Yogyakarta - Surabaya - Yogyakarta

29-May 2009

1. Only for of us, with MAS morning flight we went to Indonesia, in particular to Yogyakarta. In our calendar we are going to visit Yogyakarta and Surabaya.

2. The journey was only about 2.5 hrs. We arrive safely in Yogya airport. When the flight landed , I could see the big different in between the two city, Kuala Lumpur and Yokya, said to be the 2nd largest metropolitan city in Indonesia after Jakarta.

3. As scheduled, the rep from the car rental company named Andy, has been waited for us. He drove us to his office to sign some aggrements. We rent a Toyota Avanza. The rental for 5 days was Rp950,000 which is about RM300. (Wah! what a good price, I said to myself).

4. No wasting any time, we dapart to Surabaya which is 12 hrs away from Yogya. Before dawn we have to rush to Mount Bromo which is about 1.5hrs from Surabaya.

To be continued....

The Royal Belum - tak seperti yang kusangka....

1. A week before fasting month, together with a few friend from my office, I went to the Royal Belum Rainforest in Grik, Perak. The Royal Belum Rainforest is the oldest rainforest in the world. It is indeed a world heritage.

2. There were 8 of us. Syed (the leader), Mas (Asst. leader 1), Zainal (Asst. leader 2), Fadhil (chef), Azlin (room boy), Nik (cari kayu), Hashim (cari kayu) and myself (sweeper). The main objective of this trip is to catch ikan kelah merah (Malayisan Mahseer), the king of fish. But, to me, my main intention is just want to go back to nature and for recreational.

3. Situated in Grik Perak, the Royal Belum is crossed by the East West Highway. Motorist can found the Royal Belum signboard after passing the Banding Lake or Empangan Temenggor. It is about 50km from the lake.

4. The most attractive part when crossing the highway is the beautiful scenery from the highland. The peak of the highway is about 3,000 feet a.s.l (I guest) as it crosses the Banjaran Titiwangsa. Our group stopped at the R&R Titiwangsa at about 4.30am. God, it is colder than Genting Highlands or Cameron.

5. After solat subuh and breakfast, our group continue to drive for about an hour before we meet the point to enter the jungle. After all the final preparation is complete, we start off the trekking at 8.30am. I was told that the trekking will take about 7hrs before we reach the place where we can camping. The treking is preeting easy because we were decending the mountain. The first hour we were trekking through jalan balak but after that were just following the elephant trek. I could see the elephant footstep along the way as well as the dunk.

6. We were enjoying the journey evethought it is quite tough. After 5 hrs we stop a while by the river side and I spot the tiger footstep. "Gosh! This is scary". I told Hashim, one of my group member.

7. We reach the camping place after 7hrs of trekking. Before night, we have to catch some fishes for our dinner and the fishing time started right away. Nik managed to catch ikan kelah merah, the rest just ikan tengas. We had a good dishes for our dinner.

8. The next morning, we woke up before dawn. After breakfast, at about 8am, we heard a heavy machinery at work not far from our camping place. That must me an illegal logging activities, I told the rest. No wonder we did't manage to get a good catch! This royal rainforest must be preserved and there should not be any logging activity here!!!

9. Due o the illegal lodging, the Manga River was polluted with laterite from the hill by the river. The clear water changed to yellowish. Our fishing activities limited due to no fish as it should be. I would label, the whole trip is tarnish. We didn't get of what we wanted.

10. Hopefully, my voice could be heard by the authority to stop the illegal lodging. Preserve our river and our jungle....