A friend asked me yesterday on Skype if I was alright because I had not posted on my blog for a few weeks…:-) My answer was that I had been too busy to update my blog. The CNY celebration, meeting friends, a trip to Melaka, visiting waterfalls, etc.

Not chronologically, I will start my update with a trip, made with Paul and Rahim, last week. It has become a tradition to go waterfall hunting with them. For example in 2010 to Ulu Besut in Terengganu. This time I wanted to go to Kedah, but I realised that it would mean a lot of driving, so instead I decided to (re)visit a few lesser known waterfalls in Perak. We made it 3D3N trip, staying the first night in Taiping, the second night in Lenggong and the third night in Batu Gajah. As usual we were not only looking for waterfalls but also for nice food…:-) Here is a collage of the waterfalls we have visited.

A detailed report about the trip can be found here . The Kait waterfall, lower right in the picture, is quite spectacular and tall, about 45 meter! Here is a YouTube video of the fall

Nex post will be about Melaka, no waterfalls there…:-)

One year ago, on the third day of the CNY, I visited with my waterfall friends Siang Hui, Nick and Harry, an unknown waterfall in the Bubu Range, south of Kuala Kangsar. We gave it the name Lata Naga Air (Water Dragon Fall). Full report here . Sadly Harry died later last year, while on a (solo) waterfall exploration trip in Terengganu. Here is a picture of the waterfall with from left to right Nick, Siang Hui and Harry †

This year Siang Hui suggested a trip to another waterfall, also in the Bubu range, near Beruas. Again on the third day of the CNY. I met Siang Hui and Nick in Teluk Intan, we drove to Beruas where we met Faye. She is contributing to my Waterfalls of Malaysia website, but I had never met here. She often joined Harry’s trips and is now organising trips herself for her friends.

Access to the Ulu Licin falls is easy. From the place where we parked our cars, we could already see the first waterfall. A trail leads to the upper falls. There are three more tiers. The second tier is a beautiful curtain fall. I am posing in the pictures below, so you have an idea about the height of the falls…:-;

Quite surprising to find these relatively unknown falls so near the road. Their saving grace is that the access trail is steep. Here is pictorial report of our trip.

I have uploaded two short video clips to YouTube. One is from the curtain fall, the other one from the top tier

Visiting a new waterfall on the 3rd day of CNY could become a nice tradition! Why not name these falls Lata Ular Air, the Water Snake waterfall…:-)

Yesterday I have revisited the Nyangung waterfall in Pahang. The Nyangung fall is a powerful waterfall in the Perdak river, near Telemong. Further upstream is the equally impressive Seminyang waterfall, which is more often visited. The trail head for Nyangung is not easy to find and it is a scramble down a steep slope to reach (which is unusual!) first the top of the waterfall.

Here my waterfall kaki Rani is standing near the top of the fall and in the picture to the right he is exploring the way to go down. For comparison, in both pics you see the same tree fallen across the river. During this trip I have made several short video clips. Click here to view what you see and hear from the top. Notice the same tree, and also, deep down, the bottom of the fall.

Going down you have to be careful, rocks may be slippery, in which case it is better to keep right of the rocks and use trees and shrubs as a support. Luckily we had splendid weather. In the picture below you see Rani on his way down in an exposed position…:-) Imagine the thunderous roar of the falling water.

When we had arrived at the bottom of the fall, we could not see yet the fall in all its splendour. We had to cross the river for that, and the current was strong and turbulent. Personally I would not have dared to cross, but daredevil Rani wanted to give it a try and looked for a possible passage. Here he is exploring. He managed and even asked me to follow him. I did..:-)

From the other side of the river we had a beautiful view of the fall. See the picture. And click here for a YouTube clip.

While crossing we had left all our barang behind, but there were nice sunny rocks on this side, a perfect place to have coffee and our lunch. What to do? I will go back, said Rani and get the stuff. So he went back, and daredevil as he is, he took a slightly different route. I followed him on video, click here. Notice how relaxed he is, even smoking a cigaret..:-) The second attempt to cross back, was successful..:-) That was actually the same way we came over.

When Rani had collected our lunch, coffee, water, put it in my watertight bag, he came back, again trying a different route. Click here to see what happened, and you may understand how I felt when I saw him suddenly being swept away! But I did not panic.

Because I trusted him to come back and he did! Safe and sound. Click here. But of course it gave me a shock. If this would have happened to me, I would not have survived. So we had our coffee and our lunch, but after that I suggested Rani to cross over, the safe way, and have a more relaxing time at the other side. Which we did…:-)

This was really an adventure for me, in several ways. Quite a few “What if” questions too.

