Gunung Rinjani sudah ku daki, tapi tasik tak dituruni

This is a looooOOOoong overdue entry. Almost 6 months...gaaaaahhh!

Friday 8th April 2016
There were only 17 of us plus. Half of them, geng sama2 mendaki gunung Kinabalu in 2014. Half of them, kira kawan baru la gitu. First time jumpa, no problem though. Amazing huh, how common interest can make us bond faster. We started our hike after a 1 night stay (7th Apr) in a quaint village in Sembalun. Niceeee village..nyaman, surrounded by the mountains.

 

First stop, was registration at the Sembalun Rinjani Trek Center (RTC). We walked from the guesthouse to the RTC. Started to get nervous (betul ke aku ni... haa..gitu). I was ill in Dec/Jan, so I was a bit worried. Only 3 things gave me confidence : 1) I was lighter by about 9kilos and 2) no foot/ leg injury. Had a bad plantar fascia during Kinabalu. 3) Me and hubby persevered for 21 hrs ascending to Low's Peak and descending to Timpohon entrance. We have perseverance, loads of them.
We actually got a remark (twice T_T), 'Ooo..korang ler yg turun Kinabalu nak dekat pukul 12 malam ye?' We hiked Kinabalu and Rinjani with Danz Travel. So words got around within Danz Travel's circle. Macam legend lak. Legend haru biru...nasib baik CikDan tak pangkah kitaorg join Rinjani trip ni...huhuhu.

 

Our local guide herded us onto the back of FWD truck and took us for a jaunty ride to the Pintu Sembalun. Sakit la jugak tongkeng duduk kat belakang tu, melambung2 ;D
We walked first through undulating green fields, saujana mata memandang. Baru lepas monsoon, so the field was abundantly green. Had to watch our steps. Cow droppings was also abundant hahaha...jerangkap samar. Looks like Bukit Broga (minus the poop..). Rinjani savannah is much grander of course.

Mid morning and it got hotter on the savannah. We made a long brunch stop at one of the posts...tak hengat..Pos 2? Pos 3? It was really a long stop, 1030-2pm kott. Sempat tido, solat jemaah bagai.
Oh ye...oleh kerana kami couple slow, a specific porter/guide (mas Wan) was assigned to us. He carried our knapsack (satu je, tapi besar hohoho) and he was also the sweeper. Ye..yer..kami belakang sekali..Orang lain dah berdesup. Takpe, yang penting, slowly but surely.
Next phase of the hike, I braced myself for it. Bukit Penyesalan which many bloggers cursed. Bukit Penyesalan really looks like iklan Salem High Country (otai-otai je tahu iklan ni...). Cantikk.

 

It rained though in Bukit Penyesalan. Disposable raincoat did not help. Rainwater slithered down the legs. Wet shoes, wet socks, wet pants. My hands were cold and pruny. My toes cramped so many times I lost count. But somehow I was glad. Hahahaha. Not so menyesal? I think, the cold rain helped to lessen the hardship. Imagine if it were sunny and hot..confirm menyesal. Bloggers said 7 peaks, but porter said 5 peaks. I was too tired to count the number of peaks. I just asked 'Ada berapa puncak lagi, mas?' and dragged my feet in the squishy shoes.
Almost 6pm it stopped raining and we finally arrived in Plawangan Sembalun. Tents were already lining the path which leads to Rinjani's peak. You know lah what happened when you stop moving. Body cools down. Our porters were late, so no tents for us yet. We were cold, wet AND miserable! Freaking cold!! Cold wind, nightfall and temperature was dropping. Damp shirts, wet pants and shoes...gaaahh!
Luckily, Wan and our knapsack was with us ..that means we can dig up for dry clothing straight away. I put on a dry fleece jacket on top of my damp shirt. Ya Allah best nya...The others, had to wait for the porters to arrive and deliver their knapsacks.
Once the tents were pitched and assigned, we just stayed in the tents due to cold wind and light drizzling. We were the only khemah kelamin, dubbed as khemah Happy Ending. Tah apa-apa laa depa ni.

The tents were so closely pitched, we could eavesdrop hahahaa. We simply raised our voice to talk to the neighbouring tents. Even had dinner in the tents. After dinner...rest time..zzzZZZ. I thought I would be having trouble sleeping in a cramped tent, with thin mattress and sleeping bag. Pffftt..fengsan jugak...

