Hike up to Mt Tahan - Highest peak in Peninsular Malaysia

Another adventure after Sundown Marathon 2008!

Elevation 2,187 m (7,175 ft)

Location Pahang, Taman Negara National Park

Range Tahan Range

Coordinates 4°38′N, 102°14′E

Got back from Singapore on the 3rd June. I had 3 days to rest and pack before I embark on another 4 days of adventure. I was a bit worried on the hike due to the fact that I haven't been doing any hiking since my last hiking trip like 3 months ago and it was just a 1 day hike. I missed all the trainings the group had organized lining up to climbing Mt Tahan. I was training for Sundown Marathon.

Volunteered to drive for this trip. We were suppose to hike up from Merapoh which was situated in Pahang.

Participants :
1. Lucy
2. Dan
3. Ken
4. CS
5. Andrew
6. Lynn
7. Doreen
8. Uncle Yong
9. Khai Chern
10. Wan Lin

7th June 2008
Left Penang at around 8pm. Head over to Cameron Highlands in 3 cars ( Drivers: Kean, CS and myself ). Arrived around 11pm. Was a little stressed driving up on the winding road heading to Cameron Highlands. *sweat*. Stopped by at a nearby coffee sop for supper before heading over to Guan Di Temple to spend a night. . Decided just to drink a cup of hot Milo. "Freezing"...brrr...

Day 1 - 8th June 2008
Woke up at 5.30am. Washed up and changed into hiking outfit. Went over to a nearby coffee shop for breakfast. Had oat with my Milo (again ) . Decided not to have too heavy meal. The rest noodle or rice and packed food for lunch. Left the place around 7.30am. Decided to ask Dan to drive as I was still a little uncomfortable on driving on the winding road. My car started to give problem approaching Gua Musang. Suddenly lost it momentum. Dan managed to stop the car by the side of the road. The car came to a complete stop. F****! What a luck. I felt totally bad to hold back everyone. CS drove to the town. No mechanic is opened on Saturday in that town. Bummer. Managed to get the tow truck number. Called the tow truck man and waited for another 40 mins. I hated myself... if only I didn't volunteer to drive...*Sigh*. Finally the tow truck man arrived. Took my details and I gave my dad's number to him so he could contact him for follow up as I will be out of network coverage for the next 4 days. Doreen and myself went into Kean's car while Dan went over to CS's car. We moved on...still feel bad... Arrived at the National Park rangers's post in Sg Relau around 12pm. Proceeded with registration. Finished up with signing up and declaring of items. Left for Kuala Juram in a 4WD. Took about 30 mins to reach Kuala Juram. Ready to set off our trek. Estimated 5 hours to arrive at campsite! EXCITED!


Final Check....

Our 4WD

Started the first river crossing about 20 minutes into the hike. Started to see the sign of leeches. Ewww! 2 went in between my toes. The road was muddy. Met the other group of university students who will be camping at the same campsite as us at Kuala Luis. There were about 30 of them. Rested for a while before heading to Lata Luis.


Crossed a total of 5 rivers before finally arriving at Kem Kor. Uncle Yong, Khai Chern and myself arrived first at the campsite at 4pm. Others slowly arrived. Started to clean up and set up tent for the night. Started preparing dinner as well.

Finally at Kem Kor


First love bite from leeches...*grin*

CS upon arrival at Kem Kor

Uncle Yong preparing dinner for us - he cooked us yam rice and curry chicken. We had sweet potato soup as dessert.

Our dinner served...

Day 2 - 9th June 2008

Set off around 9.30am. Running a bit late. Left the Day 4 food at the campsite. Those who were ready left the campsite first. Expected 10 hours of hike! First stop - Permatang followed by Kem Kubang


Uncle Yong, Kean and KC - experience sharing

CS and Me @ Permatang

View from Bonsai Hill

15 mins walk before reaching Botak Hill..

After around 8 hours of hike, we reached Botak Hill...

Me at a higher level ground. Behind where the tents are located is Botak Hill

Dinner time preparation... It rained later in the night... Wet wet!

