The day started off with our very own RIKL president being early at our meeting point! Shih Chung! Early! And it all happened because we were prompted by the organizer to be punctual and arrive at 0700 hours, though we eventually set out at 0815 hours due to unalterable traditions and technicalities.
We arrived at Nuang and started our hike later than the planned time. This time around, everyone had their fair share of logistics equipment to carry to ensure everyone was loaded up and really TRAINING! We did take our own sweet time to get ready, and when we were, the morning sun was almost ready to climb up to the middle of the sky already. 
The first part of the hike was fairly monotonous as it was merely an off-road trail. We were slogging ourselves up to the starting point and just getting warmed up. The early part had already seen 17(?) hikers breaking up into two groups, mainly the few faster ones and the other moderate to slow hikers. Save for some singing and talking, we were practically gasping for breath and trying to conserve energy throughout, so the party was pretty quiet.
As we moved on, we crossed a dam, our supposed last water source. The water was clear and cool and could be drunk straight away, though exactly how clean it was is subject to judgment. (We had reports of dirahoae and vomiting after the trip) We stopped near the water hole to lunch on our self-prepared food. Some simply conserved energy by catching a quick nap! 
After lunch, it was uphill all the way with little or no rest in between. Spirits were quite dampened halfway up the mountain as we simply did not know how long more the journey would be nor how far ahead the faster group was. However, spirits rised when we hit Kem Pacat, the realistically last water source. We were quite sore, darkness was starting to blanket us and we were stumbling under the brunt of fatigue, not to mention an uncertainty of our distance from the peak. However, we decided to push on to the peak.
Nonetheless, after we moved on for half an hour, we decided to call it a day. I was personally glad to be getting some rest finally, though the peak seemed within reach already. We set up camp at Kem Pacat and started cooking before sunset. Our two cooks, Ze Xin and yours truly had a fair bit of help from the girls with the cooking and everything turned out ok. The food could have been tastier though, had Adrian brought salt instead of sugar! However, the selection of food was fair enough.
After a round of makaning, we indulged ourselves in some intellectual discussion. The topics ranged from touchy to humorous to downright confusing, but we finally managed to settle a few outstanding issues. The call for everyone to get some sleep was well appreciated. I got to test out sleeping in a hammock for the first time and it was truly pleasant! However, it didn’t come without its fair share of hammock-mate calling her honey deep in the woods, Karlye massaging me below when she entered her hammock, some display of fancy and abrupt lighting and quite a bit of chattering. I fell asleep gazing at the starry night, a sight that could well be missed among the urban environment back home.
The next morning, or rather four hours later, we were awakened. Some from our company had opted not to push for the peak and stand guard while preparing breakfast. The others simply didn’t have the comfort of our sleeping bags at our expense. We had a fair bit of trouble getting up, and I personally got a kick from shaking and shouting people out of their sleep and dreams, namely Xin Tong and Ze Xin! The look on their do-not-ever-disturb-me-again face was worth a million ringgit! Xin Tong even asked me to persuade her to wake up! HA!
By 4.30, we were up and about. Having had a filling dinner and some rest, we were motivated greatly to move on. The dark and the cold were quite encouraging, and the moonlight could have easily replaced our torches had the canopy not shielded it out! However, it was melancholic enough to keep us pushing on. We were hampered after one and a half hours as our cut-off time was quite near, but the president decided to push on, predicting the peak was quite near. We reached Puncak Pengasih and had our fair share of downhill from there. However, the trail soon picked up and we were surely on the right path.
The last part was the most mentally-challenging part as we kept asking the question: “Are we there yet?” Bend after bend, we imagined seeing the top, but it turned out to be a false judgment or tricks played by our tired minds. At the final push to the peak, we were led on by the shouting and singing of our scouts, Lydia and Terry. We were finally there!
The sense of achievement was great! However, the rest of the circumstances were much to be desired. Litter and leftover food could be found everywhere, the cold was intense and the trees blocked our view of sunrise – one of our targets. We did entertain ourselves with the “mati pucuk” signboard and hot instant noodles! We soon departed for camp and descent was way faster this time around.
Breakfast was a brief one of instant noodles and more curry or rendang. After that, we quickly packed and decamped. The descent was to be swift as we were behind time. Perhaps it was the motivation of the thought of home or the very nature of the terrain, but descent was indeed swift. We even had time to wade a bit in one of the rivers we crossed.
As we came to the starting point of the yet monotonous off-trail road, I was perked by the possibility of stimulating things up. I asked around and finally found someone crazy enough to carry out the plans. After all, it takes at least two to race! Shih Chung would race me down the trail, a journey that would take one and a half hours by slow pace. 3, 2, 1 and we were gone.
Shih Chung started off with a very fast sprint downhill. I could barely believe his breakneck speed, literally! It was all I could do to try to keep up with him! Soon enough, I overtook him and led the way. My descent was to be hampered by my sleeping mat falling off from my rucksack, resulting in my holding it throughout the race. However after that, there were fairly few obstacles, save for the threat of dehydration, the stony road and the constant threat of Shih Chung overtaking me.
After a good half hour of leading the way without any sign of our president, I finally caught sight of him! He was fast downhill while I was fast uphill; yet the trail had to lead downhill most of the time! He slowly but steadily caught up with me. The moment he overtook me, I figured it was over. My pace slowed down and I was done with. However, the sight of the chalets at the entrance was my saving grace! I knew we were near and decided to give it my all. 100 meters, 50 meters, 20, 10, 5…… We practically reached the finishing point at the same time, but for the fact that our finishing points were different, mine being Shih Chung’s Kenari and his being Lydia’s truck! We decided it would be Karlye’s call and shared our only miserable 500ml of water!
One hour later, we met up with the gang. Karlye ruled that the finishing point was Lydia’s yellow truck, which made me 1st runners-up, not a bad result if the number of participants had not been 2 people only! We returned the group gear and parted ways. It was off to lunch for a big portion of the company.
This trip up Nuang pushed quite a number of people to their limits, both physically and mentally. Perhaps some are having second thoughts about the ultimate trip and destination, Gunung Tahan, while others can’t wait for the day to come. Personally, I was challenged by the circumstances, both natural and man-made. The mere thought of multiplying the hardship seven folds is enough to break steel, but it will not break my will. At least I have a team of strong hikers and mates of strong resolve to conquer the toughest peak in Malaysia together with. What doesn’t kill me will only make me stronger!
We arrived at Nuang and started our hike later than the planned time. This time around, everyone had their fair share of logistics equipment to carry to ensure everyone was loaded up and really TRAINING! We did take our own sweet time to get ready, and when we were, the morning sun was almost ready to climb up to the middle of the sky already. The first part of the hike was fairly monotonous as it was merely an off-road trail. We were slogging ourselves up to the starting point and just getting warmed up. The early part had already seen 17(?) hikers breaking up into two groups, mainly the few faster ones and the other moderate to slow hikers. Save for some singing and talking, we were practically gasping for breath and trying to conserve energy throughout, so the party was pretty quiet. As we moved on, we crossed a dam, our supposed last water source. The water was clear and cool and could be drunk straight away, though exactly how clean it was is subject to judgment. (We had reports of dirahoae and vomiting after the trip) We stopped near the water hole to lunch on our self-prepared food. Some simply conserved energy by catching a quick nap! After lunch, it was uphill all the way with little or no rest in between. Spirits were quite dampened halfway up the mountain as we simply did not know how long more the journey would be nor how far ahead the faster group was. However, spirits rised when we hit Kem Pacat, the realistically last water source. We were quite sore, darkness was starting to blanket us and we were stumbling under the brunt of fatigue, not to mention an uncertainty of our distance from the peak. However, we decided to push on to the peak. Nonetheless, after we moved on for half an hour, we decided to call it a day. I was personally glad to be getting some rest finally, though the peak seemed within reach already. We set up camp at Kem Pacat and started cooking before sunset. Our two cooks, Ze Xin and yours truly had a fair bit of help from the girls with the cooking and everything turned out ok. The food could have been tastier though, had Adrian brought salt instead of sugar! However, the selection of food was fair enough.After a round of makaning, we indulged ourselves in some intellectual discussion. The topics ranged from touchy to humorous to downright confusing, but we finally managed to settle a few outstanding issues. The call for everyone to get some sleep was well appreciated. I got to test out sleeping in a hammock for the first time and it was truly pleasant! However, it didn’t come without its fair share of hammock-mate calling her honey deep in the woods, Karlye massaging me below when she entered her hammock, some display of fancy and abrupt lighting and quite a bit of chattering. I fell asleep gazing at the starry night, a sight that could well be missed among the urban environment back home.
