A few years ago a waterfall friend of mine sent me a picture of the Upper Tebing Tinggi fall, taken from a helicopter. The fall looks impressive and is also clearly visible on Google Earth. Close to and a bit similar to the Lata Puteh waterfall, which is visible from the Lenggong-Bagan Serai road. But this Upper Tebing Tinggi is more remote, so the question was, is it accessible?

It became my dream, to visit this waterfall and see it with my own eyes…:-)

A few weeks ago I did a recce with my friends Paul and Rahim. Starting from the road, the slope is very steep, but fortunately there is a old water pipeline, leading to a water catchment. There are also old overgrown logging roads. We reached the river upstream of the (lower) Tebing Tinggi fall, about 600 m from the upper fall. It seemed doable! Our recce is the red track in the map. Locations of Lata Puteh and Upper Tebing Tinggi are also indicted.

Because of its remoteness and keeping in mind my mishaps of last year, I wanted to have a strong team, who could carry me out in case of emergency…:-). Siang Hui, Teoh, Rani and Aric were willing to join me. Here we are ready to start our adventure.

It was a tough hike, which took us in about three hours to the waterfall! I was really happy, that my dream had come true.

I have published a detailed report about our trip (nice food, more waterfalls) as a Stuif’s Adventure. And here is a YouTube video of the waterfall:

Last year I have written a post Closure about the Berumbun waterfall in the Lolo river, where I was hit, a few months earlier, by a falling piece of rock. As I wanted to show Aric the place where it had happened, I decided to go there one more time. My friend Rani was willing to join, after my own two mishaps last year and the tragic death of another waterfall friend, I have decided that I will only go to the jungle with a group of at least three people.

Another reason to revisit these two waterfalls (for the fifth time !) was that another friend had told me that there was a nice trail to these falls, avoiding the slightly boring access road to Gunung Nuang. And a nice trail it turned out to be! Well marked with the usual yellow plastic ribbons. After you reach the Lolo river, you have to cross this stream several times. Here is our track on Google Earth. The access road to Nuang in green, with the location of the pondoks along the road. The trail is in yellow with the location of the two waterfalls. Trail length is 5.2 km, we reached the falls after about two hours

Here are the two falls. The Bomoh Ali fall (left) and the Berembun fall (right)

The weather was perfect, it was a very pleasant trip. We had lunch and coffee at Berembun. Access to Berembun is not that easy, you have to swim, then scramble up slippery rocks and cross the stream. Aric remarked that it is actually a dangerous waterfall, and he is right. NEVER do this when the weather is unstable, a flash flood would be lethal here.

Here is a picture report of the trip. We were not in a hurry and took time to take pictures. As soon as I reach a fall with a pool, I take a bath to remove the sweat from my clothes. I think it helps, but I still feel slightly ill at ease, always on the lookout for bees. Of course I always have my Epipen with me, but I hope I will never to use it. On our way back, Aric’s Adidas shoes started to fall apart rapidly, but he managed to reach the car, LOL.

Here is a YouTube clip of Berembun

And here is Aric on its way back. Berembun fall is just behind him around the corner. Big fun, but not when there would be a flash flood…!

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.