FAREWELL 2008 & WELCOME 2009

This year 2008 I had dive at Similan and Perhentian Island. I had climbed Mount Kinabalu for the second time with a bunch of adventure people and also try my first experience on gunung above 2000m call 'Gunung Batu Putih' at peninsula. It was a great adventure and exciting journey through 2008.

Before the year end, I guess my most interesting trip would be my backpacking trip at Guilin, China.

Time flies and age catching up BUT adventure still carry on through the new year 2009. I can't wait to welcome the new year as I have 2 planned trip to Manado and Chiangmai. It would be a very exciting backpacking trip as well with diving and adventure.

Stay tune.

Adventure Backpacking @ Guilin, China

We had planned this trip 4 months ago when Air Asia opens its new route to Guilin, China and it is also my first trip to China. I choose Guilin as my first destination to China is because Guilin has the most beautiful scenery that I love very much. We booked a 1 week backpacking trip for Guilin from 5th November to 12th November 2008. It was an exciting adventure with some trekking and cycling around Guilin.

Here is my Guilin Travelogue:

5th Nov – We took a early flight at 6:20am to guilin and reach Guilin at around 10am. It was not that cold at Guilin when we reach where the temperature is around 18 to 20 degree but the worst is the rain. Its rain the whole day since we reach Guilin and it was a wet day for our first day at Guilin. I didn’t have a umbrella and raincoat with me. The rain and wind chill make us cold and I brought a RMB5 umbrella for a little rain protection. Trust me!! A umbrella or raincoat are very handy during the rainy season for backpacking trips.



We stay at Guilin Riverside Hostel that cost us USD$9 per person per night and the room are clean and average but you can get cheaper room at Guilin easily. Our first day are just a Guilin city tour.


6th Nov – Second day at Guilin will be a adventure route as we will be heading to Yangshuo by local bus transport. Bus terminal are all in Chinese character and lucky I have 2 friends that can read and the others are English educated. So we brought a bus ticket that cost us RMB15 to reach Yangshuo. The journey took us about 1 hour to reach the beautiful town of Yangshuo that surrounded by hills and rivers. After struggling looking for hostel at Yangshuo with some sweats and research.



Finally we choose 7th Heaven hostel for a night stay for RMB100. I would rate this hostel a very good hospitality and also very friendly with clean room as well. Warning!! the balcony room might flood during the rainy season. We took our quick lunch without wasting time as we are rushing for some cycling adventure because it was a beautiful sunny day for our second day trip.



We cycle to Moon hill and visited Big Banyan tree. It was a very adventure cycling for our second day at Yangshuo. At night, we try a weird dish beer fish and also had a little shopping at West street. Overall food experience at Guilin are not that great.



7th Nov – It was raining in the morning on our third day. We can’t do any cycling for today and there will be some changes to our itinerary. We will be heading to visit Xingping town and try our first bamboo boat along the Li river. It suppose to be a beautiful cruise with beautiful scenery but the rain cause the whole mess. The best part of the adventure are cruising Li river with rain and cold wind chill without any beautiful scenery. Rainy day are really enough to end the day as we head home to Yangshuo. We change to a new hostel Ji Jing Ge Hostel that cost RMB60 per night and is was a good deal and I really like this hostel with basic and clean room.



8th Nov – We decided to visit Longsheng on our 4th day. We took a 3 hour LONG journey to Longsheng. We love Longsheng very much as it has a beautiful rice terrace scenery and also good food at Longsheng. We suppose to plan to stay a night a longsheng but there wasn’t any good information on the accommodation at Longsheng that make us worry.

After visiting Longsheng and there are plenty of backpackers hostel at Longsheng.

9th Nov – Our fifth day are the most exciting, adventure and beautiful highlight of the trips. There is no rain and it was a beautiful sunny day and it is really good for a whole day cycling trip down the country side of Yangshuo. We cycle toward the dragon bridge into the village and it was a really fascinating view and amazing scenery. Every stop ended with a “WOW”. We took a 2 hour bamboo rafting journey along Yulong river with our bicycle to enjoy the beautiful scenery at Yangshuo. We ended our Yongshuo trips with no regret as the last day was the most beautiful of the trip.





