A journey to Campbell near Sogo TAR

disebabkan hari ni cuti yang memang aku blur tak tahu sbb selalu sangat delete email HR dan aku pon xde member kamceng kat ofis, maka aku datang ofis mcam sioot. So, i took this chance to do do a long pending task that i procrastinated which is to go to Campbell infront of Sogo Jalan TAR to buy fly sheet of size of 7 x 10 feet. I only managed to leave off the office at a quarter past two. The traffic as expected was always jam by the time i reached the roundabout at National Mosque and towards the historic controversial Dataran Merdeka; this was the place where protestors and demonstrators chose to run their haram rally against government. Jam teruk which make me to ride my bike extra careful from Jalan Raja Laut to TAR and took left turn in front of Sogo to reach Campbell building. Thank god i have performed my Zohor prayers, otherwise i would probably spend unnecessary time here which i didn't have any intention to do so.

 The store at Campbell where outdoor folks always find their cheap gears for outdoors and mountaineering is called apekebende-mak-datuk-nama-dia nih!? Haaah.. Evergreen store. They have website evergreenadventure.com. Those who have in  mind to find cheap with low quality outdoor tools should come here. The sales girl over there memang cam sial, muka ketat all the way, perhaps she was not happy either because she was in her peak of period season or i was being perceived as nuisance as i walk-in and so-called disturbed her having lunch. In short memang mcam sial, aku tanya buat muka bangsat plak, jawab tak jawab. Nasib baik la aku datang dari jauh merempuh jam nak sampai sini, kalau tak memang haram aku tak datang sini!

 I took my time to window shop & scan through what are the things they sell over here; it seems that the products are the same and the way they arranged things have never been changed since i went here more than a year ago. Sungguih pudar kedai nih, totally different from the one Corezone store i just went to. Pusing punya pusing punya pusing aku tak jumpa gak fly sheet, so i asked the sales girl. and you know what... they have run out of the items since yesterday. Bloody hell... memang bazir masa aku je! In the end, since i didn't want to make my effort a total vain, i ended up buying 30m rope and a bunch of tent pegs. In total of RM30.

Spending on outdoor attires

Harini memang mcam orang kaya aku spend gilerbabi banyak utk barang2 hiking kat store yang jual branded items untuk mende2 yang ciput sahaja; eg xtralite fast outdoor shirt, pants, cold jacket ngn ntah mende2 yg kecik saja. Tapi disebabkan jenamanya yg dasyat maka harganya beribu lemon dashyat jugak. Hanya utk beberapa mende that was less than 10 items i have spent more than RM700. and that was considered fortunate cause there was no proper & light tent at the store in which that was the initial plan why we have gone out to the store, otherwise the expenditure for today would rocket up unbelievably high. If my financial expense for today is converted into a human fatal disease, it'd be equivalent to a heart attack level 4. One'd would be recommended for an electric shock to recover for his pass out.

Anyway, this kind of insane spending on items that was jarang2 guna is not my frequent habit. The fact that i committed such sin was because i just received my bonus few days ago and also the fact that i got my salary increase. So i thought, as a gift for me for being so fucking cheap in everything, i'd say a treat like this would be worthy. At least i can see for real that the financial suffering that i go through everyday is worth a while; bukannya spending on some vacation shit somewhere out of country which in the end, personally i feel takde mende pon ko dapat. Anyway, that's other people's interest.

For those who have experience in jungle tracking or expedition in mountain climbing in particular, lightweight is a life saver. So by having good quality tools with you is something that you cannot put it aside. When you were under extreme and tensed scenario in a jungle, every weigh and size matters and the more tools you have with you the better; thus everything you bring along must be extra light, small in size, dry fast and must be in its highest quality. Well, experience taught me well enough; i suffered a lot in my last experience to Tahan mountain.

