Into The Emerald Forest We Went...

On the 24th of July 2009, the 4 of us (My 25%, Calorieman, Smeagol & I) plus the people from Genting's stepped into the emerald forest of Gunung Tahan. We were leaving behind our families, friends, jobs and our daily lives basically. We left our creature comforts at home to be with creatures of mother nature. We were entering into a million year old rainforest. We were the alien creatures intruding and imposing ourselves upon the natives of Gunung Tahan. As we stepped on fallen leaves stretched across the humid forest, we were walking into an adventure we had been talking about, planned, but never really trained (physically) for. Between the four of us i think we had barely put in a weeks training of any sort and we were here to conquer the highest peak in Semenajung Malaysia, the indomitable... Gunung Tahan.

Bye Bye Civilisation

With a forlorn look my 25% seem to say goodbye to the creature comforts that she knows best and still looking in disbelief at the fact that she is standing at the very edge of civilisation as she knows it and walking into our million year old rainforest for the very first time. Che mat and madam leads the way out of civilisation by taking the very first steps on the last man made structure at the edge of the forest. We all take in a deep breath filled with fear, apprehension, disbelief and a belly full of excitement as we took step by little step onto the bridge leading into the deep deep forest, leaving behind civilisation as we know and are used to. We fidget with our backpacks to make sure that we have everything that we need and to...i suppose have a mental connection with what we are leaving behind.

Tahan... here we come!

Silently she Grows..

As we all held our hands in silent prayer for a safe journey ahead, silently this gentle giant grows from beneath her bedding of dead leaves, reaching out towards the sun above and prays that the clumsy giants standing above & around her would not be so clumsy as to step on her and snuff out her young existence. In the jungle, it's all about survival. As i utter my silent prayer for a safe journey for our team, i too ask for permission from the great mother for her blessing to venture into the bossom of her forest.

One for The Road

As is customary, a group photo is always a must...just in case we lose someone, at least we know who we lost. :) This is a photo of the 13 members (the 13th is holding the camera) who are crazy enough to trek Tahan for the first time, 2nd time or more than god knows how many times. Only the guides have done it more than all of us put together. This is one final shot before we sweat like pigs, curse like we have never done before, bitch and moan more than once and experience a whole phlethora of experience that we have never experienced before, and of course before we set on our journey...a touch of our mighty staffs (some have magical powers as we came to find out later) to the murmurs of "All for One and One for All!"