Chiling Waterfalls, Kuala Kubu Bharu

Warning! This is a very long post.

Chiling Waterfalls are probably the most beautiful waterfall in Selangor. That's what it was written in this website - http://www.waterfallsofmalaysia.com/51chiling.php . I can't claim it to be true, neither can I deny it because, if my memory serves me right, I have never been to another waterfall in Selangor, so I can't compare. On its own, the Chiling waterfalls are simply breathtaking. If you are looking for a relaxing place to chill (pun intended) out, this is the place to be. It reminds me so much of those zen-like pictures I always see in magazines.

Early last month, Steve, Mctc and I did a recce to these falls. We were so disappointed to find that they close on Mondays.

When our Ledang climb was postponed from May 1st (Labour's Day in Malaysia) to May 23rd, we grabbed the chance of going again and subsequently called all our friends.

Some responded no but the majority was keen to go. We had a different group altogether.

There were 13 of us.

Eddie and Christine, together with their 12 year-old son Christopher. They almost never go for nature trips like these.

Steve and Douglas, both loved diving.

Edwin and Danny who had been on our Kinabalu trips before.

Matt and Minch.

Mctc, who just discovered the beauty of nature since we brought him to Bukit Panorama in Sungai Lembing, Pahang.

King Keong, whom we met at the Bukit Panorama but never exchanged contacts.. Rach was searching for blogs on this hill and she stumbled upon his blog. She commented on his blog and somehow exchanged contacts.

Rach and I.


The Seremban people met at Blossom food court at 6.45AM. Mctc and I were about 7 minutes late. The rest of them were having a cup of drink or a light meal when we reached there. We started our journey at 7AM.

We had scheduled to meet the KL people at 8AM at the Sg Buloh overhead bridge restaurant. All of us arrived at almost the same time. we had a short toilet break before heading to Kuala Kubu Bharu.

9.15AM. We had breakfast in this corner shop.

We had either won tan mee, curry mee or pan mee. Eddie and son was at my table. Eddie was so friendly to the lady who was making our breakfast that she gave him a plate of won tan (top picture, right) free of charge.
The signboard stated that they charged a big bowl/plate for RM3.50 and small - RM3.00. Since we didn't say whether we wanted big or small, Eddie asked the lady how she knew whether her customers wanted big or small. She replied rather in a saucy way.. she would be her own judge. She would give according to what she felt the person might want.. as long as everyone was "happy happy". (She said these in Cantonese except the word "happy happy")

After breakfast, we proceed to the Kuala Kubu Bahru dam. It was closed... probably because today was a public holiday.

A panoramic view of the dam. So beautiful.

Not long after the dam, we reached the little bridge where we park our cars....

.. and walked about.. um.. 100 metres or so to where the entrance to the Chiling waterfalls park (also know as the Sg Chiling Fish Sanctuary).

After 5 minutes of walking, we reached the gate of the park authorities. Our first stop was a visit to the toilet.

Then we registered ourselves at this hut. The fee was RM0.50 per person. It was really dirt cheap.

A signboard showing the map to the waterfalls. We had to cross the SAME river 6 times. When Rachel saw this picture earlier, she asked.. why we can't walk straight instead of following the trail which was probably 3 times longer. I had no answer to that.

10.30AM -We started our journey to the falls. We had to cross the river 6 times. This is considered the first river crossing. We had the help of this suspension bridge. Only 4 people are allowed to be on the bridge at any one time.

There was no signboard whatsoever. we had only this advice from the park authorities - Keep left. So when we came to this crossroad, we didn't realised that we had to turn left because 1) there was a path going straight, and 2) there was a stream o water flowing from left to right. It didn't look right.

The front people went straight ahead when someone from the back yelled... keep left, keep left. This is our first mistake.

Water was flowing downstream. At first we were afraid that our sandals would get wet and muddy. Later on, we didn't care.

The pathway was narrow and prickly.. Not really prickly, just annoying. If you can stand the ferns brushing against your exposed skin, then it shouldn't be a problem.

0.59AM - Our 2nd mistake - we thought this was where we were supposed to cross the river. The few of us in front crossed or was half-way crossing when Douglas called out... "Any pathway over the other side?" Matthew, who reached the other side first, checked and said "no". So all of us who were in the river, turned back.

We walked further ahead. It was impossible not to step on the water along the trail.


