Waking up at 6 am on a weekend doesn’t seem like your perfect day? Yeah, me neither, but wait around because I'm about to change your minds on that. I have never ever considered myself a morning person; That doesn’t mean I'm cranky or moody when I wake up in the morning, it just means that I rather not wake up in the morning and sleep in; and that was my plan for a Saturday morning until my friends decided that it was time for an “Adventure” their words not mine.
Bukit tabur is famous for recreational hiking in all of Kuala Lumpur, it’s easily accessible from the city and the path is neither too hard nor too easy, so it’s perfect for unprofessional hikers like us. I'm not even going to get to how breathtaking and stupendous the scenery is, I'm going to let you guys decide for yourself.
Experience 1:
So I woke up at 6 am, because we had to leave by 7 and I take ages to get ready, seriously I do, I'm a nightmare when it comes to getting ready, I mean at least for 10 minutes I'm looking for the perfect song to start my day with. Don’t judge me. I was still getting ready that my phone rang and I knew I can’t make them wait much, because unlike me they are the true definition of a not morning person aka they are all super moody. So I ran downstairs and got in the car, we still had to pick our other friends up and man they were all so unready.
Anyways it took us about 20 to 25 minutes to get to Bukit tabur which is located in Taman melawati, from Ampang point area, the place is very easy to find with a GPS, we used “Waze” but google map is good too. You should put “Bukit tabur” or “Tabur east hill”. There is no public transport medium near the area so don’t even count on it, the only way to go is with a car or a cab, and some parts of the road are slightly bumpy so prepare yourself for that.
(Where the trek starts, the path is usually muddy so be aware)
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By the time we arrived, parked the car and got ready to climb, more like trek, it was about 8:30 am. Make sure you wear proper trekking shoes because the track is often slippery due to rainfall. And there was no exception in our case; I slipped almost a few times, not a good idea to wear new tights. The track was not too steep, there were signboards at the end of each section, and we used the signboards on our way back to avoid getting lost. If I'm not mistaken there are five sections, we did not climb until the fifth one, we stopped at three, but even till there it was still quite high. As we were climbing I realized that I'm seriously not in a good shape, which was a good motivator to hit the gym again once more.
(The path, it's not as hard as it looks)
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(The view of Taman melawati after a little climb)
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We sat on the rocks and devoured every last sip of water and chocolates we had brought with ourselves. The humidity of the weather and all that sweating made me really thirsty. The view from the above, is the perfect place to sit and relax a little before heading back down, so I advise you guys to take some small snacks and drinks with you and enjoy them up there because everything is better with food.
(The view from above)
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On our way back we had to be even more cautious, because we would slip and fall was more often, but thankfully we were all careful and no incidents occurred. The whole trek took about two hours minus the times we spent resting in between. If you decide to go till the last station, that takes another extra hour. By the time we reached down it was about 12 pm and it was getting so hot that it was almost unbearable to stay outside, so we got into our cars and drove to a nearby shopping mall to grab something to eat and regain all those calories we burnt.
Experience 2:
Many people choose to climb Bukit tabur either at dawn or dusk, to catch a glimpse of the sun. And I think that is brilliant because the view up there is beyond marvelous. If you want to catch the sunrise, you have to start climbing at around 5 something and for the sunset at around 6 in the afternoon. Now my second experience there was a little different, it started like this, after the first climb, Bukit tabur became one of our favorite spots. So much that we decided to spend New Year’s Eve up there and honestly that was one of the best decisions we made. I think it was such a unique and memorable way to spend our New Year’s Eve.
First, it was raining that night, so the path was extra slippery; the place has no lights or whatsoever. So we bought a flashlight from the hardware store for each of us, and we started trekking one after the other, we had to go super slow to avoid slipping and falling. It was about 10 pm, so we had two hours to get up there and that was plenty of time. We met other hikers that were also climbing, and we all had each other’s back. I won’t deny that it was a little risky and dangerous but more importantly it was exciting, way too exciting.
We got to the third station by about 11:20 we settled down and used the spare time to get some great pictures, it was dark to the point that we had to point the flashlights to our faces so our faces could be seen in the pictures. It was beyond hilarious and there was way too much effort put in for the picture which turned out great. We all sat there, Coldplay’s music playing and started the countdown…
(The view at night)
(Although this does not do justice, the picture has a very low quality, the actual view is 100 times better than this, I promise)
3, 2, 1 … hand in hand, all of us looking at the horizon and watching the fireworks, thrilled by the possibilities that a new year could bring.
Of course, after the magic moments were over and the thought of having to climb down sunk in, I was actually considering the possibility of sleeping over there and climbing back in the morning. Anyhow, my friends weren’t as supportive, so we climbed down and got out of there alive.
If you ever travel to Kuala Lumpur don’t forget about this place.
I hope this entry wasn’t so anecdotal and you guys enjoyed it.
Cheers.
