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I
had my hands wrapped around a large Coke , when my watch beeped
seven at night.
I
tried again to recall the reason I was at the Kuala Lumpur Sentral
station, when I heard a cry, ‘Gunung Tahan, watch out! Here
we come!’. It was Nazrul trying to get everyone psyched up
for trek. As I sank my teeth into a juicy Fillet-O-Fish, Ms.Mullen,
one of our lecturers, had me savoring every bit of my burger as
she recited our menu for the next five days; Maggie Mee, Maggie
Mee, and Maggie Mee.
Once
again I find myself a part of this group, the Trekking Club from
the Canadian International Matriculation Program (CIMP), attempting
yet another milestone by taking the challenge to unveil the mysteries
that Mount Tahan holds. Sure we’ve been to dozens of treks
together before, in fact one every two weeks since the beginning
of the year. But will we be able to summit this one? The highest
place on West Malaysia!
I
looked at Mr.Mah who with Ms.Mullen leads the team, as he beams
proudly looking at us sitting around trying to hide our butterflies.
Ah... I can read his mind, I know what he’s thinking, ‘Who
am I gonna eat first if when run out of food up there...’
as he stares at us one by one. Amos, not fat enough. Adrian, quiet,
no one might notice him gone. Jensen, too nice a guy. Nee On,
too hairy. Nazrul, too noisy. Su-Yuen, probably taste like pasta.
Finally, my eyes met Mr.Mah’s eyes, I know he’s thinking,
‘Oh yeah, she’ll taste good!’. Yikes!
The
announcement of our train arriving snapped me right back to reality,
away from my crazy day dreaming. Quickly we strapped on our backpacks
and to our train. As we took our seats in the train, I peeped
out of the frosted glass window and saw Mr.Tan who initiated the
trip but couldn’t make it in the end, as he bid us goodbye
and safe journey. He looked almost teary as our train carried
us away from civilization.
I
pried my eyes open. It was about eight hours later. My head felt
heavy as I looked at everyone whose eyes looked infested with
black rings. The train came to a halt at a place called Merapoh.
I jumped off the train hoping to breath the fresh air of the village,
greet the locals, and perhaps get some a souvenir for my mom.
But as I took a look around me, all that was Merapoh was a road,
some stalls and a sign saying, ‘Taman Negara, Sg.Relau, 7km’.
And that was the last sign of life as we hoped into a decent jeep
that took us to on our roller coaster bumpy ride into the wilderness.
Finally,
the base camp of Kuala Juram an hour later. The jeep left us with
a threatening roar and a cloud of carbon monoxide. Ah, my last
sniff of pollution. Chad, our guide for the next seven days through
the jungle proudly escorted us to the opening of a long bridge.
Beyond of bridge looked like one of the most magnificent collection
of flora and fauna nature had conjured up. It was then when Mr.Mah
barked, ‘Saddle up guys, we’ve got a mountain to conquer!’
with Ms.Mullen echoing him with a ‘Ay yeeee yai yai yai yai’
screech, meant to I suppose, get us pumped for the trek. As we
took the bridge into exile, I glanced at Mr.Mah hoping he’s
not hungry yet.
The
first challenge came shortly with the bridge only a few minutes
behind us. Trekking with sandals as we anticipated a few river
crossings, left our wiggling toes to feel the fresh air of the
jungle. Suddenly that was not all that I felt! A tingling, squishy
sensation between my shoes brought my attention down to all ten
of them. I took my eyes to the path before me and saw similar
to what I saw between my toes, many little reddish brown things
sticking out of the ground. An army of leeches, hundreds if not
thousands of them. Their insane bloodthirsty lust was driving
them towards our baby smooth and tender skin. Nee On began screaming
like a banshee, digging into his pack for the Secret Weapon. Out
came the packet of salt which he spilled generously everywhere
laughing out like a hyena. ‘Come and get me you disgusting
vermins!’ he cried out to the leeches. Ms.Mullen tried explaining
to us that they are here only to collect tax but all of us were
too intent on attacking our enemies.
Nevertheless,
the excitement draw to an end and we headed onwards delighting
on the simple trek through the cooling rainforest. But alas! Our
second challenge ,and perhaps the most enduring one we faced came
to us late afternoon. It rained! We reached our first campsite,
Kem Kor looking like drowned rats. The ala Carte’ for that
night was Ms.Mullen’s delicious mouth watering Maggie Mee.
Tempered
not by the weather, we woke up the next day hearing the gushing
sounds of the clear blue river that passes through Kem Kor and
packed ready to head onwards in a jiffy. Up and down the terrain
we went, scaling up steep terrain, hanging onto branches and roots
and unwittingly sticking our legs knee deep into mud. Of course
the trek was not silent with Nazrul talking about everything from
politics to giving pet names for each of our butts. Not a sound
was heard from Nee On as we did not meet any more leeches.
The
sky grew dark come early evening, as once again a shower of rain
welcomed us to our next campsite. This time it was the Botak Campsite.
The roars from above signaled the worst as we set our tents and
retired into them only to huddle, cold and hungry.
Late
into that night I lay shivering, wide awake, wondering why did
I leave my comfort of a bed and dry clean clothes at home? Why
did I came all the way to have my feet covered with blisters over
blisters?! WHY did I even spend money to do this?! Challenge number
three I suppose, was this, mental agony. Fearing my failure, too
near the summit to give up, I felt depressed.
Suddenly
from outside the tent I heard, ‘through the hills and through
the rain.....’ It was the CIMP trekking theme song! I peeked
out and saw the guys huddled around the stove warming their hands
and singing to keep their hearts light. I joined them. Corny as
this may sound, but away from the shelter of my familiarity, facing
what our primal ancestors faced living out in nature, I found
a joy that nothing can compare to. Feeling numb and frozen, daylight
broke all around us, slightly illuminating what we didn’t
see when we set our camp last night. Where we were.
We
were almost on top of West Malaysia!! Plants grew so low it didn’t
pass our ankles. All about us were peaks of other surrounding
mountains. Grabbing a can of coffee and some water, I raced with
the others to the peak. Determined we pushed to reach the top.
Less than an hour later I halted. Out of breath not just by the
trek but by the beauty of the scenery before me. Behind a thick
carpet of clouds below us, the sky was bright orange. A great
ball of fire emerged slowly and steadily, coloring clouds read,
and then running dark grass bright green. I’m here. I am
on top of West Malaysia!
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It
is true what they say, some places on earth we earned the right
to see. The best part about seeing the best places on earth, are
the people you see it with. I’ll never forget this trip,
not only because of the achievement of scaling the mountain, but
also the personal growth. I faced the challenge of living with
nature, bearing the weather, and fighting my mental anguish. Also
I survived the fourth and final challenge of that trek, I didn’t
get eaten up by Mr.Mah.
Gn.Tahan
Summit. From top left to right: Me, Nazrul, Adrian, Mr.Mah, Ms.Mullen,
Nee On, Jensen; from bottom left to right: Su-Yuen, and Amos.
(picture from Mr.Mah)
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