I don’t know why I keep getting myself into situations which I’d regret about 10- 20 minutes into the activity. Cue: Mount Batur in Bali and Bootcamp, and that’s just this year alone.
Actually I quite like the outdoors, Mother Nature and all. There is something about the semi-wilderness that appeals to me. Well, somewhere very deep down inside lah. I have given this some thought and the conclusion is that I am under the impression that I can do things. You know, little stuff such as climbing a damn volcanic mountain to see the sunrise. Sounds adventurous right? Sounds fun right? The sunrise should be pretty right? I would say, LET’S DO IT then conveniently gloss over the actual climbing part until we reached the foothills of the mountain.
Beginning part of the trek. Everyone still energetic.
Rob Coad, one of my OBM instructors with his rippling muscles and all would have scoffed and ran up to the peak within minutes. It took all I had not to burst out crying.
In retrospect, I should have known better when Yoon Kit invited me to go jungle trekking. Come to think of it, maybe not. His e-mail states, “It’s an easy trek.” I swear that was what he wrote and I still have the e-mail to prove it. Easy trek indeed. We kept throwing it back to his face and he would grin and say, “what, this is easy mah!!!” Uhuh. To me, easy is walking the (not very far) distance from my house to Centrepoint, BU. Evidently our yardsticks are different.
So a couple Sundays ago, Gier, Horng and I went to the meeting point. The way to Kemensah Falls is the road leading to Zoo Negara, go past a village etc. We gathered at a stall in the village for breakfast and it was definitely one of the better nasi lemaks I’ve had in KL. Very homely. By the way I wore a bright orange t-shirt and a rather colourful pair of shorts (which I bought in Bali). Not because I’m scared that I’d be lost in the jungle and no one would spot me, but I really have nothing appropriate to wear. That may be amended soon. But for now, you and I will have to get used to the photos of me in bright happy gear.
This is me not very happy with YK because he LIEDDDD about the easy trek part…
At 10.30 am, 10 of us (me, Horng, Gier, Yoon Kit, Ditesh, Anita, Han, Kelly, May and Li Sin) made the journey to Kemensah Falls. I think there are a few of them, but we’d only be going to 3. At the entrance to the jungle, we had to pay RM5 each to the guards stationed there. I suppose it’s not that bad, because at the end of the trek when we were leaving, they actually counted the number of people in our group to make sure no one was left behind. For RM5 maybe they’d go save you if something happened? Not a bad deal actually.
At first it was easy enough lah, just walking and walking and walking. Yoon Kit brought a parang and cut us each a sturdy walking stick. He said we’d need it soon enough, and boy was he right. More on that later.
The journey to the 1st waterfall was not difficult. It was just tiring for someone like me who is not used to constant walking. The trek to the 2nd waterfall was a bit trickier. The trail was not very well-defined (to me) and most of the time we were plodding in the water. Like this:
At the time this photo was taken, I could have been sleeping soundly and comfortably in my warm, cosy bed
Of course it did not get better. When we reached the 2nd waterfall, there was a small group of people chilling out. Chatted for a bit, then they asked if they could follow our group to the 3rd waterfall as they’d never been. Why not, so YK cut them a walking stick each and off we went. More half-walking in water, half-jumping to land, all eyes alert for leeches (hate the bloodsuckers), tried not to fall to far behind, tried to grit teeth and muster on, struggled with a love-hate emotion for YK (the guy’s an awesome, encouraging guide, really…)…
There was a part towards the 3rd waterfall when we had to walk carefully along a slope. That was the scariest part of the entire trek for me. Cannot look to the right because it was quite high up — YK’s instructions were to sit on your butt if you fall down to minimise injuries. Horng was so nice to stay in front of me, looked for the next root to step on and to help me up. Such a lovely boy, still on the market, I wonder why?? If you are single, go ask him to be your boyfriend or something. He’ll definitely take care of you one. Before you ask, he’s one of my best buddies so I cannot kao him. But you still can! E-mail me for his number.
At last, the 3rd waterfall!
The fall was quite powerful. All of them went under it to experience the force of the gushing water. Except me. Because I am scared like that. This was the closest I got to the fall…
Already damn scary okay! Whatever, I don’t regret not going under 😛 Also spotted a very tiny leech near my toe. Screamed like Ryan when he’s in one of his moods before Gier plucked it out of my foot. Obviously I don’t handle slimy things very well. I’m not afraid of roaches and rats but come face to face with anything slimy (snakes, lizards, leeches, frogs), my insides turn to mush and I panic. Oh well, can’t win them all.
We couldn’t stay very long, else it would be dark by the time we get out. After 40 mins or so, we began our journey back. Luckily it was not a one way in, one way out thing so we hauled our arses up a 50 degree hill to get to a more defined jungle trail. I don’t think anyone took photos of that because it was a struggle to even ourselves. THAT was difficult, though not as scary as the earlier slope but still one of the toughest things I’d done. For some reason, I find that yelling out as you are hauling yourself up helps. Why ar?
As I said, the walk back was not difficult. Just a lot of spider webs and branches around, some rather thorny which added on to the cuts and bruises on my legs. We got out at about 5.30 p.m. … that makes it a 7 hour trip! I reckon about 1 hour was spent frolicking at the 3 falls, so it was 6 hours of getting around. Wah lau .. we were so limp and dry (well, some more than others) and every part of our body ached. I definitely felt it when I was at my first OBM session.
We made it!
Okay lah, even though I bitched so much about it (before, during and after) I really enjoyed myself, though I realised it only after I got out of the jungle. Thank you YK for asking me to go along. You were a great sport, though I will never believe you again.
*Some photos nicked from YK and Horng. 12 photos on my Flickr set here. More info on the Kemensah trail leading to the waterfalls here.
