Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Sunrise at Sungai Lembing

Anticipating a long and quiet (read: dull) Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday at home with the folks, I brought home not only a car load of festive goodies, but also my hiking boots and outdoors gears and a list of hiking destinations. Loads of walking in the bush planned.

So at the crack of dawn of the fourth day of CNY, I headed up to Sungai Lembing Panorama Hill with my cousin L. Just barely 45 minutes drive later I was lacing up my hiking boots at the foothill, all set to hit the trail. It was then I realized that we had forgotten our torch lights. That was just great, wasn't it?

Well, I think Paul Coelho wrote something along the line like this: "If you have dreams, the whole universe will conspire to help achieve your dream." Just as we trod along gingerly in the dark, two kind Samaritan hikers on their way down (I know, were they super fit or super early or what?) gave us their torch lights. Yay! We had got lights! Take it from me; hiking in the pitch black ain't no fun eh.

After a good 45 minutes eco-Step Master, I ended up in the zoo! Now that explained the 236 cars packed into the tiny patch of clearing at the foothill. The peak were packed with hikers, and unfortunately noisy. They were just happy chatting, correction, quaking away loudly. Noise pollution people! Noise pollution!


Perhaps the view was something to shout home for. The morning mist wrapping the surrounding hills, softly and tenderly, as if trying to keep them hill warm in the chilly dawn. In the distance, the Charas Cave stood solemnly, awaiting another fabulous sunrise like the rest of us. Well, unlike us he was quiet.

Then the corner of the sky brightened up slowly. The gloomy black and grey made room in the sky for the cheery tinge of yellow. The sun peeked out behind the cloud shyly. Splashes of yellow and orange and pink and red spilled all over the sky. Everyone was in awe with the magnificent display of colors in the sky that they stopped yakking. Mother Nature is indeed powerful, hypnotizing the yakking lot into a silence state with her charm and beauty. That was truly amazing.





The crowd began to thin. But we stuck around enjoying the serenity of the morning. We were happily clicking our cameras away, shooting ferns and trees in vibrant green as the sun lighted up the peak.




Time to jet. We leisurely strolled down hill. Again we bumped into the zoo of people. Apparently the zoo shifted from the peak to the market food court.

Feeding frenzy!
If you can’t beat them, join them.

No comments: