A Quick Nature Escape to Bukit Tabur

I first saw Bukit Tabur from a bus that took me to Kuala Lumpur from Kuantan where I was studying at one of the boarding schools there. I remember how I got awed by its peculiar shape which looked more like the back of a dinosaur to me.  And who would have expected that last weekend, after more than 17 years, I’d make my way to the back of the dinosaur? 😀It had been a long-postponed plan with my good buddy Mr. KJH. Just so happened that another friend, who has  probably been featured in my blog more than anybody else I guess, was in KL for a job-related course so she was more than happy to join the adventure. SO, there were three of us.

Just so that we could avoid the heat at least on the way up to the peak, we left from home at about 6.30am.Being all first timers there, finding the starting point of the trail had not been easy.  We trusted our instinct by parking our car at an apartment area – the nearest to Bukit Tabur that we could find -and walked in the direction of the peak – expecting that we’d manage to find the trail anyhow.I think we went off the beaten track quite too soon. There seemed to be no apparent trail expect for the ones left by wild boars. They seemed to roam the whole area quite so freely and unthreatened. They should be glad that they are not living in Sabah where people eat more of wild boar meat than both beef and lamb combined. LOL!

We happened to walk across a durian farm while part of me wasn’t happy about the idea of getting prosecuted for trespassing, another part of me expected to bump into somebody so that we could at least ask for directions.  Unfortunately, there was none so we kinda kept on going.It really was hard to walk blindly across somebody’s property when the whole area is quite well-tended and properly maintained because it only made the search for the trail even more difficult. But Thanks God our instincts had finally been proven right when we managed to find the right trail. Hooray!Thanks to the rain the night before, the trail was wet and muddy and slippery so it wasn’t a trail that you can just run on without any fear of bumping your ass on the ground. Thanks God again, my sandals continued its proven track of good record by doing the magic again for me this time. I could almost feel myself floating in them. He.Ulai herself had learned enough from her BAD experiences at Gunung Nuang when her jungle-trekking turned into a mud-skating and ass-bumping game. I remember how she threw her shoes away right after coming down from the mountain. LOL!And of course – being wet means you gotta be prepared for the attack of the most feared creatures in the jungle – leeches. I always believed that KJH was cut out to be a geologist instead of engineer because he seemed to know a lot about animals more than anybody else that I know.

