{"id":5851,"date":"2012-08-15T01:15:55","date_gmt":"2012-08-14T17:15:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jipp-world.com\/blog\/?p=5851"},"modified":"2013-09-10T23:07:17","modified_gmt":"2013-09-10T15:07:17","slug":"tabur-east-kl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jipp-world.com\/blog\/tabur-east-kl\/","title":{"rendered":"Conquering the East Tabur"},"content":{"rendered":"

So, after conquering the west part of Bukit Tabur<\/a> not once but twice, I decided to take it to another level by conquering the relatively tougher East Tabur last Saturday.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I think we were a little bit overambitious by going there in the wee hours, expecting to make it to the top in time for the sunrise. After learning our lesson at the Broga Hill<\/strong><\/a> when we were obliged to literally teeter in the dark and put ourselves in danger, we did bring some source of lights to lead the way for us this time.<\/p>\n

But then, being all first timers to East Tabur, nobody knew where exactly to start the trek from. We did know that we gotta start walking from the entrance of Klang Gates Dam<\/strong> but we didn\u2019t know where to start from there.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

After sauntering around for almost half an hour or so, I had to do a little bit of googling in the dark only then I got a little bit of idea of how to find the starting point of the climb. <\/span><\/p>\n

Trekking really is a learning process. <\/span>While equipment can make things much easier, information about the trek is just as important as I then found out. Damn.<\/strong><\/p>\n

So, don\u2019t tell me I didn\u2019t tell you how \u2013 park your car nicely on the roadside to the entrance of Empangan Klang Gates, walk along the fence and you\u2019ll find a concrete stairs.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Keep walking down the stairs and you\u2019ll find yourself being on the side of a river (or rather a creek). Find a way to go to the other side of it (look for stepping stones) and you\u2019ll find two big pipes paralleling to each other.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Walk along the pipes towards the Klang Gates compound and you should begin to see the trail before long. Of course the first four pictures were all taken on our way back from the climb.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So, it was tougher that how I expected it would be. The trail reminded me a little about the trail at the Pinnacles in Mulu, Sarawak<\/strong> where the trail is mercilessly steep and rocky and thorny it actually prompted me to declare it the toughest climb EVER. <\/a> (must read!)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n

The beginning of the climb is more like a battle against gravity. You\u2019ll be going up and up like there\u2019s no end to it and it pushes you to the near point of passing out.<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t really serve you with much space and flat ground to stand on steadily so you gotta keep going so that whoever it is behind you won\u2019t be left dangling on the rope or something.<\/p>\n

I think I was caught off guard at the beginning of the climb. All the runs that I did on flat tracks say at Tasik Titiwangsa didn\u2019t do much in strengthening my calf muscles after all.<\/strong><\/p>\n

They might have improved my stamina and I was so thankful for that but not my leg muscles so I was still struggling in the end. Damn.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I actually expected to see a long line of people on the trail just like how it was at West Tabur when we had to take turn every time we had to clamber over a boulder or climb up a (wall of) rock and waited quite long in the process (Damn those camwhoring girls! \ud83d\ude00 ).<\/p>\n

Instead, we had the whole trail to ourselves \u2013 or at least the ascending part of it so I was most worried about stepping on some living creature than anything else in the world.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

But then, looking at the trail, I realized then that it wasn\u2019t a good idea to do it in the wee hours especially when you are there for the first time.<\/p>\n

The quarts are just so thorny and sharp and so ready to rip your butt apart if you are not being careful enough.\u00a0I mean, you have to be very sure of where to step on or you\u2019ll risk losing your balance and sliding off right into the waiting abyss.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a bit of a risky environment you\u2019ve got up there.\u00a0We are talking about doing some wall-climbing here so you may want to wear gloves.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Ouch! <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Being one of the most trekked hills in KL, it came as no wonder that some good Samaritans had provided ropes for trekkers to hold on to where the trek is too step to climb independently.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I keep telling myself and trekking buddies not to throw their weight wholly on the ropes because God knows what\u2019s gonna happen if they suddenly snapped off and .. well, that.<\/p>\n