11.22AM - At last, we saw this signboard - 2nd crossing.

The water wasn't very high. Reached just up to my mid calves. And the water was cold.. brrrrr...

11.26AM - 3rd river crossing. rachel went up to where the sign board was (circled in red), but it wasn't necessary. Again the water was shallow. We could have just walked in the water between the 2nd and 3rd river crossing because it was very near to each other as we later found out.

The path was not difficult at all. almost flat ground except for some minor climbing-over the rocks and tree roots.

11.39AM - 4th river crossing, A little bit deeper this time. the water level reached up to our thighs.we had to be careful because there were slippery rocks at the bottom of the river.

After the the 4th river crossing, Douglas called out for a water-break. All of us laughed and obediently took out our water bottles from our back pack to have a sip or two.

11.48AM - 5th river crossing. Depending on which path you choose, and how short and tall you are, the water level is about knee high for Matt and mid thigh for me. :). This is were Christopher slipped and fell, but he was alright.

Lots of fallen trees. Christine, who was blessed with height always laughed at our height. So when Rach and I saw this tree that didn't quite reach the ground, we challenged Christine to go under the tree in a limbo-rock style... but she didn't.

11.56pm - 6th and final crossing. We reached in the internet that this was probably the deepest river crossing among the six and the water level could rise up to waist-high, so we were extra careful. When we crossed, it wasn't that bad. Slightly higher than my mid thigh.

Less than 5 minutes after the 6th crossing, you could see the lower falls.

There were lots of people, but most of them were leaving.

It was just one huge powerful drop, nothing as spectacular as the Niagara Falls, but everyone was mesmerized by the falls.

We found a shaded spot to put of knapsacks. I brought a disposable plastic tablecloth and used that as a "mat" for our bags.

Then one by one we tested the water. It was very cold.

Some 20 minutes later, 6 of us stayed back while the other 7 went up to the higher falls. I didn't want to go up because I thought there was no way of reaching it and we could only see it from a distance. Later, Steve said that, that was the middle falls, the one that we could at the lower falls too. There is a 3rd fall called the upper falls. They were able to reach there and swim too.

I passed Steve my camera.

The 7 of them who went up. It seems that it was very steep. Even steeper than Gunung Datuk. Mctc said it was between 45 -90 degrees steep. The picture above showed the middle fall, the one that we could see at the lower falls.

Top picture , top left - Picture of the upper fall.

Top picture , bottom right - Picture of the middle fall.

Top picture top right - Picture of the lower fall, where Minch, Christine and I were having a some water therapy. Steve zoomed and took a picture of us. Matt is the one standing up, blocking all of us from the camera's view.

My battery ran out after this shot.

Water therapy - No pictures because we were camera-less.
I was just sitting on the rocks. Minch slept on the rocks, allowing the rushing water to flow onto her shoulders. Christine introduced facial massage. She put her face onto the rushing water and had her face throughly cleansed by mineral water. Later they were using small rocks to scrap away all the dead cells from their bodies.

1.28PM - Steve and gang returned from the upper falls. I changed my batteries as soon as he gave me back the camera.

The men in our group. Eddie's 12 year-old son didn't want to be seen with these older generation.

Pictures above shows the lower falls. Many people tried to swim towards it but couldn't. The current was too strong. The deepest level in this pool is just below this fall (Common sense will tell you that too).

There were a lot of butterflies. Definitely more what we saw in the Butterfly and reptile farm in Malacca.

2PM - Soon it was time to go home. We packed up and left the place with a happy heart.

Time to cross all the 5 rivers again.

The 3rd and 2nd river crossing. Arrow pointing to right. We could have just walked in the river because the 2 crossings were so closed to each other. Steve and Danny (I think) walked in the river. we saw some fish swimming in the 2nd crossing.

Ferns and other interesting plants.

No more river crossings save the suspension bridge crossing. We walked along side of the river.

Yup, we had to go through all the muddy-water tracks again.

Pitcher plants were rampant. I was looking for them, but somehow couldn't find any myself. Christine had to point them out to me. She didn;t spot just one time, but a few times along the way. Some called it the monkey plant because it was believed that the monkeys used these plants as a container to drink water from them.

2.56PM - we took only 1 hour to reach the suspension bridge. The park office is situation near the end of this bridge.

