Introduction
Gunung Angsi (825M) is a small mountain in the Malaysian peninsula in the state of Negeri Sembilan. It's located a short half-hour drive from the town of Seremban. The trail at Gunung Angsi is that of dense tropical rainforests, which includes muddy tails, climbing up the roots of thick vegetation and steep ascents. Overall the hike is suitable for beginner hikers looking for a decent first hike and also a good training ground for intermediate hikers. There are said to be 4 routes going up Angsi, but only 2 routes are commonly used, The Bukit Putus entrance and the Ulu Bendul entrance. The route via Bukit Putus is short and easier with a gentler ascent. The route via Ulu Bendul is longer and steeper. Total hiking time is about 5-7 hours depending on the pace of the hike.
Contents
Getting there...
As mentioned, there are 2 entry points to Gunung Angsi, the Bukit Putus (BP) trail and the Ulu Bendul (UB) trail. However, the entry permit can only be obtained at the BP trailhead, hence, you should always head for the BP trailhead first to get the permit. A guide is not mandatory to hike on this trail, but if it is your first time hiking in Malaysia, it would be good to get a guide as you may potentially lose your way. The park office opens from 8am to 11am on weekdays and 7am to 11am on weekends, but opening time really depends on when the park ranger decides to show up. Permit fees are 5RM for Malaysians and 20RM for Foreigners.
There are showers at the UB trailhead, but not at the BP trailhead. The distance between BP and UB is only about 3km, so you can actually walk from one to the other on the main roads. If you do decide to end the trek at BP trail, there is a small waterfall slightly down the road from BP called Wakaf Twin Falls where you can have a refreshing rinse and clean yourself up before leaving. Keep in mind, there are no changing facilities at the waterfall so you'll either have to change in the forest or in your car.
The picture below shows the trail elevation, with UB on the left and PB on the right. As you can see, the ascent for UB is much steeper and also longer making it a tougher trek compared to the PB trail.
The hike
To make the best of our trip, our group decided to go for a traverse, going up Ulu Bendul (UB) and down Bukit Putus (BP). We crossed from Singapore into Malaysia the night before and hired a van that drove us to BP trailhead through the night arriving at 5 am in the morning to obtain our permits. The park office was still closed, so we slept in the car for a few hours. When the park office finally opened at around 730am, there was already a long line of hikers queueing for the permits, luckily we were one of the first in line. Got our permits and headed to UB starting point a short 3 min drive away and started our hike!
The start of the hike was a simple trail, almost completely flat. Walking by following a big water pipe, we hiked for about 1hr on the straight trail and reached a resting point which is the second hut we saw on the way.
The trail so far was easy, but we were in for a real workout to come. shortly after the hut, there was a small river crossing. The river is about 0.5m deep. But It can be easily crossed without getting wet by stepping on the stones. There are even ropes set up for you to hold onto for extra balance. Most of us managed to cross the stream without getting our feet wet! I really hate wet shoes!
After crossing, the trail started to increase in elevation. It started quite slow with only a slight slope, but gradually it became more and more steep. The total amount of ascent was about 500m straight up. At some point, the steepness became so great that you had to use some ropes to pull yourself up a steep face and also climb on roots and rocks to continue. These are all quite typical terrain in Malaysia mountains.
It took us around another 2.5 hours to cover the steep section and reach the summit. The summit is quite well maintained, with a hut at the top and well-built signage of the summit.
We took a long break here to enjoy the surrounding view and bask in our achievement of reaching the summit. The summit here is typically quite crowded on the weekends, with easily more than 30 or 40 people at the summit at the same time.
Heading down was much easier, as we were hiking down via a different path to the Bukit Putus entrance. The trail is much gentler down this path, so there aren't many steep downslopes to overcome. Additionally, the overall distance is shorter, hence we were able to quite leisurely hike down in around 2hrs. It was a very enjoyable hike with views of the sky and forests down below.
Once we got to the bottom, we called our driver over to fetch us to a nearby waterfall to wash up. The waterfall is only a 3 min drive from the Bukit Putus entrance. The waterfall location is here and it's called the Wakaf Twin Waterfalls. It's called a waterfall, but it's actually just a small stream flowing down some rocks. But it felt so good and refreshing to have some ice-cold water washing out all the dirt and sweat that stuck to you after 6 hours of hiking!
Final Thoughts...
Gunung Angsi is a very good hike for a beginner hiker looking for a challenge. It has some steep sections and some that require using your arms to pull yourself up ropes as well. The view at the top is not too shabby either with towering views over the surrounding town, and neighbouring mountains are visible as well. I find myself enjoying this trek quite a lot as it has some nice features like the steep rock climbing and river crossings. So much so that I actually came back a few months later to hike it again and still find it enjoyable. Another reason is that the hike is very easily accessible as its trailhead is just 1 minute from the main road. I would definitely recommend this trek to anyone who has not done it yet!
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