SUNDAY VIBES
decision is inconsequential. There’s no cushion, no second chance, no helping hand. The only route to safety is through the relentless disciplining of body, mind, uncertainty, and fear.
For Kovin, it’s the heady combination of the challenge, the adrenaline rush and the beauty of these remote places that keeps him wandering into forest. “There’s nothing quite like it,” he admits. money. I mean, you’d need at least RM50 for a trip to the mall, and I didn’t want to burden my parents with that.” So trips to nature instead? “Well, it doesn’t cost much,” he counters with a shrug. “You’re still out with your friends but at least it’s a much better view out in the wild!”
Organising trips became a routine once Kovin started his degree programme at Curtin University in Sarawak. “I’d organise trips during my semester breaks, and would have at least one trip a week either with friends or alone,” he recalls. He started a WhatsApp group, adding on as many people as he could from his contact list.
In that group, he explained that he was keen on organising hiking trips if they were interested. “Not many were,” he says, drily, adding: “Most of them left the chat group!” But the few who remained (“...around two to three of them only!”) joined him and eventually Glimpse of Malaysia was set up.
“I wanted to make hiking accessible to people — especially students who were on a tight budget,” elaborates Kovin. “There’s something inherently fulfilling watching how people react to nature when they’re hiking or encountering a new place for the first time. And that encourages me.” has barely begun to fathom. Imagine a miracle drug that could ease many of the stresses of modern life, he poses, and imagine that this cure-all was an oldfashioned folk remedy: Just take a hike into the forest. “No prescription necessary!” he exclaims, grinning. “We don’t get out often enough,” he laments. Hiking enthusiasts, he adds, have long internalised the restorative feeling that comes from a walk or a hike along a peaceful trail.
Don’t solo trips invite danger, especially if you’re all alone out there in the middle of the forest? “You’ve got to be prepared,” replies Kovin. “I study the area and I familiarise myself with the geography of the place I want to explore.”
Having a smart phone with downloadable maps and a power bank are just the tools he needs for a trek. “Along with my water and snacks, of course!” he adds, grinning. “Having a high fitness level and a clear mind helps,” remarks Kovin who plays futsal and football on the side.
He doesn’t really require much else, he says, but it’s important that hikers have some basic training in first aid. “I never enter a forest without my first aid kit,” he stresses. There are bound to be mishaps, he adds matter-of-factly, adding with a chuckle: “I’ve sprained my ankle before on a trail run. But my worst accident happened at home when I slipped and fell down the stairs!”
Reveals Kovin: “I learnt all I could about hiking from YouTube videos!” Millennial, I sputter and he laughs, protesting: “Well, it helped!”. He’s no stranger to risks but how far would he go for the thrills? “Calculated risks,” he corrects me firmly. “I don’t attempt foolhardy stunts. But there’s something about the thrill of taking risks. That’s when we feel most alive.” “Like jumping off a cliff?” I tease him. “Yes!” answers Kovin, laughing.
Any close encounters with the wild, I ask. “Wild boars and snakes!” he replies, before gleefully regaling me with a story about the time he chanced upon an irate cobra ready to do battle. “It rose up to my chest level in a stand-off. I backed down of course!” he shares, chuckling.
Mountains, waterfalls, beaches and just about every natural scenic spot in between, Kovin ventures into the remote parts of Malaysia and explores them all. In an age where explorers are running out of wildernesses and life has been street-mapped to the ends of the earth, there are still, Kovin attests, breathtakingly beautiful sites in this country that begs to be experienced.
Malaysia, he says, has some of the best natural spots that rival other countries,”... and they’re still remarkably pristine and remote. That’s why I do what I do,” he concludes, shrugging his shoulders again. “We don’t know the world nearly as well as we think we do.”
elena@nst.com.my