Irau - The hike

At the end of the wooden walkway (which i mentioned in the introduction post), you will be greeted by the green and muddy forest. That is when i realized that what Em Kay said is so true --> IF IT AINT MUDDY IT AINT NO TRAIL. :P

But Subhanallah...cantik sgt!

The key point here is to just follow the foot steps of the people in front of you. If they are safe, so do you. :P Else, you might land your feet in a pool of mud and need to slowly wiggle it out. Thus, it is better not to bring a brand new shoe, else it will break your heart to thousand pieces to see how it turned out at the end of the hike. According to Em Kay, the mud have a low acidic PH which can result in the shoe sole peeling off slowly. It happened to M. :P I guess it's true as for me who does not wear any glove, it take days to really wash off the mud from my hand. Tips again, do bring a pair of glove. ;)

Photos taken from Kak Ilah. The front pack with CC, our volunteered guide.

Around 1hr or so, we reached anak irau, the false peak. It's just a small area for a rest. From here, we need to descend again. The route is like a W shape where u decent down, ascend, descent again, and ascend and so on so forth, i lost count. On the hike back, this trend could actually be demotivating as well. :P

At the last ascend when you are about to reach the top, that's one of the most magical spot of all. It's like surreal such a place ever exist, especially in Malaysia. :)

There is also this part which those who had climb Gunung Kinabalu able to relate.

And finally, we reached the top!

To sum it up, i would say Irau is quite a challenging hike. ;( Somehow, i find it harder than G.Kinabalu. Hmm..let's just see...GK is mostly stairs, it have toilets all the way at every stop, you bump into many people along the way, you will never get lost. While Irau require you to plan your every step, which root to hold on, which branch to grab, and mind you, the most important thing is NO TOILET, not even at the camp site. It's mother nature & you. Go figure.

Whatever it is, i am glad to say...i've climb Gunung Irau. :)

We made it!

Hiking is going to take a short break, at least for a while. :P

Irau - The Drive Up

As mentioned in previous post, for the drive up to the camp site , one need to go through a narrow winding road. Well, if we knew it will be like this, maybe ... just maybe....we might opt for camping. :P I don't mean to scare you with this 6am shot... drive slow and carefull, there should not be any problem. Just make sure you survey the road first, like we did, during daylight. ;)

Reach camp site......Yeah!

Gunung Irau - Introduction

Truth to be told, i never heard of Gunung Irau before. So does many people. :P Whenever i told people that i am going to Gunung Irau, the next question will be, where is it?

Gunung Irau is in Cameron Highland, Pahang. The nearest landmark would be Equatorial in Brinchang. Look for this road with that small sign saying "Gunung Brinchang 9km" and also that big sign on Sungai Palas Boh Plantation, Mossy Forest... etc.

Once up there, follow this sign.
Oh man...i gotta tell u.... the road is a bit narrow. At some part of the road, only 1 car can pass through. If you are used to the road at Feringghi Penang, then u can imagine driving a narrow road like that up a hill. (T_T) Nobody told us about this! So, the tips over here is make sure u bring a good car. The smaller the better i guess. :P Kancil FTW! Lowered2 sume tak mau naaa....

When u see this base camp, you are there!

Well, if you wanted to survey the place, then i would say go for it! As there is this really nicely built wooden walkway for those non-hikers to venture into the area. Really nice!

So now, next time u go to Cameron Higland, u know where to wander off...... ;)

Accomodation - Cameron Highland

The main reason for this latest trip is to hike up Gunung Irau. Marlina found an event in facebook and she forwarded it to us. In the end, 5 of us (from the last trip to Gunung Kinabalu ) decided to join. Fazot, M, Aida , Lily & Me.

A week before the trip started, i had a slight pain on my right toe nail. It was actually an old injury from my previous hiking trip. I thought it will heal in time, but unfortunately, it just got worse. Not willing to jeopardize my hike, i went to have the doctor pull it out. At first, i thought it will just be a small procedure. But what happened was i need to do a minor operation. First time in my life. (T_T) After the operation, i was still worried that i might not be fit enough to go hiking. But thankfully, the doctor confirmed that everything is well and i am safe to go. YeaH!

As for the trip, it was mentioned in the Event Page that we can opt for camping or find our own accomodation. Knowing that there is no water supply at the camping site and we do not have much camping experience, what more a tent, we decided to book an apartment.

Since the meeting point will be at Equatorial, we opt for apartments in Brinchang. Found this website, which was straightforward enough. I immediately booked through the web, but did not receive any news from them. So, i give them a call and a guy called Simon attend to our request. After checking a few apartments, we finally settled with Honeymoon Villa with RM300/nite. Cheap? Expensive? Not sure....I guess, it's not bad for RM60/person as the reason we wanted to stay at an apartment vs hotel is because we wanted to cook our own food. (^_^)v



Honeymoon Villa apartment is located a little behind Iris Hotel. Quite secluded. Which can be quite scary if you want to walk out at night. But once u reached the apartment, it is actually quite a happening/safe place as there are permanent residents there. It has 3 big rooms with bathroom each and a decent kitchen. However, i would suggest one to bring their own cooking utensils for any apartment stay.;)

There are actually many other choices at Brinchang. For example, i saw this hotel nearby the market, it's called Hill Garden Lodge, which range ~RM60/nite as well...however, the review says that it could be quite noisy at night as it's right by the road side. Iris Hotel also have a good rate. So, i guess, decide how you want your stay to be....and just choose one that suit your need. :)

Expect the unexpected

We had it all planned. 8am for departure.8.30am for rendezvous with M at McD Juru. Arrive early at Cameron for sightseeing. Check- In & get some rest. Meet up with hikers.

As the saying goes…. Kita hanya merancang…..

Just as we are approaching Simpang Pulai, the cassette player suddenly stopped, followed by the air cond. We thought to ourselves, “no radio and no air cond….hmmm… small matter”….. but then, as we were about to exit, guess what, signal is not functioning! JENG JENG JENG……. Still, we tried to maintain calm and agreed that we should not stop by the highway but after the toll instead. Luck is still on our side as we spot 2 Plus patrol men. I guess, it's the last straw of luck that we had as right after that, the car stalled.

Our heroes of the day managed to detect the problem, and the culprit is called alternator. ;(

Another saviour was then called.

We were then towed back to Tambun.

Where we were told to wait at a nearby restaurant while problem is being fixed.

Oh well...problem happens and most of the time what we should do is think positive, right?
30mins, 1hr, 1hr and 45mins......

Positive energy started to run out.

The mechanic has called for spare part from ~12noon....and it only arrived ~1.45pm. (T_T)

We made a few phone calls to consult our situation, whether we should stay or proceed with other options. In the end, we chosed to stay as it seem the best choice at that time.

culprit #1

culprit#2

Yes. There are 2 culprits. The 2nd one was discovered after the 1st spare part arrived. ;( Luckly, this one does not need to wait for long. In the end, all was fixed around 3pm.

Some would say that, when things started to go wrong, it's a bad omen.
But hey..... obstacles are meant to be overcome. ;) So, the journey continues.....

Current Currency Exchange

Korea - Flight Tickets

Normally, i only write about a trip once it's done. Ye lah..benda belum jadik, malas la nak gebang.
Tapi kali ni try a different method lak. I will write on every preparations. Hopefully, everything goes well. :)

So, for the 1st entry, here is what we manage to get from Air Asia:-

Merci!

There are a few videos which i have not posted yet from Europe trip.

Here's the 1st one... :)