More on Bukit Tabur

3 days after my most excellent adventure on Bukit Tabur, my knees developed some 'colour'. Behold...

One of my clients found it apt to point out, "Bruises cause your market value to drop, my dear." Such encouragement!

Was chatting with HT on Tuesday and he says, I quote, "i look up to u for taking the challenge.. a fren of mine broke her arm there.. didn't wanna scare u .." Now he tells me!

Keen to know more about Bukit Tabur, I did what most people would do. I Google-d it.

http://www.naturemalaysia.com/bukit-tabur.htm

Apparently, Bukit Tabur is a natural heritage site. It is the single largest quartz ridge in the world. Fu-yoh! I had no inkling that I was scrambling amongst greatness..

http://www.endemicguides.com/Tabur_hill.htm

"If you climb up Bukit Tabur, which is part of these magnificent quartz ridges, the view is breathtaking on one side and heartbreaking on the other. It is heartbreaking to see the devastation, ugly scarring and flattening of the hillsides in the vicinity of the Klang Gates dam and around Taman Melawati, Kemensah Heights, Kampung Kemensah (once famous for its streams and waterfalls which have now turned muddy) and Taman Zooview."

~ Tree Hugger @ The Star Online (Monday, 20 October 2008)

There's even a site that has dedicated pages (with photos) of how to properly decend (there are 4 ways) my kryptonite boulder

http://thetrekkers.blogspot.com/

For those who plans to conquer Tabur, do visit this link http://www.mycorezone.com/main.php?section=resource&page=resource_view&article_id=131

Bukit Tabur @ Melawati

Our group for this weekend's hike was reduced to 5. The rest had something or rather and so the 5 of us made our way to the venue for our third hike which proves to be the most trying thusfar.

MY said that it is challenging and kidding she was not. In choosing to be ignorant, I was spared the chance to chicken out and trudged on with the rest. Unbeknowst to me, this trek would test my mental strength and challenge my very psyche.

There were warning signs posted at the start of the trail citing the latest 3 accidents to befall careless climbers. Somehow, the person(s) who made the sign only cited the accidents involving women... (-_-)

Making our way up through the cover of trees was not unlike our other hikes. It took us 30 mins to reach the first rest stop.

We were rewarded with a beautiful view of a lake with the morning mist still hovering over the surface of the water. I later found out that this was the Klang Gate Dam. Look closely at the picture below and you can see the ridges that form Bukit Tabur. Looks like a stegosaurus, no?

On the other hand, is civilisation. Twas a misty morning so the twin towers were shrouded in a gossamer shroud of (haze) doom!

Our trail continued uphill from there and just when I was beginning to think that the 'tough' part was all hype, we came to the first challenge, which I would like to call my 'kryptonite'.

There were 2 options to move onto the next ridge (side note: remember stegosaurus? - see picture) either we do the "dare-devil" which involves using a notched rope to scramble down the boulders or the "wussy" which involves walking around the boulders. Being enthusiastic and knowing our K decent will involve ropes, absailing and dare-devil type antics, we chose the former. There are no wussies here.

MY and TW surveying the 'drop'. Note the rope on TW's right. That's our 'insurance'.

TW was the first to take the rope. He made it, no sweat. Next was MY. She, too aced the rope. I was next. Oh-kay... Grab the rope with both hands. Easy enough. "NEVER LET GO," said MY. "Now swing around and plant your left foot on the left boulder". Done. "Lean onto the rope. Trust the rope and let your right foot hang down to look for a foothold." Wha..? Me brain froze at "trust the rope". Haaaaaalp!

There were some tense moments where I couldn't connect my brain to my hands and feet. My right hand kept trying to hang onto the boulder when it should be firmly holding onto the rope to help my left foot support my body while my right foot refused to budge. WTF! I'm so screwed!

MY and TW were tops, they talked me through the whole episode and I managed to scale down the boulder but not without scrapping my knee in the process. HY (pictured right) took to the rope and slope like a duck to water. I felt like chickensh*t after that. JH had long legs so he practically 'walked' down the slope. Double chickensh*t =(

The second challenge was a climbing one where we had to scale an almost verticle, jagged slope. MY said, "you'll have to do the spiderman here". Raaaaiggghtt~! Picked up more 'souvenirs' from here. Bruises to my knees and scrapes on my right hand. I'm such an apparent noob (T_T)

The last challenge of the day was to hop over a 'longkang' (drain). This so-called longkang was actually a chasm separating two ridges and the sharp stones do not exactly make it any easier. Imagine landing on it (ouch~!). Face first (OUCH~!!). Luckily, none of that happened (whew!)

Enough adventure for the day. We started our decent through more 'friendly' terrain. By friendly, I meant more trees (handholds), exposed tree roots (footholds) and damp soil to cushion our trek. I have never been more thankful for trees (,")

Post Valentine Hike

Our second hike of the series and we're going to Apaksan in U-Lik, Cheras. I have no idea what is its official name so "Apaksan" it is. There were 13 of us this time around with 2 newbies, WR (HF's hubby) and JS (the green guy as HF refers to him).

We met in front of TL's house and set off for Apaksan in 3 cars. Upon arrival, AP went in search of breakfast. The rest of us just stood incredulously at the foot of the hill waiting for him which gave HY ample time to get busy with her camera.

A partial-group photo while waiting for AP and JT

The trek posed a bit more of a challenge as compared to Gasing. And the hill-walkers were markedly different.

Whereas in Gasing we were cheerfully greeted by the uncles and aunties who passed our group, the people in Apaksan were a sullen lot. And there was this peculiar grandpa-grandson duo and several aunties who clapped their hands in unison whilst traversing the hill. I call them the 'clappers'. I reckon it serves to 'warn' the hill 'residents' of our intention to 'pass through' their 'territory' but MY figures it to keep the tempo of the walk. Her guess is as good as mine =)

Winded, we reached stop #1 with a good panoramic view of PJ. An uncle (not part of our group!) took out his harmonica, and we were entertained to several catchy Chinese tunes.

These were the last 2 to arrive.








Short rest and on with our trek. At stop #2, we were treated to a beautiful view of KL city vista. The KL and twin towers looked like miniature pin maps. WA mentioned that someone told him of a waterfall at stop #3. We trudged on...

Before long, we reached stop #4: The Guinness Stop. Quite an interesting choice of name. And there was a rudimentary map tacked onto a tree. There were some Chinese words which I made out to represent 'top of the hill'. HY told me that the other words were 'long route' and 'short route'. Dang! I should've paid attention in Chinese class =p

We were certain we did not miss stop #3: Waterfall and surmised that WA was had. So after a short break, we began our decent down the same path we took coming up. Along the way, I learnt how to 'break' into my Vios (courtesy of AP as he once locked his keys in the trunk of his car) with needle nose pliers and that Toyota keeps several of such experts on their payroll to assist car owners who were ever caught in a predicament without their keys... call Toyota Assist.

Hike over, dim sum time! TL took us to his favourite haunt and we had to have an especially big table to accommodate all of us. I likened our breakfast jaunt to a swarm of locusts. No sooner had the food been laid before us when it was cleaned out. This happened 3 times and I lost count of the number of times we had to get our teapot refilled. Admittedly, we are a rowdy bunch and it's great that we can get along together cos, as MY said, "get use to it cos we'll be spending 5 days together" (".)

A virgin no more

It was an accident. Things just progressed too fast and getting caught up in the moment, it happened... I stepped into the gym for the first time in my life (-___-)

Twas the wee hours of morning. I dragged myself out of bed to go for Bikram but unbeknowst to me, the blurdy centre changed the schedule without prior notification. What's a girl to do at 6.30am, all geared up for a work-out but none to be had?

The answer was a row of treadmills and electronic gadgetry which are guaranteed to make you sweat. Since I'm going to climb a mountain in May, might as well work up some stamina.

Pulling on my hand-me-down Nikes, I headed for the first machine that looked like it wouldn't make me resemble a hamster running the wheel. Some sort of cross-country skiing machine maybe? Looks easy enough.

5 minutes later, my heart rate was up and I'm breaking a sweat. Good! But no more skiing... I can't feel my legs.

Hopping off, I scan for the StairMaster. A doctor friend recommended that I do 30 mins of stairs 3 times a week to prep for my climb. None to be found on the ground floor so up to the 1st floor, I went.

In a corner was something that remotely resembles a StairMaster, though I'm not quite sure. There was a nice gentleman resolutely stepping on the peddles and it looked like he was climbing so I decided to give it a shot (virgins don't know better).

Programming the darn thing should be a cinch but it isn't. 30 seconds later, I gave up and must have looked thoroughly baffled when the nice gentleman called out, "the higher the effort number, the easier it is". Thanks but how do I apply this information?

