A monumental challenge such as this, full of hidden dangers and fraught with hardship, is bound to attract those who seek to show their qualities (i.e. strength, daring, and photogenic looks).

Thus was assembled a Fellowship on a good Sunday morning, ready to embark on an epic voyage to seek this Shrine, a relic of the Pacific War. Eleven companions set off from the western tip of the great Reservoir. Three ladies there were, and seven men. And the leader, Allen, who is described by some as “a gangly creature (which) had an ill-favored look.” :)

The Trail
The fellowship set out on the perilous “MacRitchie Nature Trail”, which was filled with strange fleet-footed creatures scurrying up and down the cramped path. They seemed perpetually in a hurry, sweating profusely, faces frowning, and dangerously oblivious to their surroundings, forcing us to stay alert so we could keep out of their way. We were later to learn that they were known in the Common Tongue as “joggers”. A most troublesome breed!

The Secret Path and the Sign
After successfully navigating past the joggers, we made our way to the entrance to the Secret Path to the Shrine. To us, the entrance seemed no more than a mere part of the dense forest, no different from any other part. But Allen knew that the Secret Path laid before us - all we needed to do was to perform the ritual known as “bash” in order for the Path to reveal itself.

Strangely, a sign had been erected on our trail, not ten feet from where the Path entrance resided. Upon gazing at it, I suddenly felt nauseous and weak, and the strange feeling of no longer wanting to continue on. As I looked upon the faces of the rest of the Fellowship, I realized I was not alone in having these thoughts swirling in my head. Some sort of enchantment laid in the sign, and its words written in fiery red. The language was that of Mordor, which I will not utter here. In the Common tongue, it read:

“Reforestation in Progress. PLEASE KEEP OUT.”

Nearly a year ago, on 25th March 2005, I conducted my first trek to Gunung Panti for Team Spreo. Since then, through my website and word of mouth, I have managed to make a lot a new friends who signed up for my local nature treks.

One such friend is none other than Patrick Ng. Back in August 2005, he asked me to lead some of his colleagues to do the Woodcutter’s Trail. Sometime in January 2006, he asked me to lead a Gunung Lambak Crossover for 19 of his colleagues, their friends, and family. Needless to say, I was ecstatic to have this opportunity to do a Lambak crossover as I have never done it before! As usual, I met up with my participants at Marsiling MRT before setting off at 8:00AM in 2 mini-vans.

The average age of the motley crew was an amazingly youthful 46.9 years but if you exclude the outliers of Leng Haw and myself who are in our 30s, then the bunch gets younger still, all of 48.6 years old! :P

Dear reader, you may be wondering where I am going with all these figures juggling. Well, this was the fittest bunch of people I have trekked with. Everyone summited this 500m nearly-mountain with killer slopes in 1.5 hours and the fastest bunch did it in just under an hour. When I first attempted this trek, my group took nearly 2 hours. Yes, we took our time as we did not want to fizzle out but looking back, we should have been more ambitious!

I have actually met Mr. Tay, his wife Amy, and Mr. Sim on separate occasions while training at Bukit Timah. They actually meet up to train at Bukit Timah rather regularly so their performance should come as no surprise. Still, when I hit the Big Five Oh (!), will I be as fit as them? Hmm, I must remember to use Gunung Lambak to assess my fitness level in 17 years’ time.

On the sunny Sunday morning of 12th February 2006, I met up with 10 participants at King Albert Park to begin our trek. Despite the title above, this 3-hour plus trek is actually 2 separate treks combined into one outing. The first part consist of trekking along a disused railway track along Clementi Road, just after Ngee Ann Polytechnic, emerging at Clementi, Ulu Pandan area. The second part involves using a uni-directional stormdrain network to route back to Bukit Timah area.

I knew about this trek through the Singapore Adventurers’ Club. I joined them when they conducted their Longkang Choo Choo trek back in July 2005. That was how I managed to snap a picture of the snakehead fish which I used for TeamSpreo.com’s Chinese New Year greeting.

Through a training session for my upcoming Gunung Ledang or Mount Ophir trek from 18th - 19th February 2006, I got to know Kenny Choy. He brought his girlfriend and family members along for the trek, 8 of them in all. Su Peng has joined me on many other treks and it is always nice to meet up with him and chat about photography, life, and almost any topic under the sun. And my “sister-in-law” Le Anne, ran from all the way from her home in Holland Village join us for this early morning trek! :P

We started the trek around 9:30AM and before long, we reach the canal, our first landmark. We were rewarded with out first sighting of giant fauna, it was a 1.5m long monitor lizard that was probably alarmed by us. It jumped into the canal and started swimming away. You will need to walk on the right-hand-side of this canal and when you reach the end point, you have to try to find the trail head to the disused railway track. It was obscured by fallen logs and it took some fording for the folks.

