Tanglir Waterfall 19 Oct 2008

My group assembled at the Shell & Petronas Petrol Station before the Karak Toll as early as 7.15 a.m. for the trip to Tanglir waterfall near Selesa Hillhomes. After about more than 1 hour wait, our car plus 6 other vehicles started leaving for the waterfall around 8.30 a.m.

The narrow access road from the Karak Highway which bypasses the Selasa Hillhomes to waterfall appears newly tarred. However, the recent rains have caused certain sections of the road to cave in, thereby making the road uneven and slippery for saloon cars to negotiate over. Given the state of the road, it would be recommendable to use a 4WD. Seasoned trekkers could park their cars near the Selasa Hillhomes and trek about 4-5 km along the tar road to the Tanglir waterfall.

The trail head to the Tanglir waterfall, which is situated on the left side of the tar road, was unmarked and vague. Given the huge crowd, we decided to skip the main fall and proceeded to trek up the tar road to explore the upper Tanglir river. The upper Tanglir river is more or less at road level and accessible at various spots for picnicking.

After trekking for 10 minutes from the trail head to the Tanglir waterfall, the tar road ended in 4 trails. We explored the far left trail nearest to the river. The trail circumvents a watercress garden plot and ends in the upper part of the Tanglir river with small cascades. The water was shallow and muddy. Unimpressed we decided to back track down the tar road and headed for the Tanglir waterfall.

It took us about 5 minutes to scramble down the trail (from the tar road) to the waterfall. The Tanglir waterfall was indeed impressive but the pool water was murky brown probably due to soil erosion caused by the daily rain. It has a nice rest area for a small group of 10-20 pax.

At 12 noon, we started to trek out. After about 45 minutes of trekking, we were met by a kind member who fetched us out in a vehicle.

For the photographs, please refer to http://happytrekker.shutterfly.com/pictures/4638.

Taman Subang Ria 15 Oct 2008

With 2 hours free time at Subang Jaya one morning, I decided to visit Taman Subang Ria. It is quite a clean park but a tad run down and unkempt. The obvious landscape, apart from the three lakes, are two rows of transmission towers and wires sandwiching the park. The tranquility of the place is occasionally broken by the noisy vehicles tearing down the Federal Highway located at the fringe of the Park.


For the photographs, please refer to http://happytrekker.shutterfly.com/pictures/5638.

Ah Pak San (White Hill) 12 Oct 2008

This new trail to APS is located at the end of Jalan Awana 23. For the location, please refer to http://www.wikimapia.org/#lat=3.0854298&lon=101.7651987&z=16&l=0&m=h&v=2.

This new trail head is not far from the old trail head at Jalan Wangsa Cheras. The new trail cuts through the rubber estate and will lead to Station 3 or Station 6. Clear trail signboards have been put up to guide trekkers. There is ample place for parking cars along Persiaran Awana which precedes Jalan Awana 23.

We started the hike at 9.30 a.m. and finished at 12.30 p.m. with long stopover at Stations 3 and 6. The trail was extremely muddy and slippery given the recent rainy spell.

For the photographs, please refer to http://happytrekker.shutterfly.com/pictures/4587.

Bukit Larut 3 Oct 2008

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.

Bukit Engku Busu 1 Oct 2008

Bukit Engu Busu standing 331.4m, is the highest hill around Lumut. It is named after a Selangor royalty, Raja Engku Busu who was invited by the Sultan of Perak to eliminate the rampant sea piracy during the 1800’s. Unfortunately, he failed his mission and was killed.

The access road to the trail head is positioned opposite Lumut Polis Station which is easily located along the same road as Orient Star Hotel.

Starting at 4.30 p.m. at an elevation of 70m, we took about 40 minutes to scale to the viewpoint at 320m which offers a fantastic aerial angle view of the Lumut Naval Dockyard and the sea. The trail is steep and challenging to climb. Occasionally, we have to go on fours and clamber over huge and mossy boulders. Fortunately, there were strong cable ropes along difficult sections of the trail. Descending was equally tough given the wet condition of the heavily eroded trail crisscrossed with exposed roots.

En route to Lumut we did several pit stops to sample the local fares. The first stop was at Sekinchan Wins Restaurant to sample the popular pan mee followed by Sitiawan Restoran Bei King for the red wine chicken mee sua and sweet sour fish maw. Nearer Lumut, we tasted the famous ice cendol in front of an Indian temple along Jalan Lumut.

For the photographs, please refer to http://happytrekker.shutterfly.com/pictures/4433.

Gunung Bunga Buah 28 Sep 2008

At 7 a.m. we gathered at the BHP station opposite Batu Caves Giant Hypermarket to carpool to Goh Tong Jaya (“GTJ”), our destination for our hike to Gunung Bunga Buah. The 50km drive to GTJ took about 30 minutes from the Karak Toll (RM5 per car). More groups started to converge at GTJ and the actual trek only started at 9 a.m. after everyone had their morning breakfast.

The access road to the track is a wide side lane located between Restoran Kium Bee and Restoran Makan Laut Gohtong Jaya. The side lane is sandwiched between a fairly large vegetable patch on the left and Kolej Antarabangsa Genting Inti on the right. There is also ample space along the side lane to park cars.

Starting from here (alt 940m), we headed towards a dirt road which trails off to the left near the far end of the lane. After 3 minutes of walking, we had to turn right into another smaller vegetable farm which is situated at the base of a hill slope. The trail head is clearly visible on the hill slope. We took about 25 minutes to scale up the steep gradient to a disused tar road situated at 1055 m altitude (net elevation of 115m). Taking the left turn, we walked about 10 minutes before arriving at Y-junction. Here we took the left turn. Now the tar road, which was totally covered by grass and thick under growth, looked more like a trail only.

It took us about an hour to trek this stretch of leech infested tar trail road before we arrived (at 10.30 a.m.) at the start of the hill trail (1140m alt). The entrance of the hill trail is situated on the right side of the tar trail road. Here, everyone took time to “deleech” and then quickly climbed up the hill trail. Within 5 minutes of climbing, we started to descend downhill for 10 minutes to 1065m elevation before ascending again. At 11.30 a.m. after 45 minutes of climbing we hit the false peak (ala Tabur) at 1245 m altitude.

After a quick photography session, we proceeded to the summit at 11.45 a.m. The uphill trek to reach the summit, sitting at 1430m altitude, took us 45 minutes.

In summary, it took us 25 minutes to scale the initial vertical slope, 1 hour to trek the leech infested trail, 1 hour to reach the false peak and another 45 minutes to hit the summit.

Tips: Bring water 1.5 litre, poncho and energy food
Anti leech strategy (for both ground and bush leeches)
(a) Wear shoes treated with tobacco/salt water;
(b) Wear socks presoaked in tobacco/salt water;
(c) Wear long sleeve shirts & pants presoaked in tobacco/salt water; and
(d) Tuck long pants into the socks.

For the photographs, please refer to http://happytrekker.shutterfly.com/pictures/4355.

Kiara Birds 22 Sep 2008

Updated 10.9.2007

These are pictures taken during my many hours of rambling in Kiara Hills in 2006 through to 2008.

For more pictures, please refer to: http://happytrekker.shutterfly.com/pictures/16107