I'm alive!!!! Ok...so i'm exaggerating. But hey...it's my blog! I'm allowed....hehehe. This was my pre-written entry which i never had the time to update although i had it written on Monday.

DAY 1
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"I am soooo tired as i have never been before and yet i made it on time to work after only arriving back at KL Sentral station at 4.00 in the morning. But i'm still perky because i haven't slept on anything flat and so the aches and pains haven't quite taken over just yet. Took the 5.30 lrt and got home in time to just bathe and then grab my bag and leave for work. Got here about 8 minutes late but my seniors walked in after me so it wasn't really a problem. They laughed when i look so harrased. Everybody seems to take it cool here....hmmm. So much for my tension!

Dabong was great!!! I did stuff there i have never done in my life. I climbed rocks next to a waterfall, i had to wade through knee length water and also travelled through a cave and had to use a chain to walk over some rocks. Dangerous?? Yes.....most definitely but that's why i wanted to go with this group. We had boys always in front and behind us looking out for our every step. The trek up was very tedious. We took it slow but it was steep and we had lotsa branches and tree roots we had to hold on to in order to get across. Very adventurous and gung ho kinda trip.

The waterfalls we were at was apparently the highest in Southeast Asia. It's located at a place called Gunung Ayam because the mountain it flows from apparently is shaped like a chicken's head. The water was excellent. Cool, clean and clear. We did the typical camping routine. The buidling fire, setting up the campsite, cooking food in mesh tins on a burner. We even managed to cook rice and stuff for dinner because we had more time. The other meals were mostly maggi and some sambal one girl Roopa's mom made. At that point, everything's just yummy. Especially everytime you take a dip in the water. You come out feeling like you haven't eaten in days. Water we consumed from the water fall itself. Boiled to make hot drinks but sometimes just like that as long as we caught it at flowing, strong current areas. There are lots of photos. 3 cameras and one digital camera. So, thanks to it we had more photos...some we didn't have to print. Still there's quite a large collection from the bunch of cameras.

Basically the trip was like this. We left KL station via train at 7.15 and arrived in Dabong 12 hours later at 7.30 in the morning. So we made lotsa noise and even got complained on making too much noise by some of the passengers. Then later we all settled down to sleep and conserve our energy for the trek. I came to the border of Johor in between....'coz the train had to stop at Gemas. Then we had a train shunting (train switches tracks by detaching and reattaching some coaches). So after arriving at Dabong station we walked through the quaint little kampung-type town towards a river with a rickety wooden jetty and one long boat that has a fan for a motor. There we took the boat across the river and then got into a van that led us to the base of the hills. There's a whole proper entrance all built before the jungles come into play so we got some tuna sandwiches and hot milo done and had them after a quick brushing of out teeth. Then, packed up and started out journey. The best part is that i never even climbed trees before but this time i actually climbed a lot with that heavy backpack on my shoulder summore and also managed to climb over rocks jjjuuusssttt beside the cascading falls. Felt good to be able to complete so many feats. Gave me hope as well that i'm not completely useless just because i'm asthmatic. Also i had 2 other asthmatics who came along with me. They're brother and sister. Quite funny. Both left their inhalers at home and figured the other one would bring it and had to get it at the pharmacy before boarding the train. Anyway, where was i? Yeah....so we did this steep, slippery and complicated climbed up a so call trail that wasn't even made properly for about 20 minutes with short and few breaks in between and came to a hanging bridge. That was a fork in the journey and the boys were insistent that we had to do it the hard way to really enjoy what we get at the end of it all. So instead of taking the bridge which would be to get across and continue trekking up with the same routine of monotonous trees, mangled branches and bushes, we took the left fork that was more challenging.

And boy was that a challenge! At this fork...we continued for about another 15 minutes up a steep climb and then came to the base of the waterfalls. Then we settled there for awhile, quenched our thirst and tested the waters just to refresh outselves and then climbed the rocks on foot and some places with hands as well. The waterfall started moving on to our left. We took a route juuuussstttt to the right of the falls and has to climb over rocks. Initially we'd see the boys climbing and then we'd think we could never do the same but they all take turns to guide us and pull us up even when necessary. In fact, they were more confident than we were about out ability and i think that gave us the motivation we needed. Very nice of them. Only one boy's mother came on this trip. Then after that, we climbed on up again through some paths and tangles of bushes and trees further and further up. This was already taking a toll on us as we were very tired and the backpack was becoming heavier. Made more stops and some fellas were already calling out to Murugan for strength. I took along vibuthi so rubbed some on and also some for the other gals. Somehow struggled all and then we came to some deeper crossings between rocks and pools of water. We crossed that and then kept going up. The reasons this kept happening was because there are 7 tiers to the falls we were ascending and at every one of the 7 we'll stop and wade through water and then keep on climbing.

Then we came to a cave which was like wedged and hidden from view. Very cool...like the movies. Went in and there was this large rock blocking the path so we had to climb over it using a linked chain that was against the wall. Like some mountain climbing thing. Then got to the other side and went on and on for almost another 40 minutes. The last half an hour was the worst. I was outta breath. The other girl kept sitting down because her legs couldn't go further. The boys all were so grim and steadfastly going on. They kept telling us that what we see finally will reward all our experiences. So we kept going and finally made it to the entrance of the camp area in 2 and 1/2 hours. About half an hour before time. So it was a great achievement and the little hike further up we hardly felt. Took photos and stuff and then went on and reached the camp site. The place we reached was called Jelawang Jungle. That's where we set up camp and gosh the boys were right. The view was excellent. We could see almost the whole of Dabong from our view. And guess where we were? Above the water falls 4th or 5th tier !!! There was a ledge or rather a big boulder of rock sitting on the hill and it was just on top of the waterfall. In that area, water flowed to the right and fell off the rock so the whole rock was for sitting and drying clothes and the dry, sunny area. We took nice swims there for a bit and then had to cross that span of water to get to the other side, climb a small incline and then go to more flat areas for camp. There were 2 more tiers but we were waiting for the next day to take the climb. Our camp site was in between tiers. Then it was the usual. Set up tent, prepare stuff, take a shower, had dinner and then went to sleep around 12.00 plus after sitting around fire".

Ok....i'll stop now. This was Day 1 at Dabong....i'll continue Day 2 another time.