The trail is overgrown and rather unused. In the early part of the trail, you will find plenty of wild pepper. Deeper into the trail, you will encounter lots more fallen vegetation and thorny plants. Some parts are rather muddy and when you reach the tunnel, there is just no way to avoid getting your shoes caked with the brown stuff. The end of the trek is signaled by reaching the railway bridge. When we reached, a group of rappelling enthusiasts were setting up their gear. One of them is none other than Johnny, whom I met when I attended BATC 2005.

On this day, from 9AM to 5PM, I was trekking in the Central Catchment Area of Singapore. First, I started off by introducing 2 members of the public to my favourite Woodcutter’s Trail. The last time I visited the trail was on October 16th, 2005. A lot has changed since then. For one, the recent heavy downpour caused plenty of soil erosion which was evident near Chestnut Avenue just before we hit the mountain biking trail.

The weather in the morning was splendid and we managed to take in a lot of the sights and sounds. I encouraged Eric and Helen try the edible flower of the Simpoh Tree which is rather bland but crunchy. Towards the end of the trek, I found them some edible blue berries of the Clidemia Hirta shrub, much to my participants’ delight!

We parted ways around 12:30PM for I had to rush to meet up with my Gunung Ledang participants for training at Bukit Timah Hill. At Beauty World Centre, I was chanced upon by 2 of my participants, namely Pek Yong and Uncle Jeffrey. As we walked towards our meeting point at the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve Visitor Centre, we saw a White-Breasted Kingfisher!

Although meeting up with my participants was strictly for training, I kept a lookout for interesting flora and fauna. On the Dairy Farm Loop after nearly an hour of training, I managed to spot a Bat Lily in full bloom. It was beautiful!

A lot of people use the undulating terrain in the nature reserve for physical conditioning. The great thing that you will notice is that the folks are really quiet most of the time and they do observe the need to respect nature and keep the peace. After all, too much noise will disturb the animals within. Nevertheless, it is not easy to spot animals given the amount of human activity. So the chance encounter with them can be rather exciting, even if it is just a squirrel or two. Visit this little pocket of nature to find out for yourself!

Allen Tan
Team Spreo

How many of us know that the ruins of a Shinto Shrine can be found deep in the forest of our Central Catchment Area? Starting at MacRitchie Reservoir, you can actually get to the location after a slow and steady 2 hours of trekking.

In the initial first hour, you are essentially traversing a really clear jogging path before making a turn into the Terentang Trail that leads to the Treetop Walk. Just slightly halfway through the trail, you will see some large boulders and fallen trees obscuring the southward trail that leads you to the Shinto Shrine ruins. As this trail is seldom used, there are plenty of undergrowth like thorny creepers.

You will reach a guardhouse or a water storage facility just when you hit the edge of the reservoir. Once you can see this structure, you know that the Shinto Shrine ruins are near. Although the site is in obvious neglect, you will probably notice that it is still being used. You can find cups on the purification trough, neatly arranged.

After having your fill of photography, there are essentially 2 ways to get back to civilisation. You could either take the same 2-hour route back or ford some deep waters to get to the Singapore Island Country Club. From there, the walk to the nearest bus stop along Lornie Road is but 15 minutes away. And what more, Adam Road Food Centre is a mere 10 minutes away!

I had the pleasure of leading 3 newfound friends, namely Belinda, Erin & Kwok Keong on this trek while Khai Hing and Chee Hwa joined me on my previous Gunung Belumut trek in end-October. They are all really game folks who are not squeamish at all about getting wet and muddy. I certainly look forward to seeing them for my future treks to more exotic locations!

Allen Tan
Team Spreo

“

You are the Lambak queen, young and sweet, only seventeen...” Paraphrasing lyrics from Abba’s Dancing Queen.

When I roped in Maria to co-organise the Gunung Belumut trek, she wanted to learn as much as possible so that she can start organising her own treks for her church youths and friends. So I was really glad when she invited me on this trek to the 500m Gunung Lambak. Nothing pleases a ‘teacher’ more than seeing his student shine with confidence and initiative.

