Treasure hunt 2 on Bukit Larut

Debut hike to the highest point on Maxwell Hill

On 16 Feb 2023, 9:00 am we set out on our exploration journey to Maxwell Hill  to continue with our uncompleted mission of locating and inspecting  the old bungalows on  Maxwell hill. As it was a Sunday there were quite a lot of hikers going up the hill mostly until the stations  at 2 km or 3.2 km. We walked all the way from the foothill until tea garden at 5 km without stop. As we did not check  the interior of the guest house at Tea Garden in our previous trip, we decided to take a closer look at the inside of the guest house this time. The interior is in a deplorable condition with some collapsed wooden floor planks , spoilt furniture and damaged built-in kitchen cabinets. Just wonder how those newly installed furniture and flooring could be damaged so easily. 

The broken wooden floor of Tea garden guesthouse

The Tea Garden got its name because it had a small tea plantation  during the British colonial era. Formerly, Tea Garden was the first Jeep Station where visitors could disembark to see the landscape and flora half way up the hill. Actually the main attraction at Tea Garden is the beautiful waterfall just 500m away up the tarred road.  In my opinion,  Tea Garden can be revived by planting either tea or coffee in a small scale just like old times besides restoring the guest house once again.  In fact there is a small camping site with cement floor beside the building and that can be promoted and utilised too.

After a thorough scrutiny of the dilapidated guesthouse we continued with our hike until the waterfall with the intention of taking a short break but the place was occupied by a group of hikers.  As a result we changed our plan and took our break a short distance further uphill. Before long the group of hikers at the waterfall came up and we greeted each other which is a common practice among hikers. We started our conversation only to know that they were from Penang and planned to hike until the hill station only. We hiked up together and further up the hill we caught up with another group of hikers.

A common impatients found at 700m height

A rare Impatients Curtisii found at 900 m height

Coincidently two of the them are the researchers and exhibition narrators  of " A tale of two hills " exhibition still in progress at  Maxwell Basecamp at the foothill. They are from a group of eight researchers doing detailed studies on the flora and fauna of Penang Hill and Maxwell Hill. As I had visited the exhibition, I knew that they had found a rare flower plant, impatiens curtisii,  which can only be found on Maxwell hill at 900 m height. In fact, their hike today is their field trip to take more pictures of the rare impatiens curtisii to see how wide spread the plant is. The plant is a specie of balsam plants whose seed will burst when ripe making it hard to be  propagated faraway from the mother plant. Besides impatiens curtisii  which is pink with white patches, there is another impatiens species  purple in colour and can be found easily at 700 m height on Maxwell Hill. 

We did not stop at the hill station to have our lunch like we usually do as it was still early. We just used the public toilet which is clean but the flush in the man's toilet is spoilt.  The woman's toilet is in good condition according to Seok Wan. There is a tap outside connected to a long hose so I had to flush the toilet using water from the tap outside. We did not stay long at the hill station as we had four old bungalows to locate. Our first bungalow is The Hut Bungalow ( Rumah Rehat Cendana ) which we passed by in our previous trip but did not enter. 

The wooden balcony of Hut Bungalow

Neat and tidy interior of The Hut Bungalow

Staircase to the Hut Bungalow

The Hut Bungalow is situated on higher ground from the tarred road so we had to climb up a flight of  concrete steps to reach it. The bungalow has a big  balcony made of wood  which is not safe to step on. We did not venture into the balcony but we went up to the wooden verandah extended from the side of the bungalow. The verandah is in better condition but we were still very careful with our steps. From the side verandah we could have a panoramic view of a  beautiful terraced hill below which was developed for cultivation and a big lake which looked like a reservoir. The reservoir maybe the Air Kuning Reservoir of Perak water treatment plant which supplies drinking water to Taiping residents.  The inside of the Hut Bungalow is surprisingly clean and tidy. It does not look like it has been left vacant for many years. By repairing the wooden balcony, some touch-up of the side verandah and clearing of the overgrown grass around its compund,  the bungalow should be good enough for holiday makers to spend a night or two.

