Gurung Ledang

Today, we decided to venture out into the countryside of Malaysia (essentially the jungle) and visit this place we'd being wanting to go to for a while, Gurung Ledang. It is a nearby mountain (about an hour from Melaka) that was suppose to have a hiking trail that went up to a waterfall where you could do some swimming and have a picnic....sounds like a great time, right? Well, it might have been had it not been filled with hundreds or maybe even a thousand Malaysians, a lot of who were young motor bikers who looked like trouble!! We took both Evan and Coop with us and while the trail up the mountain was nice enough for us to walk up (alot of rock steps leading to the top), we only had one back carrier for Coop and Evan got tired of the stairs after about 15 minutes. While Evan and Daddy rested and watched the ton of people there, Coop and I ventured up thinking we might make it up to the top and get a good look at the top of the waterfall. We actually went up a pretty good way, but I got a bit worried when a large group of motor bikers continued to follow us (instead of passing us by) and seemed to be talking about us in Bahasa (we definitely stuck out like a sore thumb....we seemed to be some of the only non-locals there!), so we decided to head back down towards Andrew and Evan...without making it all the way to the top. I wish we could have kept going because it looked like it could have been a pretty cool waterfall. The trail was right up through the middle of the jungle so even though it was extremely hot out it didn't seem as bad since it was so shaded (although I was still drenched by the time we made it back down....let me tell you 23lbs doesn't seem all that heavy until you are hiking up a mountain side...and a fairly steep one at times I might add! I definitely got my workout for the day!). And even more unbelievably we made it through the entire hour+ outing without one single mosquito bite...woo hoo!! So Andrew and I said that one afternoon, when we can leave the boys with Marte, we might try it again by ourselves and hike all the way up to the top! It was actually alot of fun to get out and see a part of Malaysia we hadn't visited before. It's definitely getting a lot easier...and more fun.... to do things now that both boys are getting older. We hope to make another beach trip around the beginning of September, so I'm really looking forward to that now as well!

The city of Tangkok, another Melaka type place except much smaller...guarantee not a lot of English would be spoken here!

The narrow road leading to the park entrance

The entrance with the view of the mountain

The bottom of the falls, the beginning of the trail

These are the people that decided to put up camp and picnic at the bottom (some tasty food we saw....people caring in big pots of rice and some of the other crazy dishes they eat - crazy! Nothing like the ol' fashioned American picnic stuff we are used to that is for sure!) No need for bathing suits at this place either, jumping in with whatever you have own seemed to be totally acceptable!
There were several large groups like this one there that looked like they were camping...had tents pitched and clothes drying on lines!
This was where we left Andrew and Evan - that's A at the top of the picture...the tall one sticking out above the rest of everyone :-)

Yes, Coop and I hiked up those steep steps...trying to get a better view of the top of the waterfall

Thank goodness for the handrails because some of the rock steps were pretty narrow and slippery

This was as far up as we made it...I was trying to get a picture of the falls but didn't want to venture too far off the path since we'd seen a couple of lizards before, I was afraid of what else we might come upon if we did!

Daddy and Evan waiting for Coop and I back at the entrance - think we'll skip the picnic and just have our lunch back at home!