Gunung Tahan Day 1 – What’s the Buzz, tell me what’s happening

June 23rd, 2002 at 12:00am

Alright. So it?s Day #1 of the Gunung Tahan Assault. I am so happy to say that I have embarked on this journey, especially because it?s the whole reason why I came to Taman Negara National Park. Gunung Tahan (Tahan Mountain) is the highest point in Peninsular Malaysia at 2187 meters, and it?s deep in the heart of Taman Negara which is supposed to be the oldest rainforest in the world. Can you feel the excitement brewing?

Well, it almost didn?t happen actually because I couldn?t find anyone to do the hike with me and I didn?t want to pay the $140 guide/permit fee by myself. This hike usually takes 7-9 days and most tourists don?t have the time or the energy to try it. Yesterday I was at the Wildlife Office and Enforcement Office several times trying to inquire about my options and it wasn?t looking good. No one was scheduled to do the climb for several weeks. I posted a note in front of the office asking if anyone was interested to join and left it at that.

I spent the afternoon doing the Canopy Walk in the park, a series of ladders and ropes that allow you to walk 25 meters above the forest floor. Pretty cool. Then I went over to one of the floating restaurants on the river to watch the Spain vs. S. Korea World Cup Match. Everyone here is rooting for Korea so it was very exciting. All the Malays were so nervous when the game went to kicks ? they were all chain-smoking their clove cigarettes, eating plates of fried bananas, and screaming and yelling like crazy. Man was everyone happy when they won! Every restaurant was packed. I had dinner with 2 really nice girls who I met during the game ? Lisa from the UK and Shoshana from California.

Just as we were leaving (after watching Senegal lose), a guy came up to us in the restaurant and said, ?Are any of you named Jennifer?? Turned out this guy had read my posting at the park and was interested in doing the Tahan trek too! By that time it was after 9:30pm and this guy wanted to leave the next day (today) to start. So I said ok then, I mean, why not? I already had 7 days worth of food ready to go which I had bought and packed in KL so I had everything I needed. I just had to organize my gear and pack.

Everything happened so fast. I said goodbye to my new friends from dinner, hello to my new hiking partner KC, and then goodnight so I could run off and get ready.

KC and I met at 8am this morning for breakfast, organized the guide through the park, and were hiking by 10:15am. It took some time to clear the paperwork at the park because as part of the application permit, they make you empty your entire backpack and then they count how many of certain items you have, namely batteries, bottles, plastics, and clothing. When you are finished your hike you have to show them your bag again and if the numbers don?t match then they fine you. It?s a pretty strict way of controlling litter problems in the park but actually I think it?s a great idea.

So Day #1 of the yet-to-be-determined-number-of-days trek is done. We hiked for almost 8 hours today, passing the normal campsite for Day 1 and continuing on another 3 hours to here. There are 2 reasons why we pushed on ? mainly because we are trying to do the hike in 6 days but also because it is high bee season and the first campsite was over-run with swarms of bees! I have never seen so many bees in my life. There must have been 100 bees on my pack and gear and at least that many swarming around me as well. A very good example of a time when you MUST stay calm. Even so, I was stung 4 times and JC was stung 3 times. We were lucky.

We kept going and eventually the bees subsided and we were free again. The section between Camp 1 and Camp 2 is meant to have ?27 hills?, or basically many ups and downs. We did about half of it this afternoon. Got to our unofficial campsite at 6pm and set up camp for the night. There are just a few bees here, maybe about 50 or so, nothing compared to earlier in the day, but still annoying.

At sunset we all had to hide in our tents because we could hear thousands of bees swarming high in the tress, all heading back to their nests for the night. It was scary! Sounded like an Indy 500 racetrack. Thank God we have tents.

My hiking partner, JC, is Malaysian (from Sabah) but is now living and working in Sydney, Australia. He came home for vacation to visit his family and decided to do the Gunung Tahan hike before meeting up with the folks. It?s great to have him along because his English is perfect and he?s also fluent in Malay so he is able to communicate with the guide whose English is minimal. Plus he seems to be a really nice guy and it?s also brought the cost of the trip to half of what it would have been on my own.

Well it?s been a long day and we have more kilometers and bees to face tomorrow so it?s time to rest and get some sleep.

The longest canopy walk in the world, so they say

Me and our guide deep in the heart of the tropical rain forest

And here we have a really, really big tree

Entry Filed under: Hiking/Trekking,Malaysia,Taman Negara