10th Nov – We head back to Guilin city and make our way to a cheap hotel for RMB80 for a night. We haven’t visit all the beautiful hill at Guilin. So we quickly took our lunch and visit Elephant Hill.

We spend the whole afternoon at elephant hill and enjoy the sunset and have a little snack at the river. Then we visited the beautiful pagoda at the river. As usual every night we will end up with night shopping and buying souvenir.

11th Nov – Final day of Guilin. We visited Fubo hill. We walk to Fubo hill for about 30 – 45 minutes through the morning park at Guilin. We saw many old folks dancing and doing tai chi at the park. Sometimes walking is also good to see something difference within the city. We climb to the peak of Fubo hill and finally we can see the whole Guilin city, Diecai hill and Solitary beauty peak.

After Fubo, we proceed to Red Flute Cave by little tuk tuk. The entrance to Red flute cave cost us RMB60 per person and it was not that beautiful after all except the brilliant use of lighting to light up the whole cave with different colors.

12th Nov – We reach back Kuala Lumpur at around 3:30pm.

Visiting Langkawi @October 2008

Langkawi Updates....

I visited Pulau Langkawi during October from 10th to 12th. I had not visit Langkawi for a very long time and this time going back was not a total stranger as there are not much changes at Langkawi.

I took a boat from Kuala Kedah to Langkawi and the journey took us 1.5 hours to reach the destination. We rented a Nissan Sentra for our 2 day trip for a cost of RM150 (I think it is a good deal ;)...). Then we spend our 2 night at CHOGM villa.

There are 2 highlight and attractive place that I would like to recommend:-

First, I had a wonderful dinner at the 'Lighthouse' near pantai cenang. We have the dinner beside the beach. This is a really nice beautiful restaurant at Langkawi.

Secondly, the other best place at Langkawi would be the Oriental Village where we took the cable car to Mount Mat Cincang near pantai kok. The scenery from the peak are beautiful.

Here are just my summary tips for Langkawi that I would like to share with you.

Adventure Bravo.

Highest mountain in Peninsula Malaysia

Here are the 8 highest mountain in Peninsula Malaysia (FYR) :-

1 Gunung Tahan 2,187 Malaysia, Pahang
2 Gunung Korbu 2,183 Malaysia, Perak
3 Gunung Yong Belar 2,181 Malaysia, Perak
4 Gunung Gayong 2,173 Malaysia, Perak
5 Gunung Chamah 2,171 Malaysia, Kelantan
6 Gunung Yong Yap 2,168 Malaysia, Perak
7 Gunung Ulu Sepat 2,161 Malaysia, Perak/Kelantan
8 Gunung Batu Putih 2,131 Malaysia, Perak (Tapah)

Climbing Gunung Batu Putih, Peninsula 8th highest

Finally I get to climbed one of the mountain above 2000m in Peninisula Malaysia called Gunung Batu Putih, which is the 8th highest mountain in Peninsula Malaysia.

Here are my trip itineraries (actual climbing during merdeka holiday) :-

We rush to tapah on 29th August at 11pm and reached tapah at around 1:30am. Crazy !! just rest a while and then we had our breakfast at 7am on the 30th, then reached the mountain entrance at around 8:30am and then all climbers gear up and start climbing at 9am.

The whole climbing took 3 day and 2 night camping. The whole climbing are tough especially on the first day where we climb almost 6-7 hours to reach the cave campsite. I am not really that fit especially with the heavy backpack carrying tents, utensil and foods. No Kidding !!!

Then second day suppose to be another climbing to the peak and camping at the peak. The third day would be the descending.

It is a really great experience.....

Adventure @ My Gopeng Resort aka MGR

Gopeng is a gateway to great adventure like water rafting and adventure caving. But there are not much resort situated at gopeng except My Gopeng Resort and another few adventure resort nearby MGR. Is a recommended place for family and company event that need a break from the busy city stress.





My Gopeng Resort have interesting chalet like kampong chalet, dusun chalet etc for option to adventure seeker. There are good facility like hall, cafeteria and good services from the management of MGR.


We visited the resort on 26th July for a 2 day 1 night trip to explore the actual MGR adventure. We were given kampong chalet and also a cost of RM100 pax for a 2 day 1 night trip including 1 lunch, 1 tea break, 1 dinner and 1 breakfast. Surprise for durian lovers!! there are plenty of durians for desert and tea time all day long.


