This is not the first time we saw someone left his / her shoes pad during jungle trekking. There is a sign board written there, “Leave nothing but foot prints, take nothing but photos.” However, he / she may not even notice that his / her shoes pad has got off from the shoes. I have this experience while I climbed Mount Kinabalu years ago. So, be prepared on your physical capability and also your trekking gears.
Not far from the starting point, we saw this signboard, this was not our destination, because we have been there for a few times. Our destination this time was to go to the waterfall somewhere in this jungle. But we have to take this route and climb up to 900 feet above sea level instead of reaching the top at about 2500 feet. Then we took a turn on our right to enter the waterfall trail for another 1.5km.
There were actually 2 lanes for this road, allowing vehicles (especially 4 wheel drive) to go up and down, because the TV, FM and telecommunication transmitter is on top of this mountain, but half of the roads were covered by leaves from trees, and there left only one narrow lane for vehicles.
We kept on walking and stopping to take photos, and to take breaks in between too.
We were still walking. It seemed to be a long long way to go.
Somewhere on the way going up on our left hand side, we found a small path to go down to a stream through some rocks and muddy soil. We did not walk down because the path seemed slippery and dangerous, I just took a photo beside the road and it looks like a mini waterfall.
This stream is actually getting across the road underneath the ground from our right to the left hand side of the road. So we were standing above a hidden bridge actually. We were standing on an invisible bridge, it is part of the road, and it functions as a bridge as well.
We saw a warning sign that reminds the visitor to be careful.
We reached the Natural Frog Pond, but we did not see even a frog. Why? Read the words on the sign board and you will know the anwer.
If you cannot read from the sign board, let me type the words for you:-
“Frogs only come out at night and they are most active an hour after sunset. During the day, they hide amongst the leave litters and crevasses away from the sun and hungry predators.
The pond is among the easiest place to see the frogs. You can also find them along the streams, amongst the trees and on the ground.
Male frogs call to attract females. Some inflate their vocal sacs to make these calls. The louder the call, the better the chances of getting a mate. Each species has its own distinctive call. Can you differentiate them? You might be lucky to see the frogs mating. Humidity, rainfall, temperature and even the phases of the moon are said to affect the mating rituals which can take the whole night.
Caution… Watching frog is always fun with friends. However, the platform can only hold 10 adults at one time and can be quite slippery. Can you guess who or what made this pond?”
Finally we stopped walking up the hill and reached the starting point of waterfall trail. We took a right turn into the trail and started the jungle trekking.
At the entrance we found this signboard and it highlights 4 special natural elements that can be found in the jungle:-
Stingless-bee nest
* This is the only bee species that not sting.
* They play an important role in the ecosystem by pollinating flowers.
* Also called “sweet bee”, you will know why.
* Nest are built deep insides the hollow of tree trunks away from predators like the honey bears.
Giant Aroid (Alocasia robusta)
* An enormous herb that rises from an underground tuber.
* Food for some wild animals such as pigs and porcupines.
* Some species are cultivated for their tubers and stem.
* Prefers damp and shady area.
Screw Pine (Pandanus sp.)
* Pandanus are normally found in open, wet areas.
* The species is called mengkuang locally, and is used for making mats, baskets and hats.
* A scented species is cultivated for its fragrant leaves, popularly used to flavor food.
Strangling Fig tree
* Are found throughout the forest and can easily be recognized from their often basket-like trunks.
* Fig is considered a keystone species providing food for many animals.
* It is believed that evil spirit lives up in these trees.
It is not always that we have this properly built path to walk onto. Some parts were muddy, but most of the time we stepped on the roots of the trees which were covered by dried leaves.
After we walked for 225 meters from the entrance, we found a junction which join another trail. The haunted tree is not far from this junction at the Rayu trail. On our way back, we just took a few steps to the Rayu Trail and decided to used the Serapi Summit Road which is faster.
We reached the waterfall but we were disappointed. At about 300 meter from the waterfall, we could smell some smoke which created by someone barbecuing there.
I had no mood to take the waterfall pictures at all because when we reached there, we saw smoke covering the waterfall. Yes, a group of people were having their ‘marvelous time‘ there. We saw them cutting wood to setup fire. It was illegal, and they could be fined RM5000. We were tired, and we wanted fresh air, where did the fresh air all gone to? I did not take any photo and we took our way back after staying there for less than 5 minutes. Our mood was spoiled. We wanted to complain about their action to the staff in-charge so we tried to walk out of the jungle as fast as possible. But later we were tired and we had slowed down.
When we reached the staff office down the hill after one hour, and told them about what we saw. The staff thanked us for providing them information and said they would go and have a look, but we saw him went back to his seat and continued talking to someone.
Since we have spent RM10 each person for the ticket to enter the national park, we can also enter the Matang wild life center which is 15 minutes drive from Kubah National Park without any extra charges. It was already 2:30pm and it would be closed at around 4 or 5pm, so we hurried and made a move towards there.
About one hour later after we have reported the incident to them, we were still around that area (at the Matang wild life center) and we found a helicopter on the sky, we guessed they were searching for the open fire at the waterfall area, but not sure if they had done their job. But I am sure it was too late, the nature destroyer might have gone with their tummy full after 2 hours of the marvelous barbecue.
The conclusion was we were disappointed 
because we did not see the clear waterfall. And we cannot understand why someone can do such things in a national park, since the rules and regulation stated that doing so will get a fine of RM5000. 
1Malaysia