Maisarah hilang masa daki Gunung Tahan

Azahari is one of the going-to-be guide who never misses going for an expedition to Tahan Mountain each time the perhilitan authority organise a track cleaning trip every year. We met him on our last nite staying at Kuala Tahan when we were searching for a nice food stall for our dinner. Our plan to just have a light ask-answer question on some info on programs at Taman negara with him turned out to be a lengthy discussion that took more than a hour, yet i found our chat as enchanting and inspiring. The place we met him was at a small info counter that happens to be run by a private individuals; i think the main purpose of giving free info to the tourist who walk in their place is also to promote their business, a souvenir-related gifts. what i found most exhilarating when talking with Azahari was his story about this girl named Maisarah who got lost for 19 days in the jungle during her joining an expedition to Tahan Mountain. Maisarah has become a legend at Taman negara especially to local guides due to her strange story got lost for such unbelievable time, normal amateur traveller would probably die already even after a week not rescued in the jungle. The incident happened 4 years ago, 2008 but still if you have an opportunity to go to Kuala Tahan or Merapoh, and ask any otai guides about this story, their reaction and passion would instantly change to highly passionate mood.

I googled some stories about maisarah and found this blog that has the closest explanation with the one i heard explained by Azahari. Well, most of others in the internet are overdone by either bloggers or jounalist. The one i post here is owned by a guy who claimed he was Maisarah fren. Here

Highest charge rate of guide at National Park

The charge imposed by the guides at National park at either Kuala Tahan & Merapoh considered to be the most expensive one. For a trip to Tahan mountain peak which usually takes 7 days & 6 nites, you require to pay RM1,200 per guide and that charge is considerably the same for both Kuala Tahan & Merapoh regardless if you start off from Merapoh where it usually requires 4days and 3 nites; from Sungai relau, Merapoh to Tahan peak and return.

I remembered our discussion with one travel agent named Badrol who set up an office at Kuala Tahan Sungai tembeling bank, expressed his disappointment with regards to the overly charge rate of guides. Another worse factor besides guides' charge rate is the cost of renting a boat. Some examples here are RM160 per boat from Kuala Tahan jetty to Lata Berkoh; the rate is the same if you only rent for either one-way direction or return. Badrol claimed that running a touring package at kuala Tahan is difficult especially if they want to focus on local market because of cost factor. Just imagine, the cost of a trip to Kuching inclusive of flight ticket is roughly the same as a 3d2n at Kuala Tahan. He even showed me that an expedition climbing Irau mountain at Cameron highland for  3d2n is much cheaper as compared to package at Kuala Tahan. 2d1n package to Irau peak costs RM88 per head and 3d2n cost RM120+, comparing with Kuala Tahan package of easily RM450 - RM600 for 3d2n package.

Well, i'm thinking to organise an expedition to climb Irau mountain in the future as the cost is affordable. Anyway, still hesitant if there are people out there who are interested to join.

Discovering tiger footprint on last day at Taman Negara

We decided to make a more challenging activity on our last day at Kuala Tahan National Park, so we thought of have tracking on our own to one of the Bumbum in Taman Negara deep in the jungle. One of which not really far that requires 3 hours go and return way and its distance is only 3.1km from Mutiara resort, named Bumbum Tabing (1st time i heard the name, i mistakenly thought it was Bumbum Kambing, heh). the route to Bumbum Tabing would be the same as the route towards Tahan Mountain, where after 1 hour tracking, ones need to make a right turn towards bumbum Tabing.

We left off our chalets early in the morning & stopped by at the nearby stall for our breakfast. We plan to finish of our tracking and return back to our chalet before 12 noon, so that we have ample time to check out & intended not to be charged extra; additional of 1 hour for RM10. The first landmark before going off into the jungle was a big signboard showing the direction to several locations with their corresponding distances. At first, the tracking route was easy because we only need to walk along the fibre structure pathways; then it ended because there was still ongoing construction to continue laying down fibre pathways. The jungle started to get thicker and less sun lights with higher humidity. We encountered few wild animals on our way such as a pair of wild black chicken-like animals crossed the tracking path ahead of us, wild monkeys on top of us making noises. There were plenty of animal footprints on the track, most of which were either the malayan antelopes or mouse deers. Then after half an hour of non-stop tracking, i noticed several unusual footprints; i was not quite sure at first so i quickly signalled my girlfren to stop walking and both of us check on the footprints carefully. I was definitely 100% certain that they were belonged to harimau belang! and they were still fresh!.. we thought of cancelling our plan and have no 2nd thought of returning back to the base camp. There was no need to take risk, especially there were only 2 of us. I definitely didn't want to take any foolish chance since today was the last day of our stay at Kuala Tahan.

