There and Back again: A Mountaineering Tale

[Saturday and Sunday, August 18th&19th]
A Colleague at work invited me to climb Penang Hill last weekend. I never got back to him and when the time came to go I passed. The next week, he said he and some of his friends were arranging a trip to hike up a mountain near Ipoh. I had to signup and go for it!
So here I am in Penang, all I have for hiking is my trusty work shoes, one pair of engineered fabric camping pants, 2 Polypropylene shirts, and a Gortex wraparound brim hat. Incidentally all of which I used when I climbed Mount Doom (Tongariro Crossing) in New Zealand. So I was a little bit prepared but I didn't have anything else, no tent, no sleeping bag, no hiking backpack. Luckily for me, my colleague's roommate had said essentials and let me borrow them. Whew, no excuses, everything was set!
We started early Saturday morning with a car ride to Ipoh. The 9-person crew took two vehicles, a van and a car. On the way we stopped for breakfast at a rest area. Apparently many of the rest areas here have mini-hawker centers. I had Nasi Kandar which was quite tasty. After such a filling meal I was throughly full. Back into the car we went. A couple of hours later we stopped just inside Ipoh for Lunch. I was thinking to myself how could they be hungry, already! Well most everyone ate, except me, still quite full! WC and I ordered some chicken rice to go in a baggie for the hike.
We left Ipoh on our 45-minute drive into the mountains. The scenery was amazing, lush rainforests covering peaks all around. We got a glimpse of a tall peak off to our left and everyone said, there it is. I saw it and thought they must be joking, climb that in a day? Well they weren't Right up top we were to go, right to the peak. It looked foreboding to me!
Well all of a sudden we stopped at a construction area. I didn't think we were there yet but we were. Just Park along the side an away we go. We repacked our packs, got situated and geared up. The 9-person fellowship was about to begin their trek! We started at about 900 meters.
The entrance to the trail, was fairly grown over. Just past the start was a little hut, very run down and just a basic elevated floor and a thatch-like roof. To my surprise people actually lived there. The locals called these people aboriginals, just like the natives in Australia. We kept going. We were slated for about 4 hours of up-up-up, no flat spots, just up.
It was a fairly cool day for Malaysia, couldn't ask for better weather really. Not too humid either. We were going well, I was getting quite sweaty. You can take a peak at the picture of me on the hill, notice the small dry part on my shirt? Keep looking, its there!
Unfortunately for me I started feeling quite sick after only about 15 minutes. I stopped, some huffing and puffing but much more nauseous feeling. I was lagging behind the group (WC stayed behind with me the whole time, what a guy!). I had to sit and rest, thinking to myself, why did I agree to this? WC had me rest and walk slower. I kept feeling like I was holding everyone back so I kept pushing hard, trying go up faster, harder, to catch up! I just kept getting ill feeling. Soon I gave up on catching up, and just wanted to make it to the upcoming rest spot. I found a better speed in which I wasn't getting that sick feeling. I got to start enjoying the hike, looking at the beautiful surroundings, listening to the sounds. WC got a chance to have some nice talks and the time starting to go by. After about 2 hours we made it up to a resting spot. Everyone else had made it up there, setup their stoves, and were boiling some water. We ate some snacks and relaxed, laughing and sharing stories. Soon though, we were back at it. Our next stop was the 'water filling station'. I didn't ask any details about it but it was supposedly 1/2 way up. When we made it there, the 'station' was nothing more than a small crick flowing down from the mountain. People filled many jugs with the water flowing straight from the stream. Quite intense!
Here's where both the makeup of the forest and the terrain to a turn. The forest was more of a drier place below this point but it started getting wetter, denser, and steeper. I was now able to keep up with the group, and share in the hike better. As we were climbing these steeper grades, climbing, sometimes crawling over tree root, gasping on to trees, to pull us up the slopes I began thinking to myself, "How am I going to get down from here?". Getting up was easy, sure it was a little grueling, but you can see your next step, you can find a nice tree or root to grasp and pull your self up. Going down? How will I manage, that's a task for tomorrow! P.S. Be careful what trees you grab onto, some of the Palms have some big thorns, ouch!