The operator who operated Cendana Bungalow as a rest thouse was also involved in the planting of Tulip at the vacant land in front of the bungalow at one time. The tulip cultivation project was quite successful and  a  varieties of beautiful tulip flowers had produced their beautiful blooms. The tulip garden had managed to pull in a lot of tourists to Maxwell Hill solely to look at the tulip flowers.  A pity the Tulip Planting Project was abandoned a few years later making Maxwell Hill less appealing to tourists. Maybe the project can be revived by planting other highland crops which is easier to cultivate such as  strawberry, Honey Dew, grape which are equally appealing to tourists. 

At the entrance to Speedy's and The Nest Bungalows

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After visiting the Hut Bungalow we returned to the main road and hiked towards the telecommunication towers  at the peak of the hill.  After walking about 1 km , we reached  Speedy's Bungalow or Speedy's Chalet. It is also called Rumah Rehat Gunung Hijau. The Bungalow was not renovated even though it was part of the  Biodiversity Research Centre where herba plants were planted on an experimental basis. The Biodiversity Research Centre occupied  a big piece of flat land but is now in a ruin with bushes growing wild. The herba garden should be revived by seeking technical help from more established  herba garden operator so that it will not be a failed project again. 

Speedy's Bungalow / Rumah Rehat Gunung Hijau

Side view of The Nest Bungalow

Speedy's Chalet is strategicallty located on slightly higher ground than the main road and from the front of the bungalow we could have  panoramic view of the landscape below. There are a few granite boulders overgrown with green algae lying below the  pine trees on the slope to the bungalow. The condition of the bungalow was partially run down with two miserable wooden sofa benches indicating long period of neglect. 

The front portion of The Nest bungalow

The Nest Bungalow, a private bungalow owned by the Methodist Mission is situated above Speedy Bungalow but it is slightly below the  Box Bungalow on the same ridge. We had to walk a flight of concrete steps and a short jungle trail to reach the Nest Bungalow. There is a wooden gate leading to the bungalow which was built on concrete stilts. The trail from the gate to the front door of the bungalow was elevated by a line of tree trunks indicating that the trail would be soggy during raining season. The bungalow is well maintained but the back portion of bungalow looks old and dirty. It has a side verandah with roof and an open kitchen cum dinning room facing an empty plot of land most probably an abandoned garden. The Nest Bungalow was once reputed to have a beautiful garden as it was always occupied by members of the mission.

The Nest Bungalow was occupied by a couple who are nature lovers  from 2016 to 2019 before they  moved down to Taiping town due  closure of the Hill after some serious landslides on the hill slopes. It is the third highest bungalow on Maxwell Hill at 1200 m. There is a marked trail in front of the Bungalow used by ultra trail runners but I am not sure where it is leading to. As it was already more than 1:00 pm after we had finished inspecting the Nest Bungalow and its surrounding, we settled down to have our lunch. Our lunch consists of packed fried koay teow and we had the luxury of eating our meal in the open dinning hall of the Nest bungalow as its uninvited guests. The dinning hall is equipped with table and chair but a bit dusty. There was no water from the tap which was locked by the tenants of the bungalow while vacating it.

After finishing our lunch we proceeded uphill to conquer the peak of Maxwell Hill. We met with the  group of researchers we met earlier a short distance above Speedy Bungalow. There had found a few impatiens curtisii plants by the road side and kind enough to show us the location of the plants. While they were immersed in their observation and study on the rare plant,  we proceeded with our hike towards the peak. The peak of Maxwell Hill at 1376 m in height and 13 km from the foothill is the location of the highest Bungalow, The Cottage bungalow presently formed part of  the telecomunaction towers station. The Cottage Bungalow  was once the private residence of the first Resident of Perak , JJW Birch.  It is contructed by granite  quarried at the foothill which explains why it  is still solid and in good shape as can be seen from outside the fence of the locked telecommunication towers station.  As outsiders, we are not allowed into the telecommunication towers' compound so we were unable to get a glimpse of the interior of bungalow. It is presently being used as the office and worker's quarter of Telecom staff . 

