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

Two years ago I have visited the remote Medang waterfall near KKB with my friend Siang Hui. It is quite a long hike, but you are rewarded with an impressive waterfall.

While we were relaxing at the fall, taking a bath, making coffee and having lunch, I was stung by a bee. They are called sweat bees, although I think that they are actually wasps, because they don’t leave their stinger behind.
The name tells it all, they are attracted by sweat. And I sweat profusely, so they like me. During the hike, no problem, because I am moving, but when I have arrived at my destination it doesn’t take long before one of these tiny(!) critters finds me and signals to his friends: come over here for a treat!

They are not aggressive, but probably, waving them away with my hands, I must have frightened one of them. I was stung in my back, it was not very painful and I did not pay much attention to it.

However on our way back, a bit later, I started to feel uncomfortable. I felt that my mouth got swollen, I could not swallow properly, my voice sounded funny and I felt faint. I told Siang Hui that I wanted to lie down a bit. Of course he was concerned, but he kept his cool.

After about half an hour I started to feel better and we walked back (still more than one hour!) to our car. First I was thinking about going to a clinic, but my recovery was so complete that there was no need.

Of course the question was, what had happened? I had the feeling that it was related to the bee sting, and searching the Internet confirmed that it had been an allergic reaction!

Actually I had experienced the onset of an anaphylactic shock ! Which can be life-threatening. It was an unpleasant discovery that I had developed an allergy for bee stings. I bought an Epipen and took it with me on my next jungle trips. With an Epipen you can inject yourself with a dose of epinephrine (adrenaline), in case of emergency.

Such an Epipen is not only expensive (~ RM 300), it has also a limited shelf life. Mine has passed its expiry date already.

Of course I was more than ever trying to keep those bees away. Because each following sting gives a stronger and faster reaction.

Two weeks ago I visited another waterfall with my friend Rani, see my earlier post. I was stung again, really a minor one, but still about the same effects.
And here too we were very far away from medical help. I had my Epipen ready, but after a while I recovered, so I did not need it. Kudos to Rani for his support!

When I wanted to buy an new Epipen, I was shocked to hear that they are no longer available in Malaysia! In a few weeks time a friend from Amsterdam will come here for her holidays, so I am now trying to buy one in the Netherlands and let her take it with her.

Recently a friend of mine, Harry Nian, died while on a solo expedition looking for new waterfalls in Terengganu. His last (unsent) sms was, that he was stung by many bees and could not move….. Anaphylactic shock?

I am rather scared at the moment to go back into the jungle..:-(

I am looking for a cream or spray that keeps bees and wasps away, found some information on the Internet, but no idea if this will be effective. And I have heard that there exists something called “immunotherapy” where you can overcome your allergy by regular (controlled) injections with tiny amounts of the venom. If a reader of this post has more information, please let me know!

All my friends should know by now that I am addicted to waterfalls. My website Waterfalls of Malaysia contains almost 180 waterfalls, most of which I have visited personally.

Yesterday I have added two more to my list in the Bentong region. Bentong has a famous waterfall, the Chamang waterfall, a dangerous one, almost yearly people drown here!

Chamang waterfall with a warning signboard in red

Here also is the start of the long trail up to Gunung Rajah. Recently my friend Siang Hui had discovered two more falls along this trail.

Visiting those two falls was the target of Rani and me. The month of the Hungry Ghosts had just passed, so it should be safe, LOL.

After a steep climb up from the Chamang car park, we reached a nice level road, leading us via an Orang Asli village in about 1.5 hour to the first fall, baptised Lubuk Chamang by Siang Hui.

And a magnificent lubuk it was! The fall was not high, but strong with a huge, deep pool in front of it. A good place for a coffee and a dip.

Lubuk Chamang

Unfortunately I was stung by a bee here. Maybe a Hungry Ghost, lost on his way back to his grave? Bees like me very much, because I am a sweaty person. The bad thing is that I am allergic for them. After I had a near-anaphylactic shock, two years ago, I always carry antihistamine tablets, and even a Epipen in case of emergency.

Not needed this time

I did not need it this time, but still I had an uncomfortable half hour, before the allergic effects subsided. After I had recovered, we decided to continue to the second fall, in a tributary of the Perting river. This fall was tall, but not much water.

Anak Perting

During the trip I took pictures with my iPhone. Combined with the GPS data, it resulted in an EveryTrail report Perting Fall . Here is a Google Earth screenshot of our hike