I spend most of my weekends either with my
family members watching television the entire
day and play football in the evening or go for a
sleepover at my friend, Karim's, house. In fact, as
long as my memory stretches, I have been
spending my weekend in this rather unexciting manner until last weekend. That weekend, I was in Karim's house and was
introduced to is cousin Jamal. The latter hails from
Kelantan and very vivacious personality. He was
full of energy, enthusiasms and a bit of a dare-
devil, as they say. I took an immediate liking to
him. Upon hearing of our boring weekends playing football and later adjourning to our
favorite mamak stall for a late night supper, Jamal
suggested e do something different. he is an
accomplished trekker as well as a hiker. When he
found out about the Air Hitam hill, famous among
trekkers, which ahs tracks that reach right up to the summit, he virtually harassed us to
accompany him. Both Karim and I are basically
couch potatoes and have no enthusiasm for such
a sport. But we did not want to disappoint Jamal
and reluctantly agreed to go hiking with him. But it turned out to be the most interesting
weekend I ever had. i did not live to regret it ! It
was a Sunday and the three of us were dressed
in our hiking attires, much to the surprise and
amusement of Karim's parents. we told them that
their perspective of us as lazy bones and unadventurous would change forever. They
smiled indulgently. we packed a few bottles of
mineral water and some sandwiches. The famous Air Hitam trekking area was
fantastic ! There were many joggers and fitness
buffs as well as tourists who converge there
every day. There were clear racks that would
enable trekkers to reach the summit without
getting lost. In fact, at certain points, there are stalls and rest areas where one can even sit down
for a light meal and drink. we did not make any
stop as we were determined to reach the summit.
The mountain was not too high and thankfully
the dry weather had ensured the tracks were not
slippery. we saw many exotic birds and other creatures along the way, even snakes. Thankfully,
we had brought a long stick and a can of pepper
spray in case we were attacked by wild animals.
We didn't need to worry. No wild creatures tried
to attack us nor were here any encounters with
slithery creatures ! We also feasted our eyes on beautiful and strange looking flowering plants
and even picked some flowers for Karim's
mother. We reached the summit two hours later. The
scene was simply breathtaking ! It was covered
with light frost and the weather was rather chilly.
But we were sweating and actually enjoyed the
cool air. Famished, we gobbled our sandwiches.
they never tasted better. After relaxing for about 20 minutes, we made our long way down tot he
foot of the mountain. It truly had been an interesting as well as exciting
weekend. Karim and I vowed to go trekking
every weekend to keep our body fit and our
mind refreshed.