Among all my mountain trekking experience, Gunung Ledang is probably one of the more disappointing ones. Why? Because the place is costly and too commercialized. You have to pay for parking, entrance, trekking, and also a guide (total around RM 60 per person paid to Taman Negara).
There are about 21 of us (1 guide for 10 person, and we have to take 3, and the extra guide will take care of the little kid we bring along, sigh). It takes 2 hours to reach our campsite, passing by 2 pretty waterfalls. I think this is the 4th station, and this campsite is huge with ample space. We left our big bags here and continue trekking 4 hours up to the peak. The journey is quite challenging as it requires quite some rope climbing, and there are sands along the path and some bonsai look-alike tree near the top.
The top is pretty disappointing as we reach around 4-5 P.M. (we need another 3 hours to trek down and must reach by 7, Taman Negara regulation) which is pretty hot, and it’s hazy as well due to the bad haste recently. So no clear sky, no nice weather, no amazing view, sucks. I was told before Taman Negara take over, we could camp near the top, which is quite cool as we can enjoy the sunset and sunrise, not to mention the pretty stars at night. Guess all these fun stuff are no longer available now, so we would probably banned Gunung Ledang for life.
In total we have to trek around 8 hours on the 1st day and it’s quite rush and not quite relaxing nor enjoyable. Furthermore I didn’t quite get my “reward” at the peak. Then it rains at night before I could have my dinner, and water went in the camp and my sleeping site outside, double sucks. Somehow, it rains pretty often during most of my outdoor trips, sigh.
The next day is super relaxing, just about an hour downhill and get to swim near the waterfall (which is pretty enjoyable).
Gunung Ledang could have been better, but the true experience of mountain trekking is spoilt by Taman Negara (perhaps to cater for more city folks, they have to make it super safe plus constraining). If you are a city dweller that haven’t trek much mountain before, perhaps Gunung Ledang is for you.
Ops, it didn't make it to become a photo blog, I wrote too much ...
Photo Links: Mei Ru's Multiply 1, 2 and 3; Michelle's Multiply; Chim's Multiply 1, 2, 3 and 4
PS: My video production for Gunung Ledang could take forever to come out
2 comments:
I had climbed G.Ledang before. Last year if im not mistaken. Yea though we had to pay for a guide and all it was pretty fun. The view at top was beautiful. not like how u described. And we camp up at 900++ meters. Really fun.
The experience is partly spoilt by not able to camp near the top (thus have to rush on the first day, missed the sunrise and sunset, not to mentioned the atmosphere and star gazing at night) and partly due to the haste as well.
I mean it's not bad, but it could have been better. My friends who had been there few years back told me it was much better then.
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