Levind Kumar

Hey guys...., i'm back from yet another awesome hiking trip this time it was bukit tabur at melawati near the klang gates Dam. We decided to give it a climb since we heard loads of comments about it. This time it was not just the three of us but Li guan and Mei hwa were joining us for the hike. It rained on Thursday night it had been raining and the girls decided not to join us at the last minute as it would be slippery and dangerous. So we waited for the rain to stop, even on Friday at 12 in the morning it was still raining, i decided to take a nap and wait for the rain to stop... at 3am i received a call from chew saying that we are still going, excited as i was i went and packed my bags. Once chew reached my house we left and headed for the P.J market where we had a hot steamy plate of nasi lemak with beef rendang... after having breakfast we left to pick up tua at his place in sri petaling. We took a slow drive and reached melawati, it was around 5.30am and we started our hike. There are two sides of bukit Tabur the westside and the eastside, the westside is the easier side with a sighly better view and a way down trough an orchard. The eastside is more for experiance as the terain is more harsh and the view is good but the only way down is the same way up. We were not sure where the entrance was, but i remember seeing a picture on a blog and we went straight for that entrance which was Tabur Eastside... somewhat a small path leading up the side of the hill just beside two giant water pipes on the right... then we came to a split path... one going trough a fence and the other going up.. we decided to take the one trough the fence and after about 5-10 minutes we reached the lake bank, the view from there was breathtaking with all the fog surrounding the area. we knew that we were not supposed to be so close to the water instead we were supposed to be closer to the sky's... we turned back and headed for the other path and that was going up wards which was in our mind the correct way...

we continued the hike and we could feel the air getting colder and the breeze getting stronger. looking around we could see the whole of K.L. from way up there... as we continued chew started having cramps and said that he was not feeling well and he decided not to continue but asked us to go on ahead and see the view... he was resting some where near the foot of the first peak and tua found a perfect spot overlooking the whole of Klang Valley... we rested there and enjoyed the view.. after a short rest tua told me to go scout the way and see if we were any closer to the first peak, with torchlight in hand i moved and climbed further up the hill and then i saw the view of the Klang Gates dam as well as the lake that was covered in fog but the view was amazing, as the guys rested i continued to climb and once were ready to continue they called out to me and asked me how many meters to the first peak... i told them it was about 10 to 20 meters and so they continued the hike and eventually reached me at the peak...

Once we reached the first peak all we could see was fog, really dense fog covering the whole area... it felt like we were in a different world, dark, foggy and an eerie feeling of being in a Silent Hill movie... but once the fog cleared we could see for miles...

As the fog cleared out we could see the other peaks, and there were many peaks trough out that mountain ridge some at one glance looked impossible to climb without proper gear. Eventually as we moved on higher into the mountain range things started to look better, the sky's got brighter and it now looked like a more promising weather to hike. we kept walking following the ridge tops.... the whole area was covered with limestone and quartz crystals making most of the tops covered with lose stones and shiny quartz... After walking for about 3 to 4 hours we reached what i think was the 4th or 5th peak we decided to rest and enjoy the view all three of us found a shrub to hide under and listen to some songs.... the picture below was the view we got while resting ...

After resting..... we continued walking for a bit until we came to a drop off... there was no way down, at least not by climbing down, any way down has to be done with proper equipment and skills. so we decided to turn back and hike down the same way we came up... as we were making our way we heard voices in the distance... we saw another group of people hiking toward us, they were making so much noise we could hear them 3 peaks away!! hahaha... so we decided to climb down and walk toward them... tua had started descending first and eventually met up with the group that was moving towards us... and as me and chew reached the group i saw a familiar face!, it was andrew yong a dude that i play futsal with... we were surprised to see each other and talked for a bit and they continued on to see the remaining peaks,... on our way down we decided to cook some sweet potato we brought, by that time the sun was directly above us and the temperature was rising until we could not take it anymore, almost out of water and could possibly suffering from dehydration and sun burns... we decided to get to lower ground as quick as possible and so we did, managed to get to the cooler part of the hill and took a rest there...

While waiting for the other guys we cooked our sweet potato... and ate it... rested a bit and soon the other group caught up with us and we descended together me, andrew, tua, mel and bryant.... chew and han were back taking it slow and steady... we were almost half way down but chew and han were no where in sight... even with us shouting at the top of our voices!!, they could not hear us... so we waited from them to get closer... in the mean time we talked, sharing stories of experience and place we have been to... and even after all that we still din hear from them so me and tua we climbed back up to see if they were ok... and they responded... so we continued our descend and we finally reached the foot of the first peak when we got a call, we got news that han's legs had given up and that he could not continue hiking down... at this point tua was hiking with hans and chew was up in front with the rest of us... we continued and reached the bottom and rushed to the shop to get energy drinks for han and also get ourself's hydrated, once refreshed me and andrew yong hiked back up to get the energy drinks to han to see if we could boost his system and get him back down to flat ground. It took us a while but han literally dragged his ass out of the jungle on the thought of baku-teh which was his motivation for the rest of the descend on his ass... hehe....., at the end he reached flat ground and was so happy to see it... quite an experience i would say for this trip.

Right after hiking down from chilling falls, we were getting ourselfs cleaned up when we saw this other group of people who hiked up to chilling falls about the same time we did... so we decided to say hi and talk to them... after a bit of introduction and talking we decided to go makan together and to makan the famous mee in KKB town unfortunately the shop that we were supposed to go to was close so we went to another shop that served the same mee... we were hungry like crazy after the hike and ate loads of mee, after filling up our stomach. Ryan one of the guys we just met said that they were going to Gunung Datuk later at night and asked us if we wanted to join them... so we contemplated for a bit and decided to do something extreme by going with them even though we were really tired after the hike at Chilling Falls... So we split up there took a fast drive home to get our gear and a new change of clothes and met up at jaya one with the other guys.. they drove a van so we decided to all go into one car and save on costs, once all the stuff were done we started our journey to seremban and onwards towards Gunung Datuk. I took a short nap on the way to the foot of gunung Datuk... the ride was bumpy but i managed to get some shut eye until i was woken by ryan's loud voice... we reached the foot in no time and started packing our backpacks and then we started our climb.. the first 45minutes of the terrain was at a 80 to 90 degree gradient and it was really difficult... after reaching the first checkpoint we took a short break and continued but this time the slope was only at a 35 to 45 degree gradient so it was not as difficult but it was really tiring and my backpack was heavy not to mention 3 bottles of 1.5liters that i was caring but we eventually reached the peak. The wind was blowing really fast at least 30kph constant but we managed to pitch our tent and changed into a dry set of clothing as we were drenched in sweat. We had packed food earlier and once we changed our clothing and settled down we had our supper and then relaxed talking about stuff and some experiences until everyone were tired and decided to sleep. We got up the next day around 11am and cooked breakfast once we were done with breakfast, we packed up all our stuff and proceeded to the peak of the mountain where the scenery was breath taking. here are some pictures of Gunung Datuk....