This trek proved to be an eye-opener for me as it was done on a bare essentials format using only public transport. The trekkers met at Woodlands Interchange at 8:30AM. Who were the trekkers? The usual suspects, namely Ai Yun, Kai Ler, Maria, Nora, Fir (Nora’s younger brother), and myself. Janice was supposed to come too but she was down with a bout of influenza. I managed to shake off my flu bug on Saturday after a dinner of hot steamboat. More importantly, it is Maria’s first trek and I must give her all my support! :P

After going through the checkpoints, we took a bus to Larkin. Now this is a favourite connecting point for travel all over Peninsular Malaysia. We bought RM7.50 one-way tickets to Kluang Town and it was a comfortable 2-hour ride. Upon reaching Kluang Town, we proceeded to this quaint restaurant for our lunch first. They served really good food at reasonable prices. Most dishes are only RM3.00 only. It’s called Gemini II Restaurant.

Gunung Lambak is only 15 minutes away via a feeder bus service. However, the trick is to get the right feeder bus. This proved to be a challenge and since we were in Bat Town, we met this ‘Joker’ of an uncle who convinced us that his bus does go near the location. We paid RM0.80 each and we were dropped 1.2km away. :D The correct bus would have dropped us at most 300m from the foot of the mountain. We bantered on the bus and we were so eager to trek up any mountain, even if it was Gunung Salah!

Once we reached the foot of the nearly-mountain, Ai Yun, Kai Ler, and Maria proceeded to buy Kampung Adidas from this rather jovial auntie. We visited this auntie again after we came down, to buy drinks and fruits from her. Trekkers, give her your support when you visit Gunung Lambak okay? We should always strive to support the local economy and the local ecology! (Like by nursing a leech.)

Sometime towards the end of March 2005, I found an Oriole fledgling in Joo Chiat area, near my family’s paints retail shop. I chanced upon it while walking to buy lunch. There was this small yellow bundle that hopped about on the road.

I was in two minds. Should I rescue the young bird or leave it to the mercy of nature? Finally its woeful chirps tore at my heartstrings and after observing that no adult orioles seem to be in the vicinity, I brought it back to the shop. My family ended up being its surrogate parents for the next 7 months!

We raised it up on a high protein diet of egg yolk, leafy vegetables, and flour for around 2 months. After that, it subsisted on a diet of grapes and birdfeed. Sometime in October 2005, it flew away while we cleaned its makeshift cage.

As it grew, it became less tame and more self-reliant. It was rather territorial and would hiss at other birds that were near its cage. And more importantly, it learned to feed itself and look for choice bits of food that we hid away. So we were prepared for its eventual flight. But when it did come, it still brought tears to my mother and 2 younger sisters. ;P

Amazingly, it flew back and perched near our house nearly a week later. My parents spotted it using the binoculars. Its tail feathers molted and it was just a short stump. That was how we recognised it. It was with 2 other orioles and that really put my family’s heart at ease. We had done our part and it was time for her to return to the wild.

During its stay with us, I ventured into the garden more often and it was then that I realised that even our small garden was full of nature’s splendours! So my dear readers, when was the last time you visited your garden? Or the park near your home? Talk a stroll. You’ll find songbirds, squirrels, and the occasional flowers in full bloom... (”,)

Allen Tan
Team Spreo

After the end of our BATC 2005 overnight camping trek held from 3rd - 4th September 2005, my course mates asked me if I had been to Gunung Ledang or Mount Ophir before. I replied that I had but also that Gunung Belumut is a nicer mountain.

Hence, I was kindly asked to be the lead organiser for a end-of-course trek to this pristine area. Fortunately, I had the assistance of my able co-organisers of Maria & Kai Ler, thereby making the trek enjoyable and safe for all the participants.

Planning for this trek started way back in early October and we had a credible 31 persons signing up. Most were BATC Alumni while the rest are their friends. However, on the day we met up at Kranji MRT, 2 had to drop out due to a bout of illness.

We arranged to meet up at 8:00AM and by the time we crossed over to Malaysia and boarded our coach, it was after 10:00AM! We had an early lunch at 11:00AM before reaching our destination at around 2:00PM.

