Caving at Merapoh, Pahang

It's a plan that's been 2 months in the making. Haha, not really. We just agreed on the date back in March but that was pretty much it. We didn't know of the details until the week before.

I can vouch for myself I don't do a lot of outdoorsy activities. Boleh kira dengan jari je (I can count on the fingers in one hand...) :D. This marked the 4th outing with my colleagues. Prior to this, there was rafting at Kuala Kubu Bharu, ATV at Kemensah and paragliding at Jugra. There was a couple of paintball games with friends from school. A friend and I attempted to climb Mount Kinabalu in 2012 but we ran out of time as we reached the Sayat-sayat checkpoint. I won't go into details here. Moving along :'D

ATV at Kemensah (Oct 2014)

Paragliding at Bukit Jugra (Sept 2014)

Paintball near Putrajaya (Jan 2014)

I won't dwell too much on the horrendous Labour Day weekend traffic jam. Let's just say that I'm so glad that my parents stay near the Negeri Sembilan-Melaka border ;). We left at noon (don't ask why :D), had a late lunch in Bentong at 4:30pm, mengeteh (stopped for tea/coffee break) in Kuala Lipis at 7pm and arrived in Merapoh after 9. That was still fine because the agenda for the day were checking in, dinner and some briefing. Caving would take place the next morning.

Merapoh is near Gua Musang

Gua Hari Malaysia
So Saturday finally came. We got ready, had breakfast and headed for the caves.

Group pic... mustering smiles while we still could :D

Belanja selfie satu :)

At the back of the truck

Passing through a palm oil estate

Still smiling :)

We trekked in the jungle for a bit along a small stream before we arrived at the mouth of Gua Hari Malaysia.

Those 3 fellas were fast

Weh, sabar bang :D

Pakma Tikus - smallest Rafflesia species.. still a bud

Way past its shelf life

Rotan

Does anybody know what this is?

Pokok ara

The cave entrance

Still clean :)

It was previously known as Gua Padang Kawad as it was said the Japanese made camps in the area near the cave and it was also where they performed their marching and military exercises. It was rediscovered on Malaysia Day in 2012 by a joint Croatian and Malaysian caving expedition. You may argue all you want which one is a better name but one thing for sure it's a truly amazing cave to explore! I hope I do some justice with this entry.

I was trying to use my camera sparingly in the beginning because I was afraid the battery wouldn't survive the trip back, especially when I enabled the flash.

Hard to get it right

We were told the cave is just tens of metres shy of 1km long. Once we get to the end, we have to make a u-turn and go back the way we came from. They weren't kidding when they stated in the brochure "Trekking+Climbing+Crawling+Abseiling+Swimming". It was a brutal smack-you-right-in-the-face kind of initiation to caving, especially for me as a newbie. You already need to squat down and do the 'duck walk' to enter the cave mouth. A few meters in you need to go even lower. Before you know it, you're already on your belly inching forward by pulling your body with your hands or by using your legs - whichever that deems easier for you ;). Oh yeah, I should not leave out the part where at times we needed to tilt our head sideways and our cheeks would be slightly submerged in water. And our guides did mention that it was the dry season. I can't image when it's the monsoon season. Gulp!
After we had successfully squeezed ourselves through that tight space, we needed to do two sets of climbing; each one was about twice our heights.
Note: Pictures of these would be at the later part of this entry.

The part where you would have no problem walking

The pro showing how it is done

Carrying a dry bag does slow you down, but you could have the drinks and snacks at the other end

Another pro showing how it is done

Kita pose dulu :)

Baaa chaaaak

Catching some shuteye?

We tried turning off our headlights. It was pitch black!

Inilah barisan kita...

Along the way, we saw fish, small crabs, a frog, a couple of toads, fungus and bats. When there's bats, there's guano. Thank God for the stream! You could wash it off almost immediately :D. No snakes though, which drew sighs of relief from fellow cavers once we had completed the course. Not to forget the stalactites and stalagmites that formed beautiful cave formations. These are what the #savemerapohcaves campaign is trying to save. There are countless other caves in the area and I hope to be back to explore them.

A crab camouflaging itself

Little froggie

Palm-sized crab

Bats

Sorry to disturb you guys

Jay's one of 4

Tiny mushrooms

Stalactites

Gorgeous!