Some rested, some went back tothe car to get clean clothes. There wasn't any bathing facilities, so we had to make do with whatever we could. There are 2 taps - waist level for washing our feet, right behind the toilets and in each toilet cubicles there is a mid-calves high tap with a plastic tube attached.

So many cars along the road near the main entrance of the Sg Chiling Fish Sanctuary. Surprisingly the park was big enough, that we didn't feel crammed at all.

The KL people left immediately because one of them had another appointment. The Seremban people went to Kuala Kubu Bharu town to have a late lunch.

It was about 4.15PM when we entered this shop, made popular to our group by this blogger .

Out of 9, eight of us had chicken chop, while I ordered Hailam fried rice with sambal. We ordered the Hailam mee hoon too, for everyone to share.

We reached home at 7.20 (or thereabouts), had a drink in Blossom Heights and arranged to have our dinner at Sg Ujong Club. The club was promoting Japanese meals.. but according to Minch who loves Japanese food, she said that it didn't taste Japanese at all.

All in all, this was a good trip, an enjoyable one with good company and hey, I get to exercise, while having fun. :)

BTW - no leeches along the way, otherwise I would have mentioned. :)

Video clips of the lower falls and friends trying to swim against the current.

Climbing Gunung Ledang / Mt Ophir

Mount Ophir or Gunung Ledang at 1276 meters tall, it's the highest mountain in the Johor State, 64th highest and the 6th most difficult to climb mountain in Malaysia.

The alarm sounded at 3.30AM. I was already up at 2.50AM.. couldn't sleep, thinking of the long day ahead of me. I'm sure many of the climbers had the same problem (but we all know who overslept and only woke up at 4AM!!).

We met at 4.30AM in Kemayan Square. When I reach there, Sirdar was busy slotting 19 of us into 4 vehicles. By 4.45AM we were all in the cars leaving Seremban for Tangkak. It starting raining when we were on the highway approaching Tangkak. I was so worried. Rain means leeches. Leeches means fear. Fear means I think I 'll wait for you guys at the base. :)

We arrived Tangkak in good time... before 6AM and had our breakfast at a coffeeshop. I had 2 soft boiled eggs, a piece of bread and milo o kosong (Milo without sugar and milk). At exactly 6.20AM, Messner said it was time to depart to the Ledang Park Office.

This is a picture of the Park office. A very striking architecture with flags of Malaysia and Johor state hung proudly across the building.

We had to declare our "rubbish" (that included food wrappers, plastic bags, water bottles, clothing, batteries, torchlights, cigarettes and sanitary pad) and pay RM20 deposit to the park officer. If there was anything missing when we return from our climb, it would cost us RM5 for each missing item.

Sirdar briefed us on our groupings and requested that we stick to our group. He warned us not go ahead and leave our partners behind. The organisers didn't appoint sweepers this time because they had engaged 4 guides - one of whom would act as a sweeper.

There were 38 of us in this expedition.

15 from Agape Church
2 from Tmn Ujong Methodist Church
4 IMU students
6 Bukit Kepayang friends
4 from GTPJ
2 Singaporeans
1 from Tangkak
4 others - friends of the group

The hike began at 7.50AM, 35 minutes later than our planned time. The first part of of the journey consists of 500 steps. I didn't actually count the steps and if people were to tell me that there were 1000 steps, I would have believed them. I was somewhere in the middle of the group and so many people overtook me till I was almost the last. My legs were aching even at this point. Blame it on lack of training after Mt Kinabalu in July. :)

There were trees everywhere... well what do you expect then? :)
The first 20 minutes took a toll on me. I didn't even bother to take pictures at CP1 (Check Point 1). I was exhausted and constantly asked how long more to the summit.

We reached CP2 at 8.26AM. I managed to catch my breath and snap a few pictures. Edwin was my temporary "model", since Jimbo, my official model zoomed past me (and never to be seen again until 1.30pm) while I was huffing and puffing along the 500 steps.

Some of the trees were rotten and and we had to cross over the fallen trees.

We reached CP3 at 9.01AM. There were other groups that came after us and I find this strange.... why on earth do they want to hike Mt Ophir when 1) they could go sight seeing elsewhere 2) they could be sleeping on a hot lazy Saturday afternoon 3) I'm sure the mountains in their country are much nicer and weather's cooler there too.