Saturday 9th Apr
The Day. The morning itself. Cold and foggy morning. Most of the journey to the peak was manageable. The hard part was the last leg, about 1KM or so to the peak. We had to trudge the loose, fine volcanic sand. Again, I braced myself for the infamous '2 steps forward, 1 step sliding backward' moment. However, no back-sliding woooHOooo! The fine sand was damp and somewhat compacted, I think because of the rain yesterday. Even our guide was glad. I was mightily glad.

Both of us (couple kura2) reached the peak just before 10am. Last one to arrive of course hahaha..but not so bad, just about 15-20 mins later than the rest of the team. Frankly, Kinabalu hike was tougher to me. I think, for Rinjani trip, I was fitter (plus the damp sand helped a lot!).

I considered the easy path to the peak is like a rezeki. Once at the peak, takde rezeki pulak - tak nampak Danau Segara Anak because of the thick clouds. *Sigh* You get some, you don't get some. C'est la vie, bak kata sorang hiker. We did not stay long at the peak. After taking the group photo, we made our move back to plawangan. It lightly rained and this time the path was really slippery. Berapa kali tah jatuh terduduk...huhuhu...gelak je laa masa jatuh tu.

We reached plawangan around 1-2 pm. The original plan was for us to break camp after lunch and make our way to Danau Segara Anak. However, due to rain, slippery path and everybody was miserable with cold and damp clothing (again), it was unanimous - no Danau Segara Anak trip and to break camp tomorrow morning, going back to Sembalun village.

No hotspring, no waterfall trip, no Senaru village. Hubby was mightily happy, he was still jet-lagged (flew back just for Rinjani, all the way from his overseas assignment). I also did not mind, I've achieved my main aim of reaching Rinjani's peak. After having lunch in the tent (again), sambung tidorrrr.. I really enjoyed sleeping in the tent that evening. It was cool, sound of raindrops hitting the tent like music, kenyang..heaven.

Husband dah fengsan

In the evening, it stopped raining.The guys went to a nearby piped water source for a bath...errr.. about 20-30mins jugak ke water source tu. Ladies stayed behind, hurhurhur. That was the only time we stayed out of the tents and bersembang2 di luar khemah kakakaka! Nightfall came and we got into the tents back, had dinner in the tent. Sejukkk..it was windy that night. Soo windy, I thought some of the tents might flew off!

Around 2am, somebody called out - stars in the sky. Ngantuk2 tu, I looked up from the tent's entrance...oooo..cantiknya (the night before was cloudy, saw no stars at all). Kamera henpon je..I could not capture the enchanting views. The strong wind must have blown away all the clouds. Cold wind, could not tahan. I slipped back into the sleeping bag and stuck out my head. I laid on my back to look up at the stars. My head on the outside of the tent, my body in the tent. Heaven. After 15 mins or so, got back into the tent. Sambung tidorrrr.

Sunday 10th Apr

Truly a SUNday. Best nya Ya Allah. Hahaha! Not seeing the Danau Segara Anak and crater lake for the past 2 days and finally seeing it before we break the camp, I felt truly blessed. It was a photography session for most of us, finally. Everybody was whipping out the cameras and handphones, posing and all.

Lion King pose

It was a beautiful day. Everybody was in a good mood to head back to Sembalun village, even with such a major change in the itinerary ie no Danau Segara Anak, hotspring, Senaru village and waterfall visit. Sporting lah korang2 ni.

Although we've ascended the Bukit Penyesalan and the savannah, we truly enjoyed the second passing. The sunny day exposed us to its utmost beauty, which was denied to us on our hike up. We reached Pintu Sembalun, managed not to finish last...hahaha! What an achievement XD

We stayed one night in Senggigi. Tak hengat dah apa nama resort tu..

Monday 11th Apr

The rest of the group continued the trip to one of the Pulau Gili. Which Gili pun tak hengat. We have planned earlier not to join the trip to the island. We had to fly back to KLIA in the noon, since hubby is catching evening's flight back to his oversea's assignment.

However, sempat jugak laa we rent a bike and rode the whole stretch of Senggigi. And found this one cute Pura Batu Bolong. Small attraction - has a beach, has a small Pura, has a short passage/cave and has a geological formation (volcanic rock).

Rinjani trip was a beautiful experience.  For me, Rinjani offers more scenery than Kinabalu. One Rinjani trip is enough though, a bucket list stricken off. Kinabalu on the other hand, I do  feel the urge to re-visit. Of course lah I feel Kinabalu is more special being a Malaysian. Biased heheheh.

