Ah yes, another lazy Saturday in KL, maybe have a lie in, a pot of tea on the balcony with the paper before heading down to the pool for a swim and a lounge. End the day with something nice to eat and drink in Bangsar. Hang on, what’s that noise and the ground is shaking, must be one of the frequent storms we get here in KL. I half open my eyes but it is pitch black, now with all the light pollution in KL it is never completely dark, so where am I? And why is the bed shaking? I realise Emma is trying to wake me and I discover we are not in KL, but Muar! Where? Most Malaysians at Emma’s school have never heard of this town and this is our second visit. So why on earth are we here? To climb the legendary Gunung Ledang of course, bang goes my lazy day.
It’s six am and we have to get up as there are more hills out there to climb. Muar, in the state of Johor, is the nearest town of any size to Gunung Ledang; so we got a bus down here late on Friday night. Now we have always been smug that we are only 15 mins to KL’s Puduraya bus terminal, but it has closed for an up-grade (it was over-due one!) and they have moved all north-south express buses to Bukit Jalil for 4 months (yeah right, probably more like 4 years looking at the state of the terminal now). Shouldn’t have been too much of a problem but it seemed to take ages to get there on the LRT, still we made our 6 o’clock bus just in time. We arrived in Muar just before 9 bells, we tried to find out the time of the bus to the mountain for the morning but there were no signs of any local buses, so we headed off to find a hotel. Emma was expecting a flea-pit and sleeping in all her clothes, boots an’ all, so was pleasantly surprised when we checked into the Riverview Hotel (http://www.riverviewhotel.com.my/index.php?page=home.php) to find a really clean room with fluffy pillows, a separate seating area, smart bathroom and a LCD TV (with ESPN for you footy fans), a real bargain at RM75. Shame we didn’t have time to enjoy the facilities but we needed to eat. We turned right out of the hotel and within 50 paces found a Chinese food court. We promptly found the beer stall and ordered 2 cold ones while we debated the eating options. Food courts are great as you can try a bit from each stall, and that’s exactly what we did. We tried some duck and rice, really duckalicious and only 10 bob (Emma even had some of Donald!), quickly followed by chicken satay and a plate of noodles which came with a small bowl of dumpling soup. We thought we must be back in Taiwan as there was only Chinese writing on all the stalls but of course with my new found fluency in mandarin, we had no problems getting what we wanted. I’m an expert at pointing at beers bottles and showing 2 fingers – works every time! Yes, we had another beer and even had to get another bowl of the dumpling soup as it was so tasty, not the best preparation for an early start and a mountain climb!
As you know I was rudely awoken and quickly up and at ‘em on Saturday morning. We headed back to the bus station but no sign of any local charabancs. A taxi driver asked us where we wanted to go and he offered to take us for RM80. This seemed a bit steep so we told him we were in need of makan, more specifically roti canai, and he pointed us in the direction of a stall. Not the best roti canai in Malaysia but it set us up for our day’s climb. Emma negotiated a fare of RM60 using Chinese sign language with an old boy who pulled up in an ancient city sky blue Merc and we were off.
We had previously climbed Gunung Ledang about 3 years ago and then we had set off on the trail from the Gunung Ledang Resort (http://www.ledang.com/). It is well located as it is right at the trail head but really overpriced for what it is. We instructed our driver to drop us there and we started our trudge up to the trail entrance. We had not gone 50 yards before a guy was calling to us, what does he want? We headed back to the resort and he informed us that the trail had been closed for 2 years! What to do? I could have had that lazy Saturday after all! However, he told us that there was another trail and as luck would have it a park ranger was just going over there now. Brilliant, he gave us a lift and it was a good job as it was 1km back to the main road and then a few kms along the road towards Tangkak before we saw the sign for Gunung Ledang Pintu 2 (gate 2). Then, it was another few kms through a palm oil plantation and the driver made about 20 turns down tiny tracks, we would have never found it on foot! Finally, we came to a visitors centre (http://johorparks.com.my/the-parks/gunung-ledang/map/) and there were quite a lot of trekkers milling about. We were quickly herded into the office to sign up and hand over the cash. Gunung Ledang is not a cheap mountain as you have to have a guide for up to 10 people (RM140), a permit (RM10) entrance (RM10) and a nominal fee for insurance – it all adds up. One good thing is that they check what you are taking up the mountain and you pay a RM20 rubbish deposit which you get back as long as you bring it all down again. All signed up and bereft of cash we were invited to have a briefing. Now this should be informative as we are climbing on a trail we didn’t even know existed until half an hour ago, so we knew nothing about how long it should take or the route etc. ‘This is your guide.....’ ‘What is your name?’ ‘Do you speak Bahasa because your guide has no English?’ – end of briefing, oh well, at least we are doing a different trail from the one a few years ago so that was a bonus.