On our return to the base we stumbled upon a pair of british couple, so we warn them about our encounter. I believed they took our word cause once we arrive at the Perhilitan office, we saw them passing us. The Perhilitan people at the office reassured us that the photo we took earlier on the footprints were belonged to the tiger.

Perhaps, next time if i were with few more people i would certainly go on further tracking deeper until i reach Bumbum Tambing. Maybe next time...

Hanging bridge in Stong

I never know that there is hanging bridge at Stong. I read this story on Stong and its picture of hanging bridge over there.

Climbing Ayam peak at Stong with TNB group

I received a call from my old Sheffield Univ fren asking me whether i'm interested in joining their TNB group for a mountain climbing in Stong Dabong Kelantan 11-14 may. I was so excited and straight away confirming my participation. It looks like going to Stong is my yearly activity. Well, personally i think the waterfall at the Baha campsite in the middle of the climb to the mountain peaks are one of the greatest waterfall ever. So, once confirmation was done, he extended the email circulation on the plan to Stong. Anyway, the mountain peak that we want to conquer is not Stong, but another one called Ayam. I don't really mind cause i have gone up to 3 peaks already over there; those are Stong, Ayam & Baha peaks. I consider this trip as one of my exercises before the most challenging one, which Tahan expedition.

The program from what i see, is a light and easy type. it'll be 2 days and 2 nites, so i guess it won't be that rushing; we should be able to get enough rests and fun time at the campsite & during the climb.

Typical climate at Taman Negara Kuala Tahan

Morning
If you wake up early before the sunrise, you'd normally observe thick mist surrounding the area, this was more obvious at the hilly range behind the town. I still remember when i was in my childhood, there was a saying that if you encounter mist in early morning, that means it is going to be a hot shiny day. The thicker the mist, the hotter the daylight. Well, that saying in some sense is believable over here. It is recommended that you hang out all your wet and damply clothes outside before noon, cause it is the time that is most-best for your clothes to get dried faster. the day would be so hot, you would just like to stay in your room with air-condition at its lowest temperature or you'd want to be under shelter or in the nearby rainforrest. Anyway, i would suggest that if in case you do want to hang your wet clothes outside, make sure that you wash them earlier or just soak them in soapy water for a night. So right before you go off for breakfast in early morning, you can hang them outside. Satu lagi kalu kena curik itu aku tak jamin! One thing for sure, if you hang your clothes without first washing them, once they got dried they will smell like dead chicken or even live tapir. I surely know if i were around close to you if i sense this familiar shit smell. It'd be nothing more because of your own laziness.

Noon
Is unbearably hot. An umbrella would be handy when you walk under the sun. usually at this hour Kuala Tahan inhabitants rather stay in chalets and own houses and thus limit their activities. This is the time when you feel your uncovered head under the sun blazing with fire! (hehe what an exaggeration. i hope you believe it cause i'm no liar)

Evening
The climate changes suprisingly in no time. You wouldn't notice its change if you remain staying in your room perhaps cause you're so full after having crazy lunch, and nothing else that crosses your mind except lying lazily in your room. If you're so, then your are such  a lazy bastard! why in the hell you come here if you plan to sleep & lay back in your chalet? Anyway, about the climate here in the evening; it will turn from originally so fucking hot to thick grey cloudy in minutes. If you are lucky, you can notice thunders and lightnings behind the mountain range far aside just before they come to the town. Anyway, if you're fortunate to escape from having any heavy downpour at this time, take this chance to participate in the rapid shooting and visiting orang asli's village. It's worth it if you have never experience them before.