There weren't any signboards on this route saying that this was CP4. Just 2 signs indicating if you want to go left to Sg Tiga Segi (direct translation " Triangle river) or right to Kolam Gajah (Elephant's Pond/Pool). We reached here at 9.44AM.

Here we found out that we were almost the last group. Danny and Johnny came 6 minutes later behind us and confirmed that they were the last 2. Sirdar had 2 or 3 bunches of bananas and began distributing them to Danny and Johnny.

10.20AM - CP5 at last! Well, not that I was looking forward to it. This was the beginning of the thrill. According to the guide, the terrain between CP5 - CP7 was very steep and it would be a very tough climb. After 5 minutes, some of us wanted to move ahead but the guide wanted us to leave in a group. Some came a little later and needed more rest. We were here for more than 10 minutes.

After CP5, we were faced with a stretch of uphill terrain called "KFC". Some says it's an abbreviation for Killer Fitness Centre,and others, Killer Field for Climber or Killer for Climber. Let me tell you ... it is tough. Let me stress it again... IT IS TOUGH!! Take a look at the picture above. It may look flat but it is NOT FLAT. The tree roots were actually small steps for us to climb.

More KFC's for us. And No.. we weren't thinking of Kentucky Fried Chicken. We were climbing and climbing and climbing and climbing and climbing and.....there's no end to it.

KFC moment. Look like one of M.C. Escher's art piece. I was at the top taking this picture, but from the position of the rope, it looked as if I was taking it from bottom up.

Approaching CP6. Had to climb up all those roots.

Reached CP6 at 11.32AM. Spotted a huge centipede, about 7 or 8 inches long. We stopped here for a while to catch our breath. Brendan 13, the youngest in our group was with us almost right from the start. His parents left him in Johnny's care but most of the time he was with us and we were slightly faster than Johnny. We never met him (or the parents) before this trip and yet he could get along well with all of us. He kept asking Ban Meng to carry him. Initially Ban Meng charged RM5 per kg. Brendan must have found it too expensive for I never see Ban Meng carrying him. As we ascended higher, the fees rose too. He even ask the guide numerous times to carry him. The guide was willing to carry him at RM250... not sure if it was per kilo or just a one off thing.

Shortly after CP6, we came to this cave-like boulders called gua kambing (Goat cave). When I first searched for information on this mountain in the internet, I came across this part where there's a "gua". I thought this was the difficult part with steep boulders to cross and ropes to pull oneself up. At that time I was thinking, maybe I would turn back at this point. But as you can see, they made it so easy, with aluminum ladders, there's no reason to turn back. (Sorry, poor aching legs).

This looks difficult, but it's not.. really. I just thought these pictures look so.. interesting.

We came out from the hole in this huge boulder.

A 2nd gua. Also not a difficult climb in the gua. We took about 10 minutes (or less) to climb both caves.

More ladders to make our climb easier.

The steepness of this mountain is killing me. We kept asking the guide... how long more to the top? And he always answer...maybe another 2 hours or maybe another 1 1/2 hours... I don't know lah.. but it sounded like a long long way more to go.

Okay, this is the part where I had to assess how steep the rockface was and whether I could do it or not. It's called Anak Batu Hampar. (Impossible Child Rock). Edwin went first, using the right rope. Then I went up next following Edwin's footstep.. keeping very close to the edge where there were pieces of fallen trees for my shoes to grip onto.

Next we came to this Mother of all rock faces. It's called Batu Hampar and it was about 4 storeys high and 70-90 degrees steep. Let's put it this way... I SUFFERED climbing this rope section!!!!! It looked so easy but it was not!! It took so much effort to go from one knot to the next. Edwin was on my left and Sirdar on my right, but they couldn't help me. I had to do it all alone, pulling myself up. They did encourage me and stopped when I stopped.. which was like 6 times??!! I lost count. Thank God it didn't rain.

After me came Johnny, Danny and Brendan... RACING upwards!!! I found very little strength left to take pictures and video shooting them.

The bonsai trees just above the rock face. So naturally beautiful.

After the Batu Hampar section, I hardly had strength at all to walk. I felt like Samson right after they cut his hair. :).

Brendan was so exhausted that we didn't hear his voice for quite sometime. Otherwise we could hear him asking people to carry him. Such a funny guy.

