August 09, 2003

Just a few days ago, I had signed up a one-day Gunung Panti trek activity with Campus Corner on this weekend-cum-holiday. Gunung Panti was in Johor State, Peninsula Malaysia; only 8km from Kota Tinggi town and 2km from Kota Tinggi waterfall.

Elevation profile (GPS)

This day, I woke up very early and reached Masiling MRT terminal at 7am to be picked up by a mini-van, together with my friends and a few rugged middle-aged guys. The causeway was expectedly crowded but the custom moved quite smoothly. We stopped by Kota Tinggi town for eating break and getting ourselves some chicken wings for lunch at the hill peak. It took less than an hour then to arrive at the base of the Panti Ridge.

We followed a short vehicle dirt track before a denser vegetation opened in front of us, inside which a narrower trail cut through. Then we slid ourselves along a muddy slope, and washed away any mud stains on a tiny stream nearby from which we crossed. Soon, the rainforest canopy stole away most of the sun rays. Thanks to the increasing humidity and the continual upslope along the rest of the route, I sweated profusely. Along the way, there were several walking-over or crawling-under those fallen logs, and sighting of blood-sucking leeches wriggling around and seeking any human heat for food. During 'take-five', I stepped my legs to shoo off any leeches. Still, one got inside my socks and left a nasty blood-stained mark.

The last obstacle to the summit was an interesting rock face which one needed to scramble up with aid of tree slopes, ropes and trekking companions. It appeared daunting at first, but was within the capability of all of us. Soon, after a narrow vertical ascend, we arrived at the peak in only about two hours. It was actually a false peak (509m) with a flat bare ground for us to lay down, have lunch and photo-taking. Since we reached faster, we had the luxury to rest as longer as more than one hour. Our guide even congratulated us by offering us frozen packet drinks!

Scaling the Rock Face

Now we reversed our route back to the hill base. The vertical descend down the same rock face was even more challenging and fun. I took precaution of the slippery rocks covered with algae and ensured a firm foothold at every movement. Later, we walked down all the way and took another two hours to return. I was grateful that the weather was good to avoid any slippery and invitation of more leeches.

While waiting for the mini-van to fetch us, we proceeded to a nearby resort and had cold drinks. Some of us sneaked into the toilets and had unauthorized bath, but were caught and penalized for a few ringgits. The van arrived late and hurried us to the town for seafood dinner. Then we completed this trip with a half-hour firefly cruise. Strapped with life-jackets, we board a motor boat which brought us deep into a dark river surrounded by jungle. I was astonished to witness several tree swarmed with twinkling fireflies, just like lit Christmas tree. Mother nature really stored surprises in many corners of the world. The mischievous uncles in our same group were busy catching the fireflies and shining the spotlight at the canopy in search for monkeys.

When going back home, the experience of going through the stuffy and small custom office in a large crowd was horrible. Nevertheless, I felt this day was well spent and the trip was neither too tough nor too relaxing. I look forwards joining some of these short trekking trip in future.