Monday, October 29, 2007

Gabai Waterfalls

Sun is shining, and it's a sunday. My brother, his friend, and I head to Gabai, Hulu Langat for a trip out of Kuala Lumpur and into the greens. There are at least 3 waterfalls in Hulu Langat, namely Congkak, Gabai and Tekala. But I think Gabai has the best scenery among them. There's another waterfall in Pangsun, which is an area where you will reach after Batu 18 Hulu Langat, but it's hard to access.

In Gabai, you'll need to climb vertically up for at least 50 meters and more. Thank god for stairs. The best places is further up, so you'll need to do some climbing.

Once you hit the waters, it's so frigidly cold, I could barely stand for a few minutes. But....it's a refreshingly bath in the tropics. Nothing beats this.

It's one thing I like about Malaysia.

But guys...if you go there, please bring back your rubbish. On many occasions, I have seen liters, not a nice view.


At the bottom of Gabai falls...it's nicer up there..


Half way up Gabai...




Finally reaching the top...there's a few pools here..


But...I like here the best...Warning..the depth exceeds 1.5m


If you go up futher, mostly are small streams, and it gets smaller...but you can walk all the way up, which goes quite a distance. I have tried it, but ended up streams that goes uphill.
Noticed the dense bamboo vegetation.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Balik kampung

After months not going back, I made an hesitant decision to go back kuantan, with my younger brother.




I needed some fresher air, and some timeout to forget about work. And driving back this time, I decided to measure the exact distance (at least based on my car meter), of how far it would take to run. So, I forgo the new east highway, and shoot for the old road. In many ways, I still prefer the old. You get to see more things. Small cities, the people, and even cows.


On reaching my house, it says 266 km. My brother says it's crazy to run it. I am still wondering...when and how I could do it.




Kuantan river at night. It's a 2km walking distance all the way up.

The next sunday, both of us, with another friend from kuantan, drove to kemaman. If you really wanted to see real nice beaches, you should head for terengganu. The water was crystal clear, and not much people. And we also did some snorkelling which was great. I saw parrot fishes , some corals, and I think...even a stonefish. That had me frozen for a moment. Stonefish has the deadliest toxin in the world of fish. You could die from its' sting. Seeing it was pure luck. Because it's so well camourflouged, I could only see both eyes. The rest blends with the rocks.



White sandy shores in kemaman.

Stopping by pulau ular in Pahang.






On the way back to kuantan, we stopped by Pulau Ular. It's a small island just 1km off the shore.



Pulau ular from the shore. It's really really near.


The trees are visible, and there's a small sandy shore. We wanted..maybe one day, do some camping and fishing on the small island. To charter a boat, we asked, cost Rm 100.00 bucks. I, on the other hand, was thinking, "that's a swimmable distance".

Only one complaint from balik kampung, I had sun burn, not so serious..but painful enough to keep me from running. Next time, it's swimming with the shirt on.



I found this ray fish stuck among the rocks during low tide. When it settles down, it'll flap it's wings, and hide beneath the sand.


This is why it's called Batu Hitam beach. There's really lots of black rocks.


More black rocks...

Another view of batu hitam.

Monday, October 1, 2007

Kuantan Beach Run - Where's the run?

This is perhaps the lamest organized run in recent memory. I tried to called up MPK (majlis perbandaran kuantan) for registration, and got redirected to an event management company in Kuala Lumpur, I think.

Then that guy in KL, said that registration is with MPK. So, I called back MPK again. Finally got to a guy whom finally I can ask "Is the registration still open?". Believe it or not, his answer was "I don't know." He said he have to check out with the event management company. So I passed him my hp number so that he could call me back. I am still waiting...