We were getting much closer to the top. The temperature was dropping, we could start to feel a gentle breeze coming through. It was quite refreshing! Then drop, drop-drop. Uh-oh, its starting to rain! We put on our rain gear quickly and started scrambling up the rest of the way. It was already muddy and slippery climbing up the slopes with only the tree roots to use as a solid footing and grip. How hard would it rain? Would the trail become a stream? Will my glasses fog? Well it wasn't too bad, it got more slippery but all in all quite manageable.
It did stop raining and we finally made it to the top! WOOT! We finally made it. It took us about 5-6 hours. We were now at just under 2000m. Thats a little over 1000m accent, ~3300 feet! I did it, I made it! I felt empowered! And it was so worth it for the view, it was absolutely spectacular! The pictures just don't do it justice! I could see the entire valley below and the adjoining mountains! That is, when we weren't in the clouds! We could see the cloud come arose the sky an collide with nearby peaks, just roll over and disperse. We even shaw a 'mushroom cloud' hover over on of the peak, quite stunning.
We setup the tents, there was just enough space for our tents, all right at the edge, plus some space for cooking. (Thankfully no-one else was already at the site, what tough luck that would have been!)
We had some good home-made fresh food. I couldn't believe someone carried up eggs! But we had all sorts of stuff, some spicy tom-yam, fish, pork, mmmm! It was a fun evening getting to talk, and eat, and rest. It actually got quite cold, about 53 Fahrenheit! Very chilly for the people here.
The next morning we went on a mini-hike to the true peak, just a few more meters up, of course we had to go down a way to get up. The true peak doesn't have any room for a camp site hence we stayed at the 'false peak'. That last little bit of the hike to the peak though I think was the most spectacular. The ground we were walking on wasn't ground at all, it was moss and roots. It was a spongy and soft. You can bounce on it, it had to be atleast 3 feet deep. The trees were covered in moss and it was just gorgeous! Just like out of a movie or a National Geographic special. We reached the peak and in true fashion, there was a flag mounted on a stick up there. Felt a little like climbing Mt Everest ;)
We began our trek down. Much easier on the respiratory system but so much worse on the legs! I wasn't sore at all after going up but going down, whew, that hurts! The going was much faster, after a few tumbles, slips, and some sliding. We stopped part way down and listened, off in the distance there were a bunch of monkeys. They were making all sorts of noise. It was surreal to be in the jungle hearing it all!
Heading down, my legs starting feeling like stilts! It was the strangest sensation. I couldn't feel them very well, they felt weak. I'd put them in a good footing and they wouldn't always be there for me when I needed them. They'd give out. It just got worse and worse as I was going down. Very strange, like moving your hips to swing your legs forward but not actually using your leg muscles to move your legs. You'd hope they'd stay straight and hold you up as you swung the next leg. Not painful, just not like they were my legs. Eventually we made it to the very bottom, hurray! We did it, we went 'There and Back again'. At the bottom there was a pipe that was re-routing mountain water around the nearby dig site. We took showers there to clean up. Oh did we need it! Cold, clear, and refreshing mountain water!
After getting cleaned up, we headed back to Ipoh for some famous chicken rice and some Pork Balls. Good meals. Our fellowship broke up and headed back in our separate cars.
For the next few days my front thigh muscles on both legs were unbelievably stiff. I couldn't hardly walk down stairs! The stretching was too much, I was walking straight legged. After a few days though it got better and I'm nearly 100%!

It may sound like I had a rough time and didn't enjoy it, but it was a fun and exciting experience. It was empowering, and majestic. I'd do it again, though I think I'd plan a bit better, maybe do a little stair step training ;)

-Terry