Mount Angsi

I’m sure if you’re a friend to the active scout members, I’m sure you’ve heard some of them whine about how freaking tall the Mount Angsi is and how hard it was to actually reach the near peak of it, but I’m not here to whine, I’m here just to share some experience to those who never got the chance to climb a hill.

Basically, it’s all about reaching the peak of the mountain, with all your creative ways, some prefer to go at a constant pace and some would like to speed up and stopped all of the sudden; some will use a stick, and some with the help of others. We’ve gathered in school around 7 and reached Ulu Bendul around 8++. We only began climbing the mountain from the foot of the mountain on 9:30 a.m. because we’re required to register – that cost RM 5 – for our own safety. I heard that they’ll send search and rescue team if someone up there doesn’t come down by 7 in the evening. So, better safe than sorry, RM 5 is nothing compared to one’s life. The hill is not vertically straight of course; it is like the road to Genting Highlands where you drive around and around the hill until you reach the peak, and it’s about 825 meter tall by the way.

We were divided into 4 groups, 2 groups of boys and 2 groups of girls, each consisting about 10 people, but the grouping didn’t serve its purpose because when we went up half way, everyone was mixed up. We started at the foot of the hill eagerly, some are excited, some are preparing the worst and I thought it was boring. First, the situation was loud, and as we progressed, things just get quiet. Some got wet due to the waterfalls, some got their leg sprained, some got their shoulder blades all worn out and so on and so forth. Every time we finished climbing a small part of the hill and the path ahead was blocking by trees, we’re always hoping that we’ve reached the top, but to no avail, there was yet another path waiting to be climbed.

Even it was tiring, we never failed to entertain ourselves. With James, there is no way you can’t laugh. His jokes are mean, but well, they’re jokes right? And jokes are meant to be laughed at. It took us about 3 hours ++ to reach to about 700 meters and that is where the teacher decided to call it off. It was because the path was a 90 degree uphill climb due to soil erosion. I did climb the steep hill with 2 other friends with the help of ropes, and we sort of taken some picture of ourselves because that will be as far as we can go. I’m sure everyone read geography and at every 165 meter, there will be a decrease of 1 Celsius in temperature. So it was quite cool up there with the wind blowing.

As we started our way down the hill, I figured out that downhill is certainly a piece of cake since you’re one with the gravity pull, but since this is my first mountain climbing experience, of course I know I was wrong, if you don’t arrange your footing properly, you might end up in the hospital. I made my way down with my brother until the rest area, which a place where there is cool water is flowing from the top. The water is crystal clear and it still remains a mystery for me, but without any curiosity to bother, I just ate lunch with my fellow mates, and before I even start to continue, I cramped my both my legs and just managed to get some heat spray on my legs. The pain was devastating, but oh well, I’m not dead am I? We reached the bottom around 4 in the evening, most of the journey down is about helping each other out, especially the females, because some of them are injured, so we helped each other, and managed to make our way down.

It was a great experience altogether, and I must say that I sort of look forward for another go at Mount Angsi just for the fun of it, with some friends to joke with of course. And on this day itself, was one of my friends’ birthday (30/5), whose name is Jian Hui, she got injured pretty bad and she did agree that all her birthday was simply unforgettable.

Check Daniel's blog on this trip here!