Gunung Bunga Buah hike

Gunung Bunga Buah hike Gunung Bunga Buah (GBB) is one of the mountain that is just nearby and not too hard to climb and yet I don’t have the chance to climb because there’s nobody to guide me up there. Actually I could probably climb it all by myself (or along with my wife) but I’d rather follow another group you know, the more the merrier.



My chance came when MK Rahman (who else?) organized an impromptu trip to GBB one weekend. So that Saturday morning, my wife and I along with more than a dozen other hikers met up in Gohtong Jaya near the Seri Malaysia hotel for the hike up the mountain. Gohtong Jaya, if you haven’t already know is right on the way to the resort mountain Genting Highlands. It was named after the founder of Genting Highlands resort.



There is a row of shoplots next to the hotel so there were plenty of parking space for everybody. From the shoplot, we walked up a bit past the two hotels towards a private garden at the foot of the mountain. There’s two way to get to the trail head — one a shortcut next to a garden and the other via a trunk road near Lim Goh Tong’s mansion. I was appointed as an impromptu sweeper by MK which is quite a vote of confidence from him. But actually I would rather not be a sweeper or a lead that day. I just wanna enjoy my hike, enjoy the view and not worry about waiting and taking care of other people. That said, I did my sweeping as much as I could. Waiting patiently for the slowest of the bunch to keep up with the rest.



In the beginning we took the shortcut first and used the trunk road on the way back. Both trail heads combines about 800 meters later and we walked down the old tarred road until it gradually disappear near the foot of the hill. We passed this big (limestone?) rock wall (or is it an old quarry?)which begs for someone to scale it. But since rock-climbing is not a major sporting activity (yet) in Malaysia, I guess we won’t be seeing such activities anytime soon over there. From the foot of the hill, the real climb begins. Since it rained quite heavily the night before, the trail was very muddy at many parts. Some of us were ankle deep in mud halfway up the mountain not to mention the slippery path that we had to traverse. But then muddy and dry hiking is a lot better than muddy and raining hiking I suppose. It stayed dry the whole day so we get to enjoy much of the hike in the fine weather.



About 1,000 meters up the mountain, we encountered a patch of rocks which everybody called Rock Garden. There were some trees and a small clearing there where people sometimes camp and you get a nice 360 view of the surrounding. In fact we found a group of campers camping near the area. From what I heard they planned to camp there for the next 3 days or so. Now camping for that long near a peak with no water source is a bit suspicious or foolish to say the least. If I’d known better I’d say they’re up to no good. That said, it’s none of my business what they’re doing up there whether it’s legal or not.



We reached the peak around midday without much difficulties. The summit was scorching hot naturally in the afternoon sun with not much tree shade to sit under. There’s a little clearing at the top but you won’t see the beirut immediately because it’s situated a few meters away from the clearing. We unpacked and ate our lunch. I brought my Brahim nasi lemak pack which was unlike their briyani was not so good. Remind me not to buy Brahim nasi lemak again. The view from the peak is all right if not spectacular. No 360 view though, just one side of the mountain. There were some pretty little flowers at around the trail head though. That's the bunga (flower) part of the mountain. Can't say I see any buah (fruit) anywhere up and down the mountain though. Maybe I didn't look hard enough.





The way down took just about the same amount of time as the climb. We reached the trail head just before 2:00 PM. GBB is a great mountain to climb for slightly advanced beginner hikers who wanted to move on to slightly more challenging mountain but not too difficult one. It’s close nearby and pretty straightforward to climb. While it’s not too complicated to attempt alone, I would highly recommend you bring someone experienced or have climbed this mountain before just for your safety.