Well, I will look forward to the June (Mount Kinabalu) trip and July (Gunung Tahan) trip! We are still not yet settled with the dates for the Gunung Tahan trip, and from what I heard from HQ, there is minimal planning to be done, or at least, its not a kind of trek that you have to plan months before – like the Kinabalu one. I guess there are so many trekkers going to Gunung Tahan, to an extent where the people are always ready with their 4WDs to earn our money! Nevertheless, for us trekkers travelling from Singapore, we still have to book the train ride at least 2 weeks in advance!

Well… more updates when the time comes!

There are typically three ways a trekkers plan their trips to Gunung Tahan.

The first way starts and ends at Kuala Tahan. Kuala Tahan is a little town opposite where the Mutiara Taman Negara Resort is located. The nearest KTM train station to Kuala Tahan is Jerantut (about 2 hours bus ride).

The second way starts and ends at Sungai Relau. Trekkers will register at Sungai Relau and then normally take a 4 wheel drive up to Kuala Juram, where they start their trek. Sungai Relau is 7km from Merapoh train station, and 33km from Gua Musang train station. This trek takes approximately 4 days to conquer.

The third way is what is normally called the traverse trek. This time, trekkers start at Sungai Relau, and make all the way across a 90km trek up and down Gunung Tahan, and end up at Kuala Tahan, on the 6th or 7th day.

We were deciding which trek to attempt, and we thought it would be really wasteful to go up and down the same trail, so our decision is to do the traverse trek!

90km sounds really scary to me, considering the type of load that we will be carrying – all the mess tins, cooking equipment, food and clothing. But well, that’s what trekking is about isn’t it? I heard the scenery along the way is spectacular! “Good enough to make inspirational posters out of them”, as HQ has said! I’m looking forward to it!

Our Sabah (Mount Kinabalu) trip has been arranged such that we reach home on 30th June. That was the earliest possible schedule since one of my team members will be having her industrial attachment until mid June.

So, that leaves us the month of July for our Gunung Tahan and Gunung Ayam trip!

Considering that we may all need to go back to school to help out in the NUS Rovers orientation camp, and that the trip may take about 11 days (Gunung Tahan is 7 days, Gunung Ayam is 3 days, plus 1 day of traveling), we need to leave in early June, and so I planned to leave for Gunung Tahan on the 5th of July! That is 4 rest days after coming back from Sabah!

Will we be able to take it? I think shouldn’t be a problem, since we are trekking Mount Kinabalu in the first two days in Sabah, and the remaining days are the less strenuous activities like “rotting” at Manukan Island and the diving course.

We haven’t fixed on the itinerary for the Tahan and Ayam trip yet, but according to HQ, Gunung Tahan alone is going to cost about S$150, including everything (food, transportation, guide fees etc). Actually, most of the money (more than half) goes to food, considering we need to supply ourselves with food for 7 days.

Sounds good! So, I will be spending almost one month overseas this vacation!