We reached at the foot of the Gunung Ledang around 8 am and started climbing. We were told that it was the 6th most difficult mountain to climb in Malaysia and Gunung Kinabalu being the 11th. This is mainly because Gunung Kinabalu has all the facilities to facilitate tourists to climb.
There were 8 checkpoints all together to reach to the top of Gunung Ledang and I was already panting crazily reaching the 1st checkpoint. The journey was very difficult I tell you! We walked, we ran, we climbed, we jumped, and we had to use all our strength to get to the top.
The journey got quite interesting as we got higher due to curiousity. The air was cooler and the trees were of different species compared to the trees on the lower ground. Everything was wet up there even the rocks, trees, and soil. There were moss and mushrooms too, lots of them!
We reached the top of Gunung Ledang around 2pm. Everybody cheered happily and we had to wait for others to arrive which took around 1 hour or so.
Getting up there was a real trouble, but there were more to come. Climbing down the mountain! It was 4pm when we decided to climb down in which it was already too late. The tour guide said that we would reach the bottom around 9 pm as it was already too late and we would definitely have to go through the darkness. Unless if we ran down, we could make it on time before it gets dark. Surprisingly out of 30 of us, only 1 brought a torchlight.
I, along with some other guys and girls ran down as fast as possible as we started off. I tell you, the whole climbing down thing was a real torture! Nobody talked, we were all moody and mad because we were in pain and hunger. I totally gave up and wished a hellicopter could rescue me. I was even willing to spend a night in the forest just to be able to rest. But my friends kept me going because I would'nt want to be the only one left out. "Sakit! SAkit! Sakit!!!!!" I didnt bother about my life anymore at that time. I sort of ran quickly and hung on every tree I could possibly reach, oh and I even slide down on my butt when the earth were smooth and steep. Once, I slide and knocked down one of my juniors infront of me. She landed on me and we laughed hystarically. Like I said, I didnt bother if it was dangerous and I was not afraid of injury or maybe death at that moment, I just wanted to get out of the forest.
We reached the bottom at 7 pm and we shouted happily as we saw civilization infront of us. Everybody ran and rolled on the green grass , like in any typical Hindi movies. It was such a relief! We had to wait for others to arrive and all 10 of us slept on the grass. It was unfortunate for the other groups as they only reached down at 9 pm. It was a pitty that they had to go through the total darkness in tn the forest with only 1 torchlight. They said they saw things in the forest in which they say were ghosts... One of them must have been the ghost of Puteri Gunung Ledang maybe? hehe, I dont know.
I found out that most of us had the same question in our minds. How did Hang Tuah climbed Gunung Ledang with his "samping" and "tanjak"?
That's where Puteri Gunung Ledang lives. The one in the middle
I drank the water from Gua Majapahit. The water was yellow and bubbly.
Rock climbing with no safety equipments on the deadly cliff
Taman Bonzai. At checkpoint 6
It was a GREAT achievement for me to be able to climb to the very top of Gunung Ledang, I've made a history in my life and I'm very proud of it and I hope my future children and grandchildren would be too. Given the opportunity to do it again? I will never do it, most of us wouldnt!
13th May 2009
Jalan terkangkang-kangkang. No need to explain why. We stopped at Melaka on our way back to Dungun, Terengganu.
And that's how I celebrate my unofficial Diploma graduation :)