There are lots of activity provided by MGR like water rafting, body rafting, climbing, trekking, caving etc for group event where all are centralize and easy access without any trouble.

We just have a trial on MGR for just a night to checkout MGR.

Trekking @ Cameron Highland via Tanah Rata

Planned a trekking trips to Cameron Highlands on 6th June to 8th June 2008. We took a bus at 8:30am from Puduraya with counter 87 Kurnia Bistari Express. Reaching Cameron Highland Tanah Rata at 12:30pm.



We had our lunch at tanah rata before proceeding for the check-in at Twin Pines Chalet where a room for 3 days 2 nights with a country side excursion cost around RM100. Personally I do not recommend Twin Pines but after some research around Tanah Rata and I would recommend Hillview Inn at Tanah Rata.

Anyway we had a great steamboat dinner at Mayflower Restaurant where it cost around RM15/person for a dinner steamboat.



Second day on 7th June 2008 was a relax country side excursion early in the morning but we were cheated and delay until noon because of the school holidays and many tourists. But we did some trekking research on Gunung Jasar (trek no 10 and 11) and Gunung Beremban entrance (trek no 7). We found both entrance and planning for tomorrow trekking but we haven’t decide which trek are we using as we are not very clear of the treks. Trek no 10 and 11 are near OLY Apartments and trek no 7 are via MARDI.

We had our country excursion at noon and it was not a nice visit and it is full of people and really pack like sardine at all parks and tourist attraction area. We had our dinner at T-Café next to Marry Brown. I like the place and highly recommended for a visit.



Third day on 8th June 2008, we decided to use the trek to Gunung Jasar where it was signage trek number 11 via Oly Apartments.



The trek is a very nice trek with fresh air and nice trek but we are not in good stamina as we only trek around 1 hour plus to half way of the mountain before heading back to the chalet for check-out. The whole trekking take us 2 hours. Cameron trekking is a great place for jungle trekkers to catch some trees and fresh air.

(I will trek again to Cameron and update the latest trekking report next round)

Diving @ Pulau Perhentian

My personal dive trip organized to Perhentian Island. It was an ad-hoc plan to fill up my holiday schedule as it was a Wesak public holiday fall on a Monday. We drive up to Kuala Besut on 17th May 2008 early in the morning. We started our journey at 9am with a little nice breakfast and then driving up north via Gua Musang way.

If you like to use this way to reach perhentian and take note after the bentong toll plaza (second toll after gombak toll). Take a left turn to Bentong after the toll. This is a old road to Kuantan and East Coast. You will pass Raub Town and then virtually you pass Kuala Lipis and Gua Musang without entering the town. Always follow Kota Bahru signage after Raub. Then you will reach Kuala Krai and Machang town where Machang is a crucial interchange to Jerteh. Jerteh is the nearest town from Kuala Besut and you will notice signage to Kuala Besut and Perhentian along the way.





We reached Kuala Besut at 5pm and settle the perhentian accommodation and boat transfer at the MARA office near jetty. They are many boat transfer office and also parking available at Besut where the slow boat cost around RM40/way. Then we proceed to NAN hotel for our 1 night stay (RM65/room/night) at Besut before proceeding to the island the next morning. Besut is a boring place with NOT much food and banking facility. We got to drive up to Jerteh for some banking and food for the night.




We meet up the boat man at 8am on the 18th May 2008 proceeding to Perhentian Island. Reaching Teluk Dalam at 9:30am where Flora Bay Resort located. We have our breakfast at the resort after check-in into a Quad room at a rate of RM160 per room/night. Not a bad resort for a relax and leisure trip like this. We have a good rest and lunch right after that before searching for our choice of dive centre for our diving activities.



We found a really good dive center “East Marine” located at the other end of flora bay with walking distance 10 minutes to the resort call Awana Eco Resort. They offer us a dive package of 4 dives for a cost RM260 with each dive around RM65 including equipment. I like the staff at East Marine and the service they offering and I would recommend the dive center to you.

We had our first dive to dive site Tanjung Basi at 5pm on 18th May and it was a check dive to get use to the equipment and also weight adjustment. It was a nice dive too on the first day.