The next morning, or rather four hours later, we were awakened. Some from our company had opted not to push for the peak and stand guard while preparing breakfast. The others simply didn’t have the comfort of our sleeping bags at our expense. We had a fair bit of trouble getting up, and I personally got a kick from shaking and shouting people out of their sleep and dreams, namely Xin Tong and Ze Xin! The look on their do-not-ever-disturb-me-again face was worth a million ringgit! Xin Tong even asked me to persuade her to wake up! HA!
By 4.30, we were up and about. Having had a filling dinner and some rest, we were motivated greatly to move on. The dark and the cold were quite encouraging, and the moonlight could have easily replaced our torches had the canopy not shielded it out! However, it was melancholic enough to keep us pushing on. We were hampered after one and a half hours as our cut-off time was quite near, but the president decided to push on, predicting the peak was quite near. We reached Puncak Pengasih and had our fair share of downhill from there. However, the trail soon picked up and we were surely on the right path.
The last part was the most mentally-challenging part as we kept asking the question: “Are we there yet?” Bend after bend, we imagined seeing the top, but it turned out to be a false judgment or tricks played by our tired minds. At the final push to the peak, we were led on by the shouting and singing of our scouts, Lydia and Terry. We were finally there!The sense of achievement was great! However, the rest of the circumstances were much to be desired. Litter and leftover food could be found everywhere, the cold was intense and the trees blocked our view of sunrise – one of our targets. We did entertain ourselves with the “mati pucuk” signboard and hot instant noodles! We soon departed for camp and descent was way faster this time around.Breakfast was a brief one of instant noodles and more curry or rendang. After that, we quickly packed and decamped. The descent was to be swift as we were behind time. Perhaps it was the motivation of the thought of home or the very nature of the terrain, but descent was indeed swift. We even had time to wade a bit in one of the rivers we crossed.
As we came to the starting point of the yet monotonous off-trail road, I was perked by the possibility of stimulating things up. I asked around and finally found someone crazy enough to carry out the plans. After all, it takes at least two to race! Shih Chung would race me down the trail, a journey that would take one and a half hours by slow pace. 3, 2, 1 and we were gone.
Shih Chung started off with a very fast sprint downhill. I could barely believe his breakneck speed, literally! It was all I could do to try to keep up with him! Soon enough, I overtook him and led the way. My descent was to be hampered by my sleeping mat falling off from my rucksack, resulting in my holding it throughout the race. However after that, there were fairly few obstacles, save for the threat of dehydration, the stony road and the constant threat of Shih Chung overtaking me.
After a good half hour of leading the way without any sign of our president, I finally caught sight of him! He was fast downhill while I was fast uphill; yet the trail had to lead downhill most of the time! He slowly but steadily caught up with me. The moment he overtook me, I figured it was over. My pace slowed down and I was done with. However, the sight of the chalets at the entrance was my saving grace! I knew we were near and decided to give it my all. 100 meters, 50 meters, 20, 10, 5…… We practically reached the finishing point at the same time, but for the fact that our finishing points were different, mine being Shih Chung’s Kenari and his being Lydia’s truck! We decided it would be Karlye’s call and shared our only miserable 500ml of water!
One hour later, we met up with the gang. Karlye ruled that the finishing point was Lydia’s yellow truck, which made me 1st runners-up, not a bad result if the number of participants had not been 2 people only! We returned the group gear and parted ways. It was off to lunch for a big portion of the company.
This trip up Nuang pushed quite a number of people to their limits, both physically and mentally. Perhaps some are having second thoughts about the ultimate trip and destination, Gunung Tahan, while others can’t wait for the day to come. Personally, I was challenged by the circumstances, both natural and man-made. The mere thought of multiplying the hardship seven folds is enough to break steel, but it will not break my will. At least I have a team of strong hikers and mates of strong resolve to conquer the toughest peak in Malaysia together with. What doesn’t kill me will only make me stronger!
by Chin Gian
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