Bukit Panorama, Sg Lembing

Road Trip to Kuantan - 28 March 2009 - Day 2

We woke up early for this trip. My first alarm went off at 3AM and I only woke up when the 2nd alarm shrilled at 3.15AM. I slept at 11.30pm the night before only to be woken up by the buzz of a thousand mosquitoes ( In reality there was only 1, think) just before 1AM. I had a hard time sleeping after that because I had to cover myself, including my head, with the blanket to avoid more bites. I had 4 mosquito bites on my neck. All the rooms in the rented house had an air-conditioner and a fan. Both the air-cond and the fan in my room were switched on but I was still hot.

Anyway, we managed to wake Mctc up. Surprise! surprise! I was pretty sure he would ask us to carry on and leave him alone in dreamland, but to my amazement, he woke up.

Each of us had a piece of cake except for Mctc. He is not a breakfast person. The cake was given by Minch's friend's mother who worked in a bakery. We met her the day before to find out where we were staying, etc.

We started our journey at 4.08AM (according to the time in my camera). It took us only 41 minutes to get there. We did a recce of this place the day before and were quite confident of reaching this town by 5AM. I don't know... did Minch drive too fast or what? We reached Sg Lembing town at 4.49AM.

We parked directly opposite the Sg Lembing market, near the food court. We were told (by Minch's friend) to park somewhere near the Hainan Society building which was near the food court. He (Minch's friend) said that there would be many hikers and we just have to follow them. It was almost 5AM and there were no other hikers around.

We decided to wait for a while before climbing this hill. We went into the food court and saw workers preparing food to sell later. We asked for something to eat or drink and one of the ladies pointed to a corner where a coffeeshop was. An old man (well, maybe not that old lah.... but his whole head was full of white hair.... and it suited him) was mending the shop. I guess we were his first customers for the day.

We ordered 1 cup of coffee (Mctc), 1 cup of Teh-Si (Minch) and 2 cups of milo O kosong (Milo without milk and sugar). They all tasted good. Minch (who was usually fussy with drinks and food) said that it was good and Mctc, when he had his first taste of coffee for the day thought it was very well done. Rachel and I had no complaints and the man told us that if we were to add a little Ideal (a brand for evaporated milk) milk, it would taste even better. And so we added some. Nice. And guess how much they cost? RM4 for 4 cups!!!!!! Was it cheap or cheap??? In Seremban it would cost at least RM6.

At 5.22AM we started walking towards the foot of the hill. We asked someone who showed us the direction.

It was a little misty. When we took pictures with flash, we could see the mist. Oh, this is the 2nd picture with the 4 of us in it. Hehe... our shadows. The first picture was taken the day before while we were among the mangroves.

We came to a staircase... and walked up.... but it looked like a dead end. An empty house stood at the end of the staircase. It looked eerie. Minch had been up to this hill a very long time ago and said that she couldn't remember this building. While we were up the stairs, we saw a vehicle parked at the bottom of the stairs. A group of people, probably 5 or 6 of them came out of the vehicle and started doing some minor stretching. We came down the stairs to look for another staircase. Finally we found it. It was at the left side of the first staircase.

We started climbing. Mctc was finding it tough. I think this was the first time he hiked.. and what more... at 5.30 in the morning!!

We were the first group. Then we got separated by the 2nd group. Minch and Rach were in the lead, then the 2nd group, then only Mctc and I. Mctc got tired and had to rest every few minutes. I was carrying my usual hiking bag and a head lamp but I was holding it so that I could light the path for Mctc.

We reached the 1st hut in 19 minutes. Rach and Minch weren't there. They must have gone ahead. The 2nd group stopped here to have a rest and they took this picture of us.

After a few minutes of rest, we started hiking up again. Mctc was surprised at my fitness. Actually, I'm not so fit. Just that he was even less fit than my unfit state.

We walked, and stopped for a rest, then walked again, then stopped again..... Two other groups passed by us.

After nearly an hour, we met Rach and Minch. They stopped to wait for us. We were going downhill at this point and wondered why. But shortly after that, we reached our destination.

We took about 59 minutes hiking up to this level. We should be able to make it in 45 minutes but because we rested so much, we took a longer time than an average climber. I told Mctc that Messner and Sirdar probably would take only 30 minutes or less.

It was still pitch dark when we reached the top.

Wow!.. look here... The top picture is the view on my left and the bottom picture is the view on my right. This was taken between 6.43 - 6.48AM.

Sun is coming... Taken at 6.54AM and 6.58AM.


Taken at 7.02AM and 7.15AM.


The sun's peeping. Taken at 7.19AM and 7.22AM.


Hello sun. Come on out and play. Taken at 7.23AM and 7.24AM.

Taken at 7.25AM and 7.27AM.


Taken at 7.28AM and 7.29AM.


Mr Sun is finally out. Hurray!. Look at the beautiful clouds. Taken at 7.34AM.

And this is what's on my right side.


Sea of clouds... Now, I wished I was on the other side of the hill where I could touch the clouds...

This is a rough idea what it was like at the top.
The sun rose on my left... (Hmm... should be the other way round... sun always rises on the east). Anyway, from where I was standing, the sun was on the left.

Dead end in front but we could see other hills.

Middle picture - the 3rd hut where we could sit and wait for the sunrise.

On my right, the sea of clouds.

Below middle picture - where we headed back to the foot of the hill.

Descending was not too bad. We could see the clouds while we were descending.

Weather was fine. The hike was good.. and we were looking forward to breakfast.


The plants found in the hill.

The path.. sometimes soil sometimes steps.

The 1st Hut. We saw some spider web too. I saw these in Bukit Kepayang once. At that time, I thought.. the spiders would have to spin its web every night because I remembered it rained every day.

More steps... Hundreds of them. I thought it was more than Gunung Ledang's, but Rach said Ledang had more steps...

At last, we could see the Sg Lembing town..

As soon as we reached the foothill, I checked both the staircases. The top right picture.. if you could find the staircase on your left....look out for the thin railings, that's the one you should be taking. The big staircase only leads you to an empty and very much deserted house.

We headed back to the food court (arrow pointed to the food court) where our breakfast was waiting. The time was 8.17AM.

During breakfast Mctc said that the climb woke him up. He felt refreshed and not sleepy. The coffee in the morning helped a lot and he had no regrets waking up so early for the hike.

Anyway, here's some panoramic view of err.... the Panorama Hill. Enjoy. :)

A short video clip on the view at the summit of Bukit Panorama.

For directions to Bukit Panorama, click here.