Hiking and Stuff: 2014

Tabur Hill (Extreme Entrance) via Kemensah

Distance: 7.5km
Elevation Gain: 450m
Rated: 3.0/10

As continuation from the previous entry, Tabur Hill (West Entrance), the story here will be similar.

Tabur Hill offer nice hiking and rock climbing experience for anyone who scale this hill. Tabur Hill, even with all the accident reports, I would still consider this side of the hill (west side) to be very safe as long as the hiker know his or her limit and know what he or she is doing. Do note, I would not recommend this hill to be the first hiking trip for any new hiker but go ahead if only you feel confident and would also not encourage hiking on the mountain while raining or right after the rain as the rock will be slippery.

To get to the path of the hike, one can use the following destination, "Jalan Taman Zooview, Kampung Kemensah" or [3°13'19.564"N 101°46'43.265"E]. You can park your car at the side of the road, just make sure it is not blocking the road as the road can be narrow. Just like the west and east entrance, there is no public facilities provided here.

A map to the entrance of Tabur Hill Extreme from Monash University Malaysia

Zoom in map

Turn left here at the fishing pond, drive a bit more. The first entrance will appear on the left (dirt road)

To get to the start of the path, right after turning left at the fishing pond, the first dirt road / ATV off road on your left is the starting point of Tabur Hill Extreme. Do take note, this part of the Tabur Hill is rarely visited by your everyday regular hiker so the forest can be quite virgin with overgrown bush making navigation through the mountain tougher. I do recommend to bring "parang" for this hiking trip with long pant.

The hiking trail (Mapmyhike apps.) or
https://www.strava.com/activities/1580984650

GPX File Link:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/0sg83pd2jb7yu9e/Tabur%20Extreme.gpx?dl=0

Tabur Extreme for me has the best view among the other two Tabur Hill, West and East, though, this hiking trail is rarely touch by hiker which mean the forest can be rather virgin. Overgrown bushes that almost cover the trail. Thorn and thorn that scratches your leg. Moreover, there quite a fair bit of fork road here but using common sense, the hiking path is quite obvious. However, I would say this hill does not have a lot of rock climbing like West and East and I do find this place safer compare to the other two. The view up here is worth the climb. We even spotted Genting Highland at the horizon.

Once at the end, you can even see the whole Tabur range from Tabur Far East all the way to Tabur West, hiker at Tabur East can even be spotted but of course with the use of binocular. We took around 1.5 to 2 hours up to an elevation of around 330m +-. It could have been faster if not for all the low overgrown bush that I was busy clearing off ...

The "main entrance" of the Tabur Hill start after roughly 30mins+ of hiking through the ATV trail and from there onward are all hiking trail. There are a few fork road before reaching the "main entrance" though. Below are the way to avoid getting lost in Tabur Extreme.

1st fork road: Turn Right here at the hut

2nd fork road: up left to Tabur Extreme "main entrance"

3rd fork road: up left to Tabur Extreme "main entrance"

Do note: There is a lot of small road forking out between 1st and 2nd fork road, just keep following the main ATV road. Also, the 3rd fork road come immediately after the 2nd fork road.

Tabur Extreme "main entrance" after the third fork road

4th fork road: left to dead end with limited amount of view (short distance only), straight to the go the bottom of the hill (I don't know where this go, but it down the hill), right to Tabur Extreme peak

5th fork road: left toward false peak of Tabur, down right to the true peak of Tabur Extreme

6th fork road: up left toward Extreme Peak, down right may lead you to Tabur Far East but I have not personally taken that route yet, it just an instinct

Hiking toward the "false peak"

The "false peak"

Hiking toward Tabur Extreme

The overgrown low bushes blocking the path

Genting Highland at the horizon (nearing Tabur Extreme peak)

On top of Tabur Extreme, overlooking Tabur West (at furthest end peak) to Tabur Far East (the closest peak)

On top of Tabur Extreme

This is Tabur Extreme, a hill rarely touched by hiker. It quite easy to get lost here but the view up here is much spectacular than all my Tabur hike to a point where I am not planing to go toward Tabur Far East. (note: Tabur Far East trail is much more virgin than Extreme trail). Definitely a place to go if you want something different from your usual hike in Tabur Hill.

On the side notes: Before reaching this peak, there were two failed hike. The first is we were not able to find the entrance from "Sunway Ridgeway" area since this area construction has done it best to destroy a lot of thing.....