Day 3 - 6th June 2008
Approaching near to the peak! Wee! Plan for today is to reach the peak and then to G. Gedung and back to Botak Hill. Set off at 8.30am. Hike up to the peak required roughly around 1 hour. Reached the peak around 9.30am plus. Totally got swept away by the view...Totally worth all the long hike we had for the pass 2 days.





Andrew, Doreen, Me and Kean

Spend about 30 mins on the peak. Proceed to G. Gedung next. The guide didn't seem to be very positive that we will reach G. Gedung peak. Lucy set a time that if we don't reached G. Gedung by 3pm we should head back to Botak Hill. Suprisingly the hike up to G. Gedung was not long. We managed to reach there around 2pm if I could remember it correctly. Spent about 30 mins there and had our lunch there as well.

The surrounding area was filled with small monkey cup plants.

Scenery from the peak of G. Gedung.

Started to make out way back to Botak Hill around 3pm. Reached back at around 5.30pm. Uncle Yong and Wan Lin who decided to stayed back ( both of them had been to G. Tahan twice already) were starting to prepare our dinner. Everyone cleaned up and had dinner around 6. 20pm. Rain started to pour as soon as we complicated our dinner. Didn't manage to wash our utensils. Rain was very heavy with winds. Our tent started to flood. Thunders roar loudly! Only after about an hour or so did the rain stop. We tried to shift our tent a little and made it a little dry before calling it another day....

Day 4- 6th June 2008

Packed our tent and repacked our bags. Left Botak Hill around 9.30am to head back to Kem Kor. Muddy trails again! Ewww... Took us about 4 hours to reach back Kem Kor. CS, Uncle Yong and myself were the first to arrive. I set up the girls' tent, cleaned up and start to help to prepare for dinner. Sky starts to become cloudy. When Doreen and Lucy arrived they said the current tent location might not be good as it was quite near the edge of the river bank. Shifted out tent to a higher ground. Rain started to pour not too soon. Did't manage to even finish cooking our dinner. Ran into our tent. Doreen was nice enough to do a drainage around our tent as it started to flood again not long after the rain pour. With the help of our guide, Zul they put up some rocks around the tent to make the water flows another direction instead of going straight to the tent. It works! Thanks Doreen!

Uncle Yong and I guessed Wan Lin and some others helped to prepare the dinner as the food was under their make shift tent. Dan called us for dinner around 8pm. Ran over to their tent to had dinner. For once I was really hungry. Dinner was with curry chicken, sardine and ABC soup. Bed time again...

Day 5 - 7th June 2008
I'm excited to go back to civilisation. :) Not that I'm complaining that I didn't enjoyed the past few days. I just missed everything out there. Got up around 6.30am. Washed up then helped Wan Lin to cleaned the utensils, pots, plates and cups we used previous night. Started to prepare breakfast after that. Mushroom soup and Tom Yam soup noodle were served for breakfast. Had the mushroom soup and just the noodle. Didn't dare to take the soup to avoid tummy upset. Helped to wash up and then started to pack our bags for depature. Took down the tent as well. Those who were ready left the campsite first. CS and me started moving. Andrew and Kean caught up with us about 20 mins later. All the rivers level were much higher than the 1st day due to the heavy rain the night before. The current were slightly stronger as well. Some of the rivers were waist length high...SCARY! Started to see sign of leeches again...YUCKS! Actually I didn't really care much.. :) Just wanted to reach back out soon *grin*. After 3 hours...HOORAY we finally reached Kuala Juram! Just can't wait to take off my sandals! Washed up and changed into clean clothings. Saw 3 punctured holes around my ankles. Leeches had feast again... BLARGH! The others arrived about 40 mins later. The 4WD came to pick us up around 2.30pm
Blood oozing out from the punctured hole.... bluek

The butterflies and bees (not in picture) seemed to be enjoying the sweat on our clothings, bags and socks...hmphhh...

8 of us went out to Kuala Juram first. Took a real shower there at the proper toilet. Never had I enjoyed bathing and water so much. Felt TOTALLY refreshed. The others arrived around 3pm.