While some of them looked very much new as if they have only been replaced the day before, some of the ropes looked very much ready to give up any time probably waiting for the right victim to come by.<\/p>\n

Being all first timers, none of us had any idea when to tell that we were or were not there yet (are we there yet? Are we there yet?).<\/p>\n

I did read from somewhere that the climb at the Tabur East was go forth – and-back business and not a loop like the one at Tabur West so the trail has to stop at some point from where we\u2019d return to where we had come from exactly on the same trail.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The destination is the end point of the trail so you know you\u2019re not there yet when you see the trail still goes on.<\/p>\n

Funny how we thought we had reached the peak and actually jumped in excitement only to find the continuation<\/em> of the trail somewhere in the bushes later. Then we\u2019d continue going again and again until we gave up hoping and just kept going.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We really thought we were past all the challenging parts of the trail only to find ourselves facing down to a big ‘mound’ of rock with a visible trail on it so ready to serve us with the fact that the most challenging part of the climb has yet to come.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Your last climb before the end point of Tabur East<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At the top of the mound is where the peak of East Tabur is but you gotta walk for a little bit further on to get to the end point the trail.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

You know you\u2019ve reached it when you can\u2019t go any further unless you are extremely adventurous to go down the abyss with all the equipment in the word. I wonder if anybody has actually attempted it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I can\u2019t find any word to describe how beautiful it is up there and even more beautiful is the feeling when you see the sun first appears from behind the multi-layered horizon and later rises further and further away from it.<\/p>\n

Sun rise has always been my favorite time of the day so watching it from atop Tabur East was very much a wonderful experience.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

All the agonizing climbing and panting and sweating and probably swearing were paid off in a blink of an eye. \u00a0It was worth the every bead of sweat (but then they are burned lemak after all. LOL).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Not far across the distance is the peak of what I believed was the Extreme East. It was\u00a0\u00a0right there waving and probably challenging us to take her on on our next visit to Tabur.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Bukit Tabur is one of the best things that I\u2019ve come across in KL not only for fact that it is very much near to where I stay but also for the breath-taking views and the adventures that it offers AND most importantly for its free admission. Heh.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sadly though, some people don\u2019t seem to appreciate what the Mother Nature has granted to them in free packages. Bukit Tabur provides some kind of buffer zone to separate the hijauness of nature from the mad urbanization of KL.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Looking at how things are going, there\u2019s no guarantee that Bukit Tabur would still be there in its original form if the development continues to close in. And there are plenty of signs.\u00a0For me, Bukit Tabur deserves much more appreciation that what it is getting now.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

All the littered rubbish made me sad and angry at the same time.\u00a0They go there for free without having to pay a cent but then they throw whatever they feel like throwing as if the rubbish is going to vanish by themselves.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Something really is so wrong with our society. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So, after conquering the west part of Bukit Tabur not once but twice, I decided to take it to another level by conquering the relatively tougher East Tabur last Saturday. I think we were a little bit overambitious by going there in the wee hours, expecting to make it to the top in time for the sunrise. After learning our lesson at the Broga Hill when we were obliged to literally teeter in the dark and put ourselves in danger,…<\/p>\n

Read More Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[119,13],"tags":[163,39,162,32,85],"class_list":["post-5851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hiking","category-traveling","tag-adventure","tag-kl-life","tag-local","tag-malaysia","tag-trekking"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jipp-world.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jipp-world.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jipp-world.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jipp-world.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jipp-world.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5851"}],"version-history":[{"count":59,"href":"https:\/\/www.jipp-world.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5889,"href":"https:\/\/www.jipp-world.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5851\/revisions\/5889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jipp-world.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jipp-world.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jipp-world.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}