Second failed hike was two wrong turn which ended us up running out of sunlight to reach the peak (we started our hike at 2pm), only able to reach the "false peak"

2nd failed trip toward the peak of Tabur Extreme. (we took straight at the 4th fork road which ended up almost at the bottom of the hill and took left at the 5th fork road which ended up at the "false peak"

Last edited: 14/10/2014

Muka Head via Penang National Park entrance and Monkey Beach

Rated: 3.0/10

A hike in Pulau Pinang National Park. There always a saying where Pulau Pinang beach is usually dirty (And yes, Batu Ferringhi beach is consider dirty to my opinion), but this usually only refer to the tourist spot. Pulau Pinang still have very nice beach to enjoy much and such beaches are Pantai Kerachut and Monkey Bay. To get here, "5°27'35.658"N 100°12'23.062"E" or "Jalan Hassan Abas, Pulau Pinang" can be set in Google Map. There are general public facilities well prepared here such as toilet and car park. Hiker would also need to register at the counter before hiking.

The map to the entrance of P.P National Park

The map to the entrance of P.P National Park (zoom in)

There is a handful of hiking path in this national park, but fear not, all the fork roads have sign to where it leading. As mention before, the beaches here are very clean, though, were not only there for the beach. As usual, I like hiking up tall places to view the scenery which in this case is Muka Head Lighthouse. Our path were from the entrance, through both an university site beach (30min+) and Monkey Bay beach (1hour+) and finally Muka Head Lighthouse (1.5 hours+).

Trail route taken (Mapmyhike apps.)

With the height of around 200m+, the view around P.P. National Park can only be seen on top of the lighthouse which is open to the public from 9am - 3pm. Basically, you can climb to the top of the lighthouse and also it interior (just hope they don't out-of-nowhere turn on the light when you are in the "light room"). Though, the lighthouse corridor is narrow and will not fit a lot of people. The best part of this hiking trip is one get to swim at the ocean later after the hike. This hike can be done by anyone, with or no experience of hiking. The only steep elevation will be toward the lighthouse while other are just flat land. FYI, Monkey Bay and the university site beach does not have a strong current since of the geographical layout (I think). There is one more beautiful beach that the national park has to offer, Pantai Kerachut. Heard the waves there are stronger but jellyfish is plentiful.

Main Entrance

Hiking along the beach

Hiking toward the lighthouse

The lighthouse

Swimming at Monkey Bay

Usually most hiker would only come here for the beautiful beach, some even overnight camp at Monkey Bay. Nevertheless, this is one place to find nature almost untouched by the overwhelming tourist. Would definitely come back here just to enjoy the scenery here. Hack, might even camp here if given a chance. (P.S. there actually a boat ride to Monkey Bay, but why take boat when hiking is free of charge and healthier ;) ).

Edited: 26/9/2014

Gunung Datuk

Rated: 4.0/10

Gunung Datuk, with a height of around 885m above sea level, this mountain offer a very nice panoramic view of Negeri Sembilan and all the way to Strait of Melaka under good weather condition. The hike up of this mountain do require some physical stamina but it can be done by anyone who has at least some form of physical healthy lifestyle. To get here, "Hutan Lipur Gunung Datuk, Kota, Negeri Sembilan" or "2°32'36.8"N 102°10'08.9"E" can be set in Google Map. There are general public facilities well prepared here such as public toilet, car park (RM2) and cabin. The hiking fee is RM3 registration.

A map to Gunung Datuk from Monash University Malaysia

A zoom in map

The entrance to the hiking path is after the main entrance, pass through all the "pondok" house and right after the river crossing (There will be plenty of people there, so don't afraid to ask around if not sure). The path up to the top of the mountain would take around 1.5 - 2.5 hours approximately depending on fitness level. This mountain is fairly short in term of distance as the mountain gradient can be quite steep. Not only that, it remain quite steep the whole journey but it wouldn't be a problem for experienced hiker though. There one river crossing (bridge) and one mini stream crossing and the rest of the hike will be dry. On the side note, there is a fairly huge tree (for people like me is very huge) on the left after around 10-15 minutes hike up.

The view up here is spectacular and amazing and the best part, the hike up here can be done even by hiker who starting to love hiking. On the clear blue sky with no cloud in the sky, you can see the Strait of Melaka at the far end of the horizon. Though, to get up to the view, hiker have to overcome the fear of height since you will need to climb ladder up. But nevertheless, it all worth it. Don't let your fear pull you down and miss the awesome view this mountain provide. A few to note, the top of the mountain might become slippery during raining season but I not so sure about it since I have not been there during raining season.

A very huge tree

Hiking up the mountain

Almost there

Start of the ladder climbing

More ladder climbing

Last part to the highest top

Gunung Datuk

At the top of Gunung Datuk

In my opinion, this mountain has one of the best panorama view especially for a mountain that can be done by almost everyone. Though, it has a very long drive journey if you are from KL, which is a turn off. Nevertheless, it still a mountain to go if you want something new from the mountain in KL.

Edited: 13/9/2014