Our guide turned out to be a 16 year old boy and he was soon bounding up the steps behind the centre like a gazelle. We however, were soon trudging along behind like 2 forty-year olds who had over done it in the food court last night! We hadn’t gone for more than a minute before Emma spotted a snake. It was a tiny baby Wagler’s pit viper, fast asleep on a leaf at the side of the path, very cool. However, even though they are tiny they pack a punch every bit as strong as a fully grown specimen, so even Emma didn’t want to pick it up! The stone steps lead up very steeply into the forest but they soon stopped and we were into the jungle proper. We later found out that we were tackling the mountain on the Lagenda Trail and we passed lots of groups of climbers on the way as this is a very popular mountain. At 1276m above sea level it is the highest peak in Johor and many people come to climb it as preparation for conquering Mt. Kinabalu (see earlier travel tale). However, we were using it as training for our twin peaks challenge in Africa this summer (Mt. Elgon in Uganda and Mt. Kenya in erm... Kenya). It was good training as the trail continued steeply for a while past 3 check points which the guide informatively pointed out. I was wondering what the signs CP 1 CP2 and C3PO stood for! However, it soon levelled and we seemed to be walking along a ridge and Emma was constantly moaning about not even being on the bloody mountain yet! After about an hour and a half we came to a large group of trekkers helpfully spread out all over the path blocking our passage and our guide stopped to chat to their guide. This other guide had some English and he explained that the trail branched here and we were going to head on the left-hand as the right-hand trail would get very congested. It turns out that the trail splits here to join the trail we did years ago from the resort. We were happy to be heading away from the crowds and on a new route for us. It turned out to be a good choice as we didn’t see another person on the rest of the way to the top. The path wasn’t so steep and I think it is easier than the other trail as I seem to recall that went straight up and involved lots of climbing up sheer vertical rock faces using ropes. At one point we could hear vehicles and we soon came close to a road. Yes, there seems to be a road up to the top, so why are we walking? I guess it is for access to the communication mast at the top and we only skirted near the road for a minute before heading back into the forest so it didn’t take away the enjoyment too much. The forest here turned into the mossy forest like you get in the Cameron Highlands and Emma spotted a few pitcher plants along the way. We came to a clearing and we could see the top, it looked a fair way off and pretty steep, so on we trekked. We soon came to a small stream and the guide we met on the way told us it should only be 45 mins to the top from the stream. Not ones to rest we ploughed on (well I wouldn’t have minded but you know what Emma is like!) We soon came to the start of the steep section. The last 100m or so of elevation was pretty much straight up but there are step ladders and ropes to help you up. In another 10 minutes we were at the top, 1276m starting at 100m metres above sea level in 3 hours, so pretty good training I’d say. What a view, sorry that should read what view! Although we had sweated our way up the top was covered in cloud and we couldn’t see a thing! Last time we were up here we had great views so we will have to get the photos out when we get back home to see the view (you will have to use your imagination as they are pre-digital so you can’t see ‘em!). Emma couldn’t even remember a communication mast but I was adamant there was one, but it was nowhere to be seen. Eventually, it appeared eerily through the clouds, at least I was right about something. As we sat getting our breath back, Emma filled in the log book that someone had left at the top to record all the climbers. It was nice to have the summit to ourselves and the cloud did blow over to give a glimpse of the view. As we were sitting at the top an older Chinese bloke popped up, said hello and then headed straight down away. Emma remarked that he looked like he pops up once a month.
We didn’t spend too long admiring the cloud as it was getting a bit chilly so we headed down the same way we had come up. We passed loads of groups puffing their way up, we had passed most of them on our way up and quite a few were dismayed that we had been to the top already. We got down in about the same time mainly due to me trying to roller skate on the way down, had a few tumbles you know. We checked in at the visitors centre and got our rubbish deposit back and had our picnic lunch in a hut in the grounds of the centre. Now we needed to get back to KL as happy hour was fast approaching. Not as easy as it sounds. First, we had to get out of the plantation and then to the town of Tangkak and on a bus to KL, sorry Bukit Jalil and then LRT to Bangsar. The guy in the office reckoned that there were clear signs showing the way out of the plantation so we had to take Shanks’s pony. A huge group was leaving as we set off and we looked forlornly as they drove past, to be fair they were chocker. We weaved our way through the palm trees and it would have been quite pleasant stroll if you hadn’t just spent 6 hours going up and down a hill. Just as we thought we would never got out we saw the road! Then a car pulled up and it was the guy we met at the summit. He kindly offered us a lift to Tangkak which we were very grateful for. He turned out to be a really nice bloke and guess what? He does pop up the mountain every month to keep fit! He dropped us at the bus station and we found that the next KL bound bus was not for an hour and a half. Any dreams of happy hour were fading fast. We thought we deserved a cold drink after all our exertion so decided to kill the time in a Chinese restaurant. Well, if Muar is a full on Chinese town, Tangkak is very Malay. Spent a good half hour wandering round town being followed by the local loon and not finding a suitable establishment. Never mind, we had wasted some time and settled for a juice in the kopi shop near the bus station. The bus (Cepat Xpress) finally turned up and a couple of hours later we were back in KL. Too late for happy hour but we were happy that we had climbed Gunung Ledang and all good training for Africa. I’ve heard there is a trail up Gunung Ledang from Asahan on the Malacca side so maybe we will be back for a 3rd attempt!
Now what are we doing next week, a lazy weekend perhaps?
PS. Why is Gunung Ledang legendary? Something to do with a princess I think. Check this out if you want to know more. I’ll get you a copy of the DVD if you prefer your history visual!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legend_of_Puteri_Gunung_Ledang
