The Last of the Great Forest Treks

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Fuelled from last nights genuine South Indian curry meal (needless to say nothing like our local curry house curry!) we set off bright and breezy this morning to trek to Gunung Berembun, at 1812m one of the highest points accessible from Tanah Rata. After a couple of minutes along side of a river with pretty neat waterfalls (easy) we started to climb and the path got narrower as the forest vegetation got denser and the path got steeper. It didn't take long for the pores to open and sweat to gush. It's not easy navigating round tree roots and a totally uneven ground surface with your eyes totally awash. Just like yesterday we were heading up into cloud forest, with its mossy covering. We tried to remember what our guide from yesterday had pointed out in terms of the plants with medicinal properties, that was a big fail! I was able to reflect on what he had told us about our Orang Asli (original people) visit from a few days ago, in the rain forest. In short the whole thing had been a sham. In a way I was relieved that what we had seen was not genuine, there seemed to be no quality of life in evidence at all, but on the other hand I was disappointed that the tour guides had dressed it up as a genuine village, they could quite easily have presented it as a sort of depiction. Grinding up hill does that, time for reflection, since chatting doesn't always come easily as one is searching for where feet will safely hit the ground, not to mention gasping for breath.

As we chugged our way up we were chuffed to be able to watch a couple of monkeys swinging through the trees above us; they weren't hanging around too much though and were soon out of sight.

It took about 2 1/4 hours to get to the top, pity were were in the cloud and rain so no views. This was more typical of Cameron Highlands weather than the beautiful blue skies of yesterday.

The trip down was much quicker, only 1 1/2 hours. It started off very steep, so lots of hanging on to vegetation, but eventually eased to give us a pretty good descent. Apart from birdsong and cicadas the only wildlife spot on the way down was a giant centipede. We had been told that these can be quite nasty, I suppose from a bite or sting, so we didn't try to capture it for photography purposes.

We finally hit the fringes of the town about 3 1/2 hours after setting off; a great little adventure, tiring yet invigorating. As a treat we headed to the local Starbooks and collapsed outside with our coffee and secretly ate our fruit cake too, which had been our emergency rations.

All that remained after that was a foray into the shops, most of which were variations on the same thing, i.e. T shirts (tacky) and touristy thingies that could have been in a shop anywhere in SE Asia. The final quest is to have the Steamboat option for this evenings food.

The photograph shows the Boh tea plantation, the quintessential Cameron Highlands scene.

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Comments

[Johnny]

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Judging by all your trekking and the high humidity it sounds as if the waistlines are in good shape. Thanks for the birthday card and good wishes. Johnny