There were two trails leading upwards, one towards the summit and the other leads to a waterfall. At 7am, Stanley picked me up from my place and we went over to Lam's. Jocelyn didn't join us this time around because she had some other plans (TG). However, we had a bit of a difficulty finding our way to Bukit Apek even though we had the road maps and directions. In the end we stopped by at a small little dimsum shop where Stanley had his breakfast of chee cheong fun while I tapao-ed 3 char siew paus which they packed in a styrofoam box.
At 8:40am we finally found ourselves at the foot of the hill. I took out my char siew paus from the styrofoam box and dumped all 3 paus into a plastic bag, just in case I get hungry when I reach the top. Damn stomach always complaining for food at the most unexpected moments.
At the foot of the hill are a few stalls selling thong sui, nasi lemak, refreshing drinks and miscellaneous stuff but that will be a good stopping point on our way down, not up! One of the best things about hiking up Bukit Apek is that the trails are lined with tall trees so even though you were to hike in the afternoon, chances are that you won't be feeling much of the scorching heat. But that's probably more due to the fact that it was a cloudy day lol. However, in the afternoon also I did see some hikers only about to make their way up. Another fact is that the trail up Bukit Apek is mostly untouched even with all the popularity it has. When I say untouched I mean that there aren't tarred roads and such, like what happened to Penang Hill. Of course there is the occasional trash here and there tainting the hill.
Partly covered with rubber trees.
Random kulat.The hike up is definitely not an easy one. There were some really steep trails (60 degrees). There are six stations throughout the hill and before we got to the Station 2, I could hear from a distance an eerie sort of singing reverberating through the forest. Damn scary ok! Some more very distant like that and the forest was unusually still except for the chirping of birds and the crawl of small animals.
Later found our that this uncle is the culprit. This fella climbs up the hill every day and is part of the committee that cares/manages the hill. A very darn good tenor! Can you imagine while hiking and you're already huffing and puffing away some more trying to maintain a reverberating sort of singing. Respect betoi.
Trying to figure out which path to take.
This would have been a very good shot indeed if the tall tree were to overlay with bright clear sky ... I think this shot was taken somewhere halfway up the hill where dark clouds are already starting to gather.
Station 4. At this stage Stanley was already on the verge of his physical limit. He initially planned to stick around this station, eat something first and catch up with us later on. But in the end, his will got the better of him and 3 of us went right on. That was about 10am.
Number 2 is so true.
A quick group photo.
Of all things to happen, right, it started raining. Not just a small drizzle, but rain rain. I got my Bubbles towel and wrapped that around my head so as not to have the toxic rain of KL absorbed into my brain. The trails started getting muddy with rain and at times very slippery. At that point, we reached Station 5 and were heading towards the waterfalls, which unfortunately consists of many downhill trails and that has greatly slowed our progress because of the rain. It is much easier to head up instead of down in the downpour.
2 hours from the time we started out
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We finally reach the waterfall!
Such serenity! We were able to enjoy the view and take pictures around it because there weren't anybody else there. For a hill in KL, I'd say that the water is pretty clean. Not exactly crystal clear, but it's good enough. Too bad I did not bring along my swim stuff otherwise I'd be very happy to soak in the cool springs!
Bukit Apek conqueror :p
I took a seat under this tent set up there and took out my char siew paus. To my horror, all 3 char siew paus have evolved into one single large char siew pau after being squashed together for so long hahahhahah.
Managed to tear them apart afterwards.Lam later commented that I am one tough girl after managing the climb up in those conditions. He said that normally girls wouldn't want to do so *.*
After that it was time to face the harsh reality of hiking back up to Station 5 and then make our way down.
The trail back up was really steep and soggy. Notice Stanley's shins were badly scratched because he slipped on one of the rocks at the waterfall. Poor guy later got a cramp on his hamstrings and had to limp his way down. Lam and I tried to motivate him with motions of roast duck rice waiting for him once we get out of the place but for once, he said he has no appetite for food!
Rain finally stopped.
Cute umbrella-shaped leaf I found.
Gnarly roots!
The very large Station 3. Oh, we made our way down a different trail from the one we came up because Stanley didn't want to go down the way we came up as there's one really steep path. We came across this Station which we didn't come across on our way up.
Stumbled upon a creek.
At one point of the hike, we found ourselves at a path separated into a fork. After much consideration we decided to take the trail that seems to be more beaten. It was already an hour and half we trekked but still no signs that we were close to the foot of the hill. It seems as though the trail we are taking down is further! 200m down the chosen 'beaten path' we met a bunch of uncle hikers whom we did bumped into on our way down earlier. The uncles were like hey, aren't you people going down already? Turns out that the trail we were on is actually leading deeper into the forest to a pond. Thank god we stumbled into these people or else we would be famished and half dead by the time we find out way out!
Completely exhausted, we finally reach the car close to 2pm. Imagine taking 2 hours going up the hill but almost 2 hours down! Stanley was completely falling apart with the injury and cramps. He seemed to be completely blur and didn't know what to do. I think he's traumatized lol.We wanted to get roast duck rice which is famous in Taman Connaught but a glimpse at the length of the line there, we changed our minds and went to this chicken rice shop called Kim Kee instead.
A refreshing drink after a very long hike.
Roast duck and sio bak rice *.*
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