Tasik Banding, Gerik, Perak

Date : 29 Sept to 1 Oct 2017

Organised by : Kelab UMW

Payment : Ahli Kelab RM200 
                 Non-Members RM380

29 Sept 2017 - Friday

The journey starts at 1 am on Friday morning so we had to be at UMW at 12 midnight. As I was working on that Thursday, I went back home first to continue packing my backpack that I bought specially for the trip, a 40L Decathlon backpack with blue and turquoise color. I also bought another bag of 15L but decided against using it as it had no front pocket. I need to put lots of things and organised it properly so I decided to bring my red Kipling bag.

I went out from the house at 11 and reached the office at 11.25 pm. I parked at the back of my office building with Kak M and Rose. Had to carry the heavy backpack to the bus parked at the side of the road. The trip organiser is Caravan Serai and a guy named Mok was assigned to take care of us. It was cold in the bus and I used my light sweater to act as my blanket.

The bus stopped twice, one at a rest area and I bought a pack of seedless jambu that I thought could be eaten at the boat and another one for subuh prayer at Masjid Gerik. We had another stop at a restaurant by the name of Rahim Maideen before we reached the jetty to have breakfast. I had nasi lemak bungkus with telur goreng and teh o for RM4. We reached the jetty at about 8.30 am.

We took group photo and was given an hour to look around the jetty. It had a food court at the main terminal, a toilet that you had to pay 50 sen to use and shops selling shirts on Royal Belum.

We had to go down hill to the houseboat of Caravan Serai and I slipped and fall flat on my butt with the heavy backpack because it was covered will gravels and it rolls when you step on it. I don't understand why they had such a huge and nice jetty but the houseboat is not using it but instead they parked at the side of the hill where there is no steps or stairs for people to go down. It was dangerous and I suggest you use the rope that they put to help you go down.

When we are inside the boat we were told that it had technical problems and will take some times for them to fix it and the latest we will depart is at 11 am. We take the time to look around the boat and set up our place to sleep upstairs. There are a big hall at the front of the boat, 2 crew rooms, 1 toilet, 1 shower room in front and another 1 toilet and shower room at the back assigned to the boys. Upstairs had 4 room (3 for girls and 1 for the boys to change) and another family area for us to solat and for the guys to sleep at night. The 4 of us had the last room for girls with no bed, only 3 mattresses. The other 2 rooms had double decker bed.

We finally depart from the jetty at 11.20 am had cekodok as our brunch. The houseboat rule is, we had to wash our own utensil after we eat, I don't really like it as we had to go to the kitchen so often. 

We reached our destination after we had our lunch. We went to perkampungan org asli named Sri Wangi and pass our contribution to the kids and their head named Kuwong. They plant ubi kayu, keledek and raise chicken for their food and to sell in exchange for money. They also fish for their food. It was raining when we go down to our boat and it was slippery as hell as I was wearing my slipper. I had to hold on to Sabrina while going down.

In the afternoon, we swim in the lake with our life jacket on. It was difficult to breath wearing the life jacket, need to slim down huhuhu. Queuing for shower reminds me of my hostel life in school. The bath is a bit smelly so I don't intend to stay in there for long. It was very basic really. The water is being pumped from the lake itself and stored in a water tank. We had tea of cekodok and kuih keledek.

At night we had an introduction session and after that karaoke and we play UNO with Ju and the gang from IPS. Finally slept at 12 midnight and was told that I snored huhu


30 Sept 2017 - Saturday

My day starts at 5.30 am as I had stomach ache and need to go to the loo.. I might as well take my bath when the rest is still sleeping. We had our breakfast at 8.30 am, mee and meehoon goreng, ubi kayu with sambal hijau pedas and kuih keledek goreng. After that we did warm up exercise and went by speed boat to Sungai Kooi, Royal Belum. There's a pretty pokok kayu tumbang there that we made as our backdrop to take our pictures. When everyone's done with picture taking, we proceed to hike for 30 minutes to reach a magnificent waterfall. My shoes is wet crossing rivers 4x, going up through rocks and trying to avoid the pacat but the view is totally worth it. We spent about 30 minutes and we start our hike down. 

Went back to the houseboat and had our lunch of telur ikan and ikan pekasam. First time tried the telur ikan, not bad. At 2.30 pm we went by speed boat to Sg. Papan via its jambatan gantung to hike for 20 minutes to see the salt rock. Saw a giant ulat gonggok on the way. 

We came back and when I went up to change my tudung for the swim, a big pacat rolled down from my feet. Arghhhhh!! Finally I got bitten by a pacat that I had tried to avoid so much! It was so big euww.. lucky I didn't even realised that it was there. It doesn't feel anything, but the bleeding wont stop. Had to ask Azra for a handyplast to stop the blood. We had a swim in the lake again but this time I saw something unpleasant. I kept quite and try to wash away the thing and continue swimming. That thing however later got stuck to our rakit and I told the girls on the rakit and they go euwww and everyone quickly climb up huhuhu. And that time, Mok doesn't have to remind us to come up from the swim hehe. 

