20.12.07
Gunung Datuk 2
I'm back! Phew! what a hel* of a sem break so far, pack to the neck with activities, going to JB more than I go Orchard and seeing my fellow com members more than I see my Mom. Just got back from Berkelah waterfall yesterday and decided not to procrastinate my blogging any much longer. Seems to be going for treks faster then I can blog about them. ( Not to mention I manage to squeeze in one Northern Island Expedition into my schedule due to the cancellation of Berkelah recce). Shall blog about my second experience (within 1 week haha) up Gunung Datuk. Something special about it as it going to be my first trek leading participants up =)
It was an adrenaline rush sort of morning to start things off. I was suppose to meet Geraldine at Sengkang before making our way down to Kranji but something happen ( I shall not say what) and in the end we decided to meet the rest at JB itself. But apparently some of the paricipants were running late and in addition to the morning madness at custom, we almost miss train! Couldn't imagine what would become of us if we really missed it. Nevertheless all safe and sound and off we go as we board the train.
Participants of this Datuk trip.
Didn't manage to take pictures of the scenery outside the train the other time as it was a night train and everything was pitch black.
Weather has been exceptionally nice to us (even during Berkelah) and it was so much sunnier and dryer compare to the recce I had which I mentioned in my previous post. But don't know what happen to the train driver this time round, he kept over shooting stations and end up a lot of precious time was wasted trying to slowly reverse the train into position. Our initial plan was to reach Tampin at 2 pm but we ended up reaching there at 4+. So that kind of affect our pace of ascend things got snowballed.
On a side note, had a very late lunch at Tampin station (luckily da-baoed some chicken rice to est on the train) and was "cheated" blatantly by the Macik (malay lady) of the food store opposite the station. Order Nasi Goreng Ayam from her and according to the board its stated RM$3.50. When the food comes, she wanted to charge me RM$5! Angry! She think I'm an idiot is it? Yes the board is in Malay but $3.50 in English is the same as $3.50 in Malay dude! In the end she also quite embarrassed when I pointed out to her the price and reduce the price to RM$4. Sigh* Dun argue with old lady so decided to pay RM$4. I think next time I shall give that shop a missed.
Anyway, back to the trek. Although its the same trek but it is a totally different experince from the other time. Due to the nice weather, the trek is much less slippery and not to mention we didn't see half a leech! Quite disappointed as the participants and I came totally armed with salt spray and extra salt to make slat spray haha. But that aside, the trek up also had its difficulty as this time round we are carrying full load compared to the recce during which we traveled light. In addition, one of the participant had difficult somewhere about 1/3 of the trek and hence I "adopted" her bag for the rest of the journey up. Pant* pant* Good for my standing board jump training haha.
Because of the good weather, a lot more critters appeared along the trek. (Less leeches. Don't know where they gone to. Maybe they smell our salt spray haha) Saw the pro-cat at the summit again haha. Think its the permanent resident up there. Saw it kind of later in the evening and didn't want to blind it with my flash so didn't take a photo of it.
Theres a lot of grasshoppers at the summit. You have been warned haha!
After about 2 hours of climbing (didn't had the luxury of a lot of breaks in between due to the late train) we reach the summit with less than 1/2 hour of daylight left. To make things worst, it was the weekend and there are already about 4 different groups of locals there camping. Result: No time to go to the summit before night fall, no time to go the the water point ( which affected much of our cooking) and no space to set up our tents ( only manage to squeeze out space after negotiation with the people there for 2 tents out of the 4 we bought up). Sigh*
Activites after sunset.
The night turn out fine for most of the participants I presume haha. Food, warmth and tents to sleep in. Glad that the com stick together with each other throughout the night which wasn't exactly easy. We first had to worry about stuff like toilet and safety of the participants in the midst of so many strangers and we because we let the participants cook and had their dinner first and settled them down, we had our dinner at about 10+ =( (not to mention water was running low and cooking with limited water is not really an easy task). And due to the limited tents we mange to set up, most of the ended up sleeping in the open throughout the night. Its bone chilling cold at night! The sudden gush of wind is crazy. You have to be there to experience it yourself. Didn't sleep much that night think I only mange to catch 30 mins of sleep. It was an exceptionally long night waiting for dawn to arrive but luckily the com each had ourselves for company.
The much awaited morning arrived and the participants finally got a chance to go up the summit and claim their prize for the climb up. Same peak but quite different looks compare to the other time. The wind was much stronger this time round and there are a lot more low lying clouds around of which some directly float past us. =) To bad there were too many clouds which block the sunrise.
Me and Alfred before sunrise. Cold....
