Reality

Last night's news told of another person running into trouble at Bukit Tabur in Melawati. Previously a Chinese youth fell and injured his head and broke his legs I think, and now a female news reporter were unable to come back down after scaling the hill.

My advise is, don't underestimate the hill.

I hiked/climbed up the hill once before and it proved to be very challenging physically and mentally to me. I'm in no way in my best physical conditioning so that is to be expected anyway. But the terrain itself is not suitable for just a leisurely hike.

Before I made the climb, I went looking for information about it on the net and most of it says that it's just an easy climb. A friend told me that his friend said it only takes 30 minutes to climb to the top. A few hours later, I say bullshit to all those people. Probably they were trying to make themselves look tougher by saying it's so easy.

Let me tell you how it is. The climb up wouldn't be very taxing for most people I would expect. It's more of a steep hike through secondary forest and shrubbery. I don't think climbers will have any problems reaching the first peak, where you can see the sunrise and also the Klang Gate reservoir. It's the most scenic and probably the only place you'll be able to sit back and enjoy the view.

My advise, turn back the way you came to go down and it'll be much much easier. For the more adventurous (or misinformed as I was) you can forge ahead and go through the strenuous part of the hill.

The hill then turns into a series of steep and narrow ridges which you'll have to negotiate by climbing up and down the face of the rock, mostly with no safety equipment at all (except for some ropes in certain places). At one ridge I remember having to jump across a gap to the other side. Don't look down seriously, or you'll lose heart instantly.

There's probably 9 such ridges, where you'll have to climb up and down each one to get past it. After all the cliffs are over, you'll find yourself walking through an orchard for quite awhile before reaching the Reservoir entrance where most people park their cars.

For climbing tips, please refer to my earlier post about the climb.

On a related note, I hiked up Bukit Broga on Saturday with Arin and Nizam and I was not disappointed. I will be back for sure! You can see some of the pics on my Flickr :)