Gunung Lambak is a mountain at Kluang, Malaysia, a 510 meter tall mountain, 135 kilometer from central Singapore. The shortest trail to the summit is only 1400 meter long! A good portion of the trail is very steep, as indicated by the terrain map, and there are ropes to assist climbers.
Gunung means mountain in Malay.
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| Gunung Lambak Terrain |
Getting there
Even though Malaysia is only 20 km away from our place, going there is an international travel, one needs to have passport to travel there by car or on foot. The other important thing to do is to download an offline map in case of no data on cellphone or GPS.
Getting there is not hard but crossing the border check points in early morning was really frustrating and a big hustle. It took us 2.5 hour to get through Singapore check point and the Malaysia check point, a total of 1km in distance.
The rest of the way was easy - good highway, beautiful landscape along it.
Trailhead
Without zoom in on Google map, initially I picked Gunung Lambak as destination, and we were directed to the foot of the mountain in a residential area. Realizing the problem that Google gives the closest point to the summit of the mountain, we reselected the destination as Gunung Lambak trailhead.
The trailhead is near a water park, and has a carpark, and there is big sign by it. Following the paved path up, we were on the way to the summit.
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| The sign at trailhead |
Climbing via the steepest trail at Gunung Lambak
The initial portion of the trail is paved, and has a stream running by it, a beautiful, relaxing and soothing environment. Then it turns steep really fast, we got on the first steep section of the trail. The slope is 45 degrees or larger. The good thing is that the trail is covered by tree roots, and there are ropes installed along the trail at steepest section.
I was trying to keep pace with Lily, and quickly ran out of gas! I had to stop and rest for ~ 5 minutes before my heart rate lowered to below 100, and restarted climbing in a much slower pace.
Then we got to a level section, and half way to the summit. Turning right, there is a half way rest area, with a big gate Welcome to Gunung Lambak, a man made pond and a gazebo. We rest a bit, took a few pictures, and took the trail on the left hand side, the second steep section, which leads to the summit the fastest. The trail on the right, the one goes through the sign, is a longer trail, and much more gradual.
The steep trail section is similar to the 1st steep section, but steeper. I put on gloves, and used the rope for assistance. After a total of 1 and half hour, we reached the summit -- the view was spectacular …. vast green land on the right, and the town on the left.
It always feels good when we are on a summit, big or small!
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| View of the plain from Gunung Lambak |
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| higher than the peak! |
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| Our trail in the mountain |
Notes
2. To avoid the jam at the check points returning to Singapore, we stayed at Malaysia until night - visited Tanjung Piai, and had dinner on the return road in Malaysia. Few people at border check points and we crossed both check points in about 10 - 15 minutes around 8:35pm.
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