It was raining on the 19th May 2008 and luckily it stop around 8am, we are still excited about diving and we walk to the dive center around 8:30am and proceeding for our early first dive to Tiger Rocks on the 2nd day of Perhentian journey. Then our 2nd dive to Tanjong Butung at 11:30am and 3rd dive to Batu Kapal at 2:30pm. We found a very special clown fish name Panda Clownfish.

We completed our 4 dive package and ended at 4:30pm. After cleaning up then we had a break at the beachside near flora bay before proceeding to our beautiful western dinner for the final night at Perhentian. We had a great time at Perhentian.

Going back on the 20th May 2008 where we took the boat at 8am from flora bay resort and reach Kuala Besut at 9:30am. Then proceed to Jerteh town for breakfast before leaving Terengganu and going back Kuala Lumpur using East Coast Highway passing through town Kuala Terengganu, Dungun, Kerteh, Kemaman and Cherating and it is a beautiful East Coast Highway along the beach.

Kinabalu Park : The Climb To The Peak, Malaysia First World Heritage Area via Mesilau

Kinabalu Park is Malaysia’s first World Heritage designated by UNESCO in December 2000 for its ‘outstanding universal values’ and role as one of the world’ most important biological sites.

The Mesilau route to the summit starts from Mesilau Resort and leads to Layang-Layang. It was opened in October 1998 initially used mainly by scientist and researchers as it takes longer about 5 – 6 hours to reach Layang Layang compare to Timpohon.

The trail is a good one for people who are more interested in flora and fauna than the actual climb to the summit. Some little streams are crossed before reaching the Kipuyut bridge across the swift-flowing West Mesilau River that cascades from the precipitous slopes. Near the 3km mark, a tributary of the river is again crossed. From here the trail follows the ridge, rising steeply and continuously, up and up and up in an almost never ending series of steps for about 2km. The whole Mesilau route to Layang Layang is 5.7km (3 ½ miles).

After a night’s rest, most climbers leave at about 3am for the 3 hour trek (pending on fitness level) to the summit and to catch a magnificent sunrise. In the dark, you can see the beams of torch lights as the procession of climbers trudge higher and higher. There are ladders, hand railings and ropes to help you over the steeper slopes.

An hour from Panar Laban, you’ll see Sayat-sayat hut (3,668m), this is the highest shelter on the mountain for the park use only. You will need to walk across the bare granite slabs that stretch endlessly ahead.

By about 6am, you reach your final destination, low’s peak (4,095.2m).

A chasm stretching 16km in length, it separates the summit plateau into Western and Eastern Plateaus. Other peaks on the mountain are Victoria’s Peak (4,090m), Donkey Ears Peak (4,054m), South Peak (3,921.5m) on the Western Plateau. On the Eastern stands King Edward Peak (4,086m), Mesilau Peak (3,801m) and Kind George Peak (4,062m). This peaks are only for experience climbers as it is challenging. Special Permits from the Park authorities is required.

(Articles courtesy taken from Sabah Tourism Board)

My Kinabalu Expedition 2008

I had brought a very cheap air asia flight ticket to Kota Kinabalu 6 months ago and finally the trip had arrived on 29th March 2008. We planned this adventure kinabalu expedition for 5days 4nights. The expedition participate by 24 adventure rafters and climbers.


Everyone reaching at the borneopacker place, Kota Kinabalu town on the first day with 3 different arrival time. It was free and easy on the first day where everyone having lunch individually and also shopping for climbing stuff. Adventure start on the second and third day of the trip.

My second day adventure start with padas rafting adventure. Everyone wake up and get ready before 7am for the exciting adventure day and boarded the rafting bus at 7:30am. The journey take almost 2 hours to reach beaufort train station. Then aboard a train at 10:30am to go Kampung Pangi for the rafting starting point. Before proceed to Pangi, the train will stop over at Kampung Rayoh, the ending point of the rafting where the BUSAT office located. At Rayoh, we put all our personal belonging and dry clothes for changing. Then we proceed to board the train to Kampung Pangi for the rafting starting point where helmet and life jacket prepared with safety briefing.


The real rafting begin.....is really interesting with grade 4


The group take a break after a half way of the rafting journey.