Left the Taman Negara post around 3.30pm. Went to Gua Musang to pick up my car. Cost me RM530 ( arrrgghh ) The oil pump seemed to be the culprit. Headed over to the general hospital for outpatient treatment for Uncle Yong. He had a deep cut from the first day and the wound got infected. Waited for about an hour before heading over to Gua Musang old town for lunch/dinner. The food tasted delicous and it was cheap. Left Gua Musang to head home around 7pm. Dan and Doreen kept me entertained throughout the whole journey back to Penang (Thanks Guys! HUGZ! ). Reached home around 11pm after dropping Dan back home. Decided to immediately clean up my stuffs. I know that if I delay to tomorrow, I might not do it. By the time I finished cleaning the stuffs I can do that night, it was already 2am. Took a warm shower, changed into my sleeping clothings and jumped into my cozy bed....Zzzzz...

I totally enjoyed my 4 days of adventure in Mt Tahan. The friendship and companion from the other 9 people were awesome. Another hiking trip to remember.

-Lynn-

Dinner @ Cork Cellar Kitchen

Another feast for celebration! *swirl* :)

Chin suggested Cork Cellar Kitchen for dinner. She read about the fine dining restaurant from a website that her god sis sent to her. The restaurant is smacked in a high business location in Robinson Road. Cork Cellar Kitchen is a baby from the profilic Marmalade Group. Being a wine lover, Chin was impressed with the wine selection they offered and what made it special was that the restaurant allows wine by glass. As I entered the restaurant, I was impressed by the wine cooling system they used. Later in the night, I realized that the cooling system they used is called The Enomatic Wine Dispensing System, developed by some of the most famous wine makers in Italy. It may sound pathetic to some, this is the first time I'm seeing such cooling system. Perhaps it ain't foreign for Chin. We waited for Kenneth to join us for dinner. While waiting we ended up ordering 2 glass of wines each. Started of with a glass of champagne - Veuve Cliquot Brut NV from Epevuay, France. I was totaly impressed with its aroma and the taste of it. Its deliciously rich on the nose and and palate. It has a creamy and nutty taste. ( NUTS NUTS NUTS ) It appears to be listed as the Number 25 wine in the 100 wines recommended by Wine.com in 2007. This classical dry Champagne is a blend of two-thirds black grapes (Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier) for body, balanced with one-third Chardonnay for elegance. Next was my pick - Saint Clair Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2007. It has a strong passionfruit and berry flavours. I enjoyed the wine but not so much compared to the champagne. Did a quick google and found out that this wine did won a couple of awards - Among them include Gold Medal for NZ International Wine Show 2007 and also received 5 stars Winestate 2007. Impressed yet again! Kenneth do enjoyed the glass of wine as well. He was in time to try on our 2nd wine by glass selection. When Kenneth arrived, all of us decided to order the 3 course dinner featuring Chef's signatures paired iconic wines from the Enoline range. Chin was excited and eager for Kenneth and myself to try the Seghesio Old Vine Zinfadel 2004 as she had visited the wine yard before. I enjoyed all the 3 courses. The menu was as follow :

1st Course
Brandade of salted cod poached egg paired with Howard Park Chardonnay 2005- I believed its a French dish - consisting of brandade ( a puree of refreshed salt cod and potatoes) - YUMMY2nd Course
Duck leg confit with lentils and lardons paired with Seghesio Old Vine Zinfandel 2004 - Another dish which I enjoyed very much. The duck meat was tender and moist inside. It was really good combined with lentils. The wine was lovely. I was totally blown away with this Zin.

3rd Course

Profiteroles with chocolate sauce & vanilla bean ice cream paired with De Bortoli Noble One Botrytis Semillion 2005. The tasty sweet dessert totally melted my heart. I totally fell in love with them..

