Mystic Mountains of Malaysia

There are plenty of beautiful mountains around Malaysia where one can go for a nice hiking trip. Cameron Highlands is not the only place to go for this kind of activities. Here read about the other mountains available in Malaysia where you can go for an adventure trek!

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The Mystic Mountain
Story And Pictures By Chan Ah Lak
Saturday July 8, 2006

THE phrase “pergi hutan benom” is the equivalent of our consigning a person to the nether regions,” wrote Sturgnell and Willbourn in An Ascent of Gunung Benom from Raub in the 1931 issue of the Royal Asiatic Journal Malayan Branch.

A friend handed me this interesting story before our own climb up Gunung Benom recently. I wanted to find out how hellish this particular mountain was, and, well, the “nether regions” is an archaic term for “hell”. So, it was with a slight sense of apprehension that I joined a group of Malaysian Nature Society members for the expedition.

Gunung Benom, the 10th highest mountain in Peninsular Malaysia, is on the wish list of mountaineers aspiring to join the G10 Club, that is, a group of those who have successfully scaled all the 10 highest mountains. Benom is on a massif in central Pahang.

The climbers met at Sungai Klau, a one-street outpost, 23km from Raub. Sungai Klau is also the gateway to Lata Berumbum, a beautiful series of waterfalls that attract picnickers and campers. The villagers ferried us to the starting point of the climb, on modified four-wheel drives. The dirt track winds through oil palm, cocoa, durian and rubber estates before entering primary jungle.

At the 10km mark is a perfectly built concrete bridge spanning Sg Chalit, but it was not serviceable that day. The water level was too high for us to ford the river, and we had to wait till next day. After that, came the remaining 1.5km track, which had several deep ruts that tested the driving skills of the drivers.

The beautiful Lata Berumbum waterfalls.

The starting point for the climb is just before the Lata Berubum waterfalls. The guide for the trip was Chin, vice-president of the Association of Backpackers Malaysia. He is better known within the mountaineering fraternity as Botak Chin.

He came later with more hikers from Kuala Lumpur and we could only start at 11.15am. After 10 minutes of walking on level ground we had to cross a fast-flowing stream with slippery moss-covered rocks jutting out here and there. Fortunately the stream was shallow and most of us elected to wade through rather than hop from one rock to the next.

There followed a steep climb through an overgrown track before we came to a ridge, which ran in an easterly direction until the half-way camp. En route, we had to negotiate eight smaller peaks and valleys. A couple of huge rocks and several fallen trees forced us to make detours. Other than that, the hike was uneventful.

Botak Chin and his vanguards did a good job of clearing the prickly rattan branches from the track. Several flowering jewel orchid plants on the ground kept the shutterbugs busy.

We arrived at the half-way camp (1,761m above sea level) and found ourselves in the realm of the mossy forest.

The group of Malaysian Nature Society Members took a breather while on their way to the summit of Gunung Benom.

The camp site was located just beside the track and the undulating terrain with scattered trees provided some respite from the elements. A 30-minute round trip hike down a steep ravine led to a small stream – our only source of water. The younger hikers graciously volunteered to collect water for us oldies.

A heavy thunderstorm broke out soon after dinner and caused flooding in some of the tents. As we huddled in our tents, I recalled Sturgnell and Willbourn’s 1931 account of the climb.

“The word benom is used by the Malays in the sense of hutan benom, which may be translated as ‘a faraway, dark forest of tall trees where no one lives’ ... Gunung Benom has a bad reputation for evil spirits. Noises of people talking and of rocks falling are heard ? and there is a tale, terrifying to the credulous Malay peasant, of a large berok, or monkey, which inhabits the mountain, a fierce animal standing five feet high on all fours.”

Noises of people talking, eh?

Well, I could certainly hear my camping mates in the next tent! And the only primates resembling giant monkeys I saw were four campers who had stripped to the waist after labouring to put up their tents. Anyway, almost immediately after I crawled into my sleeping bag I dozed off, giant monkey forgotten.

The 10 highest mountains (G10) in Peninsular Malaysia: Gunung Tahan (2,190m) Gunung Korbu (2,183m) Gunung Yong Belar (2,181m) Gunung Gayong (2,173m) Gunung Chamah (2,171m) Gunung Yong Yap (2,168m) Gunung Ulu Sepat (2,158m) Gunung Batu Putih (2,131m) Gunung Irau (2,110m) Gunung Benom (2,107m)

The ascent to the summit commenced soon after breakfast. A few hikers packed up all their gear so that they could camp at the summit. The rest of us opted for a light daypack loaded with food and water just for the day’s hike.

The track now ran in a northerly direction. We traversed eight peaks and valleys, while another eight awaited ahead.

The mossy forest of Gunung Benom is very luxuriant with all the trees and their boughs sporting a thick layer of moss. These forests usually invoke a feeling of being in a mystic world. Once it begins to get dark, and if there is a mist wafting in, then it begins to feel surreal. So maybe it is quite understandable that a normal-sized monkey may appear to look like a large berok.

We came come across several botanical beauties too. Numerous species of arboreal orchids fight for a niche to survive. A few had beautiful blooms; many hikers broke their stride to admire vegetation like the pitcher plan Nepenthes sanguinea. It is only on this mountain that the pitchers grow to a giant size. Thirty centimeter-long blood red pitchers are commonly seen here.

The summit, we found, has a conical metal-roofed survey station (trig point) and next to it is a relatively flat ground for camping. Unfortunately many trees block the panoramic view from the summit. By 3pm, all of us had managed to reach the summit.

After admiring the scenery and taking some photographs we began our descent. It was almost dark when we reached the half-way camp. For most mountaineers, this was just another mountain under their belt. But, for the select few, climbing the pristine Gunung Benom was a very satisfying and an enjoyable way of achieving their G10 target.

The writer would like to thank Jeffrey Yue from the 4 X 4 Club of Raub for his kind assistance in the trip and providing the references.

Source: The Star