A journey 120km into the wilderness - Part 1

Our club have long planed on a project involving the Orang Asli since April. It was not until last month that we manage to get in contact with the people from the Health Department and Jabatan Hal Ehwal Orang Asli and plan something up together.

Opportunity came when we were informed that the Health Department was planning a 2 day health camp at a remote orang asli settlement at Pos Yum which is located about 120km from the small town of Sungai Siput.

We started our journey at Pejabat Kesihatan Kuala Kangsar.

One of the three 4 wheel drive that we used to travel into the village

Our second 4 wheel drive

Just before the journey (about 8.30am), I spotted this

A close up of the moon. A welcoming sight for the start of our journey don't you think?

We started our journey from Kuala Kangsar at about 8.30am. From there we drove towards Sungai Siput and then took the trunk road towards Felda Lasah. From there it was 120km of gravel road all the way to the orang asli settlement.

According to our driver, Pos Yum is actually located near the Perak/Kelantan border and is virtually surrounded by part jungle and part rubber/palm oil plantation. The settlement has a population of around 800 people.

This is the junction into the gravel road towards the settlement

As we enter the junction into the more "bumpy" part of the journey, we were greeted with 2 lorries carrying timber. Somehow a grave picture of deforestation came into my mind. This area is after all, well known with illegal logging.

The road seems ok in picture but we were virtually holding on to the side bars to prevent ourselves from falling off our seats!

I was wondering how my friend was coping in his Pajero when I took this picture. He insisted on driving even though, the authorities had enough transport to take us all in.

After an hour and a half into the journey, we were waved down by a group of orang asli folks. Not knowing what happened we stopped and asked them what the commotion was all about.

Apparently there was a mild landslide up ahead that resulted in a tree falling in the middle of the road. Without it being cleared first, we would have no way of proceeding towards our destination.

The Toyota Fortuner that I was in

I manage to take this opportunity to snap some pictures.

To be continued...............