I totally recommend the place to everyone who is looking for an affordable fine dining in Singapore. 2 thumbs up
cork cellar kitchen
168 robinson roadunit
01-08 capital tower
singapore 068912

-Lynn-

Lunch @ Jia Xiang Sarawak Kuching Kolo Mee

Finally after 2 months of semi strict running diet, its time to break loose! Ha ha..Actually the running diet menu ain't that bad - alternate between tuna with bread, pasta or salmon with brown rice and brocolli, fruits for desserts and nuts for snack. No spicy food..No oily food. Oh well...guess I no longer crave for spicy food that much this day so it ain't that bad for me. I still remember that I used to take cili padis ( the small red and green chillies) for every meal with every freaking food! Basically I think there just kill my taste bud. I'm glad I'm able to get rid of that bad habit. Thanks to the nagging I used to get from my 2 hiking buddies - Andrew and Kean.

Chin was so tempted to try the Kolo Mee before the run, but we decided to stick to our so call more healthy diet the day before. She read about the Sarawak Kolo Mee somuch stating that every visitors who visit Singapore should not give it a miss. So we decided to give it a try. Apparently the noodle are air flown into Singapore from Kuching, Sarawak daily. Went to Marina Square for lunch since we know that there is a branch of Sarawak Kolo Mee. Both of us ordered the dry type. I had the thin noodle type while Chin ordered the thick flat noodle. The noodle that we ordered were served dry, topped with bok chor, minced pork, "char siew"(BBQ Pork) and steamed vegetables. It also came with a small bowl of soup with wan tan ( dumplings) Both of us enjoyed the noodle. YUMMY! BURP... We were satisfied for with our lunch - Thumbs up!

Breakfast at Toast Box in Food Junction @ Wisma Atria

Toast Box @ Food Junction - Wisma Atria

Legs obviously felt better today. Hooray!! Still tad bit sore here and there. Was craving for the toasted bread with floss and eggs. Browsed through the phone directory to search for the nearest Toast Box around Orchard Road. All I found was Toast, no listing of Toast Box. *sniff* Chin recalled there is a Toast Box @ Food Junction in Wisma Atria so we decided to try our luck. Headed there for breakfast! We FOUND it! :) Am EXCITED. Both ordered the pork floss bread with 2 half boiled eggs and a cuppa coffee. Ate the first cube of the bread, was a little disappointed - ain't that good compared to the same chain in Bugis which I had tried last year. Eventually discovered the bread with the pork floss was missing condense milk. Boo- Hoo- Hoo! sniff...

Missing the magic taste - condense milk. *sighChin eating the half boiled egg with soy sauce - the soy sauce was slightly different from the soy sauce in Penang...(no joke)

Sundown Marathon 2008 @ Singapore

Time for another update. Had been slacking in updating the site. I guess by now most of you who are reading this blog knew that I had quit my current job and moving to Kuala Lumpur for a new job. I hope I had made the right decision. Haven't been away from my family..the longest was 3 weeks business trip to US. Not that far from Penang but I foresee things will be different. (Sounded like a spoilt kid at home) I will definitely miss everyone in Penang- family , loved ones, friends and colleagues (both in Penang and US) .

Friday 30th May'08 was my last day in office. Had about 16 days off before I start my new job. I already had my activities/ days off planned before I accepted my job. Thus the 16 days are mostly already been occupied with activities. On Friday itself, Chin and myself flew down to Singapore for Sundown Marathon on 1st June 08. We bunked into a hostel dorm (Fern Loft) on the day we arrived before moving to the Changi Village Hotel on Saturday. The run starts only at 12am ( Sunday ). The hostel was indeed clean and comfortable. On Saturday morning, we went down to around Raffles area to collect our race packs. The owner at Fern Loft was nice enough to let us leave our baggages at the hostel.

After collecting the race packs we decided to bump around in the town a little since we couldn't check into Changi Village Hotel before 2pm and wanted to have lunch around that area before checking in the hotel in Changi as we are unfamiliar of the food they have around the hotel. We decided to have our lunch at Spageddies ( to fulfill our carb load session :) as well ) . We ordered 2 types of spaghetti -Spaghetti Sauteed Mushrooms & and Spaghetti Meatballs.

