那时登阿伯山…必须经过焦赖的大乐花园，有些登山友稍为自私了点，车子胡乱停在住宅区内，防碍居民出入；有些人在星期天的大清早高声谈笑，扰人清梦。一部份居民因此把登山客视为害虫，认为他们的出现使住宅区失去了原有的安宁。这一小撮人的不满越积越深，终至爆发，向森林局投诉，要求封山。森林局反应奇快，不分青红皂白，马上封山。登山委员会把人民代议士拉进来调解，当局取消封山令，登山客重新出现。然而没多久同样的事情又再发生，又有人投诉，当局又再封山。如是重复了几次，当局最后决定，把登山口改到鸿运园，因为鸿运园外面的大路旁可容几十辆汽车停泊而不影响交通，当地居民可以接受。

我和内子美英通常每个星期去爬阿伯山两次，但我们分头走不同的路线。

走过鸿运园，来到山脚下，迎面便是一道三四十度的斜坡，对刚从温暖被窝里钻出来不久，尚未热身的登山客而言，是个小小的挑战。上得第一座山头，穿过树胶园，走进森林，很快便得下陡坡，来到谷底，步过架在溪涧上的小木桥，面对一个更大的考验——更高更陡的山坡。不过那时登山客已热身，呼吸和步伐的节奏一致，因此登上第二座山头并非太艰难的事。

上了山头，有两个选择，右边那条山径通往第3站，得先下陡坡再攀登另一道陡坡；左边那条山径则通到第6站，地势较平缓，但是一直往上升，而且路途较远。第3站和第6站相通，之间有第4站和第5站。从第5站有一条小径通向一个小瀑布。从第6站有一条路通到沙伽山，大约半小时的行程。

我通常来到第二座山头后便径自走向第6站，休息一阵子再循原路下山，快则上下个半小时，慢则两小时，喝尽1公升水，流出满身臭汗，湿透整件T恤。在回家的路上，我和美英会找间咖啡店坐下来啖杯咖啡，吃几片夹牛油加耶的烤面包，算是我们每星期一两次的享受。

登阿伯山不知不觉几年了，我以为那森林里除了鸟儿和长尾猕猴，没什么东西好看，直到有一天，我背了相机上山，放慢速度，眼观四方，耳听八面，竟有些意想不到的收获。

还有一个收获，是每一位登山客都必定会得到的，就是——健康。条件是，你必须持之以恒，每个星期认认真真地登山两三次。森林里的氧气和负离子，加上运动促进的血液循环、肌肉强化和心脏功能的改善，以及大量出汗的排毒效果，肯定会降低你患染病痛的机率。

悄悄告诉你，这就是我登山多年发现的秘密。

A group of us, consisting of 21 nature lovers from the Klang Valley, Ipoh and Penang, congregated at the Lost World of Tambun on Sunday morning, 06/09/2009, to explore the 6th Mile Tunnel and the Datuk Cave. We had to go through the management of The Lost World of Tambun which provided each of us a life jacket, a safety helmet, a head-lamp (which belonged to us at the end of the trip), 2 energy bars, a small bottle of mineral water, transport from The Lost World, and the service of 2 guides — all these for a fee of RM70 each.

We had to cross a small lake by floating on our back to reach the entrance of the 6th Mile Tunnel. I am yet to find out the origin of the name “6th Mile Tunnel”. Perhaps the tunnel is 6 miles from Ipoh. According to one of the guides, gold was mined in the tunnel. So it is a man-made tunnel, not a natural cave. Of course none of us picked up any gold nugget inadvertently left behind by the miners.

However, we did come across a large spider and many white, fluffy worms that had suspended very fine threads of silk from the low ceiling of the tunnel to catch flying insects. A stream flows through the tunnel. Pieces of stones strewn all over the stream bed make wading in the stream a little difficult.

It took us about 50 minutes to go through the 800m long tunnel. We emerged from the tunnel just to be engulfed by a forest. A short walk through the forest took us to a little waterfall.

There is a cave above the waterfall which, according to the guides, has not been explored for quite some time. Our guides did a recce into the cave and came out with a piece of bad news: some parts of the cave had become narrowed and some of us might not be able to pass through. So the decision was: no go.

Out from the 6th Mile Tunnel, some of us followed a guide to the other side of the lake to explore Gua Datuk. The others decided to go off earlier.

Gua Datuk is high on a hill side and it was a steep and strenuous climb to reach its entrance. There was nothing much in the cave though — no exquisite stalactites and stalagmites nor cave centipedes and racers. But we had fun all the same, and descending to the lake was a breeze as we followed another route down by way of long flights of concrete steps.

All in all, it was a tiring but rejuvenating outing, especially to those who ended the day relaxing in the hot spring pool in the Lost World.