Night
If you miss the rain in the daylight, then you might encounter them at night, or at least some drizzling. So, if you dare enough to go outside despite the possibility of raining, i advice you to join in some outdoor activities like night tracking or safari night. Safari night is one in which you need to ride a four-wheel vehicle at night going deep in the palm estate; the purpose is for you to observe bigger wild animals like harimau hitam, tapir, gajah, porcupine and dunno-shit-else you can find inside those wood. Anyway, i never tried it because i got this advice from the perhilitan guy saying that more travellers have complained that they could see nothing during their safari night except their own ugly friends who happened to be squatting next to themselves. Thus i don't want to take any chance fooling myself riding 4-wheel vehicle paying expensively where i can easily (i think so) ride one in KL. so i highly discourage this.

After mid nite
Go to sleep laaah, what else you wanna do? Climate change at this time is irrelevant cause you should be sleeping already.

Well, that's enough with my mumbling, if you wanna know more, just kick your lazy ass to come here to Kuala Tahan and feel the experience yourself.

3rd day at Kuala Tahan National Park

We woke up as early as possible knowing the fact that there will be a big crowd today at Taman Negara. Tourists coming either from locals and foreigners are said to be the major reason why there'll be a lot of people here; one of major attraction would be at Canopy walkway. True enough, when we were having our 7:45am breakfast at the nearest warung 5 minutes away from our chalet, we noticed there was a big crowd of teenagers already waiting at the edge of Jeti, waiting their turn to cross the river to the other side of the river bank. We were told that some people need to wait 2-3 hours at the Canopy walkway hut for their turns during weekends. We had our breakfast in a sort of rush and by 8:30am, we were already at the other side of river bank, moving towards Canopy site.

Anyway, foods sold for breakfast by local folks were like pisang goreng panas. Despite of many locals were selling similar type of food for breakfast, they didn't have any difficulty to sell off their stuffs completely. By 8:30am, most of them have run out of stuffs already to sell to customers. Well, believe me, selling food over here for breakfast is like living in heaven! Food like nasi berlauk ayam kicap, nasi berlauk daging kicap, ayam berlada and nasi lemak ayam goreng or simple fried egg are commons here; they were nicely packed up in wrapping paper readily as takeways.

We bought some extras for our meal during our next activities Canopy walkway and tracking uphill to Teresik hill peak. Tracking to the site entrance of Canopy walkway took 45minutes & its distance from the jetty is 1.7km into the jungle. We were lucky because we didn't have to wait for our turns as there was no one at the Canopy site except few Perhilitan staffs. The height of the hanging bridge made of ropes and wires is unbelievably high; truly this is not for the faint of heart, you'll definite pee in your paints ;) it got worse by the effect of the bridge swaying from side to side. Total distance of the bridge crossing was 280metres (the actual one was 500+m, but there was a repair going on at some segments of the bridge, so the authority closed the other half of the bridge). personally, i would rate this as 5 out of 10 cause i didn't feel it as that challenging. But for those who have never tried walking in the woods 50 metres high, you should try it and feel the rush of adrenalin.

Next was going up further to the peak of Teresik hill. I found this closer to my liking as it is more challenging. Route to the hill peak required us to track uphill of additional 1.7km. Teresik hill has 2 tops, the 1st one overlooks some view of mountain range at the same side as Kuala Tahan town whereas the 2nd top overlooks the Titiwangsa mountain range.

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2nd day trip at Kuala Tahan

13th April, this was the second day of our trip at Kuala Tahan National Park. It was Friday, so i thought of not really spending time on something serious or hard as i didn't plan to skip my Friday prayer. So right after we woke up at 8-ish am, we went to Pejabat Perhilitan nearby to register ourselves for the licence and registration to use a camera. Fee for a camera is RM5 and for ourselves is RM1 each. Then we went to a close warung for a late breakfast. Well, at 10:30am you won't get any breakfast-related meals already, what you can get is the meal for lunch. So it was kinda late for breakfast, we go for brunch instead. Ikan patin masak tempoyak and ulam raja; that was quite a heavy meal and that would probably last till dinner time. To be honest, i've never had any ikan patin masak tempoyak before, so this was considered my first time having it and i'm not fond of ikan darat; my response for those who have never had this meal before - you must not ever leave Kuala Tahan before eating this dish, it's worth it!

