Originally we are planning for another leisure and ‘santai’ trip to Gunung Irau, but a day before the actually day, Boy prompted me about the news Gunung Irau had been closed for public for some ‘work’ which he himself not sure. Stunned and surprised, I immediately call my friend who working in forestry department in Cameron Highland to re-confirm about this, and to my surprised and also at the same time perhaps relieved, yes, it has been closed, approximately effectively a month ago for ‘nature restoration works’ in my word at least. Well, it might not work well with my plan, but I guess, it works well with the spirit of conservation as I think this is an overdue call from authorities to stop further destruction of Gunung Irau especially from some stubborn and stupid trekkers who in particular keep throwing rubbish along the trail and at the camp site of Irau. Since my first time I’ve been to Irau, back in 1996, until the last time in 2006 (of course plus more than 10 trips in between than 10 years span ..!!) and each time I’ve been to Irau, I saw, a gradual damage, of the beautiful mosses trail of Irau until if you visit Irau recently, I can be sure, even with 3 tons of lori sampah, you still not sure either you can fill-up all the rubbish on Gunung Irau !. I personally hate, when people start commercialized this place as they did at Ledang ( but Tahan is a better model than…) as then you need to pay substantial amount of money to get access and trekking, but then do we have a choice ? Perhaps this the only way to educate some Malaysian trekkers, but of course by doing that some civilized trekkers who also I know a lot, who are not the culprits may feel the pain as well….tak apa la…biarla kita berkorban skit…. I guess…

Okay, stop bitching, back to Gunung Suku. Finally I personally made a call to choose Gunung Suku as none of them been to Gunung Suku before except me, for 2 reasons, first the climb relatively easy and suits our theme of santai trip, as I still feel my leg soreness after back from Mt. Merapi last 2 weeks, similarly to Boy who just back from Tuk Nenek and also the rest. Secondly, from Suku, you still see Gunung Irau, and its part of the trail for the Trans Suku-Irau trail. 10 of us went there, thanks god plus with last minutes pull-out which I think normal for any trips and I used to it…ha..ha.. .Anyway it was blessing in disguise as if we been more than 10, may be we have to set-up 2 camp sites then as the camp sites there relatively quite small. For those who don’t know where is Suku is located, basically Gunung Suku (1796m) arguably is the highest mountain you can see from naked eye while you driving via route of Simpang Pulai to Blue Valley. It is located in Perak, and less glamorous than its cousin Gunung Irau or its twin Gunung Siku. ( people always interchange between these two ). Those day, when highway was not there, people used to access Suku via Irau, then either return back to Irau, or exiting via Pos Slim, which approximately 5km from today trail head. After the highway of Simpang Pulai-Gua Musang, completed, from unofficial sources, people start climbing Suku in 2005 via new trail, when its becoming more accessible as the mountain been de-categorized as leisure compare to earlier days as ‘hardcore mountain’. Imagined, today, you will take only 5 hours to reach the top, back 10 years ago, it will easily take 3 days to reach the top of the mountain and at least 5 days to complete the circuit or Trans Irau-Suku ! . I’m not sure, due to this accessibility, this either this will bring goods to Gunung Suku or another disaster as Gunung Irau !. I hope my fear of another tragedy is not substantiated.