Breakfast was early at 06:30 hrs. We were only given a cup of hot chocolate to go with bread and butter and jam. The quality of our breakfast seemed to be dropping.

Just before we started trekking at 07:10 hrs, Sonia told me she read what I wrote in the Visitors Book and she noticed a mistake. She said our group comprised not just 7 Malaysians and 1 Swiss, but 7 Malaysians and 2 Swiss. “What about me? I am also a Swiss,” she said. I explained that I was writing about our group of trekkers and I did not include her because she was our guide. Anyway I apologized for failing to mention in my note that she was our guide.

It was a steep descent initially followed by a gentle slope. Except for a few muddy spots, the trail was generally in good conditions. The later part of the trek was actually on a wide, motorable earth road through a pine forest on one side of a broad valley with scattered villages in it. I enjoyed the walk and made frequent stops to take snapshots of the views, wild flowers and insects.

Boh Seng, Lai Cheng and Christina also did the same, but they were always ahead of me and they made it a point to quickly catch up with Sonia after taking the shots, running if necessary. Catherine was the fittest among us. She made occasional stops to take pictures of herself with the beautiful scenery as backdrop, but she could easily keep up with Sonia and was in fact walking side by side with Sonia most of the time. Barbara did not seem to be interested in taking pictures. She just walked and was upfront most of the time too.

Sonia expected everybody to walk at her pace. She was very impatient with those who lag behind, especially those who were a few hundred metres behind her, and that included me. She stopped a couple of times to wait for me to catch up, shouting “hurry up! Hurry up!” at the same time. On the other hand, she resented being overtaken. “Nobody should be ahead of me,” she told us. She also did not want us to use any alternative trail. “The trail I follow is the easiest,” she said.

At 09:24 hrs, we reached Bruson (1550m a.s.l.) and a van was waiting for us. I was of course the last to reach the van, but I was only a few seconds behind Lai Cheng as she also stopped to take pictures. Sonia was obviously unhappy. She asked me: “You don’t listen to me huh?”

“No, I just want to enjoy the views and take some good pictures,” I said.

The van was supposed to take us down to the valley below and then up to the trail head on the other side to start our climb to the next guest house. The winding mountain road led us to the car-park between the Chable-Verbier Cable Station and the railway station in Le Chable at 826m a.s.l. Beng Eng and Chin Teong were waiting for us at the railway station. The same van had taken them from Champex and dropped them there at 08:20 hrs this morning.

I was talking to Beng Eng when Sonia dropped me a bombshell. She told me I was not going to do the trekking later today and the next two days. I was shocked. I asked her for the reasons. She said I was not steady when going down rocky slope. I was very upset and angry. I said to her: “You have no right to stop me from trekking. I have paid the same amount of money as everybody else to do trekking here, and I want to continue.”

“Yes, I have the right to stop you. As the guide I am responsible for everyone’s safety. You are not going and please remove your things from the van,” Sonia said.

I kept arguing with her but she just would not relent. My team mates did not lend me any support. All I heard was someone muttering: “Tell her you won’t take so many pictures from now on.” This was almost like telling a swimmer to jump into a pool but not to swim. What did I carry such a heavy camera with me all the time for?

In the end Sonia won. I had to join Beng Eng and Chin Teong in exile for the next 2⅟₂ days. We were to spend the rest of the day in Sion and the next two days in Les Hauderes where we would meet up with the trekkers again. Sonia just extended the exile of Beng Eng and Chin Teong by two days without giving them any reasons.

5 new members had just joined our trekking group: 2 French women (Christin Cizeron and Moneque) and 3 Portuguese men (Manuel Pires, Jorge Costa and Armando Sobral). The van driver sent the 10 trekkers and Sonia in two trips to the trail head before coming back at 12:00 hrs to take the three of us to Sion not too far away. He dropped us in front of Sion railway station.

After lunch, we spent some time at the Place de la Planta (city square) and then visited the old castle Chateau Valére on top of a hill. On an adjacent hill was another castle, Chateau Tourbillon, which we did not visit. The Sion Festival, also known as the Sion Valais International Music Festival, just started the day before and would last until 13.09.2011.

We got a 4-bed dormitory in a youth hostel behind the railway station for the night at CHF40 per person including breakfast. We got a message from Dr. Ng Gan Che that his son had been discharged from hospital and was recovering well and that he would travel by train from Zurich to Sion to join us on 15.08.