Half past eleven, we were on our move on the other side of the river bank. The fee to cross Tembeling river by using the only available public transportation river-crossing boat is RM1 for a one-way direction. Those boats are long and narrow where they can only fit 2 people per row. They operated since early in the morning up to 11pm everyday. You'll pass through an expensive yet very comfortable resort called Mutiara Resort on the other side of the river bank; those who have fat pockets can try staying here. There was a canopy walk bridge outside the resort at the rainforest edge where you need to track deeper into the jungle for 45minutes. The track leading to the canopy walk site is easy despite its location is inside the jungle; this is because the local authority has laid down long convenient walk-pathway structure interconnecting to various jungle trails for the convenience of the tourists. We moved on into the deep along the nice trail, however at 10min past one, we return because it was already late for my Friday prayer. We rushed off back and luckily i arrived just in time at a nearby mosque for the prayer.




At 2:30pm, we had a boat activity called rapid shooting; honestly i didn't understand why they called it as shooting in the first place. The first part which is rapid, i can relate because the boat that we use will go against the river rapids but shooting, mmmm... i have no clue at all. That was until i ride the boat i started to figure out why it is named as such. While we were moving fast through rapids especially against the current flow, the splash of the water from underneath will be so great that it will sort off shoot up at us. This was when the fun started, the whole splash of water to you will end up you getting wet the whole body. But i personally think that the splash purposely made by the guide sitting in front of the boat caused more splash that the natural one underneath the boat bottom. He started splashing waters to our face by putting down his hands in the fast moving river water. This was more looked like he is shooting water on us. Anyway it was fun though. i'd never forget this guide whose name is Lizan (012-9596753), he talked english quite fluently but with over-the-edge-european-style which in the end sounded strange. For just a record, his friend named Hafiz (017-9106122) currently working at NKS travel tour that was the same company that organised rapid shooting & visiting orang asli's village for us.


We stopped by at one of orang asli's village at the end of one-way ride. The village belonged to one particular orang asli called Batek tribe. 3 common tribes currently are the jungle inhabitants close to Kuala Tahan national park are Batek, Sekam-furi and Jakun. during the visit, the guide explained some stories about their life and let one orang asli guy did a demonstration of making fire from basic jungle woods and menyumpit. Honestly speaking i was quite impressed on how he did a fire in less than 5 minutes just by rubbing rigorously rattan wire against meranti wood piece. In total the cost of rapid shooting and visiting orang asli village was RM60 (RM45 for the boat and RM15 for the orang asli).


At night, we have another outdoor in-the-jungle activity called night tracking that costs RM35 per head. Participants were advised to bring along torch lights or headlamps. The purpose was to walk at night along the pathway close to Mutiara resort and observe insects and some small wild animals close to our pathway. It was a 200metre distance where at the end, we arrived at a Hide (aka Bumbum), named as Tahan hide where it allows us to see wild animals from far distant view. Anyway, we did see some far distant raindeers in one group grazing grass in a nearby valley. personally, i won't suggest this activity to those who rate themselves as serious adventurer, in fact i would consider it as lame; walking at nite for less than an hour along a nice pathway close to nearby resort just to see wild animals from far away. No challenging what-so-ever. this would definitely my last experience. Our nite tracking guide was a guy named Jaafar (017-9102733) in his mid 40-ties working for Perhilitan department; i guess he was doing some part time job. We sat down at one of floating restaurants having teh tarik after finishing the activity; he shared some stories of how's life at Kuala Tahan national park. In general, most local folks earn their money from jungle-related activities either doing some simple business like menjual, working as guides, operating travel agent business, running chalets or working for perhilitan department or available resorts. In a way, having national park over here have directly improved the socio-economic level of the local folks.

We went back to our chalet after having long chat with Jaafar. It was fortunate, cause few minutes after that, there as a heavy downpour along with thunders and lightning. Imagine, if we still doing our night track in the jungle! Our heighbour mat salleh, i guess few Germany tourists were not that lucky cause they got caught in the rain while doing an activity called safari night - an activity where you sit on an open four-wheel vehicle, going into palm estate searching for wild animals. i wouldn't advice joining in this activity as there were many complaints already claiming that there was no wild animals found during the ride. Well, i guess those mat saleh were having more challenges due to heavy downpour as oppose to the challenge seeing wild animals.

