Bukit Kutu & Sungai Ampang (Y2016 MTT)
BASIC INFORMATION
Trek: Y2016 MTT
Date: 29 - 30 August 2015
Location: Bukit Kutu, Kuala Kubu Baru, Selangor, Malaysia
Elevation: 1,103 m
Time taken to ascend: 4h
Time taken to descend: 4h
Difficulty: Moderate!
Location: Sungai Ampang, Ulu Klang, Selangor, Malaysia
Time taken to reach lowest tier: 1h
Difficulty: Beginner friendly!
BRIEF ITINERARY
Day 1
Overnight transport to Bukit Kutu
Day 2
Day trek up Bukit Kutu
Overnight at Gunung Nuang Dormitary
Day 3
Trek into Sungai Ampang
Transport back to SG
Introducing those trekking with the SMUX Trekking Team for the first time! Left to right, Dong Wei, Zekiel, Samuel, Cheryl and Nicholas!
On 24th February, we gathered outside SMUX room at 10pm for a short briefing and distribution of logistics before leaving for Malaysia.
The 6-hour long journey went pretty smooth for us. We reached our breakfast place at about 6am and our guides were already there! Since we did not stop along the way to have supper, most of us (or maybe just me) were really hungry by then. Breakfast was at a typical prata place where we had our pratas and tehs and maggi goreng. What caught our attention was this item on their menu called Roti Bro. It was as though it was calling out to us, like ‘Brooooo, have some roti bro’, so we responded to the calling! (which was eggs and onions served with bread)
After breakfast, we set off on a 15min ride to the base of Bukit Kutu. The scenery along the way to the base was breathtaking! Our driver allowed us to open our windows to enjoy the view and breeze. Quoting Samuel, ‘this must be what dogs feel like when they get to stick out their heads on car rides!!’
After a short safety briefing and warm ups, we started our trek! The entire trek itself took about 8 hours. We were blessed with the best weather anyone could ask for on a Malaysia trek, it did not rain and despite it being sunny, there were strong winds keeping us cool.
There were several river crossings along the way.
Our first river crossing! A few of us insisted on keeping our shoes dry (because we forgot water shoes sigh) so we took the bridge while the rest just walked across the river.
It wasn’t too long till we reached our second river crossing. There were rocks strategically placed for us to get across but not enough for my short legs as I eventually gave up and just let my shoes submerged in the cooling water.
There were a lot of fallen bamboos and logs along our path which we had to crawl under to get across, not much of an issue for me but really tiring for the taller ones to be bending continuously.
About 2 hours into the trek, we reached some huge (like really HUGE) boulders with a pretty interesting stacking layout and decided to take a break there
Another 2 hours from here we reached our next rest point, a chimney! The summit is just 10min away from here but because it was quite crowded at the summit, our guide suggested that we take a break and have our lunch first.
Bukit Kutu was once a colonial hill station called ‘Treacher’s Hill’. The chimney is said to be a leftover from one of the buildings back then. The right path of the chimney leads to the summit boulder and the path behind the chimney leads towards the old ruins.
View from the summit!!
Meet Mr Fabz – there were ladders to assist people in getting up the boulders at the summit for a better view too!
The old ruins.
By the time we came back down, it was close to 5pm. We took a short break and left for our dormitory. We spent our night at Gunung Nuang Dormitory, where we also cooked our own dinner! Thanks to our logs i/c for this trek, Kailing, our logs head, ShiHui, and everyone for each bringing a food item to share, we had a really successful outdoor cooking session! (I measured level of success by how full and satisfied everyone was after dinner!)
We woke up early the next morning, had our breakfast and waited for our driver to take us to Sungai Ampang. The trek to and fro Sungai Ampang took us about 3 hour
We spent some time chilling by the mini waterfall, the sound of the water falling was really soothing and just watching the water run felt strangely therapeutic too. Everyone was getting too comfortable with nature but it was time to leave unfortunately.
Our driver dropped us off for lunch at a hawker nearby and then we continued our 6-hour long ride back to Singapore. It was a pity that our driver forgot to stop us for dinner at Taman Sentosa but we ended our trip with a dinner together back at our most frequent place, Waterloo (咸蛋排骨!!).
Overall, the trek has been an enjoyable and timely break from school for us to just temporary disconnect from our worries, take a breather and recharge for the remaining term.
Written by: Jasmine Koh, Trek IC
