So – after putting the plan on hold for such a long long time, I finally managed to put all the usually lame excuses aside and made my way to the peak of Broga Hill last Sunday.
Going There
Despite being one of the top weekend destinations at least among adventure seekers here in KL, I was quite surprised it is not clearly pegged on the google map yet, a map that I had been relying on quite too much in recent times. Broga IS in the map, but Broga Hill is not. I hope somebody is going to put a mark to it soon – once and for all. 😀
So, having heard so much about the magical moment of watching the sunrise from the peak of Broga Hill, we set out into the road at 4.30am when everybody in the neighborhood was still asleep. Following the instructions given by the built-in GPS on my brand new Samsung Galaxy S2 (ehem!), we drove off towards Semenyih – or rather one of its sub-districts or villages or whatever you call it called Broga – hoping to find the starting point of the trail to Broga Hill somehow.
Going Up
Getting to the ‘base camp’ of Broga Hill turned out to be much easier that I had feared. You know you’re heading in the right direction when you’re heading to Broga and not anywhere else. You should start seeing cars parked on the roadside around 1 km before you get there (Broga). Of course this picture was taken later when we were already returning to the car from the climb.
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My long boos to all the blogs for not giving me the precise or rather clear description of how the trail to Broga Hill was gonna be like. I was expecting some kind of quickie business, like driving right to the top of the hill or at least somewhere near to it and jumping out the car and right into a spread of beautiful view and surroundings.
Hell no. It was a climb, a REAL climb that requires an abundant use of energy and definitely a pair of strong legs.
And please – if you’re thinking of reaching the hilltop of Broga Hill before or at the sunrise, please, please and please bring a sufficient source of light with you.
While part of me was so ashamed that I really wanted to bitch-slap my face right after I realized how stupid I was, I felt so grateful that my trekking buddy Mr. KJH had brought a pair of torch lights because God knows how disastrous it would have been for us if he didn’t.
Imagine having to teeter my way off in a complete darkness and all the time praying very very hard not to accidentally slip into the gaping ravine. There’s definitely no assurance that I’m going to make it to the peak in one piece.
To tell the truth, I didn’t expect they’d be many people who are crazy enough to wake up in the wee hours of a supposedly lazy morning on a Sunday and drive up to the Broga Hill just for the sake of catching the damn sunrise from atop of it. I thought I was already crazy enough for ever coming up with that idea in the first place.
How wrong I was. There must be dozens of people already up there when we arrived at the foot hill and more and more others were coming in hordes to join the craziness. Apparently, many KL people have now grasped the right idea of living their lives to the fullest instead of burning their lazy asses sitting in front of their computers all day long.
Eager to get to the peak before the sunrise, we did our climbing quite too fast than necessary I guess. We climbed almost without a single stop for at least one hour or so before we reached the first peak. It was still dark so the famed view from atop the Broga Hill had not really revealed itself yet.
With a little bit more of energy left, we continued to the second peak, which was of course a little bit higher than the first one.
Of course, we went there targeting to reach the highest peak and it wasn’t really easy to get there. There was one part of the trail where you’d have to climb up a big chunk of stone which only God knows how it got there. I required you to stretch your legs out to its fullest stretch and it was pretty much challenging even with the help of a rope and a wood stick.
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But then, as the saying goes, we came, we saw, we conquered. We reached the peak just in time to catch the sunrise, except that there was no sunrise to see – thanks to the free flow of haze from the neighboring country. Meh.
I used to think (or rather LIKED to think) that most of the rubbish that I see in KL or anywhere else had been littered by kids whose little brains had not quite come to terms with the rules of nature yet. But then, looking at all the rubbish littered by visitors ON TOP of Broga Hill, I had to swallow the bitter fact that we’ve still got so many shitheads here in Malaysia. There is no way they were all littered by kids.
So, it’s easy to see why people keep coming to Broga Hill. I think it’s not really all about the view but more on the experience of getting up there.
But then the view itself is just so breath-taking. Although I was surrounded by the palm oil plantation and you know how I despise palm oil plantations because they have now taken over too much of the Malaysian soil, my eyes (and heart) went soft a little with I looked at the expansive greenery offered by them from all around me.
I think it’s pretty much easy to see how the Broga Hill had turned into how it looks nowadays. I believe the entire hill was caught in fire once, burning each and every plant in the area and turned it (the hill) into a completely bald piece of land.
Then it was just a matter of time before new batch of plant came covering the whole area in the form of blady grass or imperata cylindrica or lalang or whatever you call it.
The good thing is, it doesn’t grow up more than two feet or so – so it gives some kind of ‘grassy’ look to the hill and hence the breath-taking view that you see AT and FROM Broga Hill nowadays.
You don’t really get to see something like this quite that often here in Malaysia. Walking on the trail across a beautiful spread of grassland with boulders scattered here and there – I really thought I was in a movie set of some Korean drama or something. Omo Omo Omo. LOLz.
Going Down
It can be pretty much daunting on the way down because the trail tends to be quite slippery especially after a heavy rain.
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Of course I don’t have to tell you that the right choice of footwear is damn necessary or you’ll have to slide on your ass just like some of the people that I saw doing.
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So, if you suddenly feel like you’ve had too much of facebook and wanted do get A REAL LIFE FOR REAL – grab your keys and drive over to Semenyih to see how adventurous you can get at the Broga Hill.
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Until then…… Do not call yourself an adventurous KLite!
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