WS Celebrating Merdeka at Stong Waterfalls - one of the highest waterfalls in South East Asia

A pic from far.. The Stong Waterfalls

We departed from Tesco Mutiara Damasara at 2100hrs. Started our 7 hrs long bus ride. There were 16 of us on this trip. We reach Dabong, Kelantan around 0500hrs the next morning. Most were still in their beauty sleep. Our guide 'Uncle' and Shahril came and meet us at 0900hrs.

Our Excitement

First we went to the caves in Dabong. Gua Gelap, Gua Ker is and Gua Ikan. It was a real fun experience for everyone. Small tunnels that we need to crawl over... Everyone was so so dirty and smelly.. hahaha...

Thank god Joe did not follow us.

After caving, we took a bus back to the train station for lunch. After lunch we started our journey to the Stong Waterfalls. We reach the waterfalls entrance around 1400hrs. The weather was not promising. It started to rain before we could finish talking about the weather. It rained cats and dogs... but despite the rain... we started our hike up at 1450hrs. Took our usual group pic and UP WE GO...

Our group pic in the rain before the hike started

First we need to cross the bridge then starts to climb up... ALL SOAKED... but we made it to the campsite by 1600hrs. About 1hrs and 15 mins. I RAN UP THE LAST 100 meters... I just can't wait to see the top of the falls... A nice welcoming message..."WELCOME TO THE TOP OF THE WATERFALLS" ... nice..

Welcome to the Top of the Waterfall

We waited in the rain while Shahril and the other guides set up our tents right in front of the upper fall. Then started cooking dinner for everyone. The wind was so strong that our stove was not working well.. the fire was low.. so it's really hard to cook. All of us had our dinner and had some games for killing the time for the rest of the evening. (THE RAIN STILL HAVEN'T STOP) We all went to bed around 2200hrs. Clarence, Dominic, KK and Joe were sleeping outside. The weather was not cold at night... We woke up at 0620hrs for sunrise.. well NO SUNRISE of course as it was so so cloudy. But it was really nice as we could see the SEA OF CLOUDS... really beautiful. Sitting on TOP OF THE WATERFALL.

No Sunrise.. but it was still very nice

Joe is trying to be immortal

Then all the members got ready for the hike to Gunung Stong. During the hike, we saw some squirrels and a tapir. Climbing 13oo over meters was all worth it.

Mr. Squirrel

We left at 0240hrs to head back to the campsite. It started raining again. During the river crossing, the river swell.. and it the current was so so strong. But we all manage to cross the river.All so so exhausted

Reach the campsite around 1530hrs. Dinner is almost ready. Thanks to Joe for a nice dinner. We were all starving. After dinner, some were so so tired and headed to bed early. And a few went to the the top of the waterfalls for counting down for Merdeka. The guides brought along some fireworks.. and we had a nice countdown.. an experience that I will never forget. The wind was so so strong near the waterfall... and it was freezing cold. We head back to the kitchen and went to bed.

The next morning.. after breakfast, we parted to THE LAST WATERFALLS. It was a beautiful falls with 2 rivers creating 2 waterfalls and joined. Mt Stong and Mt Ayam rivers joined and formed Sg Jeri that makes the Stong Waterfalls.. One of THE HIGHEST IN SOUTH EAST ASIA.The Last Waterfall

After a nice dip at the Last Waterfalls, we headed back to our campsite's waterfall. The guide told us we could do some slides there. So all of us took the opportunity to try out the slide... WOW.. it was so so fun. Our guide also showed us there's 2 holes down there.. which he went in from 1 hole and came out from another.. but wow.. it's really adventurous... and dangerous too.. haha... After the nice slides, it's finally time for us to pack up and head back to KL. We started our hike down and reach the trail head around 1500hrs. It was raining. And the caretaker was told us to look at the waterfall. WOW... SUDDENLY THE WATER WAS GUSHING DOWN THE WATERFALLS... FLASH FLOOD AGAIN... so he told us to go to the river bank to witness the flash flood. We went there... the river was still calm like usual... in less than 5 mins... SUDDENLY... A HUGE AMOUNT OF WATER FLUSHED DOWN THE RIVER... Wow.. very ferocious and scary... if someone is in the river at that time... THAT'S IT..he will never see the world again.. probably next life. We left Stong Waterfalls around 0530hrs. It was a real real nice experience for each and everyone of us. I will sure want to visit this place again...