After registering with the Ranger Office, we proceeded to seek out a good campsite and before long, we had all 5 tents set up. The lot then went for strolls and a dip at the pool before returning around 4:00PM to start dinner preparation. Pek Yong started his charcoal fire and while we prepared our dinner, we had a nearly endless flow of satay and otah to keep our hunger at bay! :P

During the dinner preparation, we sprang a surprise task for the 5 different groups. They had to prepare a tofu dish in the most creative way. The 5 groups came up with incredible ideas but at the end of the day, Ai Yun’s group was the winner of a $32 bottle of wine.

We are fast making a ‘mockery’ of our adventure trekking business with so many revisits to this tiny gem of a nearly-mountain. Don’t we visit other real mountains? And we are going again in mid-November with teenagers from the Ling Kwang Youth Centre. How kewl is that huh? ;P

Visiting Panti on October 8th was a true gathering of sorts for my friends. I know Pei Yu quite some time back while I knew Denny after he signed up for my local Woodcutter’s Trail trek.

As for the rest, they are my newfound friends from Basic Adventure Training Course (BATC) held from August 13th to September 18th. The course is conducted by the Singapore Adventurers’ Club. They are Ai Yun, Maria, Melanie, and Pek Yong. I have chronicled the going-ons of the course in my BATC 2005 journal.

Unlike the previous visits to Panti, this remarkable group of fit and gungho people actually managed to reach the summit in just under 2 hours! I told them that I will try to maximise the trek as a training for our upcoming 2D/1N Gunung Belumut trek in end-October and they just went along. When we reached the rock face, the intrepid group just scaled it with nary a thought! BATC has trained them well.

After the climb, we had a really early dinner before returning to Singapore. Ai Yun had a party to attend and we reworked the schedule to fit hers. All of us took the MRT and we chatted in the train.

Although I was tired, I managed to convince Maria and Melanie to join me to attend my good brother Chee Young’s poolside wedding reception at Serangoon. It was great! After that, Melanie convinced us to visit the Vatican exhibit at the Asian Civilisations Museum. By the time I reached home, bathed, and got ready to sleep, it was nearly 5:00AM. It was an amazingly fulfilling day for me and I only have my participants to thank for that!

Allen Tan
Team Spreo

If you wondered why Team Spreo seemed to have gone slightly quiet in the months of August and September, we can only say that you are most observant! The founder of this small business was attending a course conducted by the Singapore Adventurers’ Club.

It is called the Basic Outdoor Adventure Course (BATC) and through it, valuable contacts were made. More importantly, lasting friendships with many great persons were forged! If you are inclined to join the course next year, read about it from my other BATC 2005 journal chronicling the whole 6 weeks.

The finale of the course was a 2D/1N trek to Pelepah Falls, Kota Tinggi. This is the waterfall feature that is to the left of Kota Tinggi Waterfalls. The entry point to this beautiful place is just outside the resort, and further up from the entry point for Gunung Panti.

In this trek, the lot of us had to apply all that we learned in the previous 5 weeks. From outdoor cooking, to rope work, and even some navigation skills. Earlier lessons on sports climbing and kayaking prepared most of the participants to face the twin obstacles of scaling a sheer rock face and fording waters. As this is a true waterfall trek, we were wet for something like 70% of the trek. At some parts, the depth of the water reached 1m.

Nothing can fully describe the joy and enjoyment we experienced. Perhaps the slide show can go a little to show the amazing bunch of people I was fortunate to have been trekking with... in the future, we hope to bring this wonderful experience to our readers!

Allen Tan
Team Spreo

In preparation to introduce a local trek, my trekking buddies and I went in search of the elusive Shinto Shrine back in August. We met at MacRitchie Reservoir and followed the usual jogging trail that leads to the Treetop Walk.

About an hour later and just before we hit the Ranger Station, we headed south towards the reservoir’s bank. This time, the trail was not at all clear and it was strewn with fallen trees and spiny creepers. It took a while to get around all these obstacles and it was nearly another hour before we finally found the steps that led to the Shinto Shrine.

We lingered a while at the shrine, took some pictures, and we always took care to be respectful. Soon, we started to move out again. We made our way towards an embankment that connects to the Singapore Island Country Club.

The connection was not complete and some water-fording was required. It was fun to get wet after perspiring so much in the humid jungle. But it must be mentioned that in some parts, the waters were up to 1.5m deep! One way to avoid getting too wet is to sit on the sluice gates. (”,)

We dried ourselves by having a small picnic under the hot sun. We even had a cake as it was my birthday. My kind buddies brought a cake along and it sure made my day! Thank you Chiew Chuen and Chen Ko!

