Pos Atap

Deep in the heart of pennisular Malaysia, there still exist a few small kampungs (villages) of orang asli (lit: original peoples). It is to one of these kampungs (pos atap) that TMC asked me to go on the weekend of 29/30 Mar. Two guys, Goh and Ong, had purchased and were carrying in some supplies (rice, salt, sugar, coffee) to one of these villages and had appealed to others for assistance. TMC was one of those others (they had found him and his love of trekking through his blog). So at an ungodly hour on Saturday morning, TMC, Amos, Ikwan, and I left home to meet up with Goh and Ong in Ipoh. We then drove to a village accessible by road where we met our guide. Then proceeded the 7 hour trek through dense jungle the likes of which I have never seen (No one had been in or out using that route in years). It was easily the most gruelling 7 hours of jungle trekking that I have ever done. It was difficult enough that, until we arrived at the village, I never once took out my camera to take a picture. There was no recognizable trail, and if our guide had chosen to disappear on us, and had we not had Amos' GPS, it is quite reasonable to suggest that we would never have found a way out. Each step was either up or down from the previous; each step involved swinging your parang (heavy machete) to clear a path, or swinging your body left to avoid a big thorn bush or right to avoid cracking your skull on a low hanging piece of bamboo, or hopping over or crawling under a fallen tree. We crossed numerous streams and rivers, got rained on three times, had countless leeches chewing away at our ankles and legs, mosquitos taking care of our necks and arms, and every time we asked our guide how much further, the answer was always the same: 1 hour. It was the combination of jungle density and the undulating terrain that exhausted the body very quickly. I cannot in words describe the feeling of seeing the village after 7 hours of this effort.


The village was a really neat. There were only 5 huts and only older people remained; the young people had all moved to villages closer to the highways, or into the cities. They were expecting us (as Goh had had some interaction with them a few weeks prior) and had set us up with our very own hut for the evening! This was really fantastic.
We hung out there for the rest of the day, too exhausted to do much but lay around and chat. The next day, when Goh suggested taking a different route out of the jungle -a 3 hour trail that was nicknamed 'the highway'- he was met with unanimous and hearty agreement. It was easy to see why the trail was referred to as 'the highway'. It was a clear, defined trail -check out the pics in the album!!
Our different route took us out of the jungle, a few hours away from where we had parked our cars, and into a tea plantation in the Cameron Highlands! As we left the jungle, we came upon a village and the children ran out to meet us. So, out came the cameras and we had some fun posing and shooting pics.
Walking out of the tea plantation, we got on a bus going to Ipoh and asked to be dropped off on the side of the highway near to where we had parked our cars.
This was definitely a unique and fantastic experience and I am glad for all of it: I am happy to have gone into the village on the super-tough "trail"; I am equally happy to have gone out the easy way; it was really nice meeting the orang asli and staying in their homes; it was fantastic to pass through the tea plantations and to play with those children for a few minutes.

To read TMC's detailed account of the trip, or to see a gross picture of about a dozen leeches on his ankle, check out his blog