The Road Not Taken....

It was supposed to be a simple trek to a waterfall... but because of the crowd, we decided to hike further up stream... the paths became less obvious... and the poem by Robert Frost, 'The Road Not Taken' which we studied back in school. And in reference to the two lines:

I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

It did made a difference to the trip.... instead of crowding at the main waterfall, we found a secluded spot with miniture waterfalls and our own water slide......

The day started when we all gathered at Phon's place. His sister has a new dog!!! It's a tibetan spaniel that is oh so fluffy and adorable... at first she kept trying to lick my face but after restraining her, she got the message and was contented sitting (or standing) on me to be pampered...

The face looks a bit like the Chinese Imperial dogs... a bit like the lion also... but the best part is her tail.... =D facinated by tails (like the pokemon Ninetails which has 9 fluffy tails!)... hers is curved like a scorpion but covered with long fur... and wags frantically when PH pays attention to her...

Ok back to the trip, after reshuffling the items to even out the weight (though phon wanted to put everything in his big bag.... it would not be fair, plus he was sore from running a marathon the day before) we head off go Gombak!!

It was relatively a short ride compared to my last trip and before we knew it, we reached the outskirt of the forest (or is it jungle?). We parked the car and continued on foot. We waddled to the other side of the stream and took the path up the hill. It was actually rather embaressing that little children can go up way faster than we could but I have a feeling they do it every other weekend...

At the top was the monsoon drain... big scary tube.... and we had to walk through. Since the current was strong, we did not walk in the water but at the ledge in the drain... I realised my eye-sight is bad because my eyes did not adjust to the darkness quickly, nearly fell into the water (note to self, eat more carrots). Thankfully it was not too long or curved that the light at the end was not visible....

From there we followed the stream up to the waterfall.... there were 2 other major group there, one was a school doing absailing down the waterfall (looks fun actually....) and another was students from UIA (I think) having a day camp... We did not move too fast because one of us kept slipping and we also made quite a few stops for photograpy. The light was nice.... will post the pictures after they have been developed and scanned.

After awhile, tw was commenting on insect bites so I whipped out the insect repelent (works well on leeches too) and sprayed for her. The girls behind commented on the smell, wondering what plant caused that smell which set the guys laughing... (by the way the smell is actually 'serai' or lemon grass that is very effective for keeping away insects... kept my tomatoes pest free=D)

Oh we saw a guy fishing on our way up. I was curious to what fish could be caught so I asked. He told me he usually catches small fishes... not meant for eating but just fishing for a hobby... it that was applied for photography it would be like snapping the camera but not caring about how the photos come out....

Moving on, we finally reached the waterfall, only to discovered a whole school (maybe a slight exageration...) of children had dominated it.... we decided to go further up stream... or in this case up hill. We climbed an almost vertical wall opposite the waterfall. It was scary for me... it was fine until half way up, the person in front of me stopped so I stopped and made the mistake of looking down... then I started wondering how I was going back down... At the same time, there were a group of boys walking up like they were taking a leisure walk in the park...

From there the path was quite flat (thankfully) only going over logs and stones. We then came across the UIA group at one of the pools so we moved on. We went until we decided to call it to a halt and return back to the pool just after that group. Our area had 2 pools and a strech where the water was fast due to the small valley that the water was forced through. When we first crossed that path, it was scary... turns out it was the main attraction of our trip...

Once the bags were settled on a dry rock, as usual Phon and PH was the first to get wet from head to toe while Ben was the last because he was too busy holding the camera. I am not sure who, but either Si Toh, Yen Ching or Justina discovered that the rocks around the rushing water was smooth... and not sure by accident or experiment, they slided down the 'water slide'. It was only a short stretch yet we had more fun with that than on one of those giant water slide in a water theme park

Meanwhile, Phon, tw, PH and me enjoyed the massage from the gushing water after the water slide... it was better than a jacuzzi... only jacuzzies are usually warm while this is freezing cold... good break from the hot Malaysian weather though. From there we just took turns at the different 'attractions'. There was also another slide after the first pool but that was not as fun as the main slide.

We had our lunch there (I packed nasi lemak for everyone) and lingered for quite awhile. What I remembered most on this trip is the Raja Brooke butterfly... it was so beautiful flying in the natural habitat... it seems so much happier than the ones in captivity that just lie around and we could pick it up. There were also many other butterflies and I also saw a frog swimming in the pool.

After that we packed up everything, made sure we did not leave anything behind and head back. We did not take the waterfall path but another path that went through the forest hoping for a less steep way back... my hope was dashed... the other way also had a steep slope down. But I guess it was slightly better since there were more roots to hold on to and even if I did slip here, the shrubs would break my fall... still acrophobia got the better of me... (note to self: get rid of fear... how to climb mountains next time??) and ph arms might be bruised from my grip (thanks for helping me down =D).

There were more incidents on the way back.... Phon got stung by a bee/wasp... Tw's slipper broke, thankfully Si Toh had spare (at the end of the trip I found out she took 3 pairs!!!)... unfortunely in the monsoon tunnel tw lost the another shoe in the current which is probably what everyone will remember when they look back on this trip. Fortunetly she broke the left slipper and lost the right slipper so she still had one working pair of slippers ^.^

Back at Phon's place, his doggy came straight for me... and was following me around when I went to get my camera bag.... she's so nice to touch... almost as fluffy as my bunnies.... I think Phon might actually be worried I will sneak her back with me =D...

Yes, the ball of fluff is one of my bunnies...

So in conclusion, it was a good trip. A break from the city and its hot weather. The journey to the waterfall was not too difficult (except for the heights part) but worth it. A walk through nature always sooths the soul and calms the mind....

However there are casulties such as 2 phones that decided to go swimming, a pair of slippers, i think about 5 leeches (which somehow attached themselves on the girls only), a bee/wasp, and of course tons of mini scratches and aching muscles....

Glowing and wishing she was back at the cold cold waterfall.....