Searching for Ents in Cameron Highlands (Part 2)

(Click here for Part 1)

And so we returned from Cameron Highlands satisfied that we found the Ent again. Here are some latest photos of the fella:

Still the same after 3 years. Thank God for forest conservation efforts!

I managed to snap a photo of the Ent's legs:

Twisted legs of the Ent. Could this Ent be a human being who was cursed by the spirit of the forest to become a tree? My imagination working on hyperdrive here.

Ents are a race of beings that resemble trees. They were created by J.R.R. Tolkien in his hugely popular Lord of the Rings (LOTR) novels that were made into movies and went on to become the greatest movie epic of all time.

Now here comes the part where I tell you that we not only found the Ent again, we also found another tree that looks exactly like Treebeard:

Treebeard is the oldest living Ent and is described as being 14 feet tall. I think this tree suits the description.

If you can't imagine this mother of a tree being Treebeard, I did the honours of showing you:

Pardon my lack of CGI skills, but Picasa certainly helped a lot!

Apart from characters from the LOTR movie trilogy, we also found some other interesting tree formation like this one shaped of a kidney:

And I saved the best for last. We also found a character from Jurassic Park:

 Looks like a dinosour's head foraging for food.

Mossy Forest and Gunung Brinchang is one hell of a movie set. If you're going there soon, remember to watch out for these movie characters all shaped by trees. Who knows, you may even find other movie characters that we missed.

Searching for Ents in Cameron Highlands (Part 1)

Deep in the Mossy Forest of Cameron Highlands lives a creature that looks like an Ent from the Lord of the Rings (LOTR) movie trilogy.

We stumbled upon this magnificent creature in 2008 as we were hiking up Mount Brinchang.

It was tall, green in colour and in a hurry to go somewhere. Just look at its long legs and powerful strides.

Here's a photo of an Ent from LOTR in case you don't know:

Image source

This weekend we will be hiking our way to Mossy Forest again where we spotted the Ent. And hopefully our paths will cross again.

Will we succeed or not? Stay tune for more news next week.

(Click here for Part 2)

Gunung Brinchang - Mystical & Beautiful

I hiked up Gunung Brinchang (in English: Mount Brinchang) with my travel buddy, Angie Tan (http://crakerr.blogspot.com/) in February this year. Before I continue, I must give her credit for the lovely photos in this entry.

Gunung Brinchang is situated in Cameron Highlands, in the state of Pahang in Malaysia. The mountain is famous for its Mossy Forest - a forest that looks like a movie set from Lord of the Rings. You will see what I mean later.

Before we set off that morning, I devoured a bowl of noodle soup, two half-boiled eggs, a pair of 'roti bakar' (toasted bread) and washed it all down with Chinese tea. I always believe in doing anything, especially hiking, on a full stomach :-)

We then drove to the water reservoir in Brinchang town where the trail began. However we could not find the trail, so we went to the nearest police station to enquire.

The police officer on duty gave us a funny look. Apparently Gunung Brinchang is notorious for missing hikers. When I heard that, I started chickening out. Then I remembered Jim Thompson, the famous Thai silk king who went missing in the jungles of Cameron Highlands in 1967. His body was never found and remains a mystery till this day. You can read more about Jim Thompson in:

http://www.cameron-highland-destination.com/cameron-highlands-jim-thompson.html

We left relevant details with the officer, who strongly reminded us to inform the station when we got back. He also gave us a few 'laws of the jungle' when entering mystical Brinchang forest:

1) Do not use foul language, swear or speak negatively about the jungle. The spirits who dwell there do not like if we belittle or speak negatively about their domain.

2) If we see a three-prong fork in the road, turn back. There's a high possibility the spirits of the jungle are attempting to confuse and mislead us. This mostly happens if you break Rule 1. There have been many stories of people being kidnapped by 'orang halus' or spirits into the netherworld.

By the time I heard those 'tips', I freaked out and almost did not make the climb. But in the end we did make the climb and here are pictures of our little adventure on Gunung Brinchang:

The journey begins ...

Mossy Forest - Like from a movie set of Lord of the Rings.

I saw an Ent!

I made it!

View from the top.

It was raining the night before, so it was a muddy climb.

Climbing Gunung Brinchang is not difficult compared to Mount Kinabalu. But the experience and beauty of it is breathtaking, and we are definitely game for another climb in the future, with or without the 'orang halus'.