 

The Cottage bungalow inside Telecommunication Towers Station

A small hut outside Telecom Towers

We were really delighted that we had finally located all the bungalows on Maxwell Hill. As the entrance to Gunung Trail was just nearby and it is still not too late to make some more hiking, we decided to try out the jungle trail to Gunung Hijau at 1449 m which is the highest among all the hills of larut hills. The trail from the tarred road to the peak of Gunung Hijau is about 2 km and needs at least 2 hour for a round trip. We did not intend to hike until the peak but just wanted to experience walking a short distance on the trail and looked for pitcher's plant which was said to grow on Gunung Hijau. It is all downhill in the beginning of the hike and the trail was quite difficult to trek as it was thick with fallen  leaves and branches. We had to bend our body to pass through fallen tree trunks  blocking the trail at a few locations. In fact the trail is quite risky as it is  narrow and on the brink of the hill slope besides its thick undergrowth. When we reached a two-ways junction leading uphill we were not sure which trail to follow as we could not find any ribbon marking which we saw in the beginning of the trail. We had walked about 300 m on the trail and thought it was good enough if just to have a feel of trying out this less navigated jungle trail.  We were very fast while returning to the tarred road perhaps wary of the hidden danger on this trail.  Glad to be out of the trail but discovered that there were  leeches on our legs and shoes even though we had sprayed our shoes and legs with salt water. This trail is notorious for leeches and perhaps that is the reason few hikers dare to attempt this trail to Gunung Hijau.

It was almost 3: 30 pm when we returned to the tarred road. After getting rid of the leeches on our legs resulting in bloodied socks and legs we headed downhill without delay. The weather was a bit hot and so we did not experience the usual thick mist on the hill. We met two hikers at the hill station who quite often hike until the hill Station. One of them had reached the peak of Gunung Hijau before and he told me that we might not had enough time to reach the peak of Gunung Hijau at this hour if we were to attempt as the hike needs two hours round trip.  In view of the unmarked and leech infested trail, we will temporarily forget about conquering the highest peak of Larut hills.

On our way down from hill station, we detoured to have a look at the oldest hill temple, Kaliamman Hindu Temple roughly 50 m from the main road. The temple looks new as it has recently been renovated and well taken care of. We saw the caretakers who had travelled up to the temple by motorbike to do some repair works at the temple and I praised them for managing the temple so well.

Besides the temple there is a block of building which was completed many years ago and thought to be the hostel of the Hindu temple. In fact it does not belong to the Hindu temple but most likely a government project. I come to understand that it is a guesthouse with can accomodate 70 guests per night. The place was usually locked but we were lucky this time that the long grass had just been cleared and the workers forgot to lock the gate. We went inside its compound to take a few snapshots of the white elephant project. The smell of swift dropping was very strong and suffocating when we went closer to take a peep into the inside of the building. So this guesthouse has been housing swift since its completion instead of receiving guests. Beside dirty wall and foul smell  the  building as a whole does not suffer structural damage and can be brought to its originality by just cleaning up and new coat of paint. Maybe the ceiling needs to be replaced if the stain left by the swift is to hard to clean up.

The completed and abandoned guest house near Hindu Temple

Even though it is easier and faster going down the hill but I still experienced  fatigue and thirsty as we we did not bring enough drinking water. We took 3 hours to reach the foothill even though I jogged at certain part of the road where it is less steep. By the time we signed out from the guard house it was already 6.30 pm. My Garmin watch showed 30.16 km and 9:19:12 and this is our longest hike in term of distance and time. Seok Wan had achieved two first in this hike that is 30 km finisher,  and  summit conquest of Maxwell hill at 1376 m. 

After locating all the bungalows and inpecting most of them in two sundays in row, we realised that those old bungalows mostly more than 100 years old with the exception of a few, are in various degree of deterioration. The buildings are our heritage buildings which should be treasured and preserved. So I sincerely hope the authority given the trust to manage the old bungalows must immediately come out with a  solid plan to refurbish and bring back to life all the heritage bungalows on Maxwell hill.