LOCATION

SPAGEDDIES
Marina Square No. 6 Raffles Blvd#02-138 F&G
Marina Square(Center Stage) Singapore 039594

Tel: 6337 9156/7Fax: 6336 2176

snuffles for lunch...WOPPS ...NOT

After lunch, we started to head back to Fern Loft for our stored baggages. We took the MRT to Bedok and then boarded a bus to the hostel. Chin and me felt a bit tired by then, I know I was nervous for the run while and Chin legs started to ache a little, we took the Taxi instead from Fern Loft to Changi Village Hotel. Kenneth was already there when we arrived. Checked into the hotel and started to go to bed at 3pm! We wanted to asssure that we had enough sleep before the run at 12am. Was hard for me to fall asleep at the beginning but guess after a while, I went into snoring mode! WOPPSS.... Kevin joined us at the hotel later. Ate our dinner at 7pm and bump around in the hotel room. Fell asleep again and woke up around 10pm. Was so lazy to wake up for the run. Was basically dragging myself off the bed to changed and get ready. Bah! Same went for the rest of them - Chin, Kenneth and Kevin..

Jocelyn and her friends dropped by around 10pm -ish after their team relay event ( 10.5km x 4 ) . They all looked fresh. We were hoping we will still able to look fresh after our run. All of us were envy! We left around 11pm and headed to the starting point which was a 5 mins walk. Jocelyn and friends board the bus and we head over to the starting point. I was dead nervous by then... I decided to wear my Polar watch instead of my Garmin and only to realise my foot pod died! F***. Chin was wearing the Garmin instead. She offered to swap. We swapped the watch but then being the fickle minded person I swapped back with her and decided to follow her pace which is more constant. The run flagged of around 12.05am. The men and women Full Marathon events were flagged of at the same time. The Ultra Marathon events (84km) were flagged off around 8.30pm. The starting was jam packed. It took a while to tear away from the big group. As I hit the first water stop at 5km, I got irritated as the water was not prepared on the table. The volunteer was just pouring them into the cups as the runners approached. *Sigh* Well its not a big deal anyway..but somehow I just got irritated. I guessed I get easily annoyed during runs - am really a difficult person to handle pre and post run ...BLUEK! And the victim that got to deal with me obviously would be my running partner- SORRY CHIN! I had totally no idea of the route that will be used. As I run, I found the route to be amuzing - running passed Changi Airport, HDB flats, pedestrians, reservoirs and most interesting ( or perhaps the WORST) going over 4 overhead bridges!!! The overhead bridges nearly killed my knees especially the one which only had steps. Chin and myself took 5:05 to complete the 42km. Way off our targeted time. Kenneth and Kevin better off their marathon time. CONGRATS Kevin and Kenneth!!

Chin and Me with our finishing medal

I guessed it was the route that put us down. Hit the wall around 30km. I was suprised to see Chin boosted her energy around 36km. She started to pick up her pace and ran fast. EXTREMELY fast! You couldn't imagine that she was near to exhaustion and feeling delirious earlier on at around 28km. I was happy when I saw the 40km sign but the remaining 2km seems to be so far away not to mention when they said 400m to ending, it seems to take FOREVER ~! We ended our run around 5:05am. My legs were so WEAK as soon as I hit the finishing line, they turned so numb that I could barely feel them. I PUKE! (not immediately though) I could still taste my Subway sandwich which I had for dinner.. YUCKS! Luckily it was just liquid coming out...BAH! Collected our finishing T-shirt and medal. Rested a while before heading back to the hotel. Took us about 15 mins to reach our hotel. I was semi crawling back. If anyone was to poke me that time I think I might just collapse...I told myself that I will never run a marathon again...but now as I'm typing this blog, I do hope to run a marathon again...and hope to qualify for Boston Marathon one day...HAHHAHAHA... ( DREAMING ) . As soon as I hit the hotel, Chin and myself take turn to shower and then jump into the cozy hotel bed...Kenneth came back to the hotel around 6am. Poor dude...he was totally drenched from the rain. He said the rain came pouring as soon as he arrived at the finishing line. Perhaps it was showers of blessing...*grin*. Kevin came back bout an hour later, socking wet as well. All in all it was a great experience. Might not be doing it again but if they changed the location next year...I might want to do a night run again :).

Route and gradient mapped out from the garmin watch