rafflesia trek

| 23 december 2008 | thanks to the phone numbers provided by taiping goh managed to get in touch with adun the guide after breakfast | on rather vague instructions given by azin the son of adun managed to get to kampung jedip | adun turned out to be nice and smiling orang asli, very friendly indeed | was comfortable with him | the team comprised of lee wan, yvonne, seng kew, eng cheang and me | the first part of the trek was a tiresome and muddy affair along an old logging path now used by the trucks of tour agencies from tanah rata and brinchang to bring tourists to see rafflesia | the first part of the trek will take about 1 hour and ended at an area where the trucks can be parked | there were 3 trucks from kang tours on the particular day | if you wish to shorten the trek, contact kang tours located next to tanah rata tour agency which offered a full day tour which included rafflesia sighting for about rm 95 | not endorsing kang tours, just a suggestion, ask around | only met with kang tour guides during the trek | the second part of the trek starts from the bamboo bridge crossing a ravine with a small stream up to a wide stream which must be crossed to get to the area where rafflesia blooms can be found | the second part of the trek which is rather scenic takes about 45 minutes | the second part of the trek is enjoyable, passing by a small waterfall with a swimmable pool and a beautiful waterfall called lata denkong | the third part of the trek starts from the wide stream and comprise of going up and down some trails searching for rafflesia blooms | rafflesia buds are black in colour, round and can easily be overlooked | when rafflesia sheds it black skin, the unopened bloom is round and orang in colour | rafflesia did not smell bad at all | a friend poked a finger into the bloom and did manage to catch a whiff of the widely publized rotting meat smell | but personally did not smell a thing | there were numerous rafflesia buds in the area after the wide stream which was interspersed with a network of trails | was informed by adun the guide from kampung jedip that rafflesia blooms all year round in the area and the chances of seeing rafflesia blooms are good whatever the time of the year | but to be sure, you might want to check with the orang asli at kampung jedip first | looking at the number of black rafflesia buds, this would appear to be a good place to sight rafflesia | you will have a good chance of sighting rafflesia kerii at kampung jedip | based on information obtained from malaysian outdoor trekking hiking society, the rafflesia in the area are rafflesia kerii | for information about rafflesia kerii, please click here | for information about rafflesia in general, please click here | during the trek, adun cut some bamboo and offered trekkers drinking water from the insides of the bamboo | bamboo water tasted rather bland but was cool and refreshing | cut sections of bamboo can be found in the open space next to the small waterfall with the swimmable pool and apparently drinking bamboo water was a tourist attraction | all in all a relaxing and enjoyable trek | eng cheang in particular enjoyed the trek |