Allen Tan
Team Spreo

This tiny 513m mountain is fast becoming our signature trek! Due to its relatively easy approach, it is really suitable for beginners. The 30m rock face just before the summit offers a surmountable challenge, even for first-timers.

I met the participants at an unearthly 7:30AM at Marsiling MRT station before setting off for the checkpoints. We cleared the customs swiftly, due to the lack of crowds, possibly because the Malaysian Ringgit appreciated against the US dollar, making it uneconomical to shop across the Causeway.

For some of the participants, this trek to Gunung Panti is their second. My friend Tuan Woon had to accompany a lady down the previous time so I made him come along to make up for him not reaching the summit back in March 2005. As for Christopher, he was there to familiarise himself so that he can lead treks up Gunung Panti in the future. So if you are interested to learn how to lead treks, do sign up for our activities!

My university friend Wei Tshen was there with her colleague Hannah. They came for a recce before deciding if they want to let their charges in Ling Kwang Youth Centre go on this adventure. Patrick and his wife, and Su Peng are avid nature trekkers who signed up for my local treks and I was glad to have them on board for my overseas trek!

Patrick and his wife have been to Panti before. I invited them along as I had 2 slots left but they insisted on paying. Sigh. Such nice people! (”,) Last but not least, there is Pei Xi and her boyfriend Hon Sun. Pei Xi is the twin sister of Pei Yu, a great gal whom I got to know from Berkelah Falls trek sometime back. So you can say that this was a gathering of sorts for my friends!

In all, we took less than 5 hours to go up and come down. At Patrick’s wonderful suggestion, we freshened up at Kota Tinggi Waterfalls Resort before going to our dinner location at Pasir Gudang.

Enough said, please view the slideshow of 36 pictures that really tell the whole story of our wonderful time. Thank you to all my trekkers for making this another blessed trek!

Allen Tan
Team Spreo

Together with a group of enthusiastic teachers, Team Spreo revisited Gunung Belumut over the National Day holiday period and this time, we managed to summit the 1010m high mountain!

The motley crew met up in the afternoon of 8th August and we reached the foot of Gunung Belumut around 5:00PM. We set up camp before taking some time to explore the forest and taking a dip in the gentle waters.

My good brother Thian Huat and I were more than contented to gather firewood whilst the rest frolicked for we had been here before. Earlier in July, we attempted to scale the mountain in 1 single day which did not quite pan out. Now such an attempt is not feasible unless all the trekkers are of a certain level of fitness. This time, we decided to camp so that we could scale the mountain early next morning.

Our night was truly well spent and for dinner, we had sushi rolls, seafood soup, spaghetti, and coconut cubes with ice for dessert! Mrs. Choong brought plenty of stuff to let us DIY our sushi rolls with seaweed, chicken sausages, and cucumber. After dinner, we sat around the campfire to talk and share our experiences about outdoor activities, school kids, and more. We slept early in anticipation of the next morning’s climb.

We woke up at 6:00AM the next morning to prepare breakfast and break camp. Due to the coldness in the morning, I woke at 5:30AM and proceeded to boil water for coffee. Thian Huat brought eggs and we had French toast for breakfast, in addition to whatever else the rest brought for themselves. We started our climb at around 8:00AM after leaving our heavier equipment at the Visitor Center.

The climb was slow and steady and we were back at the foot at around 4:00PM. We left after freshening up and had our dinner before crossing back to Singapore. One of the most memorable events must have been our rendition of our national anthem “Majulah Singapura” at the summit. It was a rather solemn moment but I am glad that we did it. Somehow, it made me feel truly Singaporean!

A big “Thank You” to all the Belumut Braves! It was truly an experience to finally reach the summit with all of ya... (”p)

Allen Tan
Team Spreo

Team Spreo conducted an exploratory trek to Endau Rompin from 20th - 23rd May 2005. Endau Rompin Johor National Park is reputed to be the world’s oldest rainforest and it is home to many large species of mammals including the Sumatran Rhinoceros, Asian Elephant, and Tiger. The park entrance is located in Kahang, Peninsular Malaysia, and all visitors have to register there before gaining access to the eastern part of the reserve.

On the first day of our exploration, we took public transport to Kluang Town from Larkin, before transferring to Kahang. We made enquiries at the Peta office in Kahang before having our lunch. We only started our real journey at around 1:15PM in a small 4WD which took us through uneven plantation service roads. After an exciting 2 hours which saw us transversing over multiple potholes and across wooden bridges, we arrived at the Visitors’ centre. After making our registrations, we were introduced to our Orang Asli guide and the journey into the jungle began.

