New Strait Times, 8th April 2008, Travel Times Section, page T4 & T5 !
CASEY NG, an experienced trekker, finds himself leading a group of college students up a hill by chance and that the jungle can be a formidable place without proper equipment or planning !
THE sun’s crimson glow was starting to fade and soon the forest would be consumed by eerie darkness.
In front, the lush foliage seemed to be closing in on us.
In an hour’s time, if we didn’t make it out of the jungle, we’d be in real trouble.
As I led my small troupe of trekkers, my mind raced back to how the day had started. It had gone innocently enough.
My brother Andrew and my expatriate friend Erik Peterson wanted something really exciting to while away a Saturday.
Erik’s family had flown back to Denmark and he was left alone, while Andrew has just bought a high-tech SLR camera and was eager to give it a go.
Me? I was raring for some outdoor action after a bout of flu.
Our plan was simple: travel to remote Orang Asli villages, distribute our donation of rice, canned food, books and toys and throw in photography and wildlife watching sessions in the forest; and then go home in time for dinner — all in one day.
It had the makings of a great Saturday, so we thought. But we had no inkling that we would get more than what we had bargained for.
Unexpected Request
Our first stop was Sungai Anak Ayer Cina near the Sinju forest fringe, some 15km southeast of Ipoh.
When I was there some time back, I had spotted wild boars, sambar deer and seladang near the river.
Today, we had arrived too late and all we saw were animal tracks on the sandy banks, not particularly good for Andrew to take pictures but he snapped away anyway.
Then we headed to Kampung Selim where the Temiar tribe lives.
The sight of children clothed in rags milling about their tattered huts touched our hearts.
We hurriedly unloaded the foodstuff and other things we had brought and distributed them to the needy families.
After much small talk with the families, we made our way to yet another Orang Asli village.
It took an hour of bumpy off-road ride before we reached the Semai tribe settlement in Kampung Ulu Geruntum, near Gopeng.
There, we met Ngah Teroq, a young Semai lad whom I had got to know well after I visited his village several times.
Over a meal of fried rice for lunch, Ngah asked us to join a bunch of college students to climb up Gunung Chante (867m).
Ngah said the trail was “raw” and that Ipoh could be seen from its peak.
We looked at each other — darn, we were not geared for mountain climbing at all. Erik was wearing sandals and I hadn’t brought a survival kit. I thought going into uncharted turf without essential navigation tools would be dicey.
But yet, the child in us was rearing to give it a go. The lure of adventure was hard to resist. Well, like some people say, the best adventure is the one taken not knowing how it’ll end.
Oh well, we decided to just do it.
Thrills And Spills
At 2pm, we trooped up Gunung Chante and soon, we hit the first snag.
A participant was stung by an insect and he soon developed allergy symptoms, including giddiness.
It didn’t take long before he passed out and the sweepers in our group (sweepers are experienced trekkers who keep everyone in check), Helmi and Tan, carried the poor chap back to base camp.
Inevitably, I was nudged into the sweeper position to keep everyone on course.
The young boys and girls in the group looked unfit. They told me they had never trekked in a jungle before.
Watching them tripping all over the rutted path and cringing at the sight of leeches, I wondered why our schools did not prepare students for a life of adventure, away from the safe walls of classrooms. After all, our country is blanketed by rainforests and venturing into one would give students a different perspective of life. Oh well, I digress.
But the students appeared to enjoy the gruelling trek and I was determined to see that they would have a good story to tell once they returned home.
They exclaimed at the sight of tall Dipterocarp trees, Tongkat Ali plants and a small field of striking yellow wild mushrooms.
When Ngah pointed to a beautiful but deadly temple pit viper, the group squirmed in fear. They watched in awe as the snake slithered on a twig.
We reached the peak of Gunung Chante about 5pm.
All the huffing and puffing for three hours was worth it as we watched the Kinta Valley sprawled in the misty horizon.
Limestone hills dotted the landscape and from up the mountain there, the tree canopies in the valley looked like broccolis in a shallow bowl.
Within sight were also bald patches of Malim Nawar and Jeram townships that rest beyond Gunung Mesah limestone range.
The view was simply breathtaking.
Leading The Pack
As we descended the mountain, a girl hurt her back and had trouble walking. She slowed the party down significantly and Ngah had to look after her. Eventually, they fell way back behind.
Guess who had to lead the rest? Well, no prize for guessing.
This was no good because I was not familiar with the terrain but I was the experienced trekker among the remaining lot.
Everyone was tired, thirsty and tense.
I saw blood trickling on Erik’s leg, the result of leech bites. “Sorry for putting you in this mess,” I said.
Erik was kind enough to mutter: “Aww, it’s ok.”
I was not worried about him or Andrew. They are hardened trekkers and have scoured other jungles with me countless times.
Erik, a suave-looking CEO of a cement plant, trots up Gunung Kledang (808m) once a week just for exercise! We have been trekking buddies for months now and I know giving up is not in his vocabulary.
Andrew is his usual self, ready for anything in a heartbeat.
And those reasons alone gave me the courage to lead. Without wasting time, we hurried down, racing against the looming nightfall.
Broken twigs, beaten tracks, trampled undergrowth — I scanned for such marks made when we trekked uphill earlier.
Every five minutes, I howled to help everyone behind check their bearings and Andrew, acting as the sweeper, let go short yelps to signal that he had everyone covered at the back.
Suddenly, I stopped in my tracks.
“Wait a minute, I don’t remember this tree when we passed here two hours ago. Did we take a wrong turn?” I muttered to myself.
Keeping a straight face, I pushed on nevertheless, knowing the rest had put their faith in me. All that I’d learnt about trekking in the jungle was put to good use.
To our surprise, we reached the foothill in just 35 minutes and the time was then 6pm!
Ngah and the girl arrived later at 7.30pm!
It was a relief that everyone returned unscathed.
For Erik, Andrew and I, that unplanned trip up and down Gunung Chante had turned out to be a highly charged one.
Thinking Back
Our rainforests are enthralling but they can also be intimidating. The tough adventure we went through taught us a good lesson. To enter the forest, one must be well prepared in both fitness and equipment.
We came across a deadly snake and one wrong move could have been fatal. The potential for getting lost was there, too, but we were lucky, I guess. I couldn’t help feeling that perhaps our getting out of the formidable jungle safely was the payback for the donation we gave to the Orang Asli earlier in the day! God, after all, works in mysterious ways.
link to NST website :-
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/TravelTimes/article/LeisureChoice/20080406121208/Article/index_html
