My father told me about some reporters and photographers from the News Straits Times Press (NSTP) is going to Gunung Panti and asked if I'm interested to join.
I said yes! I just can't wait for the whole weekend to end. I was suppoed to be going with this photographer, named Shahrul.
On that Monday, I called him again but he said that he was not going. Walla. Another photographer is going; both reporter and the photographer named Mohd. Zain. It's 2 different people that I'm talking about!
They picked me up at their office building at around 8.30AM and we headed to Kota Tinggi, waiting for the Forestry Ranger Asngari to fetch us and take us there. I had my Roti Canai and was slightly sated. We reached by the mountain side at around 11.00AM and started our journey at 11.30AM after all preparation has been made.
20 minutes after starting our journey, we stopped for a while. I've to admit that I'm not that fit of which I vomitted all my roti canai before I was able to continue. I myself rested twice before I was really able to catch up with my own breathe. I can hear my heart beating fast like crazy! I learnt a lesson. I should have brought more water!The reporter (also Md. Zain) retired after 20 minutes of walking. Being big in size has made him unable to catch up with us, where I myself advised him not to continue. He looks like he was gonna faint any soon! After saying goodbye, we continued climbing.
I was carrying my bag full of my camera widgets. It's pretty unpleasant to have the bag wrapping all over my body which weighed about 10 kgs extra on me. The slopes were like almost 160-180 degrees which has caused stress to my legs. There was this rock named "Batu Kuatkan Semangat", with that phrase painted on it. Reaching there means we've a litle more to do to reach the most top point of the mountain and we've to walk a little bit more on the non-slopey land till we reach this one wide area and took our rest again. 
That was quite a long rest as we've all sat down and chit chatting while having the curry puff. Most of the escorts from Forest Department were playing with our cameras looking at the surrounding. The Kota Tinggi town was clear clearly seen through the lenses!
Then, we have to continue the journey to the place called 'Dagok'. It's the chin-like edge with quite a wide empty area with different kind of sand and weather there. I was a little bit jeopardized by the rest as my legs were starting to aching and I was walking slowly like a robot already. I arrived at Dagok 15 minutes after they all did. We took pictures. A lot of pictures there! 11.30 from the mountain side and we reached the top at around 3.15, almost 3 hours and 45 minutes of climbing.
We started our journey down at around 3.45 and it was hell dangerous! I've been through a lot of 180 degres of slopes. Hell it was tiring, pain and torture! All my joints were aching and I was hoping that my feet can stand a little bit more. I was like forcing myself to walk slowly and carefully, not to injure ourselves as the tracks were very slippery. We did took our rest a few times but that doesn't stop us to touch down by 5.30PM.I was hell exhausted! I lose 3kg, believe it or not? And I took 2 days to get off my fatigues and I was only able to look at into those pictures today!
I'd love to thanks Md. Zain the NST photographer to allow me to join the expedition. A very much thanx!* More pictures at my Photo Blog
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