Warning: If you have not encountered leeches before, you'll see them here. 馃榿
A week before I summitted Mount Kinabalu (blog entry here) I did a waterfall trek with my Malaysian friends in Sabah. To maximize our trip, we drove up to Kundasang and visited Desa Dairy Farm, a day before our trek. Maaan, it felt like I was in New Zealand (though I have never been to New Zealand!)
Our waterfall trek destination, the Langanan Waterfall, was located deep into the rainforest in Ranau. We got up a little earlier than usual to make breakfast; fuel up some energy for the hike.
Sure, it was just another waterfall, I told myself. Maybe nature heard my arrogance and decided to pour that morning. It was not raining heavily so we decided to go ahead as planned, even though the trail was slippery and muddy.
The trail was accessible inside Poring Hot Spring, another tourist destination in the area. For some reason I could not comprehend, locals were required to pay about 25% of what was charged for foreigners. 馃槒 I have to confess that we cheated. My friends asked me to stay quiet while they paid the local fee for all of us. Our excuse was that I looked local anyway 馃檭.
We passed by rivers and walked on concrete bridges, hot spring pools and a cute hobbit house, until we reached Kipungit Waterfall 15 minutes later. From there, it got ugly haha.
It started drizzling again, just as we crossed the river. Scared of the inconveniences of walking with wet shoes, I took them off every time we crossed some water. As we went deeper into the forest and hiked up a muddy trail, I realized I underestimated the intensity of this hike. So we took a slower pace and observed how raw the forest was.
I could sense the exhaustion and discomfort. I played some relaxing anime piano melodies, but to no avail. We stopped to check on everyone from time to time. We were about half way when these blood-sucking creature really started to annoy us. Because it was raining, and the trails were narrow, it was so easy for them to stick to our legs and shoes. I screamed every time I felt them crawling underneath my socks (yes, they did that too).
After accepting they were part of our journey, we just focused on the trek and other curious things we found along the way, like this colony of ants.
Or remnants of a poor guy's bad luck while trekking; I could imagine someone walking barefoot. Well, it's actually not that bad.
We passed by a bat cave, with a sign saying it was not recommended to go inside, but it was also not prohibited. "Not today", we told ourselves.
About 2 hours later, we saw a sign saying we were almost there, about 1.5km more. I was suddenly filled with energy. I couldn't wait to reach the waterfall, also because I was also eager to have our lunch.
Every time we heard gushing stream of water, we would think we had reached; but it would just be some other waterfalls like this.
Then that adrenaline faded too soon and it became the longest 1.5km of my life, lol. I then developed trust issues on hiking distance signs. 馃ぃ
Finally, lo and behold, after eternity and loads of leeches, we reached this 120-meter gigantic waterfall. Because of its height, the nearby surroundings were super misty and cold. We quickly took our lunch out - bread, canned salmon flakes, and chocolates. The rain clouds were getting worse and it was getting darker, so we decided not to stay longer and headed back.
Then I felt my back was tingly and itchy. Just as I thought, I made that leech super fat with my blood; I did not know how long it had been there.
On the way back, we passed by this huge tree, that made me freeze. There was a big hive of hornets, so we passed by quietly. This was one of the many dangers hiking inside rainforests; we were still lucky we did not encounter some green vipers, which are quite common in Malaysia. Or maybe we did, we just did not notice.
It was past 4 in the afternoon when we reached Poring Hot Spring. We were dripping in a mixture of sweat and rain. We went to eat banana fritters and teh tarik (milk tea) at a nearby cafe. It's also when I saw some leeches still stuck on my friend's heel. I think she even flashed it to everyone while we were eating.馃ぃ
Looking back, if not for the bad weather, leeches and inadequate stamina, it would have been an easy hike. But then, it would have been boring too, right? See you around, dear hivers! xoxo
