Sunday, February 13, 2011

Trip to Fraser's Hill

I’m sharing another travel experience after a long gap and thanks to my friend Raj Senthil for taking us there and accompanying me through out the trip. Firstly we chose another place at Terengganu but due to road condition & distance we chose Fraser’s Hill to be the best destination for this 3 days CNY Holiday. Booked 2 night stay at Fraser’s Silverpark Apartment a week ago once we decided this place. Fraser Hill is very popular for Bird Watching, Trekking. So, we were just waiting for the day to arrive.

And The day arrived, we started our journey early morning around 4.30AM from Singapore and we had an unscheduled stop at Batu Caves for our Breakfast. After that we didn’t follow our GPS route and chose our own route through Rawang to reach kuala kubu bharu, which is the base of Fraser’s hill. It takes around 2 hours from KL. But we had a brief stopover at Rawang for quick shopping on F&B then we drove straight down to KKB.

Once we reach KKB town, we drove past the dam that has a beautiful scenic spot. But we had no time to stop over as we were chasing the time to reach The GAP, from which the final (12Km) stretch is a one way for every one hour up & down. We also had no time to stop for a trek to Sungai Chilling on plan to do on our way back but really missed it out.

Unfortunately, we just missed the last entry by just couple of mins & we had wait down at The Gap for another 1 hour 20 mins. If you are planning to go there up to Fraser’s Hill. Please plan your arrival time to Thers GAP to reach the Fraser’s Hill as per the schedule given below as we were just escaped during our way down from Hill. It is like Odd hours 40 mins to Go Up & Even Hours 40 mins to come down. 8.40PM to 6AM is free for both side entry but it is very risky to drive at this time.



During our waiting time at The Gap, I had a good walk to the nearby road side forest & I was at least able to spot 5-10 different types of birds around that area. It was really overwhelming experience for me at the start of the trip to be with the faunas of the hill.

So, we had reached our resort at around 3+ in the evening. I didn’t want to miss the good evening out there on the first day, so I enquired at the information counter about the easy trekking trails & quickly grabbed a copy of Fraser’s Hill Map with information about each trail at it’s back. Followings are the list of trails at Fraser’s Hill with it's difficulty level, for those who wants to be close to the nature.
1 - The Bishop (Medium & enjoyable)
2 - The Rompin (Shortest)
3 - The Kindersley (Medium)
4 - The Maxwell (Longer & officially Closed)
5 - The Hemmant (Easy & Enjoyable)
6 - The Abu Suradi (Shortest & Not very easy)
7 - The Mager (Medium)
8 - The Pine Tree (Longest & Toughest)

You can get more info about the details of each trail at Fraser Hill Info Page

Fraser's Hill Map


Hemmant Trail is a wide path & easy to trek through this as a start as it was also nearby to our resort. In this trail I had a nice experience of being very close couple of bird’s that were at the feeding in the branches of plant by walkway. I also had good glimpses of a very unique wild orchid flower. In the route, I noticed some sign post mentioning name of plants but couldn’t really spot anything except for Ratan.

Finally at the end of the Hemmant trail I saw a big signboard kept at the entrance explaining each of the spot in the trail & the picture of the plant that can be found by the sign post. It also includes information like what types of birds can be seen in that particular trail as well as how the difficulty of route especially on Bishop’s trail. Later I realized the fact that I was coming from the end point of the trail to starting point. I learnt the fact that it is good to start the trip from the sign-board as it provides clear information of where what can be seen in each trekking route.

After coming out of Hemmant Trail, I moved on to the next trail that is Abu Suradi as decided earlier. It was not as easy as I expected as the paths were mainly narrow and not much of ropes to hold onto. I was almost at the end of the trail, but couldn’t find the way out and I had to come back the way I started then returned back through Hemmant Trail as it was shorter path for our resort. During the return I was really able to relate to the sign post & plants nearby according to the information board kept at the entrance of the trail.

Evening was soo chilling as our resort is located at higher altitude of the hill. We chose this resort just for it’s amazing location though there were so many other inconveniences in the room. Had good time at later evening as the temperature was continuing to fall low and we just couldn’t stand out without wearing our jacket. We prepared our dinner, had food & went to sleep tight as it was getting colder.

I know you and I are very tired of reading and posting such a long article on day 1 experience, so I will stop for now & share with you Day 2 & 3 experience later in my next post.

Also please stay tuned for an another exclusive post about Must Have Items & Must known Facts for making the trip of Bt. Fraser most unforgettable experience.