Fashionista's Escapades: Sungai Chiling

So I've decided to mix my exercise routine with some recreational activities and yesterday we decided to go on a short hike/ jungle trek and a picnic at Sungai Chiling, located at Kuala Kubu Bharu, Selangor.

The drive took about a little over an hour and when we arrived at Sungai Chiling, the place was already packed with visitors. Since we were already there, we decided to join in the crowd. Here's a short photoblog of my trip:

The entrance to Sungai Chiling.

After a 5-minutes trek from the entrance, you'll arrive at this small clearing. Do register yourself at the office (located next to that red car). Entrance fee is RM1 per person. And if you bring food/ drinks, there's a rubbish deposit (just to make sure you'll bring them back and the deposit will be refunded back to you).

A map of the route to the waterfall. In my opinion, you need not reach the top. Just stop where you feel comfortable and where the depth of the river suits your swimming/ picnic needs.

Sungai Chiling.

Your trek starts after the wooden suspension bridge. Your trek/ path is to your left, not straight.

Trekking to the top is relatively easy. With an incline of only about 10 - 15%, there were even pregnant ladies and kids as young as 2 years old trekking along the way.

The most interesting part about this journey is that you have to cross the river 6 times before you reach the top. There will be signs along the way, so don't worry.

Crossing the river. At some parts, the water was up to the waist!

As Sungai Chiling is a fish sanctuary, there were a lot of fishes in the water. 

Another crossing.

After the 6th crossing, we finally made it to the top part of the waterfall. Woot! Woot!

And there were a lot of people at the top. So do come early if you want the best seats in the house.

There were six of us on this trip =).

Since, there were too many people at the top, we decided to look for a suitable place further down the waterfall. The guys were having a competition on who would be able to hold on the longest in the water without floating away with the currents.

The view from where I sat.

Another view of the waterfall from where I sat =).

Me, myself and I. The guys behind me were also holding a competition to see who would be able to withstand the currents the longest.

Heading back. Crossing over the river on a log.

Me and the fishes. One of my favourite moments at Sungai Chiling =).

We had a great time at Sungai Chiling. It's a great place for a picnic with the family and kids. The hike to the top took maybe only about an hour (or less) and along the way, there's plenty of spots along the river where you can stop and have a picnic if you don't want to go all the way to the top. 

To new adventures and beautiful Malaysian moments =). 

xoxo Mrs Fashionista

Beautiful Patience: Tafseer of Surah Yusuf

After coming back to Kuala Lumpur from Mulu, last weekend was spent learning the Tafseer of Surah Yusuf with Dr Reda Bedeir at Taylor's University lakeside campus. I have always enjoyed Al Maghrib's seminars and to date, this is my 7th seminar with them. 

Here's a short summary of what I learnt in Surah Yusuf:

1. Surah Yusuf was revealed all at once. 

The surah contains only one story, i.e. the story of Prophet Yusuf and nothing else. According to some scholars, the surah was revealed when the Jews wanted to test the Prophet Muhammad p.b.u.h. and instigated some of the disbelievers to ask the Prophet on why did the family of Prophet Yaakub moved from Palestine to Egypt. This knowledge was contained in their books but the Arabs were unaware of it. Thus the surah was revealed there and then.

2. Surah Yusuf is a surah of 3 dreams and 3 shirts. 

The surah started with Prophet Yusuf sharing his dream with his father, Prophet Yaakub where he saw the sun, the moon and 11 stars bowing/ prostrating to him. The middle of the dream revealed the dream of two prisoners whom Yusuf have met in prison and they had asked Yusuf to interpret their dreams to them (the Prophet Yusuf had been gifted with the ability to interpret dreams). And the final dream was the dream of the king, towards the end of the surah. 

For the shirts, the first shirt was the shirt of Yusuf whom his stepbrothers had smeared with fake blood as evidence to their father that Yusuf had been killed by a wolf. The second shirt is where Yusuf's shirt was torn by the Azeez's wife (who was running after Yusuf to entice him to engage in illicit relations with her). And the third shirt is the shirt of Yusuf which was pressed over Yaakub's face and it returned the eyesight of Yaakub. 

3. Surah Yusuf is a true example of patience. 

Despite being of noble lineage, (the Prophet Yusuf is a son, grandson and great-grandson of Prophets)   his life is filled with trials and tribulations. From an early age, he lost his mother. And his stepbrothers were jealous of their father's love for him and it compelled them to plot against him. He was thrown into a well when he was just a child (some scholars say perhaps between 6 to 7 years of age). Thus he lost his father and his family although they are still alive. 

Then, he was sold as a slave, thus losing his own freedom. As a slave, his master's wife was enthralled with his looks so much so that she plotted for him to have illicit relations with her, and when that didn't happen, she brought her friends to her house and strategised to get them to help her. Because he refused, he was thrown in jail for many years and even after interpreting the dreams of the prisoners, the prisoner who was freed forgot about him for a number of years until the king himself had a dream that had to be interpreted. Even when the king requested for Yusuf to be with him (i.e. to aid him in the administration of Egypt), Yusuf refused to leave prison until his case was heard and his innocence proven. Thus only many years (some scholars say 40 years), did Yusuf finally leave a life of hardship and went on to become the Azeez (i.e. minister who was in charge of treasury) of Egypt. 

Even then, it was only much later that he was reunited with his family i.e. during the times of famine and drought.

There are many more things which I've learnt from this weekend's seminar (which I am unable to share in this short blogpost). But among the best of them is Yusuf's beautiful dua'a which is in verse 101 of the surah, "... Creator of the heavens and earth, You are my protector in this world and the Hereafter. Cause me to die a Muslim and join me with the righteous."