His theory that the leech would let go of his skin when it got ‘fully-blooded’ had proved to be right. The only problem was – the leech let go but the bleeding continues. Still he said, it was part of the therapy. 😀It’s actually easy to follow the trail once you’re on it. Some good Samaritans must have had too much of their spare time they painted some of the trees along the trail so that people could still find their way even if the trail is wholly covered by overgrown grasses.So – fast forward – we managed to reach the top – or what we believed was the highest standing point of the whole stretch of Bukit Tabur in about one and half hours.And yes – It was a view to behold from there. On one side is the view of Taman Melawati and its expansive surroundings.  I could almost see my house from there. We could also see the apartment at where we parked our car. Thanks God the car was still there. 😀The central part of KL (some people call it the downtown KL WTVR!) can also be seen across the distance.The only down point is the haze but then, KL is always hazy. The Petronas Twin Towers are barely visible – jotting out higher than the others while being closely challenged in height by the adjacent KL Tower.The view on the other side was actually what made me gaze in amazement. We didn’t manage to catch the sunrise but still we were not too late to catch the majestic view of the Klang Gates reservoir when the mist was about to lift up from its surface and the morning fogs were still hanging above it. The sun was illuminating through the clouds and the water surface was sparkling in its reflection. I really thought I was looking at a painting or something.  Gosh, who would have imagined I could get a stunning view like this right in the neighborhood? I could already imagine myself coming here every week just to get myself away from the hustle and bustle of the city at least for the weekend.Before we arrived at the foothill of Bukit Tabur, we were expecting to see people trailing the trek in one long line and that we might have to take turn whenever we had to mount or dismount from a rock or use the help of a rope or something. It was a weekend after all. Instead we didn’t see a single soul on our way up, not until we reached the peak when we saw a lady in yellow T-shirt sitting on a rock.Apparently somebody had climbed all the way up to the peak of Bukit Tabur just to read newspapers. LOL! Only then one by one of the trekkers or climbers or whatever you might call them came into sight. WE later found out that the trail actually forms some kind of loop where the trail going down is different from the one going up – but ending up at the same base point of course.And of course being literally lost right from the beginning, it turned out that we were going the opposite direction from the rest so every now and then we’d bump into people and we had to say hi and all and I actually found it quite tiring after awhile. You see, there are times when I wish I were less friendly to strangers but then you know how traveling has changed me. 😛Bukit Tabur as seen from a distance is long stretch of ridge with a series of ‘bumps’ on it. Getting to the top of the hill from where we came was actually quite easy. All you need is bundles of energy and you’ll be alright.You can even walk the trail with your eyes covered NO PROBLEM. But of course only crazy people would do that right? 😀Getting from one ‘bump’ to another was the most challenging part because it needs you to go down the gap and climb back up on the other side. Mind to tell you that the rocks here consist of high content of quartz and hence the surface can be razor sharps and so ready to rip your butt apart if you are not being careful enough.There were times we found ourselves standing on the edge of a cliff while figuring out how to make it to the other side of the ravine. It was kinda scary.Although I’ve been to The Pinnacles in Mulu and conquered what I consider the most challenging climb in Malaysia, I still found Bukit Tabur to be quite tough. The ridge is very narrow you can almost see the ravines on both sides as you walk on it.And what the hell was I thinking when I danced on the ridge lai dat?? Can somebody tell me how stupid that was ? Thank you! 😛There are times when you have to put your fate (and life) wholly on your balancing skills because there is not a single shit of rope to hold on to. *goosebumpsBut of course, you can always make it if you know how to fully utilize your ass butt. LOLz.I wouldn’t say I am an experienced trekker but I think I did join quite a number of trekking trips in the past so I was glad I could put all the experiences that I picked up to good use whenever necessary.The way I see it, Bukit Tabur can be quite easy to some people but it can be very tough to some others. Some of the people that we bumped into seemed so much at ease hopping from one rock to another I really thought they were the incarnation of Sméagol The Precious or something. On the other hand, a group of tourists from Switzerland had to turn back half way because they didn’t think they could press any further then this point. And no, I didn’t ask whether they had trekked the Alps Mountain.But then, I don’t blame me. There have been a number of fatalities in the past including one that shocked the nation where two medical specialists plunged to their death in Bukit Tabur. But then – fatalities happen anywhere right? You can just die in the comfort of your bed or the kitchen of your house when the calling has really come to you.  Thanks God, we managed to make it through all the tough challenges at Bukit Tabur. There was an urge to celebrate and I felt like flying 😀We really had so much fun up there that we didn’t realize it was almost noon. The sun was now at its full force and the sunshine was biting hard on our city people skin so I suggested that we descended back to the car before we got barbequed. You know how some people are still so stupid they don’t know how to read a simple  instruction. And this is 2011. Ohh, and it’s not even an instruction. It’s a PLEDGE. So – WE ended up coming out into a road – apparently a different place from where we had parked our car.Although we did a little bit or research, I think we mistakenly took a Water Reservoir for a Water Tank. So people, go to the Klang Gates Dam, not to Kolam Air Bukit Mas like we did. With all the energy that we still had left, we walked towards where we believed we had parked our car.WE hadn’t really walked for long when a Good Samaritan  with whom we had earlier met at the peak of Bukit Tabur stopped her car and offered us a lift. You see, it was worth saying hi to everybody after all.

I thougt I was spared? GRRR

So I’m calling out to all KL Residents, if you want a little bit of physical challenge and a quick nature escape during the weekend, go to Bukit Tabur. The best thing about it is – it is FREE and you can just walk in without doing any shit of arrangement. Of course the risk is all yours but that is where the fun is right? Taking risk? LOL.At least every time I pass by Taman Melawati and see the beautiful stretch of Bukit Tabur, I can always say to myself..“I’VE BEEN UP THERE…” 😛