Last weekend March 4, 2017, my first hike in so many years. And I have to pick Gunung Ledang. I did not know that this mountain was amongst the hardest to climb in Malaysia. They said it was ranked 6th.

I started my journey to Bangi with my bike and parked my bike at Arshad’s house near the meeting point. We then went to the meeting point to meet up with the others.

The busses arrived at around 2.30am and I’m already made new friends. We arrived at a mosque near our destination at around 6am. After we freshen up and Solat we had a quick breakfast at a nearby stall.

After the breakfast, we then depart to Taman Negara Lagenda Gunung Ledang. I think we arrived at 7.30am.

Before we can began our hike we need to register everything we bring including what we are wearing. This is to ensure hikers won’t leave anything behind. If they do, they will be a penalty of RM5 per item that is missing.

We then do a warming up session with the team after a briefing by the guides. Our first challenge before the first checkpoint was Tangga Mahligai. It consists of more than 700 steps of stairs. At 9am we sure are late to enter the hike.  It was a traffic jammed at first but the traffic finally cleared up after the first checkpoint.

After the first checkpoint it was all hike up. This is when I first sprained my ankle but continue hiking as the pain is not that much.

The hike is getting harder as it was getting colder. After checkpoint 3 my inner thigh is cramped. Putting some heat rub on, I continue the hike.

I arrived at the Simpang Pendita at 11.30 and we were over 30 minutes of our cut off time and had to use the alternative route, the route going down so we will meet it again going down. The sight is indeed beautiful.

As we went further up, it is getting colder and fogs and rains makes it colder. This is where both of my inner thigh gets cramp. I put on the heat rub and hike further. After a few hours, I think around 1pm, I lost my energy as I am getting hungrier. My tidbits and power bar does not help much.

At this point where I were really challenged. Left behind, in pain, hungry does not help one bit.

Looking at the never ending ladder does not help either. But somehow I push myself further untill I reach Bukit Botak near the top. There I had my lunch. After my refreshing lunch I went to the peak.

It was an amazing sights seeing all the hikers with me finally reach the peak. I was too tired to take a lot of pictures there but it was worth it.

Getting down is another story. A 6 hour hike getting down, I afraid getting down would not be an easy task. At 3.30pm, we headed down. Reaching Kem senget, I started to feel pain on my ankle.

Being amongst the last a few of my newly found friend accompany me until we reach the bottom. We arrived at 9pm and went straight to declare our belongings.

I MADE IT.