people.

On the airplane, the group began to partake in a host of shenanigans, probably driving the stewards nuts as they made enough noise to drown out the engine noise.

We made an uneventful landing at Kota Kinabalu, then made more noise as we posed for a group photo. As we left the airport, we met up with another friend who was to join us for the hike, making it a 11 person team.

We then bundled into a Toyota Hiace and a Toyota Unser, and made our way towards Tambunan Village Resort Centre (TVRC) where we were to spend our first night, before hiking up Gunung Trusmadi tomorrow morning.

On the way, we stopped by a supermarket, grabbing a crate of Heineken as well as stocking up on some supplies.

On the way we stopped by the Rafflesia Information Centre. They told us there was a rafflesia a 1 hour hike away, but it was already starting to wither. As such we decided not to view it as we not only had to pay money, but had to endure a 2 hours return hike.

Instead, we went to the Mahua Waterfall near Tambunan, and had our lunch there. Having hurriedly packed earlier in the morning, I was unsure of the status of dry clothes I had, and opted not to join them in the water, munching instead on Wise Potato Chips, BBQ flavor and Root Beer. XD

The group even brought up a gas stove and we ended up cooking a mean cup of coffee before heading off to view the famous Batu Gong. The Batu Gong is several boulders that due to their composition, somehow makes them resonant, and you could actually play certain notes on them. Unfortunately though, not the entire scale is represented, thus limiting it’s repertoire.

After we checked in to TVRC, the gang was up to their stuff again. We went to the nearby pond, brought some fish food, and Chee Keong was attemting to catch them with his bare hands…

That night, we had a home made steamboat for dinner outside our chalets. The chalets were traditional Dusun houses with some modern amenities such as electricity, hot water and basic kitchen utensils. No air-conditioning though, which meant during the day, it was hot and stuffy as hell.

Packs were then emptied as we reduced our load to only that was necessary for Gunung Trusmadi, taking out the items for Gunung Tambayukon. Me however, snored very early indeed…

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Technorati Tags: Gunung Trusmadi,Sabah,Malaysia,mountain hiking,Mount Trusmadi

Sungai Klah Hot Springs

2009-10-16T10:21:00.001+08:00

The Sungai Klah Hot Springs trip was a completely coincidental trip. The original plan was to scale Gunung Liang East & West. We had gathered near Tanjung Malim’s KFC which was unfortunately not yet open for the day at approximately 0715H. Whilst enjoying breakfast at the nearby mamak shop, i came to realise that one of my fellow hikers was gonna attempt to scale Gunung Liang in leather loafers…

To compound matters, the skies darkened ominously and by 0745H, rain began to pelt the sleepy town. One uncle braved the rain for his daily fix of teh tarik and roti canai. The rain did not let down, and soon it was 0830H. I decided to put on hold plans for climbing Gunung Liang this time. With an estimated 8 – 8.5 hour hike to the campsite for average hikers, I estimated that should the rain stop by 0930H and we start to hike at 1000H, we would be cutting it rather close indeed should we wish to make camp before nightfall. As such I decided to postpone the climb as we were going to attempt the hike without either a GPS unit or a local guide.

It was then that it suddenly came to my mind that we could visit Sungkai, home to the Sungai Klah Hot Springs. It was merely a 30 minute drive away. Upon exiting at the Sungkai Toll plaza, turn left and head south for several hundred metres. Make another left at the first junction you come across and continue on for several kilometres. You will head right into a village or two. Just follow the signboards with an italicised F (short for Felcra). The Sungkai Klah Hot Springs’ official name is Taman Rekreasi Air Panas (TRAP) Sungai Klah. IMHO, an absolutely horrible acronym…

Entry fee is RM10 for adults. This will get you access to the whole park. Food and drinks are not allowed to be brought in; apparently you have to support the local industries. The food there is naturally more expensive that those outside the park. The premium you pay isn’t all that high though; for 5 eggs, you pay RM2, which comes up to 40 cents per egg.