The hard hats worked double overtime. While they limited our peripheral vision, they kept our heads well protected. Ever so often, you'd hear loud thuds, knocks and cries of 'Adoi' :D. So when you were given the instruction to remove your helmet at the tail end of the cave in order for you could get by the very low ceiling when you were already on your stomach, it was unnerving. I had to ask Jay, who was ahead of me, a few times for confirmation :D. Once you cleared it, you'd be rewarded with the sight of the cave opening. Awesome!

Yay, we made it!

Say Caves!

Adidas kampung ad

The gang sign :'D

Free style

We rested for a bout half an hour. Enjoying the company, the stories - accomplishment and funny ones, satisfying our stomach, losing a shoe and what not. Hahaha, Jay lost his shoe for a few minutes as he was distracted by a pacat (leech) as he was washing his sock. Thankfully it got stuck in between the rocks and not washed away. That'd be horrible!

When the sky turned a bit dark, we made a move. Now we have to do the same course again, starting with the section where we had to remove our helmets. It all went downhill from there, literally :). To me, it was like a totally new path. It may feel we were breezing through it, perhaps because we didn't really have to help the person behind us going down the slippery rocks. In actual fact, we took about the same time for each direction. Oh, speaking of slippery rocks, the Adidas kampung shoes were a godsend. They rock (pun inteded)!

Down that way

One of our guides

Since it was the dry season, we didn't have to do any 'swimming' as stated in the brochure. Thank God! I can't imagine how deep the water could get

Could the water get that high?!

Waiting for my turn to abseil. My headlight came off midway so I had to carry it in my hands. Huhuhu :)

Jap ek bang. Nak amik gambar jap :)

The rest of the gang. Vote for your favourite pose :)

Another member of the group. This picture actually turned out well

One more set of abseiling to do

Those who had taken their turns are down below

"If he could fit, then I would too"... I kept on saying that :D

Selfie dulu :)

You could see them sitting down after all the crawling they had to do

'Like' ;)

I just care about the pretty stalactites... haha, kidding guys

Sunlight! Woohoo!

Yay, yay. Dah sampai

Yay, azab dah habis :)

Survived the cave and the pacats :)

Deva struck gold :)

Kelah Sanctuary
On our last day, we were picked up at 10 and brought to the Taman Negara Pahang, Sungai Relau office.

Apa bawak tuala pergi kenduri ni? :D

Peaceful

The bulletin board at the Taman Negara office

Ikan kelah

Berapa banyak kali mau wefie daaa? Selagi boleh kan ;)

Say what? Gunung Tahan is some 46km away??!

Our first stop after registration was the Menara Pandang Bukit Seraya (Bukit Seraya View Tower) which was 8km away. There, we could see Gunung Tahan in the distance, thanks to the clear skies. It sure stirred the interest of those other fellas. 5 day to a week long expedition from Merapoh to the peak and then to Kuala Tahan translates to a lot of number twos that I have to worry about :D

The view tower

Pokok seraya is the one with the reddish trunk

Gunung Tahan.. man, that's far!

We were so lucky to bump into a couple of deer, one in each direction. They were two of many that were reintroduced to the wild. We even spotted a herd of selembu (a breed of seladang and lembu) on our way back. Awesome!

We couldn't believe our eyes at first

Whatcha looking at? Haven't you seen a deer in your life?

This one showed up when we were heading back home

Selembu

The herd of selembus grazing

The kelah sanctuary was located 6km from the view tower.

Abang Juki gave us some talk about the kelah sanctuary

You mean, there are kelahs in the water? The water was a bit shallow and murky, but we still got to feed some kelahs

(Video) too bad the water was murky. It would be cool to see the kelahs better

Abang Juki is an expert

Passing around the fish that abang Juki caught

Here fishy, fishy, fishy...

What? Another one? Dang! :D

Before we left, we took a dip in the river. I was hoping for a cascading waterfall and clearer water, but you do with what you have right?

The trail to Gunung Tahan

You mean, we can take a dip in this water?

Ooo, main kotor :P :D

Bird watchers... Sorry guys for the interruption

All and all, I really, really enjoyed my time and stay in Merapoh. The people who we encountered in this trip were super friendly. Not just the folks who are attached to the tour agency (the driver, guides, support crew and cooks alike) but also the people who were behind the TMMT (The Magnificent Merapoh Trail) race and the guys who extract madu lebah gua (cave honey). We were lounging in the house resting our aching bodies after the caving experience, when they came back after a hard yet successful outing. They showed us the honey combs they had extracted and offered us a taste of the sweet and delicious honey right from the honeycomb. They even went out of the way to buy a few loafs of bread for us to eat the honey with. All these made our trip even more memorable than it already was. Yay!