A day before this trip, I told Ayah I feel like hiking lately. I miss Czech a bit too much and hiking is one of the passions I found within myself when I was in that beautiful country. Even though Czech does not have heavy forests like in Malaysia, it was still lovely to enjoy the nature it can offer.
Of course, Malaysia has its own specialties.
And hiking Malaysia hills and mountains are no joke.
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| Self love haha :) |
My family house in Perak is literally facing Banjaran Kledang and this banjaran runs at least 40km long in this state. I have no idea its exact length. The famous hiking trail in my town is Bukit Berekeh, it gets viral just the past few years and we actually used to live close to the hill when I was a little baby.
Can I just use Banjaran & Bukit in this post instead of in English? - it feels less weird hee :)
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| The famous hiking trail for this banjaran is Bukit Kledang, located about 50 minutes car ride from my town. |
I think the exact spelling is Kledang but Keledang is acceptable.
I was more than happy when my high school friend, Puteri invited me to join the trip. Sisters instinct! Since hiking is too tiring for my parents, I can't go with them. T_T
We arrived at the base of the hill close to 8 am. This was my first time anyway, but I read and listened a lot to sharing from other people. It is better to get there right after Subuh prayer (around 6.15-6.30am will be nice) as you can catch sunrise as you hike up.
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| But still, at 8 am, it was packed with many people. |
The best thing to see here was the people, from different ranges of age, different religions, different gender. Well, I love watching people :) It feels great to see people working out during the weekend as I did not practice this before in Malaysia.
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| Can you see the towers up there? That the highest peak for this trail. They are towers for RTM & TM if I am not mistaken. But there are other towers as well like for TV3, Al-Hijrah (just a bit lower I think). |
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| There was people selling clothes. |
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| Our hiking mates for Bukit Kledang - half of them I met for the first time. My friends of friend. |
I didn't study much for the trails as my friend had been hiking there few times, so I just followed her with new friends :D Phew, I miss studying mapy.cz with the hiking trails!
Few introductory points for Bukit Kledang I read for my own record (
source) are:
- It is 800 meters high.
- Very famous for people living nearby and at least around Ipoh.
- With several jungle tracks plus a paved road (people can drive to the tower - but I've seen just 3 4wd yesterday that went up)
- 4 hiking trails - 4-2 (an hour), 4-3 (1 ½ hour), 4-9 (2 hours) and RTM (4 hours)
- To get to the base, just search Bukit Kledang on Google Maps
Not really sure if the time mentioned up there is for one way or two ways trip. We hiked up to the peak (RTM) and it took 4 hours (up) and 1 ½ hours (down) - for first timers I think.
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| A part of the trails. |
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| Man made stairs. |
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| Stairs again! If walking up and down stairs tire you out, try the paved road - maybe easier but it took a longer time. |
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| The most common plant I saw - inedible paku pakis. |
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| 1/3 of the route. |
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| From this point, we can see view of houses. There are a lot of new neighborhoods in this area. |
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| The gazebo - provided by different clubs. One of them is this - Rotary Club Ipoh. I don't know what it is for actually, but I googled it, "rotary is where neighbors, friends, and problem-solvers share ideas, join leaders, and take action to create lasting change." - source |
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| The MOST POPULAR day trip hiking bags!! Trust me when I said I met at least 20 people with the similar bags that time! |
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| A bit higher, we can see different view (other than houses) - more trees and greenery views. |
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| Paved road. |
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| Small waterfall :) Drink at your own risk. I really want to try but afraid of leptospirosis (kencing tikus). |
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| Isn't this amazing? :D I recalled so many -gon names - hexagon pentagon octagon but end up, 'hm, apa-apalah nama dia.' Tak ingat actually! But, this shape reminds me of biohazard symbol. |
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| A rich forest with flora and fauna. Glad we didn't meet any dangerous fauna. |
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| At one of view point. |
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| I am glad the hill is still filled with original trees. A bit upset to see pokok kelapa sawit, getah instead of this one. |
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| Another view from the peak. Actually, the peak is surrounded by trees, so the view is mostly covered. |
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| Our early lunch - nasi goreng, bihun goreng, mee goreng, kuehtiaw goreng. There was no rubbish bin on top. Even if there is any, always carry our wastes downhill! |
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| The peak. See the group with yellow shirts, can you believe some of them were eating taufufa? Fuhhhh. *naksikit* |
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| On our way back, we climbed an observatory area. I read that people who came to this hill, they don't really hike to the peak but just up to this observatory area. The night view of Ipoh from the point is very nice! |
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| Area of Menglembu, Ipoh. |
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| Before we leave, we tried Nasi Arab in Hayyan Garden Cafe, Meru. Delicious! Around RM 15 per person for huge amount of rice (2 choices - Mendy / Kabsah) + a whole chicken leg + side dishes + water (syrup / teh 'o' ais). |
If you come to Ipoh, most headquarters of government organisations - like Jabatan Imigresen, Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara are currently located in Meru. Oh yea, the main bus terminal is in this area too. Nearby, we can go to MAPS stands for Movie Animation Park Studios - just open recently I think.
Lesson learned from this hiking trip (for future reference):
- do at least 30x squats every day for better legs power - Uncle, 64.
- breathing technique - breathe in via nose into abdomen, breathe out via mouth - Uncle, 66.
- start hiking early morning to finish early
- bring a small towel (for sweats)
- wear proper shoes
- wear a cap / hat on a sunny day - scorching hot!
- wear sunscreen - reapply few times
- bring at least 1L of water
- prepare an extra cloth in the car
- avoid hiking alone
We roughly planned for few other hiking trips - in list right now; Mossy Forest, Bukit Berekeh, Bukit Larut and so on. Tengoklah, kalau ada rezeki, ada lah. Ameen! :)
SS, Perak, Malaysia
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