Gunung Yong Yap (Y2009)
BASIC INFORMATION
Trek: Y2009
Date: December 2009
Location: Gunung Yong Yap, Perak, Cameron Highlands, Malaysia
Elevation: 2,168m
Duration: 3D2N
BRIEF ITINERARY
Day 1
Overnight transport to Ipoh
Day 2
Transport to Lasah Town
Trek from Kuala Mu
Day 3
Summit
Day 4
Descend to Kuala Mu
Transport to Lasah Town
Day 5
Transport back to SG
Day 1 and 2
We gathered at Kranji MRT at 1800 and headed towards Larkin Bus station, ate our dinner there and finally left for Ipoh in our bus at 10.15pm. We only reached Ipoh in the next morning at 4.45am.
After having our super early breakfast at the nearby McDonald’s we took the bus all the way to Lasah town, where we boarded the two 4WD waiting for us. The ride from Lasah to Kuala Mu is incredibly bumpy and if it’s raining you will feel cold. There is a risk of the 4WD overturning as well.
We reached Kuala Mu at about 1145 and had lunch and used our last proper toilet for the next 3 days. We set off on the trek at about 1230 in high spirits. The trek is accompanied by plenty of thorny plants, bamboo deadfalls, with trails of heavily overgrown vegetation.
The rest of the trek to the first campsite was more normal jungle terrain, albeit much of it overgrown and we waited for the guides to clear it before we could pass. Finally, we reached the campsite within 5 hours. The campsite is big enough for 4 or 5 tents to fit in comfortably. There is a knee deep stream near the campsite.
Day 3
The next day we woke up at 630 and started off at 815 to continue our climb up to the peak. We aimed to reach the peak by 3pm. At Around 1pm we had a water break, while some of us headed down a super steep slope to refill our bottles from a ‘nearby’ river.
Some parts of the trek have a nice Lord of the Rings feel to it, with all the mossy forest and light streaming through the forest.
We finally reached the summit and started cam-whoring with the beautiful view, set up the basha, tents and we managed to finish cooking dinner before nightfall. Night brought on freezing winds and shooting stars. The night sky was a beautiful sight indeed, but most of us were freezing due to the inappropriate jackets we brought for the trek.
Day 4
We woke up early at 430 with the aim of leaving the summit at 6. The route down was very steep and we made fairly slow progress as some did not bring along headlamps. The trek downhill to Kuala Mu was tiring and even painful for some. At the last half an hour of the trek it started to rain. It also made us realize how lucky we were that there was no rain till the very last part of the trek.
When we finally reached Kuala Mu at about 430, we were thoroughly soaked, shagged and longed for civilization. First though, we had to take the 3 hour hell ride again. The rain made the logging path even worse and we were told that another 4 wheel drive had overturned earlier. We were also told to jump out if we felt that our vehicle was about to overturn.
Luckily, no accidents occurred and we made it back to Lasah at about 730 safe and sound, albeit shivering and suffering from leg cramps after the ride. The school bus appeared shortly after and sent us on our way to Ipoh. We negotiated with the bus driver to send us to our dinner place and then send us to our hotel. We ate at a chicken and tau geh restaurant at the junction of jalan sehala and jalan yau tet sin. After that we headed towards our hotel called, The Majestic.
Day 5
In the morning, we had breakfast at the hotel then heading for the train station. The train is significantly slower than the bus but there is more space to chat and even play saboteur. There are also packets of rice sold during the journey which are the only food you can procure during the train ride as the stops are too short to safely run out and buy stuff from the stores at the train stations.
We reached Johor station at about 2030 and proceeded to city square to have dinner. Some actually wanted to catch a movie but fatigue and the possibility of missing the last bus back to Singapore meant that we left after dinner and split up at Singapore customs.
Reflection of the trek
OTHER INFORMATION
Training (before trek)
The training we did for this trek emphasized mostly on load training by climbing stairs. We went to Bras Basah several times, did Bukit Timah once, Toa Payoh 40 storey blocks once and did and an approximately 30km overnight walk from school to SAF ferry terminal in Changi. For Bras Basah, we eventually climbed the block 10 times during our last training and for Toa Payoh we climbed it 8 times making it 320 floors. After the last training, we were more than prepared for the trek as those who had gone for the trainings regularly could complete the last stairs training without difficulty.
Food and Logs (before trek)
Our breakfast was basically bread with fruits and nuts, hot drinks and some oatmeal. Lunch was bread (again), nutritional bars and some random things people brought along like foacaccia bread, tuna, nature’s valley sweets and a couple of apples. Dinner had maggi mee and rice (pineapple and nasi goreng) as staples, cream of vegetable soup, herbal soup, bak kut teh soup, chicken luncheon meat, chicken curry and cheng tng for dessert.
We mostly followed the packing list and several of us brought along an insulating mat, which is a light foam mat which made sleeping more comfortable by reducing the heatloss from our body.
Transport and Accommodation (before trek)
We took a bus up to Ipoh and the train back to Singapore. Train tickets are relatively straight forward; I just purchased them from the JB station opposite city square. The hotel rooms for the last night we stayed in Ipoh could only be booked on the spot there as there weren’t any suitable ones online.
Training (after trek)
After the trek, it is easy to see that our training helped us tremendously. Without the stairs training and overnight walk, we would not be in proper shape to tackle Yong Yap. Our regimen could have been improved though; to have really been prepared we should have committed ourselves and trained even during the study week. As it was, the two weeks of inactivity meant that we weren’t as fit as we should have been. The intensity which we had during our training could have been upped as well; less break time and more repetitions.
Another aspect of training that was neglected was training for descending. Many of us had a lot of trouble going down because our knees weren’t strong enough. One way to solve this could be to train at Bukit Timah. To sum it up, my impression that were prepared for Yong Yap was wrong; we weren’t fully prepared and what seniors said was true: you can never over train for a G7 trek.
Food and Logs (after trek)
The food we brought up was in fact slightly lacking. We did not bring enough breakfast and lunch food and were lucky that we had MacDonald’s at Ipoh instead of eating the food we brought along as originally planned. We may have planned too much soup based items in our menu too as these necessitated the use of more water. This meant that our trek up to the summit was weighed down by water and with better planning we could have had a slightly easier trek up. The insulating mats were very useful; sleeping on roots was fine and it did its job of preventing body heat from being leached into the ground. One issue is that they made navigating fallen trees harder as we had to strap them to the front of our bags.
Transport and Accommodation (after trek)
Buses travel much faster than trains and would probably be a better choice for future expeditions instead of following us and taking the train down. You’ll reach JB much earlier and have time to get some R&R in city square if you wish. The Majestic hotel we stayed in, though it did not live up to its name, is cheap and comfortable enough for a one night stay. If the train is not the mode of transport back to JB though, the guides can recommend other hotels that would be nearer to the bus terminal.
Conclusion
Yong Yap was a great eye opener for me. I had a taste of what a G7 trek was like and despite all that I said during and immediately after the trek, I’m game for more. It is a good first G7 experience and most importantly, I made great friends through this trek. Good luck to future expeditions!
Video by: Hui Ling Written by: Warren Tuan, Trek IC