At 12.50pm, we reached CP7. Messner, who reached the summit at 12.01pm was worried that we may not make it in time. For safety reasons, we had to reach the summit by 2pm, otherwise we would have to turn back from where ever we were.

We could see the mountain from here. Doesn't look interesting from this angle.

Somewhere along the way, I smsed Jimbo asking if he had already built the cable car and to send it down my way. He replied "Hope you have reached the rope part. That's mega fun". Mega fun? Are we talking about the same rope section? The one where I almost gave up? Hruumphhh... I didn't know what to reply and even if I did, I don't have much energy to sms him on how I suffered so much.

More steep slopes to climb and more aluminum ladders for lazy people like me. This was where we met Jimbo. He summited at 12.20pm and left the summit at 1.20pm.

By this time, Brendan was willing to pay RM500 a kilo for anyone who was willing to carry him. He told us that his dad would pay the fees when we reach the summit, Ban Meng disagreed saying he wanted to see the cash first. No cash, no deal. Brendan was forced to rely on his own two feet.

Look how steep it was. I didn't really pay attention at that time. I was just concentrating on putting one foot after the other.

1.41PM - At long last.... I saw Messner... yay.... I'd made it and he congratulated me... I look around me and said.. "um..this is the peak?". Messner said no, and pointed out more ladders and rocky slopes for me to reach the summit.

So, this is the summit. It took me almost 6 hours to reach the peak. Shows how unfit I am. We spent almost 1/2 hour at the top relaxing, having our meal, drinking coffee, milo or mocha. We were the last group to reach the summit. The view was nice but misty. We didn't have the summit all to ourselves; we shared it with a group of Mat Salleh (White People).

At 2.05PM, Messner started shooing us down. It was time to leave the summit. Climbing almost 6 hours to admire the view at the top for 25 minutes. Definitely not worth it. Next time must start earlier. (What next time??!!)

A group picture just before we left the false summit (where I met Messner when I arrived to what I thought was the peak).

Down, down, down we went. My feet were hurting so much.

We took another route which saved us an hour of walking. And YAY!!.. no need to go down via ropes and we missed the caves too. What a relief. This trail will join the main trail just before the Sg Tiga Segi and Kolam Gajah signboards.

We saw some pitcher plants growing rampantly on the ground.

Trees on this route looked so different.

The ground was soft and wet, almost like Gunung Angsi's soil.

Johnny was way in front of us and once he went the wrong way. He went on till he sensed that he might have been on the wrong track. He was alone and it was a good thing that we weren't far behind. He called out and our group heard his voice and waited for him.

Lesson learnt here - 1) Always stick with your partners
2) Always look out for the marker on the trees

We reach the Kolam Gajah / Sg Tiga Segi signboard at 4.56PM and CP3 at5.36PM. My legs were so so so tired, but I had to go on.

Someone mentioned wanting a nice cold coke or ribena with 7-up, and this motivated Johnny to move a little faster.

We reached CP2 at 6.08PM and CP1 at 6.26PM. By this time, my toes were screaming for mercy. I had to limp sometimes because I was so, so tired out.

Steps at last. The group was so happy to see the steps. We reached the base at 6.50PM. Imagine.. 11 hours ago we were just starting to walk up those steps.

Johnny, thanking Sirdar for co-planning this expedition with Messner.

The park officer checked if we still had our rubbish and refunded our RM20.

Thank God I was the only female in the last group. There was only 1 shower room in the ladies' toilet and I took like 5 minutes just to peel the clothes off me. I was so tired and ached everywhere. What a nice cold shower.

After everyone had showered, we met Siew Mui, one of the climbers from Tangkak who had descended much earlier. She took us to an aircond restaurant.

It's been such a long time since I had a coke, and this was really refreshing. We couldn't wait for the waitress to get us the cokes, so Edwin helped himself and took for Johnny and me a can each too.

This was a different set of food that I usually eat. We had pumpkin rice, japanese tofu, chicken with red dragon fruit wine, wild boar knuckles (I think), long beans and fish. There were 14 of us who were very hungry and we wallop all the food.

It was a long day for us. I reached home at 11.15PM. Tired but determined to check out the photos too. I took almost 400 pictures for this trip.

All in all, it was a good and well organised trip. Thank you Messner and Sirdar for including me. :)


Read about my 2nd Ledang climb here.