Haze ohh Haze

Malaysian Air Pollution Index is calculated based on 5 air pollutants ie Ozone, Carbon Monoxide, Sulfur Dioxide, Nitrogen Dioxide and PM10. PM10 measures concentration of particulate matters with diameter equal or less than 10micrometers.

'API system includes 5 major air pollutants which could cause potential harm to human health should they reach unhealthy levels. The air pollutants included in Malaysia's API are ozone (O3), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulphur dioxide (SO2) and particulate matter with a diameter of less than 10 micron (PM10). - FAQ section, http://apims.doe.gov.my/v2/faq.html.

While Malaysia is using PM10 in its API, its neighbour Singapore is using PM2.5 instead (particulate matters with size equal or less than 2.5micrometers). PM2.5 is known to be more dangerous since it can travel deeper into our respiratory system (eg. lungs) and PM2.5 is also known to contain higher percentage of hazardous material (eg. heavy metals, toxic organic).

The concentration for PM10 is alsways higher than PM2.5 concentration, since PM10 measures particulates with size less or equal to 10micron which includes particulates of 2.5micron size or less. However when converted into air pollution index, API based on PM2.5 is usually higher than API that is based on PM10. This is due to different breakpoint values used for PM2.5 and PM10, to calculate the index. That's why when 'Good' or 'Moderate' API is given, I do question if the index is correct coz when I gaze outside, I still see the haze.

Source : Guidelines for the Reporting of Daily Air Quality – the Air Quality Index (AQI), USEPA

Agak pening jugak lah kalau tengok calculation. Just need to remember that PM2.5 is more dangerous than PM10, hence giving a higher index number. Too bad Malaysia is still measuring the API based on PM10. They can say the API is Good/Moderate but bottom line, trust your eyes & nose too.

'DOE is in the midst of finalising the new Malaysian Air Quality Guidelines to include the standard limit of PM2.5 in the ambient air which based on World Health Organisation (WHO) 2006 Guidelines. Subsequently, we will need to come up with PM2.5 Air Quality Index System and data integration with the existing system in Environmental Data Centre (EDC) prior to including it in API calculation. 

- FAQ section,  http://apims.doe.gov.my/v2/faq.html.'

Sg Pisang Waterfall - Sweet & Simple

A group of husband's office mates arranged for a trip to Sg Pisang waterfall last Sunday. Since they did not mind, me & daughters tagged along. Did not bring Umar, he's still small.
The waterfall is near Karak, very close to KL. What a gem. Never knew about this waterfall when I lived in Gombak. Otherwise would have frequent it.

Before entering the river tunnel

Trekking across the river tunnel was an experience by itself. It crosses underneath the Karak highway. I would say, the length is about 70-100m?

You can either walk on the ledge or just walk in the water. Level was not so deep, almost mid calf. I opted to walk in the water. Sejuuuuk air nya. It was quite dark. Here, you can really appreciate 'the light at the end of the tunnel' phrase.

The trails are quite easy - be it dry trail or wet trail. We crossed the river so many times, lost count. The only annoyance was when the coarse sands and pebbles ended up in your sandals. You can always rinse it away, but after so many river crossings...you sort of bear with it.

There was a very short trail, we were practically walking on tree roots. Finally got to the waterfall after about 1hour and a half of trekking. Some bloggers claimed 30-45mins journey. We were practically towing the kids, so that might explain the longer journey.

The waterfall itself is cute. 20m fall je but nice and cool. But for me, the water was too cold, I did not bother to take the plunge hahahaha. Rendam2 kaki aje. It's a small pool, perhaps around 10m diameter, waist deep. There are fish in the pool too. We even fed them with breads that we bought along.

The kids loved it. Hayaa' told us a few weeks earlier that she wanted to see a waterfall and she got it. Both girls would like to take a dip but I think they found it awkward not wearing swimming suit. So they just played at the side, fed the fish, played with the sand, threw stones, played with twigs & branches. Well...kids, they always have things to do.

Ok lah..lain kali boleh datang lagi. Bawak Umar sekali.

Musim rama2 ke?

I am spotting a lot of butterflies around KL area lately, 1 type of species only lah (tropical swallowtail moth). I wonder what actually happened? I don't think this phenomena occurred in previous years.

Found on the floor in Suria KLCC

On Marini's On 57 board

On pedestrian walkway along Jalan Tun Razak

Also saw them from my office window, fluttering in the sky and I work at level 60. Tah camne diaorg ni boleh naik tinggi.

Apparently, this phenomenon is occurring nationwide. Someone told me about these butterflies in Stadium Darul Makmur Pahang vs JDT and I found this photo.

Yikes..

Also found this photo