I caught only a couple of hours of sleep before my phone alarm triggered me awake. It read something like 3.30am (if I still remembered correctly through my grogginess!). I thought Lim Hwee had not heard the alarm and I could continue sleeping. Alas, he jumped out of bed. My hopes were dashed.
We realized Hon Yiong was missing. I called the girls’ room and a weary-sounding Hiang Ling answered and to our surprise, Jia Yi was missing too. Great. Mandy wasn’t coming along for our little hike so Lim Hwee and I left for Tekek, at the same time hopping to spot our two missing jokers. The security guards were all sound asleep when we walked past. So much for a 4-star resort. We still didn’t see Jia Yi and Hon Yiong so we were pondering waking everyone up when I managed to contact Hon Yiong. They just got back to the room.
In the wee hours, the long walk out of the Berjaya Tioman Resort was pretty comfortable but once we hit the slopes between the resort and the main village of Tekek, exertion started to take place and we found ourselves touching our supply of water.
Locating the trailhead to Juara was really a matter of luck. I only had a rough idea that we were supposed to turn off somewhere after the airport and we found ourselves mid-way towards the Marine Park and Air Batang when we came across a decent intersection. There were no signs stating that the road led to Juara, just a kampung on the fringes of the bigger villages and we came to a dead end. There was a crossing that led into dense vegetation. It couldn’t be. We were about to turn back when Lim Hwee spotted an arrow carved on a rock. There was a word below. Juara.
As I pushed the dense vegetation away to reveal an overgrown trail that was only illuminated by our torches, I was really wondering what in hell were we doing. It was Brunei Part II, but this time round, we were under-dressed for the occasion. I wished I had long sleeves, long pants and boots on. Bermudas and shoes weren’t going to protect us from the hazards we faced as we pushed through a trail which no one had utilized for some time in almost complete darkness. Our torches and perhaps my Swiss Army knife were our only weapons. I would have preferred a rifle, a machete or at least a bayonet!
It was a very long climb. As the noise of civilization faded behind us, only to be replaced with the not so comforting songs of the jungle, I was starting to doubt myself. We set a target – a turn-around time. Missing the ferry home was not at all appealing.
I remember stumbling across this huge wall in the jungle. I was surprised. In the dark, the wall looked super smooth and I was wondering how such an immense tower could have been constructed in the middle of a dense forest. Then I realized the huge obstacle in front of me was not man-made. It was a gigantic tree. Probably hundreds or thousands of years old. For most of the way, we were climbing parallel to a river. Finally, we stumbled across a water catchment area and entered the unlocked gate. Water was gushing down from the mountains but there was no feasible way across the catchment. It was close to 7am, about time to turn back anyway.
Out of the gate, we found a small trail heading even high up the mountain. Curious, we continued climbing but the progress seemed to take forever. Power lines ran parallel to the trail since we had started and they were dipping along the ground now, signifying we were along the highest ridges. Yet we saw no end. I was about to give up and return but we kept telling ourselves to head to the next clearing, at least a decent place for us to rest and grab a bite of our “combat rations” (courtesy of Hon Yiong).
Then, we saw a signboard. In the middle of the jungle? It gave us hope. We pushed on, reluctant to give up. Then, we emerged from the jungle and found ourselves on a long descending road to Juara! A motorcycle approached and we flagged it down. The friendly local told us Juara was fifteen minutes away by foot and Tekek was 1 hr 15 min in the opposite direction. Feeling much better, we started jogging to cover a greater distance but fifteen minutes later, we saw no sign of the village!
We were given another chance to give up our self-torture when a 4WD pulled up and the driver told us that Juara was still fifteen minutes away. He was heading to Tekek and could give us a ride at a hefty price of course. We rejected his “kind” intentions and decided to head back. I was getting a bit worried as we had exceeded our turn-back time and a long route back would threaten our ability to get off the island!
The gradient we encountered was amazing. It was just like Penang Hill but much longer. We ran for some parts, trying to cover as much ground as possible. Climbing was a torture and descending was a real pain to the knees. We met a guy in jogging attire on one of the hairpin turns. Elated to see a fellow human being on foot, we approached and struck up a conversation. We learnt that Tekek was just 5 min away – music to our ears. He told us that he could cover the distance from Tekek to Juara in 30 min. We didn’t know whether to believe him. There were certainly “supermen” around.
5 min later, we were still a distance away from town but we could see the familiar beaches from our vantage point as we descended the mountain. At a fast march pace, it still took us a good 15 min to complete our descend (ending at the junction between Berjaya Tioman and the edge of Tekek village) where we started a jog to the Sarang Seafood Restaurant where the others had gathered.
I treated myself to a hearty breakfast and when we were done, we went to find out if motorcycles were available for rent. Unfortunately, they needed our licenses. Alfred spent a long time talking to the guys at the tourist information counter who were pretty much hoping we would take up their offer of a 4WD ride to Juara and back. They believed we could get back in time (it was already past 10am) but fortunately, we didn’t take up their offer. We rented bicycles instead and had a leisure spin down to the Marine Park and back.
By the time we got back to our rooms, it was close to noon. We showered hurriedly and checked out, catching the bus to the main lobby where we caught another bus to the ferry terminal but as we stepped into the terminal, I spotted a Bluewater craft leaving the terminal. It was our ferry. It was 12.40pm.
The next ferry was scheduled to arrive at 2pm. We had to wait until past 2.30pm and we finally boarded, it was close to 3pm. Midway, more passengers were picked up and they had to settle on plastic chairs in the crowded ferry. Our weary little bunch was relieved to be off the boat at Mersing but it was getting late and we hurried to the bus station, stopping only to pack a KFC meal along the way. It was a blessing. All express bus tickets were sold out. We got onto the last city bus (5.15pm) to Kota Tinggi and we had to stand for half the journey in the old, non air-conditioned vehicle. I thought it was pretty fun to experience such a vehicle again as we sped towards Kota Tinggi.
We ran into a bad storm as we neared Kota Tinggi. The driver had to manually complement his windshield wipers by standing up to clean the fogged up glass. He did that as the bus rumbled along. Multi-tasking at its best? Visibility was definitely slowing the traffic towards Johor Bahru and our bus driver moved over to the opposite lane whenever possible, trying to squeeze our bus ahead. In order to avoid a congested traffic junction that entered Kota Tinggi, he sped down a one-directional carriageway exiting Kota Tinggi, much to the chagrin of other motorists who blared their horns. At a traffic stop, he maneuvered the vehicle onto the road shoulder, trying to squeeze between a line of vehicles and lamp posts lining the road. He succeeded as we bumped along.
Finally, we pulled into Kota Tinggi and the rain had somewhat subsided. Easily, we found a bus going to City Square and hopped on. The journey back was jam-packed with traffic but our driver pulled all stops to get the bus to JB as fast as he possibly could. As expected, it was almost 9pm when we reached JB. Dinner was at Kenny Rogers – a good treat to end off the trip. We then crossed the customs via SMRT 950 and went our separate ways at Woodlands Checkpoint.
I was glad the trip had gone well and I really enjoyed myself =)
Trip expenditure: RM410
Participants: Hiang Ling, Jia Yi, Jessica, Mandy, Alfred, Hon Yiong, Lim Hwee, LSH
