last week i signed up for a wine tasting networking event for april 8th. i was looking forward to a nice saturday afternoon drinking wine and chatting with (hopefully) like-minded individuals in another internations event. i even invited a friend to tag along and practice making new friends.
and then, on april fool's day, someone posted in the couchsurfing facebook group about a weekend hike in malaysia. a voice in my head said "yeah cindy, why don't we go for a hike instead, huh?" 😛
i thought, why not? i could really use a day off alcohol 😁 so i signed up for this event via meetup. it didn't work out. the organizer replied that the event was full.
but a few hours later, there was another post in the CS group about a different hike on the same day. this event was organized by Adventures Unlimited, and also a hike in malaysia but in Gunung Arong. i am by no means an experienced hiker - and wouldn't have any clue about the technical difference between ascending Gunung Arong vs. Gunung Pulai - so the change didn't really matter to me. it was just that my mind was already set about hiking that weekend and just wanted to make it happen. i was also trusting on the organizers' words when they said it was going to be an easy climb.
we were to assemble in woodlands MRT at 6:15am and depart 15 minutes later. when all souls were accounted for by 6:35, i knew this was a good group. nothing sets off an event to a bad start than people who are not responsible enough to show up on time. this group was rockin'.
 |
| i don't typically see happy faces this early in the morning. because i'm never awake this early :-D |
the human traffic in both woodlands and johor bahru checkpoint were not bad as it was so early in the morning. but when we were already on the malaysian side, the bus was on a stand-still long after we have planned to leave. there were a few buses in front of us that were not moving - for some apparent reason that my half-functioning-morning-brain could not comprehend - and the aggressive horn-honking from the other impatient bus drivers were not helping. "we're experiencing bus wars", keion joked.
this, and with a little delay finding the right road to the resort which was our base to start the hike, we ended up arriving at 11:30. the initial plan was to start the hike from the beach side but the current was already pretty strong when we arrived, so we drove to a different entry point to the jungle. but first, mandatory group photos.
 |
| taking photos is a must - while everyone's still looking fresh |
keion said it typically takes 2 hours to do the climb. which meant, 3 hours for me, i thought. we were to have lunch at the peak, and since it was already pushing 12, i knew it would be a very late lunch - but i came prepared. i had protein bars, bruschetta chips and a banana from my seatmate. i had a liter of water. i was hoping i wouldn't have to drink it all and still survive. because i hate wilderness peeing 😣
 |
| burn, calories, burn! |
i am normally serious while hiking (because i try to focus on not dying) but this time i was quite relaxed. i was chatting with annalisa for most of the hike. it was steep and challenging enough, but i was surprisingly doing alright. it was an hour into the climb, all of us in the group are in a good steady pace, and not long after we saw a hut.
we were at the peak! and it just took barely over an hour. wow.
we were pretty surprised that it was the end, and some of the ladies also wondered as they knew there was supposed to be a good view from the peak, so the guide informed us that while we're already at the peak at 240m, we could actually walk a bit further down to the viewing platform for the amazing view of the crescent island against the South China sea. the fit ladies led the way, and annalisa and i followed suit.
10 minutes into the walk and the was no vision of this elusive view. and then, i heard a shriek of excitement. the ladies found it!
the malaysian flag waved proudly against the gentle breeze that greeted this bunch of eager souls as selfies and wefies were taken one after another. and why not, we totally earned it!
after we had our fill of the view and photographs, we started to head back. the second batch came in, with perfect timing. back in the hut, watermelon slices awaited us. time for victory tembikai! 🍉
once everybody settled down to rest, had their lunch and watermelon, we took some nice group photos before starting our descent. it was quite early, just past 2pm, and we were looking forward to a walk along the beach and a cold shower!
because the climb up was quite steep, it was expected that the descent would be challenging. there were few occasions of people slipping, but nobody got hurt. if anything, these troopers just laughed it off.
when we got to the base, everybody looked parched. we were dying to get on the bus to take us back to the resort, but it was nowhere in sight! after a long wait, we decided to just brave the sun and walk back. we just conquered a mountain, how bad could a bit of walk be? (it would have been bad for anybody who'd have stepped on the puddles of cow dung scattered across the road, though.)
 |
| the walkers |
at the sight of the beach most of us took off our hiking shoes and felt the sand. too bad the water was warm, but it was comforting. we walked back to the resort and took the anticipated bath (kampong style).
we left mersing at around 4:30pm on our way to dinner before heading back home. i thought this plan was really clever. we really needed some snooze time on the bus before a good dinner to close the day.
i think everybody's starving that nobody bothered to take a group photo when the food arrived! 😅 that, or we didn't have good ones that were shared haha. here's what we had for dinner. so, so, so, shiok!
 |
| i think heaven serves chinese food |
we arrived past 10 in woodlands, and it was such a long day that people were gone quickly i haven't said goodbye to most of them. but i suppose we didn't need to say goodbyes, as we're all still in touch via our whatsapp group.
-------------------------
this entry is dedicated to the wonderful ladies and gents of the 8-Apr-18 Gunung Arong Hike organized by Adventures Unlimited Singapore. photos from the organizers and hiking group. thanks for making saturday so awesome! hope to climb with y'all again :)
