3rd Day (9th March 2008) in Taman Negara -- Abai Waterfall

9th March 2008

Morning Hike to Abai Waterfall

After yesterday's encounter with leeches during the hike up Heritage Mountain, Jan was in constant trepidation of the bloodsucking worms with segmented bodies. The hike this morning witnessed her jogging and jumping to evade the crawling and leaping creatures that also lie waiting among the paths.

Part of the journey took us into a pleasant meet-up with a topless male Orang Asli (See picture). Even without stepping out of his hut that lies beside the path, I could sense his health in its excellence via the small ways he conducts himself...the gleam in his eyes, the genuine smile, and his white teeth...He is by far the closest epitome of robust fitness and health of the human species that I've personally encountered!

En route to the waterfall, our guide showed us the drum trees that one can hit to signal for help when in trouble; trees that produce oil for painting; and rocks for natural make-up


Drum playing by pro guide


Drum playing by amateur


Tree that produce oil for painting

Rocks for natural make-up

Abai Waterfall

Abai Waterfall was dissapointingly mini...especially after trekking through leech-infested terrain and several river and stream crossings (actually i enjoy maneuvering across and along the rivers) in a good morning sweat.

Nevertheless, this mini waterfall was more than I could easily handle. The water was frigidly cold even around the 10am sun, and I will be lying to you if I'm not afraid of jumping off from the top of the waterfall.

Please don't rashly imitate my jumps from the Abai Waterfall from what you see in the video unless you've scanned the environment and ascertained the safety precautions. I swam to my expected drop site to check out the depth and scan for danger zones before venturing the first jump.

Environs of Abai Waterfall



Strong current from the waterfall


Scaling the waterfall's side for the jump


I was afraid to jump. So I asked my wife to count to 10



I finally jumped after a couple of min up there!


My subsequent jumps were more confident ;)

Waterfalll giving me a good powerful watery body scrub

Continue to the next part of our trip here!