Bukit Larut is Malaysia's oldest hill station and is founded in 1884. It is located just ten kilometres from quiet Taiping in Perak. Formerly it was called Maxwell Hill. Bukit Larut is approximately 1250m above sea level.
We started walking up the Bukit Larut tar road at 9.50 a.m. after we were advised that the next available 4WD service would be at 3 p.m. Apparently, all the 4WDs had been fully booked that morning.
The walk was rather uneventful except for several occassions when we took shortcuts by scrambling up steep slopes. Along the way, we met locals having their regular walks and spotted colourful birds and noisy monkeys.
We reached Bukit Larut early at 12.30 p.m. because we managed to hitch a total of 30 minutes ride from 2 kind souls.
Heavy rain came while we were having our packed lunch. When the rain abated, we had a quick look around and made our way downhill at 2.30 p.m. and reached the base 2 hours later at around 4.30 p.m.
I must add that the air quality at Bukit Larut must be very good in view of the existence of lichen beard (Usnea lichen) at such low attitude of 1000m. This sounds logical because Bukit Larut experiences the highest rainfall ("air cleansing") in the country.
For the photographs, please refer to http://happytrekker.shutterfly.com/pictures/4525.