The machine displayed a message: lift your knees one at a time. Aah.. why didn't you say so earlier?

The effort level was adjusted to 25 (min is 1, max is 25). Then comes the next instruction: keep speed at 270 spm (presumably means 270 steps per minute). Ok.. let's go!

5 minutes later, I'm no closer to 270 spm (hovering between 130 to 150 spm) although I've never stepped so furiously before in my life. Yet the instructions kept flashing: keep speed at 270 spm. Before I passed out, I hit the "pause" button. "The higher the effort number the easier it is." Yeah right!

There has got to be an easier way, think I, the gym virgin. Let's try setting a "Goal". 5 km, I tapped with the numerical keypad. "Lift your knees one at a time". This time I lifted slowly with as little gusto as I could muster. Effort set at 3. Aw-raight!

"Keep speed at 60 spm." Hurrah! That's do-able.

Step left, step right... My calves were starting to protest. "24 minutes to end". I glanced at the timer and it's been only 5 minutes. OMG! How to survive 24 minutes? Distance stepped was only 1.5km. Keep going... "Climbing a mountain is not so much stamina and endurance but also mental strength". Right-o...

I cannot begin to describe the immeasurable relief when the "Goal" indicator blinked 5km. Yapari! I've done it. I can't feel my legs for the first few seconds but thankfully I didn't fall flat on my face.

I am so not cut out to be gym bunny :(

Getting the hang of it

Plans were made to ease the climbers into hiking and trekking which will gradually prepare us for the Big K in May (hey, that rhymes!).

After the big hoo-ha over Christmas, New Year and Chinese New Year, the group was ready for our first hike. BT organised the hike, most of us turned up. Our quarry was Bukit Gasing.

We met bright and early at the 1st meeting point and set out in 2 cars ferrying 8 climbers. When we reached the 2nd meeting point, another 3 cars joined the motorcade bearing another 5 climbers. At the destination, we added another 1 to our ranks.

HY and I wore our new Timberlands to break them in. MY just lost hers the week before CNY (blurdy house thieves!). AP wore slippers (he da man!).

The hike was timed for 2 hours to give everyone ample time to finish the trail. And a hike it was.

It rained the night before so new Timmies were soon muddied. We passed a little stream (Goretex: guaranteed to keep you dry) and the highlight of the hike was the suspension bridge. Now MY is afraid of heights and she was ahead of the rest of us. Needless to say, we just had to shake the bridge when she was at mid-point. Thanks for being a good sport, MY!

When we reached the 'top' of the trail, HY whipped out her camera and recorded more "evidence". We didn't look so much worse for wear, if I do say so myself.

All in all, twas fun and I'm looking forward to the next hike. There will be 12 altogether so that should keep our weekends busy (",)

The makings of an adventure

This is an excerpt of an actual phone conversation between HF and me:

Me: Timberland shoes at RM149. Can buy ar?

HF: That's cheap. Timberland shoes are usually between RM 300 - 500. Grab it.

Me: But what would I need a pair of Timberlands for?

HF: Well... I'm sure you'll find a need for it.

Me: Like what...?

HF: I dunno... Maybe you'll want to climb a mountain?

15 mins later

Me: It's me again. I think we have to look for a mountain to climb soon.

I was on my last errand when I saw the bunting: Timberland Warehouse Sale. My curiosity was piqued. Never mind that checks and plaids are not cuppa tea, or that hiking boots and lumberjack jackets are not my thang, I just gravitated to the sale venue.

What happened in the next 20 minutes is summed up by the phone conversation above. What happened thereafter will culminate in a snap decision and forking out of more money to climb Mount Kinabalu, flight tickets, accommodation etc. Yes, I saved some money on a pair of Timberlands only to pay more than I saved to climb a mountain.

But I'm taking all of this in good faith. Never mind that we're sedentary women managers whose only strenuous exercise is Bikram yoga twice a week. Never mind that we have membership / access to gyms to which we have never visited since the day we collected our membership / access cards. Never mind that we have not 'roughed it out' since school days and have gotten all too comfortable in our cocoons. We're going to climb a mountain and the highest one in South East Asia no less.

As if that's not enough, we're going via ferrata, which I hear, involves walking on iron rungs and ropes sticking out of the sheer cliff side of the mountain.

And the clincher? We're going white water rafting the day before. Woo-hoo! Bring it on!