We only reached our campsite at around 3:30PM and we were the only trekkers! We had the whole place to ourselves and after setting up our tent, we went exploring before having dinner. After dinner, we had a splendid time relaxing at the viewing porch overlooking the Jasin river and gazing at stars. Before long, we decided to retire early in anticipation of an eventful next day.

This is one nature trail that never fails to amaze my participants... from the pile of abandoned clay pottery at the start of the trail, to the first stream with such clear running water that invites all to have a splash, to the bed of green and red pitcher plants halfway through the trail, to the last stream with such a variety of fishes that you cannot help but wonder if they were released there deliberately, and finally the encounter with boisterous, if somewhat tamed, macaques after coming out onto the road leading to Upper Pierce Reservoir.

The Woodcutter’s Trail offers plenty of flora and fauna for nature lovers though it must be said that the birds and other creatures are rather hard to spot, and even harder to capture on my tiny digital camera with a magnification of just 3X. On that fateful Saturday of 16th July, I chanced upon either the Common Flying Dragon or the Black-bearded Flying Lizard as it glided and held onto the bark of a tree. From the colour alone, I believe that it is the former. But before I could snap it, it scurried up the tree and out of view. Sigh. Perhaps I will get a shot the next time.

If a picture tells a thousand words, then a video could just do the trick to get Singaporeans excited about this little green emerald of nature reserve located right in the centre of this tiny island. The videos have been compressed and are encoded such that you will require at least Windows Media Player 9 and above to view them. I hope that you will enjoy the pictures and videos but they are no substitute for visiting the trail yourself!

Allen Tan
Team Spreo

(Note: Click on the video links to save the files. Clicking on the thumbnails will open a window that displays a larger version of the photographs.)

In Thian Huat, I am truly blessed to have a veritable younger brother who is also a Physical Education teacher at one of Singapore's neighbourhood schools. He is an adventure race veteran and he represented Singapore in Eco-Challenge 2002.

What more, he is an Ironman and was the fastest Singaporean in the year that he competed! Hmm... I guess he would rather that I said in the year that he participated. Yeah, that's my bro for ya, affable yet serious, and never competitive for the sake of just being competitive.

So when he asked me to go along for a recce (short for reconnaissance) to Gunung Belumut, I literally jumped at the opportunity. At 1010m, Gunung Belumut is supposed to be the nearest mountain to Singapore. Now that all depends on how you define a mountain. But in general, and somewhat arbitrarily, it seems that it has to be at least 610m or 2,000ft.

What a long time it has been since our first journal entry more than 2 months ago. Please be patient as we are undergoing a major revamp of our website. When it is complete, you will get to see super pictures of our exploratory Endau Rompin trip plus many more!

We conducted a guided trek to the Treetop Walk on Sunday, 26th June 2005. We had a total of 17 trekkers and we took around 4 hours to complete the whole route from MacRitchie Reservoir to the Treetop Suspension Bridge, then to Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, and ending at the foot of Bukit Timah Hill! Words alone cannot possibly convey the fun we had. So take a look at the “Polaroid” prints for a different take on the trek.

(Note: Clicking on the “Polaroid” prints will open a window that displays a larger version of the photographs.)

Trekking is seriously great fun! We conducted our inaugural trek to a tiny 500m mountain called Gunung Panti in Kota Tinggi, West Malaysia on 25th March 2005. Including myself, there were a total of 15 trekkers.

I met the participants at Marsiling MRT station at 7:30am and we set off for checkpoint at 8:30am. I packed 11 of them into a chartered van while my 3 buddies and I walked to the checkpoint. Due to the Good Friday holiday, customs was packed and it was 11:30am before all 15 of us cleared the gates. Now this has thrown our original schedule into disarray but such is life. Trekkers are a different lot of travelers. We take such minor hiccups in our stride.

After getting through the Malaysian customs, we divided ourselves into 2 groups. 11 of us boarded a van while the other 4 took a car. After a short one and a half hour ride, we finally reached the foot of our desired location. I told the drivers to pick us up at 5:30pm. It was a hot afternoon and it was already 1:11pm. We were originally scheduled to begin our ascent at 11:00am.

(Note: Clicking on the thumbnails will open a window that displays a larger version of the photographs.)

We had to traverse a vehicular track before fording a water obstacle. After that, the real ascent expected of a mountain loomed before us.