Different views from the top of Gunung Datuk as the sun rises
The trek down was very light hearted as the weather was even better then the day before. Most of us were tired but the experience of the long cold night bonded much of us together. I will be looking forward to my next Datuk on the 27th. Hope it will be another different experince. (3 times up Datuk within 1 month haha no wonder they are calling me Datuk king already)
Down and down and down we go~
SJ blogged at 21:52 0 comments
12.12.07
Gunung Datuk 1
Gunung Datuk is located in the state of Negri Sembilan in peninsular
Random pictures before setting off, char siew rice at JB coffee shop, shopping at 7-11 for “happy” food
Next we took a night train to Tampin. Haha I quite mountain tortoise cause this is the first time I taking train (exclude MRT and LRT). Too bad it was night train so can’t really see sh*t out of the window. Due to the never ceasing rain it soon got freaking cold in the cabin. (Note throughout this whole trek its cold wet more cold more wet and nothing else)
1 interesting thing I notice is that the toilets are “open” as in there isn’t any “storage” space to contain the passenger &^%$#. The toilet bowl is actually open to the outside. I.e. whatever entering the toilet bowl will exit directly onto the railway track. So next time if you see a train like dripping water from no where, it’s not the engine or what, its you know… haha.
Night scene of JB, JB train station
Happy boarding!
Once we reach Tampin we took a cab to a nearby coffee shop for breakfast. Something interesting I note too. When the uncle is taking our order of wanton noodles he asks us 要水要干. Which means want water or dry literally. Quite amuse by it because over here in
Tampin finally, after a long freezing train ride
Early morning in the Tampin town, Ah Ma up early selling veggie, yummy breakfast
After breakfast we set off to Gunung Datuk!
Ready to set off( look at the inclement weather sigh*)
Started raining just as we were about to start the trek and rained all they way till I’m back at home =(. The trek wise it’s quite alright I feel except the initial 1/3 portion that is quite incline at 70+ degrees and required the help of some ropes. But because of the rain things got trickier, with slippery stones and mud. Poor lighting does not help much too. That kind of explains why many of the pictures I took whilst under the canopy turns out either blur or grainy.
Inclination during the early part of the trek
The rest if just up up up and away~ haha Luckily our bunch of people are quite high morale thanks to people like Jai Wei and friends so things didn’t look so bleak. And yes, we were totally harassed by leeches! At the end of the trip I got 16 bites in total. Only me and Seng brought salt spray/salt. Lesson learnt, go Datuk next time must be armed with salt spray.
Mega wet due to the pounding rain
Random pictures along the way
Reach the summit after about 2 hours and I tell you its freaking cold up there. High altitude + strong wind + wet clothing + hunger just about kill it off. (It was too wet so in the end we forsake the cooking of lunch) We were spasm-ing up there and chattering uncontrollably. Every time the wind blows the goose bumps just comes out. But nvm it’s an experience that I will never forget. Saw this cat too which June said she saw at the bottom of the mountain. Pro cat, can climb all the way up.
“Happy” food that cheered us up a little, me and Kevin freezing our as* off.
The legendary pro cat meow!~
Luckily the summit view makes up for all everything. However sadly we didn’t manage to stay up there for long cause its freaking cold and we weren’t in the proper attire. The view would have been better if not for all the clouds but its also quite interesting to see fluffy cloud pass by you.
The descent is the worst part cause all hell break loose and it began to pour down rain like nobody business. Plus the continued harassment of leeches ^%$#@.
Pouring rain make the descent a painfully long and tedious
Bloody leeches!
By the time we wash up and went back to Tampin town we were all starving. Luckily got KFC! KFC never tasted so good =) well partially because Malaysia KFC is rumor to be better too. After that is the nice long bus ride home in the freezing cold weather.
RM$11(SGD$5) for this meal. Super worth it! Should be about $9+ in Sinagpore.
A memorable trip which was made even better with the presence of all the wonderful people. This sound dam* gay but yah you guys are great =) Rovers rocks!
SJ blogged at 03:10 0 comments
11.12.07
Camera wise it’s not too bad, as seen from pictures from later post. In terms of quality there is still room for improvement especially under poor lighting. But with good lighting the pictures turn out rather alright. The plus point is definitely the waterproof function. As proven during Datuk Recce, while most cameras went into hiding when the rain started, mine is still happily snapping away =). This and together with the sand/soil proof capability definitely makes the Miu790SW camera a good companion for any outdoor activities.
Feels weird to use a camera to take the picture of another camera. But this picture turns out quite pro though =)
SJ blogged at 23:39 0 comments