Such a beautiful surah and an amazing lesson on patience. May Allah grant us all patience. Ameen.

xoxo Mrs Fashionista

Fashionista's Escapades: Climbing Mulu Pinnacles

One of my personal aim this year is to tick off one or two items off my bucket list. Mulu, or more specifically climbing the Mulu Pinnacles is one of them. I made arrangements to climb the Pinnacles last November and since then have begun my training in preparation for the hike. For those of you who know me, you might have noticed my sudden interest in sporting activities such as hiking and running. All those are just my preparation for this single hike. 

Anyway, here's a photoblog of the trip:

Before climbing the Pinnacles, first we need to reach Camp 5, the base camp for the Pinnacles. To get there, we have to take a long boat for about an hour from Mulu to Kuala Litut.

Long boat. As the river is very shallow, the long boat used for transportation is also small and narrow. 

Some parts of the river may be quite shallow that your guide may have to push the boat either with a stick, or push it himself by getting down into the river.

Kuala Litut. I was expecting a proper jetty of some sort but no, this is Kuala Litut. It's as remote as it gets.

From Kuala Litut, you have to trek for 9 km to Camp 5. It took us almost 4 hours to get there.

Me, Nihal and my Mum with our two guides, El and J.

You have to carry your clothes and whatever gear that you'll be using yourself to Camp 5. So make sure to travel light!

Luckily the trek to Camp 5 was pretty easy. Except for the distance and the backpack, it was a good trek. The pathway is mainly flat, except for two small hills which you need to climb as you get closer to Camp 5.

You need to cross two hanging bridges as well. One is after the first kilometre and another is halfway i.e. 4.5 km to Camp 5.

Camp 5. We arrived at Kuala Litut at 12.40 noon, trekked for about 4 hours and arrived at Camp 5 at 4.30 pm. Accommodation is mixed (i.e. men and women in the same room), there's only a flat mattress (and no pillows) provided for each camper and there's separate washrooms for the men and women. The room is open, no doors or windows, and there's a small space (about 3 feet) between the ceiling and the wall. So, you might have some bugs and creepy crawlies climb over you when you sleep but they are pretty harmless.

The next morning we left for the Pinnacles at 7 am. Honestly, it's a tough climb. Elevation is about 75 degrees almost all the way and the path is covered with either roots or rocks.

Plenty of markers along the way.

Rocky terrain. 

On some parts, there are ropes for you to hold on to.

And some parts may have footholds as well.

The motivation that kept me going was the view. Nothing but the view.

Me and my amazing super strong mum made it! Alhamdulillah.

What comes up, must come down...

The last 400 meters climb had 16 ladders for you to climb on before reaching to the peak.

Me and the Mulu Pinnacles. Mulu Pinnacles bucket list, checked!

So if you're wondering about whether you should climb the pinnacles or not, I'd say, go for it! It's a great climb, extremely challenging and definitely not for the faint hearted. It helped me to realise that I am stronger that I thought I was, and also helped build my determination and character. But before you go, make sure you prepare for the climb. It took me 5 hours to climb up and 6 hours to climb down, a total 11 hours of climbing is not easy and especially with terrain such as these. On average, most climbers would complete the climb within 7 hours. 

The distance from Camp 5 to the Pinnacles is only 2.4 km but the elevation and terrain is what makes it difficult for most climbers. Some do not complete the climb to the summit. A word of caution, the terrain can be extremely slippery if it rains (it rained for a bit while we were climbing down) so your guide may stop the climb (due to safety reasons) and ask you to climb down instead of proceeding to the summit. 

But seriously, go for it! If my 63 year old mum (who has never hiked in her life) can make it to the summit, I am sure you would too. 

To more challenges in the future and an interesting 2016.

xoxo Mrs Fashionista

Fashionista's Escapades: Climbing Bukit Kiara

Ah hello there! We're finally at the beginning of 2016 and to start off the year, we've decided to do a short hike at Bukit Kiara. Bukit Kiara Park is located within the heart of Taman Tun Dr. Ismail (TTDI), right next to the Women's Institute. It features a walking/ jogging path as well as a jungle trekking/ hiking trek. There's various treks to chose from so do be careful on which path you decide to tread on, you might end up at the other end of the park.

We've decided to do a short (around 3 - 4 kilometres) trek just to get ourselves warmed up for other hiking/ jungle trekking activities that we've lined up for this year (inshaa Allah).

And here's a short photoblog of the hike:

It was a rather last minute trip (organised just a day before the trek itself) so I kinda invited those who were available around campus on whether they'd like to join the trek.

The trail is relatively easy, way easier than Broga and Bukit Gasing. This is due to the fact that this is a biking trail (for mountain bikers) thus the path is bigger and smoother than the normal jungle trekking path.

Arrived at what seems to be a place that's filled with ferns. 

We decided to stop our hike here and turned back for two reasons. One is that we've passed our kilometre mark and two, we did not have the luxury of time to complete the track to the other side and then make another trek back.

Us. You can see behind us the ferns are as tall as we are.

Accidentally walked back using another path and found a bamboo covered section which was rather awesome.

A sneak peak of Petaling Jaya, covered by the trees and greens.

A clearer view of KL, complete with both KLCC and KL Tower.

A better view of Petaling Jaya.

Decided to take a slightly tougher path back and ended up with a bit of a hike down hill.

I must say that Bukit Kiara is relatively an easy hike. The paths are wide (mostly) and smooth (definitely smoother than Broga and Bukit Gasing). Because we were hiking on a weekday morning, we didn't encounter any mountain bikers although I assume during weekends this place would definitely be packed with both hikers, jungle trekkers and cyclists. I would love to come here again, especially for a morning jog and see whether I can try to complete the trek from one end of the park to the other end. Definitely a great place to build stamina for tougher climbs ahead. 

xoxo Mrs Fashionista