A few months back, Badut, my schoolmate when I was in MCKK asked me whether I would like to join for his trip ( weirdly he didn’t make it to this trip, pull-out at eleventh hours, citing his recently promotion as Bank Negara Manager as a main reason he can’t join…but konon nak amik ati dia derma RM200 for this xpdc..... ) to Gunung Tahan via Merapoh-Kuala Tahan route so called to become advisor knowing I’ve been to Gunung Tahan for bloody 9th times before. My last trip to Tahan was back in July last year in 2007 and I thought that was to be my last trip to Gunung Tahan as I swear that would be my last trip ( during trekking ) and no more after that. But for some reason, Gunung Tahan, is always unique in the sense you might be swearing like hell you won’t be coming back during the trekking, but a day after you back to home, you will quickly change your mind and it happened to me 9th times and finally I decidedly 10th would be the lucky number to be my last trip. ( I hope so. ) So this time we decided to choose Merapoh-Kuala Tahan trail, which originally scheduled to be a 6 days journey but ended up in 7 days as usual, when you trekking in a big group ..ada yg pancit la… etc.( yes 17 pax considered a big group as I personally never favored any trekking more than 12 pax for safety reason, but it might be a different scenario for Gunung Tahan this time as we are trying to squeeze the cost as much as possible after the escalating cost for more than 200% of the guides fees from RM500 to RM1200 ! only effectively 4 months ago). 17 of us, mostly friends from Myipo ( which a government patent agency which I always having difficulties to pronounce it correctly ) and others, which some of my regular friends who had joined me before for various trips. As usual, when you been in the jungle, out of civilization for 7 days, you friendship become closer, looks like you know each other for more than 10 years without realizing some of us just met each other for the first time only for this trip. We had a great fun, jokes which I specifically have to mentioned about ‘rubung tiung’ ( which suppose to be Burung Tiung as our official song for this trip, but the ‘rubung’ tiung is a plagiarism version invented by Panjang, one of our expedition member ) and an incident somebody kentut dengan mendayu-dayu which thereafter the place she kentut officially named as Bukit Kentut ( sorry Ros I can’t stop myself not to mentioned your name which at this point of time I keep laughing sorang-sorang ) by our guides Zainal & Ibrahim. I would missed also, the morning call ‘saper punyer mess tin ?? saper punyer beras ??? by Man Cottee.. who persistently make the call for every morning, also I would missed, seeing all the lazy faces, who unable to wake-up at every morning, until at one time I had to splash the water and unleash the tie for the flysheet to make sure everybody wake-up on time and we move on time ( we miserably failed at every morning ! no punctuality ). Worth to mentioned, the illegal massage parlor keep opened for 7 days during our trip to treat some of injured member or do I need to say, purposely injured members who just to get a free massage. Lead by chief masseur, Mala and the ibu ayam was Reen ha..ha… I can’t put everything here, as it would getting too long, but the bottom, I really enjoyed the trip, the team was superb, and great, but I would take this chance to apologize, on sometimes my bluntness in joking, but that’s how sometimes you enjoyed the trip, especially you are out of civilization for 7 days.

On the separate notes and a letdown news, during our trip, we met also a group from UiTM, which at this point of I’m writing, one of the expedition member is still missing, which includes today already lost in the dense jungle of Gunung Tahan for almost 7 days. We actually met them when we were camping on the summit of Gunung Tahan while they were camping on Bukit Botak which eventually at the early morning they passed by our campsite ( when some of us still sleeping ha..ha.. ) to proceed to the summit. During that time, they were happily singing and memekak and I keep saying to myself during that time, I was also like that before when I was student although that morning was quite an annoying morning. That was the last time we saw them, as they were going down back to Merapoh while we were proceeding to Kem Pangkin to continue another 5 days self tortured quest. We heard about this unfortunate incident when our guides received a call about this incident. May Allah bless her, to get her back safely. ( updated news...she finally found safe after 19days lost in the jungle..syurkur ) This fondly remembered me at one incident where one of my expedition member lost in Gunung Korbu expedition back in 1996 ( Her name is Yatt, now dah anak dua reside in Negeri Sembilan and fully retired and a full time house wife now ). So I know how the difficulty in handling this situation, the emotion, feeling, and tiredness ....but in my case thanks god, she was found safely at one of Orang Asli abandoned settlement...( did I mentioned settlement or grave yard ??? ha..ha... ) BTW alhamdullilah....

In other word, sometimes when you climb a mountain, it taught you a lot of values in life, it could be how to work as a team, where you could be super fit, you could arrive at location on time, but for some reason one of your team member sakit...... you have to wait for everybody then...if that's happened..just enjoy the journey..have fun.... the real life also like that, you could be driving a ferari, but a kancil rosak kat depan...jalan jem... so if that's happened... again enjoy la... jangan tension..nanti cepat dapat penyakit..RUBUNG TIUNG !