A glimpse of Malaysia

A group of intrepid hikers are out to preserve the country’s natural heritage, discovers

WITH verdant trees whispering in the slight breeze, and the morning sun peering between the leaves, it’s a fine day to take a walk into the forest. “We’ll be hiking to the waterfall,” says Kovin Sivanasvaran matter-of-factly.

Waterfall? My knees whimper as I envision the long hard trek up and down steep slopes while navigating around crevasses and slippery mossy rocks.

“Is it a tough hike?” I ask nervously. “No, no! Mostly flat terrain,” the lanky 22-year-old assures me with a grin. I breathe a sigh of relief.

A hike to the Sungai Pisang waterfalls should be easy, if it’s “mostly flat terrain” as Kovin promises.

We’re parked by the side of a narrow access route off the old GombakGenting road.

The young chaps from Glimpse of Malaysia are eager to start, armed with cameras and garbage bags. It’s no ordinary hike, Kovin tells me as an aside.

“We’ve been cleaning up the trails whenever we go on hikes.”

For the hikers of Glimpse of Malaysia — a group set up to make “hiking more accessible for those on a tight budget” — enjoying breathtaking natural scenery simply wasn’t enough.

“Everything we need to know, we can learn in the forest,” enthuses Kovin, adding: “We need to move away from thinking of nature as dead matter to valuing her biodiversity. For this, nature herself is the best teacher.”