Guru-on-Mountains-wise-not-to-descend. Too slippery.

dear all

im back! 5 daes 4 nites malaysian delight...with a bit of nice primary rainforest scenery (day and night) thrown in! fraternize with the local wildlife! touch the thorns and jump! feed the leeches....so much to see and do...

ok seriously i have 3 pointers to add

1) anyone who calls gunung nuang at 1497m a Hill and not a Mountain should be SHOT. by ME.
2) anyone who calls Bukit Timah Hill a Tough Climb....will face the same abovementioned fate as well.
3) battle scars: 3 blisters on left foot. left 4th toenail and right 5th toenail blackened (with dried blood). leech bite on right hand (dorsum). suspected strained muscle/ligament on left thigh (with associated pain). nearly fractured right patella in bad fall.



day 1

spent the night at newman's house so that we could move out bright and early.. took a bus to golden mile complex to catch the direct shuttle bus to KL. the trip was uneventful, and took abt 8 hrs. arrived KL approx 1700H. checked into hotel room to find chinatown literally at our doorstep. very pleasantly surprised by this. nighttime was spent shopping at some shopping centre, as well as chinatown.

day 2

woke up bright and early. today is the day! all prepped and ready to go...we stepped out of our hotel...into the rain..ARGH so demoralising! exactly what we feared had come to pass. we were wet even before we left KL! thought of "bad omen" crossed my mind. met up with newman's 2 malaysian frends and the 2 guides who would bring us to the top and back. 8 people. 2 cars. 2 hour drive to base of Gunung Nuang. not enjoyable.

reached carpark. felt very garang esp after applying mosquito patch, mosquito repellant and half gloves. light drizzle but raring to gogogo. started to hike....ground was undulating dirt track...incline abt 40 degrees max...so quite ok still. 2 hrs later, we reached base camp (altitude abt 300m) pitched tents.then suddenly the rain got rather heavy. we made the decision to leave packs at the base camp, bringing only food and water. i donned on my yellow plastic temporary raincoat. felt abit demoralised. started the trek to summit approx 1130H.

at this point id like to point out that at 1497m, Gunung Nuang is approx 4-5 times highter than the swisshotel next to cityhall station. thats 1497m of tropical rainforest gentlemen. the track after the base camp doesnt even merit being called a track...it was just a path hewn out of the jungle and periodically cleared. width approx 1.5m. the going started to get tough (what an understatement) ground is mushy soil, and rocks. at one point i distinctly remember sinking my foot ankle deep in mud. ugh ugh! rain was heavy. i was cold, tired and hungry. reached the mid point camp (abt 900m) at 1430H. had a light meal of uncle tobys there. uncle toby never tasted so good and sweet b4. water situation getting precarious cos i drank too much and didnt bring enuf. set off for final leg aprox 1450H.

abt 300m short of the summit the ground suddenly changed. it was mostly rocks, and it was STEEEEP. approx 70-75 degree incline. had to use hands to grab tree roots, and pull myself onto the next rock. dreaded the prospect of climbing down. started to get cramps in my quadriceps femoris, as well as triceps surae haha. the most demoralising part is actually seeing the summit for the 1st time, but having to DESCEND another like 70m and then ascend..so tiring...

reached the summit at abt 1600H. too tired to care! view obscured by clouds and rain. really disappointing!! ate another uncle toby bar to comfort myself. oh i somehow got bitten by a leech as well. so my hand was bleedin and bleedin'.... set off for the base camp ard 1620H

i shud mention that this last part was by far the most morale destroying part...the combination of rain, tired nonresponsive muscles, the dirt and mud, the steep decline, and impending darkness combined to make me feel abit miserable..thoughts of why i ever subjected myself to such paain ran throught my head. seriously the only thing more shiong that ive ever done is ex nutcracker( trench ex) and that was 2 1/2 years ago!!! why oh why oh why....orded personnel shud make slacking their main priority in life..

anyway....the descent was just. shack. words cannot describe my fatigue...i was on the verge of exhaustion. so shack that at times i just sat on the ground and pushed myself downwards. perversely, i rather enjoyed that actually...felt like i was on a slide since the ground was soo slippery hahaha. i didnt even feel very happy when i reached base camp abt 1930H cos i had past the point of emotions and caring long ago. washed up in the river (coolllddddd), ate dinner then crashed out.

*ok the rest of the story will come later im gonna take a break nowz*

3SG (NS!!) Joshua