Whichever, most of the nine Singaporeans who got lost in the Gunung Panti forest reserve near Kota Tinggi, Johor, were reluctant to show their faces.

If they were feeling embarrassed, they have good reason.

After all, even beginners can do the Panti trek in about six hours.

But this group ignored some fundamental rules on jungle trekking.

First, they went against advice not to climb the mountain because of heavy rain.

Then, they left without informing anyone. So when they got lost, no-one knew.

Worse, they wandered off the beaten path to try a new route. They reached the top without problems but on the way down, they lost their way.

Did they mark their route up so they could follow it down?

Only they can say, but they have returned home without talking about their bad experience except to the Malaysian police.

The New Paper tried to speak to one of the hikers, Mr Hashim Jumadi, 26, but the woman who answered the handphone last night said he was not available and she declined to comment.

This morning, a woman answered and claimed it was a wrong number.

Mr Hashim is believed to be a teacher leading the other eight, who are polytechnic students, reported the New Straits Times.

The group might still be lost if a handphone had not come to their rescue.

Curiously, it was the only working handphone as the batteries of the others had died.

Mr Hashim called the resort they were staying in for help. With that one phone and its fast draining battery, rescuers were able to guide them to safety.

At 2pm on Tuesday, the group, made up of five men and four women aged between 18 and 29, took off from the Kota Rainforest Resort near the base of Gunung Panti.

They had planned to scale the 513-metre mountain and return to the resort by nightfall.

Mr Hashim had done the trek a few times before. But at about 6pm on Tuesday, they realised they were lost.

At noon yesterday, a receptionist at Kota Rainforest Resort, Miss Sumathi Sundran, 21, received their distress call. It is not known why they took so long to call.

She told The New Straits Times that the group had been advised to hold off their climb because of heavy rain.

One of the rescuers, Mr Jaafar Sinon, told The New Paper: 'Singaporeans come here a lot, but they usually don't inform people when they intend to start and finish their hikes. They should do this to be on the safe side.

'If not for the handphone, no-one would even have known that they were lost.'

Batu Ampat police station officer-in-charge Yusof Muda confirmed the hikers did not register at the station before attempting the mountain, as required.

Among the rescuers were 16 fire-fighters from the Kota Tinggi fire department, separated into three search groups.

Seven policemen formed a fourth group.

Before starting the search operation, they studied a map of the reserve, which comprises three hills surrounding the Kota Tinggi Waterfall.

The rescuers, who kept in touch with Mr Hashim's phone, were glad to hear that no-one in the group was hurt.

Although the area was quite remote, the reception was good enough for the search party to give instructions on finding the trail out of the reserve.

Mr Jaafar, who headed one of the fire-fighter teams, said in Malay: 'There were times when there was no signal, but we managed. They had only one phone with the battery still working, so the conversations had to be short.'

The Singaporeans were found at about 6pm yesterday. Mr Jaafar said there were no tears of relief, just many tired faces.

'They may not have brought food with them because they planned to return by dinner time on Tuesday. They asked us to take them somewhere to get food,' he said.

After they gave their statements at the nearby Batu Empat police station, they boarded a bus to Singapore at about 8pm.

Mr Jaafar said the hikers didn't want to say much after they were found.

In December 2001, Anderson Junior College student Wong May Chen fell into a river and drowned while trekking to this waterfall.

- Additional reporting by ZAIHAN MOHD YUSOF

WHEN Mr Ben Lee goes trekking, he takes no chances.

He carries not just extra handphone batteries, he takes three phones with him.

'Two with autoroam and one without.

'If one runs out of battery or stops working, I just change the SIM card,' said Mr Lee, who has been a nature guide for three years.

Here are some other safety tips from him: