Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Bragging Rights Falls

After our first successful waterfall exploration which includes an unmistakable good rapport and partnership between us, Lim and I embarked on another challenging exploration and we wanted it to be special this time. We administered an exhaustive research and we came to a conclusion of a probable hidden and possibly unknown waterfall that exists somewhere in the remote jungles of Northern Malaysia.
Throughout the days, we made contact with the Orang Aslis and this time, I thought I'll bring along some used clothes and shoes for the Orang Aslis which meant I had to lug a 6kg bag for at least an hour for this gesture.
Lugging a 8kg bag for almost 2 hours

Arriving the Orang Aslis village entrance, we were greeted by a huge petai tree and clear blue skies in the background. The whole place just seem so peaceful.
What a view

The two chinamen then proceeded to meet with the head of the Orang Asli. After presenting to them my used clothes and shoes, we then asked permission to trek further in to find the alleged undiscovered waterfall.
Donation exercise
Mix breed of tiger and dog

The Orang Asli village (probably around 18 Orang Aslis) headman was reluctant to bring us there as he fears that we Chinamen will act exactly like.... Chinamen. He informed us that his reluctance to bring us further in was because of unscrupulous outsiders that have time and time again cheated the Orang Aslis of their land as well as spoiling their natural secret beauties. But he could see the sincerity in Lim and I that all we wanted to do was explore this unchartered region and that we won't attempt to bring outsiders into their peaceful surroundings. With our stronger than cengal wood promise, he commanded 3 men to escort us into our exploration.

This was harder than we thought. We had to walk on ledges as narrow as your laptop screen width. Trudged through bushes with torns and worst of all, haul our way hrough forest and forest of bamboos. A word of advice. Be extra careful when going through a thick forest of bamboos as their shoots are extremely sharp. I got sliced by one just nicely above my shoulder.
Bamboo slice on my shoulder

We finally reached a nice pool after 3 hours of bush wacking trekking. We decided to rest and our guides went on with their spear fishing activities. There was a full bright hot sun but the water was super cold. I could only submerge myself for 3 minutes.
A nice pool

The Orang Aslis, with their home made spear would dive underneath boulders in cold shivering waters and within seconds, out comes a speared fish.
Spearfishing with the Orang Aslis

Catch of the day

Strange plant.Smells awful though

We continued not much further and we finally arrived at our unexplored waterfall. According to the Orang Aslis, we were the first non Orang Aslis to set foot in this waterfall and they hope we'll be the last to do so.
We're naming this BR Falls as in Bragging Rights Falls

After spending 2 hours exploring the region, we left this charming part of the forest and thanked our guides as well as vowing again to not expose the waterfall to the outside world. We came back to the city with a sense of an accomplished mission and of course bragging rights.

3 comments:

Andy said...

Whoaa... nice place! Good adventure!
Yeah..a reminder, you'd probably need a tetanus booster since u've been frequent in the outdoors.
cheers!

Jejak Wali di Tanah Melayu said...

May i know where is this place?What is the malay name associated to it?My name is Ras from Singapore.

Teoh Yew Aun said...

This place is in Simpang Pulai, Perak....along the highway....