Random Rambles of Lotfi

We hiked up Tabur West last Sunday. The earlier planned re-hike of Mount Irau had to be cancelled as we found out there would be a big group of hikers going up the mountain. We settled for Tabur West instead. Tabur West is located in Taman Melawati, Kuala Lumpur. A hill quite notorious with reported falls and deaths recently. We heard about the tragedies, but I figured if we are careful tragedies can be avoided. Out of habit, with runs and hikes, I never read anything prior to the day.  Spiny Quartz Ridge Hills, I found out AFTER the hike. It was challenging, alright..Hubs had to bail out because of work. So I went with the rest of the gang. A little apprehensive but being with experienced hikers who have scaled the hills reassured me. Tabur West is so different from it East neighbour! To compare the two, ascending Tabur West felt easier. The climb brought us up to more than 10 hill tops (at least it felt that way), connected by ridges. Tabur East was steeper and we...

After Mount Irau, we decided to explore FRIM (Forest Research Institute Malaysia). I have been there twice for a run and some work activities but have never tried the Canopy Walk or hiking the trails. Didn't do much research on the place. This is one of those 'redah je' trip. We reached FRIM before 7.45am. Just a 20 minutes drive from home in the weekend traffic. To park your car in the park, you need to pay RM7, otherwise you can park outside and walk your way in. Waited for the rest and after much deliberation because we know very little about the place decided to head to the waterfall route. The  9 of us walked at leisure, took lots of pics and marvel at the greenery around us. Since we were there early we decided to just walk around the area. FRIM was already bustling with activities. Walkers, runners, cyclers, cyclists, picnickers with families and friends in tow. I saw that they had bicycles for rent too. Cool! We walked into the trails to the waterfall,...

The plan to hike up Mount Irau in Cameron Highlands was mooted by a brother, Anep last March. I've never heard of Irau but we told Anep to make plans. Police permits are needed to climb the highest peak in Cameron Highland. Due to clashing schedules, our climb was delayed from March ti April and finally this month. We didn't give it much thought until our assigned guide, a chap called H created a group whatsapp a few days before the climb. Not only it dawned on me that we're physically unprepared, we are also not ready with the right gears for hiking. I started scouring blogs and websites of hikers to find out what we should prepare. Figured that even if we're not physically prepared at least we're dressed for it! This was the list given by H, as per his whatsapp message, 1- hiking shoe (rubber better) extra socks, waterproof hand glove, poncho and slipper 2- windbreaker or fleece (it's cold outthere) like freezing. Haha 3- trekking pole, wet n dry tissue, a k...