A trek up Gunung Jerai from Merbok.

That's the archeology museum in the background


And here's the map at the parking lot showing the route to Gunung Jerai, Kedah, Malaysia.


This is the river we had to cross to the starting point of our trek.





The starting point.


A bridge over that river.


My partner walking into a rubber estate.


Liquid rubber flowing into a cup at the rubber estate.



A living beauty! A little one but full of grit and strength. Certainly adventurous!


We met one of the inhabitants of the jungle.



This is a part of the way to the top.



Art through the light drawn through the trees onto the floor of the jungle.


As we reached the higher parts, light came shining through.


The fantastic view at one part near the summit.




From the jungle into a man-made road about a kilometre from the summit.


And here's a little stream just outside the jungle.


Here is the directions to a number of place about a kilometre from the summit where there are chalets and a dining place as well as a number of attractive planted areas.


This is the Telaga Tok Sheikh.(Telaga means 'well' Tok Sheikh is the name of a person.)


Another part of the Telaga Tok Sheikh.


Here is a spider. Dangerous? Well, harm it not and it will never harm you.


The entrance to Padang Tok Sheikh.


Is this a snake i see on the road? But then, looking at the scales, it cannot be.


This is what i first thought is known as Batu Kapal which means 'Stone ship', but I am told that it is not. According to the friend Batu Kapal is a huge rock very near to Telaga Tok sheikh.


What a beauty! An orchid!


Here's a red beauty!


Have you seen a fern like this!


On Saturday, 11th of June, a friend and I decided to trek up Gunung Jerai (Jerai Mountain) from the archeology museum at Merbok, Kedah - a trek which was approximately 13 kilometres to the top - a route known as 'Jejak Warisan'.

We reached Merbok at eight in the morning and from there crossed a river to a path. Soon we came to a fork in the path and here we chose what appeared to be the more often used path which turned out to be the wrong path resulting in us reaching a rubber estate. Here we saw some campers. We had to retrace our steps and took the path on our right. Then we still had to look for the right way up and eventually found it across the river further up from where we started.

Fortunately for us, since then there was this yellow strip of plastic sign that led us all the way to the top. At certain parts of the way it was fairly steep and one of these parts took its toll on my thigh muscles. The muscles started to cramp and that slowed us a lot. My partner had this liquid known as 'Yoko Yoko' which I applied to the painful muscles. Initially, the pain and cramping became worse but after a short while the pain subsided and it was bearable enough to continue. I also discovered that a stick did help to take the weight off the legs and prevented further cramps.

The jungle was beautiful with its many beauties, some of which I photographed to enjoy at a later date. It was up and down three, or perhaps four, hills before we reached the summit of the mountain. About one kilometre before the summit we exited the jungle onto a tar road.

It was a wonderful trek of calm greenery with great huge trees and a few orchids attached to their trunks which was only spoiled by the wriggly leeches which constantly attacked us all the way to the tarred road. There were so many of those leeches that we had to forgo stopping at half past twelve although we were really hungry then. The sight of the leeches on the floor of the jungle was sufficient to drive us on. At the top, I removed my bloodied socks and shoes to find more than thirty of those fat well-fed creatures, some of them still stuck to my feet. I had certainly donated a good quantity of my blood to them. That was alright except that at the time of writing this i am still suffering the itch that their vampire-type punctures have left behind. In fact my bed-sheet and floor was stained with my blood that Saturday evening and night. My feet were swollen the next morning as a result of my scratching the whole night.

Nevertheless, it was an unforgettable experience for me. Never had I had so many guests in for dinner at my feet. And the itch they left behind will certainly be remember always. And there was a record 29 tiny punctures in my feet! Well, that part of the thrill of challenging oneself on a trek up a mountain. At the end of it, I could tell myself that I made it in five and a half hours, discovered my weaknesses which I intend to overcome as soon as possible and enjoyed the scenery from the jungle and the top of a mountain. That's great for this sixty-four year old - old in number but young in spirit and flesh.

How to prevent leeches from getting to you.

Those who trek or climb hills or mountains have certainly come across tiny, wriggly creatures which need blood to survive. We call them leeches. I have nothing against them sucking some of my blood for God created them to survive on it. However, what i detest most is the itch that I have to suffer for more than a week each time they dig into my legs or feet for breakfast, lunch or dinner. The itch is so annoying as it prevents me from a good night's rest for so many nights. Once I even had to seek antiseptic as the bite became infected. It left a big scar which I have to bear to this day.

Of course, there are always good intentions from people who notice the leeches sticking to my feet. First, there was the suggestion of using a mosquito spray onto the shoes. I did it. Sometimes, or was it just luck, it seemed to work but time prove it not effective.

Then, the other day I went up Gunung Jerai (Jerai Mountain)and was told by my trekking partner to use soap. So I rubbed soap onto my shoes, socks and my pants. It was instantly proved useless against the hundreds, perhaps, thousands, we met all the way up the hill during our five and a half hour trek. All the way we had to stop to pull them off our socks and legs. We dared not remove our shoes to search for those which had managed to slip into our shoes to our soles as the ground was obviously full of them.

Eventually, when we reached the top of that mountain. I removed my socks and discovered not less than twenty of those big, fat, evidently full-of-blood leeches.
My sockes were red with my blood and punctures and more than fifteen tiny punctures on each foot were still bleeding. There was just no way I could stop the bleeding then. So, I merely removed them and put my sock back onto my feet.

Then, the guy who plies the tarred route up and down Gunung Jerai came over to have a look at the great number of leeches I had removed from my feet and shoes. (There are many route up this mountain. There are many jungle paths but one of them is the tarred road which allows cars, vans and jeeps to access the top of this mountain.)He told us that we should have used tobacco juice to avoid attacks by leeches. He demonstrated how we could mix some tobacco, which he had, with some water. The resultant juice was squeezed onto the leeches and after just a few seconds of struggling, they were dead. (Look at the video above.)

From him we learned that we could soak our shoes, socks and the lower part of our pants into tobacco juice before drying them the day before using them for such a trek. The smell of it would be sufficient to drive those blood thirsty breatures away. He should know for he was a soldier who had to move and stay in the jungle at times. So, there you are, the way to a leech-free trek.