The rafting ended at 2:30pm at Kampung Rayoh, the ending point where we had our lunch and clean up. We are rushing to board the train at 3:15pm to go back to beaufort. The train reached beaufort at around 4:45pm and then took the bus back to KK town reaching at about 7pm. We had a great rafting experience and everyone enjoy the rafting with some capsize and drop off from the raft.

Climbing expedition start on the third day of our trip and this is the main attraction. I am excited about it. We start our journey to KK park from borneo backpackers at 6:30am as we would like to start the climb as early as possible. We reached the KK park entrance at 8:45am and we going to break into 2 climbing group, timpohon and mesilau group. Timpohon group will start the climb first from KK park at 9:30am. I have to settle the timpohon group before taking the van to proceed to mesilau entrance for our climb.


The mesilau group start to climb at 10:30am.


Here are some of the mesilau trail with lots of beautiful stairs and ladder. The journey take 6-7 hours for a normal fit person. Please do not under estimate this trail as we have a tough time trekking under the heavy rain. I reached laban rata at 5:15pm (approx 6 hour 45 minute) and it is really tough for the long climb.

I took my dinner at laban rata resthouse restaurant before proceeding to our room at gunting lagadan hut. Everyone are tiring whether is timpohon or mesilau. So we take a early rest before our peak climb at around 2am the next day.

As schedule, the peak climb start at 2:30am. I reach low's peak at 5:30am. Some of the team didn't make it due to certain problem and mental but we manage to take a complete group photos at Low's peak. Hooray !!!



After enjoy fully of the peak and everything have to end. Everyone start to decline at 7am enjoying the beautiful scenic of KK mountain.

Then we reach back laban rata at 9:30am and start packing and check out from gunting lagadan hut at 10am. Everyone start to decline at 10:30am from laban rata. The final climber reached Timpohon at 4pm with heavy rain during the trekking down.

Everyone board the van back to borneo backpackers reaching around 6:30pm. The climbing and the whole KK trip are successful.

Diving Trip to Liveaboard Similan

I had planned a dive trip to Thailand for a week. I decided to reach the dive spot by land from Kuala Lumpur to Khao Lak by bus. My journey start from Kuala Lumpur taking 8 hours to reach Hatyai with 6 hours traveling and 2 hours border check point.

Taking a break for a day at hatyai before continue my travel to the north the next day. Another hectic traveling start the next day morning where my journey to phuket start from hatyai. I went to the thailand public bus station which cost me around baht$400 to reach phuket. A great experience to take a public thai bus where communication is a barrier but lucky my destination are phuket which is the last bus stop of the journey. It took me 6 hours to reach phuket and I have a night at phuket town before my next destination. Phuket town is quiet compare to patong beach but I have to stay at the town to catch a bus to khao lak the next morning.

The next morning I continue my journey to khao lak from phuket town bus station. It cost me baht$100 and 2 hours to reach khao lak which is my target diving destination and also diver paradise. I reach Khao lak around noon and got the cheapest guesthouse fasai bungalow for baht$500 for a night.



After settle down with the guesthouse and lunch, then I proceed to search for my liveaboard dive trip. Found mantapoint diving shop where I engage my dive liveaboard similan trip for 3days 2nights for baht$14000. What a relief as I finally got my dive trip and I am so excited about the liveaboard diving trip. I have bad seasickness history but I manage to handle it with the magic pills. I survive the 3days 2nights liveaboard without any problem.

The liveaboard dive center that hosts the dive is Scubacat and the dive boat is great and beautiful. I had a good first 2 dive and night dive on the first day with good air consumption.

My second day of liveaboard dive are mostly relax and leisure dive. Enjoying the dive with good air consumption with minimum deep dive. Anyway it is Valentine day on the 2nd day of the liveaboard and it was my first valentine day dive logged.

My third day of liveaboard involve some deep dive at deep six and also leopard shark searching. Little of adventure for the final day of the dive. Had a deep dive into 35m and saw giant puffer and also leopard shark. Yes it is exciting when you see something big.



After the liveaboard dive trip, then I had to take 2 days to travel back from phuket to kuala lumpur.

Welcome to Manta Jo

I am so excited about sharing my travelling, backpacking, diving, rafting, climbing etc etc experience with you.