{"id":9722,"date":"2016-05-24T22:09:34","date_gmt":"2016-05-24T14:09:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/?p=9722"},"modified":"2016-05-24T22:09:34","modified_gmt":"2016-05-24T14:09:34","slug":"ayer-hitam-finally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/?p=9722","title":{"rendered":"Ayer Hitam, finally!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Numerous\u00a0times I had heard and\/or\u00a0read about the Ayer Hitam Forest Reserve<\/a>\u00a0in Puchong. With\u00a0a waterfall, maybe even more than one….<\/p>\n

But I had also heard that this forest reserve was a research project of\u00a0the UPM university and officially out of bounds. As I am a\u00a0good citizen, I was reluctant to trespass…:)<\/p>\n

Last week I joined a so-called hashwalk, for the first time in my life. I will blog about it later. After the walk there was an open-air beer party where I met Master Ho, 76 year old and still going strong. \u00a0When he was 15(!) years old, he started a hiking group Pathfinders55, which still exists today. We came to talk about Ayer Hitam and I accepted his invitation\u00a0to join him for\u00a0a hike there.<\/p>\n

Here is the location of the Ayer Hitam Forest Reserve. Surrounded by urban development, it is surprisingly large. Our hike is marked in green.<\/p>\n

\"Large<\/a><\/p>\n

Here is part of\u00a0the Reserve in more detail (click to enlarge). Our hike was about 10 km and\u00a0took\u00a0more than four hours. The grey line comes from Google Earth and probably marks\u00a0an”allowed” trail. On our hike we did not meet any\u00a0enforcement officials, maybe because it was weekend<\/p>\n

\"map2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Master Ho had sent me a whatsapp where to meet:<\/p>\n

Date: Sunday 22\/5\/2016\r\nMeet time at the the purple(or pink you may call it) colour single storey\r\ncorner shop opposite the coconut stall\r\nStart time: 9.30am<\/pre>\n
I was surprised that there was quite a big crowd that Sunday morning. The pink\/purple house was easy to find and Master Ho was waiting for us. We took a group photo and started our hike. Clear trail,\u00a0climbing up, then down, crossing a stream, then up again.<\/p>\n\n\t\t