Bukit Panorama

......... continuation from here

The alarm rang at 3am. I woke up from my very deep sleep and felt wide awake all of a sudden. This middle-of-the-night excitement reminded me of my Mt K climb. I got ready quickly. It was warm enough to have a full shower - which included washing my hair.

At 3.30am, I woke MCTC up. He was really half asleep and looked as though the bed might win this battle. We managed to persuade him to get up, saying that Minchee would drive while he slept in the car.

At 4am, we left for Sg Lembing. The roads were almost derserted but at that time of the morning, I was surprised to see quite a number of cars roaming the street.

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We soon got out of Kuantan town and was heading toward the remote part leading to Sg Lembing. Let me tell you, it was DARK. When we looked behind, it was pitch black. No street lamps at all. Plus, it was quite misty and we couldn't go at 110km/h - like what we did the day before. At most, we went about 60-70km/h.

We arrived at the sleepy town before 5am and wondered what happened to other climbers. It was quite dark, save for a few street lamps placed strategically at different parts of the area. We saw an elderly man walking and asked him the directions to Bukit Panaroma. He pointed to one direction and explained that it was a week before All Souls Day and there might not be many people climbing that day. He said that people normally start their climb at 5.30am.

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WHAT!!!! I exclaimed inwardly. We woke up early and now we had to wait???

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The food court was nearby, so we headed that way. There were some people there, preparing food stuff before they began their business. At one end was a man, selling drinks.

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With nothing much to do, we ordered our drinks and had a chat with the proprietor, who surprisingly spoke English well. Minchee spoke to him most of the time (in Mandarin), asking him about the area and other "tourist" sites.

At 5.30am, we saw one or two vehicles and decided to start our climb.

There was this broad stairway which was brightly lit by the street lamp. We climbed up .... only to find ourselves in the midst of a potential snake infested overgrown mini jungle when we got to the top. Right in front of us was an uncompleted building which looked like a good drug addict hideout. There was no where else to go.

We turned back and saw another narrow stairway on the left.

And thus, begun our little climb.

The steps were a little steep in the begining and not surprisingly, after the 20th step, I started to perspire and pant. Minchee was steadily keeping a good pace -without seating a drop. I don't remember hearing her pant either.

Soon, we were about 15 steps ahead of MCTC and Eunice. The other group was behind us too. We stopped every now and then to wait for MCTC and Eunice but soon, we were moving so far ahead, we couldn't even see the other team. We skept stopping every now and then if we were too far ahead- until we could see some light from the back.

After the second pondok, we started going downhill a little. I looked around me and noticed that it was already the peak. But the people kept moving on. It was there that Minchee and I decided to wait until MCTC and Eunice caught up with us.

They came about 7-10 minutes later and we walked together until we arrived at our destination.

The sun was not up yet and we had to wait another 10 minutes or so. Based on our very leisurely ascend, I'd say that we made it to the top in about an hour and had we not stop to wait, we could've done it in 40-45 minutes.

The sun came out -at last. And we snapped lots of pictures.

The veiw was simply breathtaking and it does indeed looked like a sea of clouds. MCTC, who had never climbed any hills or mountains before, looked at the beautiful view and deicded that it justified him getting up so early and climbing up this hill.

Though the sun was rising, it sure did look as though it was setting. The play of colours and the combination of the light blue sky with the orange glow of the sun made the whole scenery look mystical.

I think there were about 20 of us up there, some were enjoying the view, some were busy taking pictures.

We must've spent at least an hour there. When the sun rose high enough for us to feel the heat, we descended. On the way down, we stopped many times to take pictures - much of MCTC's amusement.

Descending was easy. I kinda missed a step once and fell a little - simply because I was too busy taking pictures as well as walking down.

The stairs and little pondok

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I love the beautify sun rays peeking out from the cloud.

to be continued .............