Gunung Datuk Hiking Trip

Again, I went to Gunung Datuk (Grandfather Hill, directly translated) for hiking. This is another impromptu trip, which we are just discussing it and confirmed it on Friday and we are sleeping up on the hill on last Saturday night.

The Direction

We head south in North South Highway until we exited the highway at “Pedas Linggi”. We took a left turning after the toll and follow Rembau all the way until we see “Hutan Lipur Gunung Datuk” signboard. I suppose there will be another two left turnings to reach the place. If you follow the “Hutan Lipur” signboard closely, you will have no problem reaching the place.

Climb, climb, climb!

We reach the bottom of the mountain at around 4:30pm. (I know it’s really late) Spend some time registering and paid RM9.00 for some useless stuffs. We started climbing at 5:00pm. 6 of us, Robert, SingThai, JiaWen, ShenLong, Liew and I were in the trip to sleep up on the hill.

Since this is my second trip to the place, I know it’s not very hard to reach the peak. The route itself is not tough, it the weight of our haversacks makes the trip slightly tough. Liew, the oldest among us was doing a great job this time. I remembered that he had a hard time in previous climb.

It took around two and a half hours to reach the peak. We left our bags on the small hut and climbed the rock to the peak as soon as we reached there. There was a group of Singaporeans that were already up on the hill when we arrived. They were so kind to offer us one of the two huts there. I heard that they are from some kind of hiking society in school. Well, thanks for the hut.

The wind was strong in the early night. It was very unfortunate for the Singaporeans when their hut collapsed. We return their kindness with our only tent. Six of us slept in the very tiny hut the whole night.

Second day

We woke up early in the morning to eat everything we brought up. Before we managed to come down, I had stomachache, probably caused by eating too much. I had my first time in middle of leaves. The feeling was so different when I had to worry that somebody might be coming. Well, a good experience!

It took an hour for me to travel down the mountain. After all of us washed ourselves at the bottom of the hill, we head to Seremban to have our lunch.

I can say that Gunung Datuk is a good place to go if you don’t have much time or stamina. Since it’s only a two-hour climb, you can expect that the route should actually quite steep, so that we can reach 2,900 feet above sea level in such a short time. I’m looking forward for a few more hills in coming weeks. Coming with me? Drop me a mail.

Gua Tempurung (Tempurung Caves)

This is another unplanned trip. This time I was with my collegues. It was last Saturday (01.10.2005) when we woke up early in the morning to start our journey to Sungai Buloh highway rest house to meet another group of colleagues before we head to Gua Tempurung.

The Gang

There were 4 of them following my car. They are Swee Hong (coursemate), Chee Wei (secondary school mate), Yuan Hui (Chee Wei's sister + colleague) and Seh Hui (colleague).

Sook Lan (colleague), Keh Yong (Sook Lan's husband), Hui Ying (colleague) and 2 so-called ABC (American Borned Chinese) were in another car.

In The Caves

We reached the place at around 10:40am. There were a number of different tour guide packages. Sook Lan went to the place before and she suggested that we should take the toughest one. As we entered the cave, the environment reminded me of my previous caving at Dark Caves. The smell of guano was quite similar. The ranger who brought us showed us lots of natural shapes on the wall of the caves. We spent most of the time walking the stairs in the beginning.

As we move deeper to the cave, we were asked to turn off our torch light. That's the most interesting thing to do in caves actually. We walk a short path blindly. I can't see anything even when I wave my hand in front of my eyes. How fun!

After 2 hours of stair case path, the journey became tougher. We came to a place where we have to slide down a slope with about 4 meter high. I guess this was supposed to be the toughest thing to do in the cave. Then, when we were about to get out from the caves, we had to crawl through many shallow holes where I almost had my head hit. Luckily it was not raining in the morning; else we might get ourselves totally wet with those water with guano!

The most unfortunate thing that ever happened in the cave was the ranger's torch light spoilt! However, we managed it to the end safely though some of us get some minor injuries.

The feeling when we saw the light (when we were about to get out) was extremely great! When we got out (it was around 3:00pm), we washed ourselves before heading to Ipoh for a meal. It was really a great trip for me as I was waiting to visit Gua Tempurung since long ago. I'll be glad to go again. Anybody?