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Travelling to Kuala Tahan national park

It was 12th April 2012, we started off our journey by car at 11pm. I spent some time after work to pack up every thing into my car; lucky that it is a MPV-type vehicle, so i don't have trouble too just sumbat everything inside including few boxes of stuffs that i never look into them properly. Well, as long as everything i need is inside like medicines, outdoor gears and camping-related items, a simple of campak and sumbat inside the car will do the job. We intend to go off as early as possible so that we can reach Kuala Tahan town while local folks are still awake. However, since we took time to stop by at giant to shop last minute and have our dinner; worried that there won't be anything to eat once we arrive at Kuala Tahan, at last we were official on the move at 11pm.

Journey by car from KL to Taman Negara Kuala Tahan took roughly 4 hours; starting from 11pm and arrived at 3am. The route from Jerantut to Kuala Tahan town is bengkang bengkok and hilly. not to mention here that right after we passed Jerantut & heading towards Kuala Tahan, the only single route accessing the place was filled up with thick morning mist, thus worsened our visibility to less than 10 metres. because of this trouble & apart of struggling like crazy to wake up and being driving alert, there were so many cows preventing us from driving fast. those animals were like welcoming us along the road, and few considered idiots still cat-walked crossing the road while we were flashing high beam towards them. memang nak kena langgar betol la korang niii.

We passed by an area called Gajah Mati; there were some rumours saying that some night drivers encountered elephant crossing the roads ahead of them and some saw elephants in a group. they claimed those were not actually living elephants but ghost instead. Anyway our journey passing the road was good. Nothing happened & we never saw anything strange.

When we arrived at Kuala Tahan town, it was obvious that it was already a dead town; everybody was in deep sleep. Looks like we have to find this chalet that my girlfren have made arrangement earlier over the phone by ourselves. The chalet manager has obviously turned off his phone but anyway have left a message that he purposedly unlock one chalet in particular reserved for us with keys inside. Well, i can only say 'memang mangkuk la engko Azli! kata 24jam orang hidup kat bandar. Haram satu ekor pon takde, semur dah tidoo'. Anyway, after 1 hour crusing around every corner of the town, we finally found this Aki chalet. But before go on further, let me give you a good advice on Aki chalet. Never ever ever ever take this shit chalet. It was full of bug, kutu and pijat katil. menggaruk2 satu malam aku tido kat tempat barua nih! Dah la mahal!



As the room chalet is equipped with all basic facilities plus an old aircond but still works, we didn't stay awake long enough. You know what happened next, we doze off in no time. zzzzzzzzzzz
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Taman Negara Kuala Tahan 3days 3nights

this weekend was quite tight. My girlfren and i had a good time going outing to Kuala Tahan National Park. Personally, this place is like a ghostly inviting place to me; i had couple of unforgettable memories in relation to this place since i was teenager and the last one was last year where i've joined in the Tahan mountain expedition. So by re-visiting this place, there were times when some past mental images flash into my mind momentarily. Well, in this posting i won't bring up any past stories, in fact what i'll do for the next coming postings would be about sharing my experience staying 3days 3 nights at Taman Negara Kuala Tahan.

Thank you to my girlfren for her effort to do some research for the last few weeks before we went off to Kuala Tahan. Her effort paid off, as without her findings through internet and feedbacks from our outdoor guru Azli who had experience already staying there, we'd be spending generous yet unnecessary amount of money on our stay over there. At first just like other people who are first timers backpacking to Taman Negara, we'd just resort to taking package tour from local travel agent, where all things will be taken care off by them, from choosing appropriate chalet, travelling from KL to Kuala Tahan, our meals and activities at Kuala Tahan for a span time of 3days 2 nights. However, in the last minute, Azli reassured us that by backpacking on our own without engaging with any travel agent, the cost would differ astoundingly; so we followed his advice. Most travel agents charge in the range of RM300 to RM500 for a simple package 3d2n. We got this quotation from one travel agent, i think NSK something, they are charging RM450 per head, so in total for 2 people, the cost would easily reach close to RM1000. Well, since our weekend vacation is a low budget, we resort to do it on our own.

