Pengalaman Masa Silau - Gunung Ledang

(ALL pix courtesy of Aiman - i curik so cause i know you won't mind :p)

When Aiman called me up on one fine day to join the expedition to Ledang, I was overwhelm with joy. It’s been a while since I got geared up for any action-packed adventure, so it was an instant agreement on my side.

When I put down the phone, it suddenly struck me. It has been a while since I last work out in the gym. I squeeze on my arm muscle and starting jumping up and down to measure the strength I’ve got prepared for the expedition. You see, climbing the 6th hardest mountain in Malaysia is not an easy task. I was gasping for air after the 5th jump, and look ridiculously embarrassed when my brother came into the room. “Looks like someone badly needed to shed off those weights huh” he said.

So I advocated myself to running and lifting weight in the gym for the next one week. It was definitely a crash effort, but nevertheless worth the shot. I need to be mentally and physically prepared, as well as try to at least look good in my sports attire.

I was all geared up that fine Saturday morning. The 2 ½ drive was nothing compared to the sole admiration for the beautiful green lushes. With the spirit of Malaysia Boleh, a group of 15 of us went marching ahead while humming the song “Inilah Barisan Kita, Yang Mahu Mendaki…”.

The joy was not just mine. We had Amir, our evergreen entertainer who would sing all the Malay songs you could imagine dated from the 70s. I wasn’t sure whether it was the exhausting hour going up the hill or the exhausting sound of Amir’s sometime not-so-lovely voice that made us decided took the took a 10 minutes break, but it was indeed the break we need.

I wasn’t sure why, but then it had just occurred to me there and then. “Isn’t this the mountain where the story of Puteri Gunung Ledang originated?” Choi! Everyone gave me the unbelievable stare, and Amir quietly whispered to me, “You don’t talk about the mystical creature whenever you are in a jungle. It’s forbidden for whatever reason that you should be aware off”

I suddenly had cramp in my stomach. I gulp the remaining saliva in my mouth and gave the frightful look back to Amir. My good friend Aiman then winked and we continue our journey up the challenging hill.

The trail was a tricky one, and definitely the Nike shoe that I had for the last 4 years is not up to it. But the real challenge has yet to come. We had the shocked of our life looking at the steep rock curving 90 degrees that we had to climb. There was no safety harness and felt relief that the wall climbing experience I had in Summit before has become a worthwhile investment.

As We reached the top of Gunung Ledang, there was a sigh of relief from all as we inhale the fresh purified air, and the feel of wind brushing our hair. We didn’t had the Malaysian flag with us, or else I bet you that it would be the typical picture of climbers with the Malaysian flag and fist going up the air plastered on my office wall.

Aiman and I decided to enjoy our time climbing down admiring the beautiful scenic view. We thought that as we are walking in the middle, we are not too far off from the front group and if we couldn’t catch up, we could always fall back with the rest of other team at the back. So Aiman the photographer decided to snap more pictures of the creatures of the jungle, and of yours truely of course.

We were almost ¾ way down the mountain when we lost the earlier trail. We can still hear Amir’s loud voice singing Ekamatra’s song from behind. Aiman pointed out to a big opening on the right side of the trail, but I was hesitant on following the trail. Well, girls may not be good at road signs or remembering the street, but we do have good intuition about certain things.

There were no other trail that was visible; hence I decided that I might be wrong, as always. The route was slippery, and the ground was covered all over with fallen leaves. It doesn’t at all look like the familiar trail that we’ve taken.

My feet were already killing me that I tried hard to focus on getting down the mountain as quick as I can. And in all that time, I was thankful that Aiman was there at my side. I slipped and fall at times, and had to crawl down in order to keep myself at balanced. It has been a while since the wind carried Amir’s tune, so we were sure that we are no longer on the right trail, but we remain silent to the probable fact that we might be lost.

I was in painful tear of joy when we finally found a trail leading towards another familiar route. I didn’t want to look back at the 30 minutes detour we had. As we reached the base camp, we saw the familiar looking group waving and jumping in joy. Apparently we were 1 hour behind the last group, and they were about to notify the authority if we did not show up within the next 10 minutes.

I wasn’t sure about what had happen. We had finally broken our silence on the way back to Kuala Lumpur. “I think we got lost” was the first sentence that Aiman managed to utter to myself and 3 other friends who rode the car. “But I thought that you were sure about the way?”, I said.

Apparently he didn’t want me to worry, and kept my focus by saying that we were almost there. He knew that there was something unusual with the gigantic tree that he kept seeing on our way down. He felt like we were being watched. Aiman may sound like a Muslim name, but it belongs to a Chinese boy called Eng Yao. Realising the fact that we may have fallen to the passage of some mystical force, he tried to recite the various religious texts he knew .. Christian, Buddhist to even rehearsing Bismillah in his head. He couldn’t finish any of the content, and felt the shivering cold wind gushing through.

I clearly was more focused on the thumbing paint of both my feet, that I didn’t felt anything supernatural about it. But Amir then gave me the frightful look that said, “I told you that you should not mention the mystical creature, for whatever reason that you should be aware off”.

Could it be the reason, or are we just two stubborn climbers who should have followed the big group instead of trying to be smart? For whatever it is, shh… just an advice, When you go to the jungle, never mention about the mystical creature … well, for whatever reason that you should be aware off. And this is a true story that has happen back in May of last year. Peace and out.