Prologing a trek by overnighting on the road is at best a hit-and-miss. The previous two to Gunung Datuk and Gunung Bunga Buah didn't turn out too badly, despite squeezing 15 to a minibus. It's pretty much a hit when a light sleeper like me manages to catch 40 winks in the bus despite the cramped conditions.
So one'd have thought that given a luxury coach this time around, especially with 18 people spread on a 36-seater, I would've fared much better. But me and the sleeping bag didn't fare well at all, and it was the tireless air-conditioning that triumphed.
And so it was that I was in a sour frame of mind on our first day of trekking to Gunung Brinchang (trail 1). No doubt it was compounded first, by lots of waiting around trying to check in to our lodgings (two 3-bedroom residential units in a building on a very steep hillside), then having to break out the rain gear sometime in the afternoon, and to top it all off, a very cold, damp, tedious and nauseating 9-km road walk back after summitting Gunung Brinchang. Therefore, I don't have any pictures to show for my efforts on Day 1, even though we passed by the lovely Boh tea plantations and even a strawberry farm featuring a very wet baby goat.
But here are efforts from Day 2, which saw the summit of Mount Beremban, crossing a couple of streams, people tumbling into mud, slipping in the undergrowth, stealing strawberries, and other muddy hijinks. At nights, I heard, there were even parties involving beer, durians and raw jagong. But I was too busy getting into bed.
In the end, happiness was finding a Ramly burger stand on the way down, when we stopped at the Iskandar Falls, even if it wasn't the 'special' due to a lack of eggs. It's still a Ramly burger.
