Shortly after arriving in Bukit Larut (Maxwell Hill), the historic hill station located only 9KM from the city of Taiping, I commenced on a hike to the electrical towers located about 3.5KM from my hotel. In order to reach Bukit Larut, you have to take the land rover shuttle in Taiping.

Situated at 1100 meters above sea level, Bukit Larut affords some excellent panoramic views of Taiping and on a clear day you can see the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia. The sunsets are simply spectacular.

Hiking up the narrow paved road to the towers, I met a group of tourists from Taiping - a middle aged lady and her three nieces - who accompanied me for the first Kilometer. Hugging the hillsides was the luxuriant green vegetation of the rainforest.

Nearing the power plant and twin electrical towers, I ran into some Malaysian hikers who excitedly told me about a relatively obscure trail off the side of the road that led to a monument dedicated to an old Englishmen. A gardener who was working on the road volunteered to be their tour guide and he escorted them through the dense jungle vegetation to the monument. Sharing with me some digital pictures of their mini trek fueled my curiosity.

Apparently few people – foreigners and Malaysians alike - are aware of this forgotten monument in the jungle. As I was intrigued by “this discovery” I asked them to give me more information about the trail. They warned me that although the trail was right off the main road, the signage was very poor, and the trail up the jungle slope to the hidden monument – although only 250 meters long - was difficult to navigate because of the somewhat treacherous footing. They recommended that if I found the trail that I do not attempt to make the hike by myself.

Continuing my hike, I passed the electrical power plant and started looking for trail. I must have wasted over 30 minutes or more trying to find the marker for the trailhead without any success. Just as I was about to give up and head back to my hotel, I sighted a Malaysian man who was working on the road. Sure enough he knew exactly where the trail was and volunteered to lead me to the monument.

Upcoming - The adventure continues with the treacherous hike through the Jungles of Bukit Larut to the Birch Monument

Tags: Bukit Larut, Malaysia, Taiping

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 13th, 2010 at 10:19 am and is filed under Malaysia, travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.