Taman Tugu walk

It is hard to imagine that I was invited by the home minister to go for a morning walk, moreover this time around she asked if I will go for a jungle tracking with her.

On an unrelated note, I've been super busy lately, I can hardly have time for making a post, but suddenly thought of H³ and @chaingmai.hhh and decided to join the home minister for a walk.

I didn't know this was a "trial" run until she told me we will have to wait for her school mate. Apparently, there will be an alumni run next week, the committee is supposed to come for a study trip. I got no problem with that. So we waited at the pavilion, started taking photos and videos for her prep work.

Basic amenities are available at the pavilion, toilets are clean and remember Malaysian prefer to use hand bidet and fingers. If you're from the western country, make sure to bring your own toilet roll.

The trail entrance has a security checkpoint where it spell the operation hour, public are not allowed to use this track after certain hours. The good thing is, they put up the smoking ban, so any hill goer now does not need to suffer with the smell(despite me still seeing cigarettes butt here and there).

Track information available at the pavilion, it is advisable to study the map before entering the trail. Although there is maps in the trail, it is your responsibility to decide which route you should use, so you don't go against the traffic. Some parts of the trail are very narrow, you will not want to get stuck with a gang of people coming head on, or bite more than you can chew stranded at the longest trail and having a hard time exiting.

Progressing from the pavilion will lead you to a drop down patio as in the right side of the picture, there's the roof. No I did not take a photo as some organization is having a private event there.

Just before I jump in the trail, I have totally forgot I did not bring my own water. So I walked back to the pavilion and wanted to get myself a small bottle.

Well, they don't "sell" drinks, but there's a price tag for each "voluntary donation". Minimum donation they accept for a paper bottled water is RM3. Considering it was properly wrapped in paper bottle, I already can imagine how "green" these stuff are. In order to save the world, first they chop down trees to make paper, and then they process the paper to bottle shape, and then they need to laminate the inner layer so the liquid doesn't soak the paper 🙄 well, this process will also ultimately disqualifying the paper bottle from recycler, because the process of separating the coating from the paper require more energy than recycling a plastic bottle. Do bring your own water to avoid paying for a bottled water at all.

Finally, we started tracking with a steep downhill track. Since this is a trial run, and mainly researching for a route that is suitable for non workout group, we are just going to do a casual walk, find an easy path and make sure to complete the track in 45 minutes with no serious action.

Home minister is the youngest amongst the group of committee members, what they don't know is, I'm younger than the home minister 🤣 Basically, the ladies are having a great time scaring the monkeys away, and I don't mind quietly follow behind.

Fortunately, the forest reserve are decently shades, despite in the afternoon, we were suffer too much from the heat. With the blessing of recent rain fall, air quality is much bearable since we're in the haze season.

A very short part of the track has a concrete pavement, which is kinda odd. Perhaps it's a good place to take a short rest, especially those who are less in shape.

And at the concrete pavement are, when you looked up, and there's the main road. Well, it's in the middle of Kuala Lumpur, what else can we expect? It's a blessing with a dried man made concrete water fall with absolutely no water.

Before I started sweating, we took a steep right turn going against traffic for a couple of yards , hiked a couple of steps. We broke the trail and took an "interchange" from checkpoint 25 jumped all the way to 8 🤣 and we reached the exit in less than 5 minutes. This marked my first newbie Taman Tugu trail run, and for the first time I completed a trail in less than 3500 steps 🤣🤣🤣