You know how much we have spent at Kuala Tahan for 3days and 3 nights (take note yeah, it was 3 nites not 2 nites)? Less than freaking RM300 per head! Yesss.. it's worth it.

The distance from Kuala Lumpur to Kuala Tahan town is 270km and it took 2 and half hours journey using pantai timur Highway. You'll pass through jerantut town, where this is the last big town after which you'll only see jungle edge, palm estates and small vilages along the road heading to Kuala Tahan. Don't forget to fill up your vehicle gas to the fullest at Jerantut before your proceed to Kuala Tahan, just in case for precaution because after this onwards there won't be any oil station along the way.

Above is a view of Jeti Kuala Tahan; i know my hand drawing is kinda of rough but it basically shows the day-to-day view at Jeti. The building stuctures on a light brown background are the floating restaurants and the light brown color is the Tembeling River, pls do not mistake it as the usual ground soil. The color of the Tembeling river water is truly thick brown yellowish just like teh tarik. On the other side of the river bank is the other jeti that allows you to go to Taman Negara area. Those are the area where you can easily stumble upon wild animals.

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Outdoor gears

Bought a Petzl headlamp that i've been wishing for endless of time; Petzl Tikka Plus with 50 lumens light intensity, 140 hrs if non-stop usage, 85gram reasonably lightweight and of course at a highly price of RM212 and after membership discount, the final price of RM180.

Then i also bought a small 35liter racksack brand Karrimor at the price of RM167; the original price is RM280+. Wanna use it for a day jungle tracking. What i have in mind at present is to use it for my next expedition of nite tracking at Taman Negara this coming weekend. Both of the items, good quality headlamp & a small capacity rucksack are vital in this nite jungle tracking. I suspect it would be at least 3 hours of walking using not-so-nice trail in Taman Negara.
This is my sketch of Karrimor Elite Rucksack 30L, where i bought it for the use of 1 day outdoor trip; plan to use it at my coming Taman Negara trip.

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Shopping Karrimor, Hi-Tec and Camelbak outdoor gears

yesterday i skip my evening office hour and spend time with my girlfren. We went out right after my jumaat prayer till almost 7pm. What places we went to? Firstly we have lunch at Kelantan delights and then shopping some stuffs at one Sport & Outdoor store somewhere at Subang area. We have been looking for a good brand items such as Karrimor andHi-Tec for quite sometime already and we know that those items are pricey but good quality. So when my girlfren got to know that there is a store that have yearly promotion which is done very rarely we straight away took no chance to miss this event.

The store looks like a fairly big hyper market but with no retail items except of those sports and outdoor related stuff. There are full of good quality items such as Hi tec and Karrimor that are sold at somewhat affordable prices.

Both of us found stuffs that we like and i bought them without long hesitation; anyway since that day in particular was still a week day that's not many people still jammed up inside the place so we have pretty much ample time and convenience to shop around. In the end i bought a pair of Hi Tec hiking shoes with leather skin and water proof, a hydration pack from Camelbak and a Karrimor arm pounch with in total of RM420+. whereas my girl fren managed to get a Hi Tec water proof shoes in which we found out that they are the latest Hi Tec product on the market, a cold wheather suit and an arm pounch which is a little different design from mine and her totalling shopping expense of RM480+. I know that it was a kinda a lot of money to spend in one shot like that but it's something that we should not miss. It's very rare for both of us to spend such amount of money on something so-called luxurious that we might use it for just few occasions in a year; well who can spend outing inside m'sian forest for more than 5 times in a whole year except for those who are jungle-freak folks. But because of my past experience have taught me well enough that no poor quality gear for outing is worthy when you were in the moment of pain and exhaustion; i well believe that high quality gear which must provide the most convenient comfort during outing, then they should be on top of my list, if we have options like financially in particular. so why not spend more on something that you will never regret to use it.

Well anyway it was fun although i'm still slightly upset that i could not find any hiking pants over there.