Added 20-2-2013

Rani still had pictures of our first visit, almost 4 years ago. Left picture shows the situation in April 2009. I have marked corresponding points with red crosses.

In retrospect I think it was too risky what we have done.

After my recovery from jet lag and the germs I had taken with me from the Netherlands, I felt the urge coming up to visit a waterfall. Where to go and with whom?

‘Shall I bring you to a Secret Waterfall?’ my friend Siang Hui asked. He is an expert in discovering unknown waterfalls.  ‘But you must promise not to divulge the location on your website or blog! The villagers from a nearby kampong are using the water of the stream and are concerned about pollution.’

Of course I accepted the condition. Aric and Rani were interested too, so on a Saturday morning we met at a mamak stall for breakfast and drove to the trail head. Not a real trail actually, traces here and there and river trekking. As was to be expected the waterfalls (many tiers) were pristine.

Here is a picture report about the Secret Waterfall.

And here is a picture of the main fall in all its glory. Recently I have bought a hypsometer to measure the height of an object. For this fall I found 15 meter.

In my post about the Pisang waterfall I wrote that about 9 years ago I came in contact with Khong. He had started a website about Malaysian waterfalls, but had recently become more interested in birding. We became friends and I took over the maintenance of the waterfall site. On 28-10-2003, we registered the domain name waterfallsofmalaysia.com.

Khong had used several free web hosting services for his site, so my first task was to integrate all his material in this new site with a new design. In the beginning only falls in Peninsular Malaysia, later Sarawak and Sabah were added. Here is the original design.

In the past nine years the number of waterfall pages has increased from about 75 to more than 150. Also there have been many structural changes like a news section and the possibility to add comments. This is the present design

For more information about the history of the site and the members of my team, click here. The website is quite popular and attracts on average ~ 1000 visitors daily. Regularly I receive email from visitors, asking for more information, or with suggestions for new waterfalls. It is a nice hobby, some friends nickname me the Godfather of the Malaysian Waterfalls, LOL

One year ago I added a script to the site, that gives nice statistics about the website visitors and where they come from. Below is a screenshot, taken on November 16.

A total of 300.000 visitors coming from 160 different countries. It is interesting to see the geographical distribution. Not surprisingly most visitors come from Malaysia (75%) and Singapore (12%).  USA is third (4%). But there have also been visitors from Cape Verde, Kyrgyzstan, the Aland Islands etc.

On 8-7-2012 I visited with my friend Rani a “new” waterfall in the Ulu Langat region. This waterfall is located in a gorge with steep walls and can only be reached by swimming!

The waterfall is around the corner. When we had arrived there and took some rest, I was hit by a piece of rock,falling down from the steep cliff.

The wound was bleeding heavily, luckily I remained conscious. Of course we went back immediately, first a swim(!) and then a two hour walk to the village where in a clinic I got a total of 15 stitches.

Click here for a detailed report. Later in the hospital it was found after a C-T scan that I had a hairline fracture in my skull. It would heal itself, but I should keep quiet for a while. And I did, although I wanted absolutely to go back to this waterfall. For closure/redemption…:-)

But first, after my recovery, I went to Terengganu with Paul and Rahim for a camping trip to waterfalls. All went well, here is the report. And in September I visited, again with Rani, two “new” waterfalls in the Bentong region. This time another mishap occurred, I was stung by a bee, and I have become allergic to bee stings! I wrote about this incident in an  earlier blog post.

Still I wanted to go back to the waterfall where I was hit! So I asked Rani if he would join me and he said, yes. I would have understood if he had declined the invitation, after all on our last two trips he had to think about an emergency procedure to get me out of the jungle, just in case…

To be honest, I did not sleep well, the night before the trip. I was not worried about another rock hitting me, but I am quite afraid now of bees and wasps!

But this time all went well. We visited the waterfall and the spot where I was hit.

Here I am standing at the location where I was hit. Symbolically I have a piece of rock in my hand, similar to the one that struck me.

Of course I looked up quite a few times, just to make sure, that nothing was coming down..:-)

You will also notice that I have been swimming with all my clothes on. That is one precaution I will take always, from now on, to reduce the risk of an encounter with a wasp.

During this visit actually I saw none.

I felt very relieved after this trip. And many thanks to Rani for his trust in me!

Here is the detailed report