The are 2 large pools here. One cool, the other lukewarm. The cool pool (no pun intended) formerly had an octopus of sorts with water slides down it’s sides. Currently though, several tentacles have fallen off, and even it’s head was missing… The lukewarm pool on the other hand, was a shallow, approximately 3 feet or so deep pool that had 60 degree Celcius water pouring in from one end. Heat dissipates fast however, and I reckon the large pool was no more than 30 degrees Celcius.

Hidden between these 2 large pools are several smaller large scaled bathtubs filled with water at approximately 40+ degrees Celcius. Soaking in these were fun, but 10 minutes later, I was flushed and really sweaty. There were also several jacuzzi hot spring baths here too, but at an additional cost of RM70 per hour, it was beyond my budget.

As with almost all hot springs, there is a section for egg boiling too, where water bubbles out of a crack, heated to boiling temperatures.

It was finally about 2pm when we decided between the scorching sun and the oh-so-hot water, we decided to call it a day, and slinked off to revel in the air-conditioned cabin of our car as we made our way back to civilisation.

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Technorati Tags: sungai klah hot spring,sungkai hot spring

The North Face Skareb 50

2009-09-18T14:07:00.001+08:00

My most recent addition to my pack was actually a replacement to the defective TNF Skareb 40. After months of dallying about, the pack finally made it to our shore late July. Sadly FedEx never did deliver the pack, stating instead on the tracking number that it was undeliverable. I went to the local FedEx warehouse, picking up the pack from a grumpy guy who muttered about “address like this deliverla” and the reason for it stared right at me. How do you expect to deliver a package when all that’s written on the address is the room number and the postcode!?

The pack came in a large nondescript cardboard box, wrapped in a large plastic bag. It was light (a good thing) and when I took the pack out, I realised that it was so rigid, it felt like a large tray.

The TNF Skareb 50 is an improvement over the TNF Skareb 40 in almost every aspect. It’s side pockets are now larger than before. Instead of the complex roll top system, the TNF Skareb 50 uses a drawstring and clasp system to close the lid. The hood also hides a large convenient pocket that is a necessity for keeping important items accessible. The hip belt also has a mesh pocket, which is handy for storing small items such as energy bars, a penknife or even a camera or GPS unit. The bottom of the pack has 2 large accessory straps which are absolutely necessary should you decide to strap on a sleeping bad or sleeping pad. The Skareb trademark large front pocket that spans the height and width of the entire pack remains, and a front access zip that goes down all the entire height of the packm makes getting stuff out from the nether depths of the pack easy. Needless to say, multiple side compression straps are available on both sides.

On the back, the TNF Skareb 50 continues to be supported by the X2-Radial suspension system, a light right suspension system that follows your body movement. To help vent heat and reduce sweaty backs, the bagpack is lined by injection molded EVA, forming a soft nonabsorbent backpanel that dissipates air and prevents the pack from sticking to your back. Needless to say, like all good packs, the straps are adjustable in a myraid of ways. The left shoulder strap in fact has a pouch which strikes me as being extremely convenient for either a mobile, GPS or camera.

The TNF Skareb 50 appears to be a winner in all aspects. Being a Flight Series range product, it is extremely light, weighing in at just 3 pounds! In fact, The North Face even went to the extent of using parachute fabric to make the pack as light as possible yet durable enough to withstand the rigours of hiking. The pack’s fabric also is made of anti-snag material which helps prevent thorns and twigs from ripping a piece of your precious pack. With the addition of the new pockets, hood pocket and the accessory strap at the bottom of the pack, it makes this pack as versatile as the Karrimor Panther 65. If I were to nitpick though, I would pick on the pack’s colour; for white is so not going to survive the wilderness unscathed.

Like all The North Face products, this TNF Skareb 50 is also covered with a lifetime warranty; which is good news indeed especially for hiking gear, which generally breaks down quickly if not built to the highest quality and standards. Full of practical nooks and crannies and built from the most advanced material, I expect the TNF Skareb 50 to be a valuable addition to my hiking arsenal, and am currently merely awaiting my next hike to test it out.

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