Gunung Tahan Expedition

27th June to 6th July 1997
55km from Taman Negara to Summit

On 27th June 1997, it was Friday evening, six of us gathered with 130kg gears in our backpacks, were prepared to set off from Singapore Polytechnic to Tanjong Pagar Railway Station where our train will leave at 2030 hours.

Next day morning 0330, we reached Jerantut (Malaysia) Railway Station. We got to met Mr. Fawzi only at 0715 who was the agent for Taman Negara Booking Counter near the railway station. With him, we arranged the transport in and out Malaysia National Park - Taman Negara.

We settled various permits at Kuala Tembeling jetty, then started our 2 hours boat ride into Kuala Tahan where the Taman Negara Resort is located. During the boat ride, we passed through Malaysia tropical rainforest with Orang Asli (Malaysia aboriginal people) settlements appeared once a while.

After reporting to park authorities, we settled down at campsite to spend the rest of the day, and of course lunch. We met our Malay expedition guide Ami at 2000 and finalized our expedition schedule. We got a new member when Josh (Australian) joined our expedition just on the spot. Josh was a very fit guy, 19 years old but look much older.

29th June, we started our climb by heading towards Melantai at 1000. The 4 hours trek was rather relax as we had to conserve energy for our next destination. On the way, we were quite lucky to be able to see a few exotic birds as big as rooster walking slowly away.

At Melantai campsite, we pitched both of our 4-men Dome tent for 6 of us, Josh and Ami had their own. We had a slow lunch and nice bath in the river nearby. That day was quite free, we had lots of time for playing cards. Communication with Ami was okay as I could speak Malay.

30th June was a tough day, we set off at 0800, walked through 27 hills (Gunung Rajah - 576m was the highest) to reach Kuala Putih campsite. From Kuala Putih to Kuala Teku, we were supposed to cross Tahan river 7 times for shortcut, however the river flooded suddenly while we had our instant noodles lunch.

We had no choose but to made a long detour and cross the river once to reach Kuala Teku campsite. By that time, it was already 1930, we quickly settled down and had our most important routine - Eat a lot. Beside our campsite was Tahan river, the water was really freezing to the extent that I just had a wash rather than bath.

1st July 1997, Hong Kong was returned to China sovereign, but that day, we had our toughest trek. We started off by climbing up a long uphill, after 3 and half hours, we had our short lunch at Wray's Camp. Water source is available within 10 minutes downhill walk, but the color was yellowish like Chinese tea, surprisingly, sweet in taste.

At Wray's camp, we met an American who was heading back to the park, he had to gave up before last campsite Padang because his knee was injured. Followed him were two local Malay guides, both were Ami's brothers, one of them decided to joined us. So it became nine of us altogether aiming for Gunung Tahan summit.

We continued walking uphill until we broke through the tree-line to reach Gunung Pangkin (1462m). Our energy was replenished when saw the stunning scenery, it was really wonderful. From there onwards, we were walking on the mountain top to reach the highest of that day - Gunung Gedung (1830m) at 1930.

Before Gunung Gedung was a stretch of dangerous rock climbing and scrambling, however it is safe with adequate physical and mental fitness. The view from Gunung Gedung was just like a picture of Titiwangsa mountain range. It was dark at that moment and we had to use torchlight to shine our way straight downhill to Padang campsite.

We reach the last campsite before summit - Padang (1400m) at 2030. We had to walk slow as the trail was slippery after a shower. Padang was a campsite that mountain rats roaming around, they were interested in our foods, luckily not our tents. The next day, our guide woke up in tent with a rat jumping over him.

2nd July, the fourth expedition day, we woke up rather late at 0730 instead of 0600 previous days. At 0900, we decided to run up to Tahan summit. The trail up was rather safe and easy as we left everything at Padang except our lunch and some dry clothing. Running up was a little competition among us just to create some excitement.

After 1 hour and 40 minutes including a 15 minutes break, 3 of us step on the highest point of the toughest mountain of west Malaysia - Gunung Tahan (2187m). Soon, the rest join us with the satisfaction saturated our hearts and souls. 55km from park headquarter, we finally reached our destination.

The way to the summit was scenic, the combination of nature and the sky was no way to be seen in low area. The landscape was just so unique that it motivates me to explore higher and higher. The summit was a piece of land filled with Bongsai-like vegetation. After our instant noodles lunch, we took lots of pictures there with scenic background.

Cheers, we had our wine - Whisky before we descended at 1330. The trek down was a relax, slow walk with most of the time chitchatting and enjoying the unbeatable tropical jungle views. The weather was cooling with water droplets kept falling, but the trail was slippery that everyone bumped his ass to ground at least once.

15 minutes before Padang, the rain started falling heavily and the strong wind made everybody trembling in poncho outside our tents, however, we were having a lot of fun in such a pathetic condition. That night, The cruel rain fell the whole night, made us slept in cold and wet.

The next day, we descended to Kuala Teku and was unable to proceed further as Tahan river flooded again. The descend from Gunung Gedung had the most photo breaks, as the weather was extremely well, the clouds just like a huge wide bed on mountain tops. We slept early at Kuala Teku as the next day has more to cover.

4th July, our last expedition day, we set off at 0730, crossed Tahan river 7 times to reach Kuala Putih. When we retrieved our hidden foods hanging on a tree branch 4 days ago, we discovered foods like biscuits were eaten by rodents, leaving can foods and rice untouched.

Along the trail from Melantai to park HQ, we happened to pass by a newly constructed Orang Asli settlement whose chief was our guide's friend. Orang Asli survive by having jungle foods, natural water and shelter build by branches and leaves. Under Malaysia government's help, many of them had modernized.

From there back to park HQ, I talked to our guide in Malay and found out many facts and culture of the Orang Asli in that mountain range. We reached park HQ at 2000 with our expedition mission completed. The very first thing to do was celebrate by having a 2 hours long and very heavy meal on the floating restaurant.

We spent that night in hostel, finally, we got a proper bath and bed! The next day morning, we visited the park's attractions like canopy walk and so on. We left Taman Negara by van at 1700, of course we already had our Banana Boat ice-cream before leaving.