They served us tea (can't recall the food hehehe). Dinner is BBQ (chicken and  lamb). The lamb is a bit tough but the chicken is nice. After dinner, we played UNO while some of us participated in karaoke contest. I slept early as I felt so tired. The food on the boat was good and I really enjoyed it. 


Day 3 - 1 Oct 2017 - Sunday

I woke up around 6.30 am. It was easy waking up here, and you don't feel sleepy, I really don't know why. Q for a while to use the bath.

There is a problem fixing your kiblat when you solat on the boat as it can head in different direction. Most of the time I just follow those who solat before me.

We had a marvellous nasi lemak for breakfast, really enjoyed having it at the front of the boat facing the lake. Mok had set up a tikar for us to eat in front. 

We went to Sg Ruok by speed boat that takes about 10 minutes to reach. Had to hike for 25 minutes to reach the waterfall with ikan kelah in it. Managed to keep my shoes dry this time but wet on the way back haha. The water was freaking cold but once you are in it, u don't feel the cold already. The group from UTP is already there, so the waterfall is pretty crowded. We swim for a while but was called to go back 30 minutes later.. arghhhhh!

We choose the track along the river on the way back and we actually had to walk in the river with our shoes. That's how my shoes got wet. Came back and got to Q again for shower. It was so hot in the room by this time but I decided to solat first, drenched with sweat. Then go down, had lunch and continue packing. By the time I am done, the boat had already reach the jetty. 

The crew of Caravan Serai are very helpful and they assist me in carrying my 2 bags to the bus. The bus departs at about 2.30 pm and after 3 stops and traffic jams here and there, we reach Shah Alam at 11.30 pm. It was raining heavily when I drove home and arrived at 11.50pm.

Good experience over all for me, I get to know other staffs in UMW, particularly those from IPS aka geng UNO i.e. Azra, Azam, Faisal and Ajib.

The Bag Project and Bentong Trip

4 May 2017

Thursday 

I took leave on Wednesday to run a few errands. I started the day early by going off at 7.20 am as I need to be at Sri Damansara by 9 am. Checked Waze for the earliest trip possible so had to go through MEX hiway, paid RM3.50 toll, exit Jln Kuchai Lama, go to Kerinchi Link pay RM2.50, and Sprint hiway RM2.00 and managed to reach Fazilah's house at 8.30 am. 

Then we set off to Sri Damansara and managed to be there just before 9 am. We had to queue for about 40m and settled our registration by 9.50 am. By then Joy called Noe wanting to collect the mee siput from her and we were in a bit of a dilemma as to how to accommodate her in our plan. We finally decided to turn back to Bandar Utama and wait for her to grab a car to their house as she had received the green light to follow us to Bentong.

We set the Waze and asked direction from the guys from our school esp the bikers. We managed to reach Lemang To' Ki at about 12.15 noon and I was feeling ravenous at that time. We took 2 ayam bakar, 1 lemang (RM12) with rendang ayam (RM6) and daging (RM6) which I think I paid RM39 in total for it. Then we add another lemang and another plate of rendang daging. The combination of the hot lemang together with the rendang daging was really marvellous! There were not so many people considering it was on Wed. I was told that the place is very crowded on weekends.

When we've finished eating, I tapau another 3 lemang and 3 rendang daging, 1 is for Ju who had asked to tapau the day before. We took a few photos before leaving the restaurant and proceeded to look for durians! Stopped by the 1st stall that we saw and it was sooo expensive, D24 is RM33 per kilo, much more expensive than the one that we tried along the road in Puchong that day at RM28 per kilo. We tried 1 nevertheless and it was overripe I think, not so satisfactory to us.

After that we headed back to Sri Damansara to collect the the bags and lepak at BU before heading out to Curve to have ice cream coz Noe is craving for one.

Went home after that and reach the house at 8.20pm. I cut the BR cake that hubby bought on Monday but had to postpone cutting it as his Mak Ngah passed away on my birthday.

It was a very happy day for me, alhamdulillah.

 

Going up Puncak Sapu Tangan

Sunday 9 April 2017

Interesting name, Puncak Sapu Tangan. It was actually located inside Taman Botani, Shah Alam where you have to go through Section 8 and passed through Bukit Bandaraya entrance. Pay RM3 parking charges and another RM3 to enter Taman Botani.

Me and Suraya actually joined Tini's JK1M's group as we don't know the way. There are 8 of them in a group wearing a pink/purple shirt. However Suraya managed to outrun all of them and ended up hiking with a monkey instead! Hahaha

We started late at around 9 am having to wait for all the members to reach the entrance. From the entrance, we go to the left, slowly going up on a tar road. When we reached a junction, we go to the right, going uphill until we reach another junction that says: Bukit Sapu Tangan 1.8 kilometer

As usual, I took my own sweet time at my leisurely pace but managed to be in the middle group with Tini and her son Aiman. I think my stamina had increased a bit since I started exercising. I can now climb the staircase to my office at 5th floor, eventhough still panting, but less time taken to reach the 5th floor.

I remembered my first climb to Bukit Gasing early of the year, I nearly fainted I think.. I can actually see stars coming out of my head. 

Going up the hill, seeing the tar road leading to the peak, i cannot deny that it is a daunting task, but I managed without any drama this time. We reach the peak with the wooden tower 1 hour after we hike. In total it took us about 2 hours and 20 minutes to complete the hike. It was a good sweat and I had soto at Restoren Zai Section 8 after that with Tini & Su.

By now I really enjoyed hiking and looking forward to the next hike at Bukit Gasing with the gang.

HIking up Kota Damansara Community Forest

Sunday
12 March 2017

It had been so long since I last wrote in here. It's difficult to find the time plus there's a lot of things to do. Kids had started swimming in February on weekends.

I had started hiking with friends from early of the year with the intention of having some form of exercise with the hope of being healthy and to increase my stamina (sounds like a grand mission statement already haha). I started with Bukit Gasing and then Bukit Kiara (both trail and track and also the track down at Lembah Kiara). The first attempt at Gasing, stars came out from my head and I felt like collapsing. Had to take a rest and sit down to calm my dizzy head.

Last Sunday me and Soo decided to follow Mazrul and the DRB geng to hike up the hill at Kota Damansara (KD). Came out from the house at about 7.10 am, packing up some cupcakes in my backpack. I am not familiar with KD area and just follow the waze which brought me through Taman Mayang to Tropicana and then to the road in front of SM Kota Damansara Section 10. Parking was full so I just followed other people parking at the roundabout at the dead end and hope that it will be safe there.

Reached the entrance at about 7.55 am, just before our 8 am meeting. Can't find any toilet there. Started the climb at about 8.15 am following Mazrul's friends which pace are way too fast for me to follow. We found 2 bangku kayu 15m after the hike and rest to drink and eat the cupcakes.

We continue going up and of course I made a lot of stops along the way, particularly after every hike up. Going up makes me short of breach and caused dizziness after that. I had to rest to let the dizziness go away then only I can continue. I know I am not really fit but I like hiking, at least it is not hot in the forest and the air you breath is so clean. We managed to reach the sign post that says "Denai 3 Puteri" and took pictures with everyone.

The trail leading to the Unity Peak after that was sooo challenging and I almost given up. I told Mazrul to just leave me and just met me on his way down but he just wouldn't let me. I am so grateful to him coz if not because of him I will never reach the peak.

We met Ummi Nazeera the actress and talk to her although at that time I am not really sure that it 's her coz she just looked like any other kids going on the hike. She's sweet even though not drop dead gorgeous kind of girl. She asked me how old I am and when I told her she said "muda lagi".. hmm I dont really know what she meant by that actually.

On the way down I felt so tired like I had no more energy in my body and I had to stop a lot. A few times my feet feels like it is going to cramp and that scares me. 2 times I had to use the cold spray that Mazrul brought along. I just pity Mazrul for having to wait for me all the times that I stopped. At that time I was thinking why did I torture myself like this and I never wanna hike hills again, I regret going to this hill this time and a lot more regretful things keep playing on my mind. My water at this time also finished and my throat is so dry. My shirt, pants, tudung and the towel I used to wipe my face are all lencun from my sweat.

Finally after it felt like hours of dragging my feet and praying to Allah to give me energy to finish the trail, we saw the entrance at 1 in the afternoon! I just can't describe how happy I was to see a guy selling drinks just outside the entrance.I drank 2 cans of soya bean in 1 sitting and the good guy also offered me his seat. Semoga Allah membalas budi baik adik.

After that I stopped at a 7-11 to buy a bottle of mineral water and 100+. My thirst doesn't seem to go away. I can't believe that this hike took 5 hours. Should I know what lies ahead, I wouldn't want to attempt it in the 1st place. It's good also that I have no idea of what lies ahead, otherwise I wouldn't reach the peak as I did although my aim is not to reach any peak at any time. I don't have that target, you know. I just want to have some exercise and the sweat that comes out after a hike making me feels so clean after a bath.

Reached the house at almost 3 and I was so tired I do not have the desire to eat. I actually slept on the sejadah with my telekung on, on the floor. That was how tired I was. 

Right now, I am thinking of another hike. The remorse had gone away although the cramp is still there haha.

The photos are in my phone and so malas to upload to my pc.

Till the next writing.