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细如藤鞭的小蛇

车上有台电视机播放名为“婆罗洲最大的鼻子”的纪录片。11点之前到了拉卜湾象鼻猴保护区（Labuk Bay Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary）进口，我在那儿购买门票（15令吉）及相机准证（10令吉），并缴交巴士车费15令吉。

象鼻猴在树上飞跃

巴士司机载我们到一个停车场，从那儿走一段板道便到了B看台。看台在一间高脚楼的终端，沿楼有条大泥沟，在泥沟的另一边搭建了几个平台。

11点半，工作人员放了些香蕉木瓜之类的水果在平台上，马上吸引了一群象鼻猴。只见它们从树上爬下来，来到泥沟旁，列队在一支钢筋水泥做的树干上走去对面，再爬上平台去进食，大猴坐在一边，6只未成年的猴子坐在另一边，游客则在看台上把相机瞄准它们，一时咔嚓咔嚓声响个不停，大家拍得不亦乐乎！

蹲坐在枝丫上的母子

象鼻猴是种十分独特的猴子，只生活在婆罗洲的森林里，在我国的沙巴和砂拉越都可看到。它们的特征之一是其显著的鼻子，尤其是公猴的鼻子会随着年龄的增加而越来越长，有如象鼻，因而得名。科学家相信，长而垂的大鼻子对异性具有莫大的吸引力，而且大鼻腔使公猴通过鼻子发出来的警告声传播得更远。此外，象鼻猴的主要食物是树叶，树叶在肚子里发酵，使肚子变得胀鼓鼓的，似乎满肚子都是蛔虫。

象鼻猴列队爬树干过河

正午12点，巴士司机载我们到2公里外的泥芭客栈去吃午餐。客栈的度假屋建在红树林泥沼上。饭后我在连接度假屋的板道上行走，看到一条细幼如藤鞭的小蛇，板道下的泥沼里则有好多条水蜥蜴在觅食。

喂食台上的象鼻猴

在沼泽里觅食的水蜥蜴

下午2点，司机送我们到和B看台相距1公里的A看台停车场，从那儿走过约3百米长的板道到A看台，那儿已有几个游客和向导在等待，树上也有好几只象鼻猴在等待。喂食时间是2点半，水果一上喂食台，树上的猴子马上冲着下来抢食，一时好不热闹。

大公象鼻猴英姿

3点，我们重回B看台，甫上高脚楼便被几只银毛叶猴吸引了。它们在高脚楼内四处走动，旁若无人。上午没见到它们，这时可能比较阴凉了，它们出来觅食，竟然不怕人。幸亏它们也不凶，不像猕猴那样动辄露出獠牙来吓唬人。众多叶猴里面有两只母猴，各抱着一只全身金黄色的幼猴。这是叶猴与其他猴子的其中一项差别。幼猴稍大颜色即会转变。

母叶猴和金毛幼猴

两群象鼻猴也同时出现，分别在高脚楼的两边，显然隶属两个敌对的阵营。它们不像叶猴那样斗胆溜进屋子里来，只留在屋外等待喂食时间。两只好玩的松鼠也到来凑热闹，只见它们在高脚楼旁互相追逐，一大一小，该是两母子吧？最后，连黑白两色犀鸟也来了，是两对，它们一到便惊动了大家，振翅和落脚均显得那么沉重笨拙，完全不似其它飞禽那样轻盈潇洒。

黑白两色犀鸟

这真是个令许多游客大开眼界的大集会，尤其是来自欧美的游客，一下子看到了几种哺乳动物和飞鸟，同时拍到它们的特写镜头，必然觉得不虚此行。

贪玩的小松鼠

只是，在离开拉卜湾的时候，我心里有个疙瘩，久久不能释怀：当局为了取悦游客，投其所好，特意每天喂食两次，把野生动物吸引过来，是值得鼓励的做法吗？长此下去会对野生动物造成怎样的影响呢？

For more photos, please visit : https://www.facebook.com/globe.explorer . If you are in Malaysia, we wish you a great holiday tomorrow !

My guide book says that the best time to visit the Sanctuary is between Mid-November and mid-March. It was the 14th of March when we checked out of our hotel, left our luggage at the reception and boarded a bus just before 8 for the village of Ocampo 23km away. The journey took about 45 min. Following the direction of a local, we walked to a road junction from where the bus dropped us to board a “colectivo” (a van operated like a mini-bus) to get to a smaller village known as El Rosario. The road was bad and it took the van 35 min. to cover the 11 km.

The van driver dropped us at a car park and told us to walk uphill between rows of empty stalls. 20 min. later, we reached the entrance of the Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary. Admission was 40 New Mexican pesos (about RM10) each and it included the service of a guide. Another uphill walk of 35 min. on a pretty well-maintained footpath took us to a plateau fringing an Oyamel fir forest. Orange coloured butterflies with black pattern on their wings were found on the shrubs beside the footpath and their numbers kept increasing as we approached the plateau. They were the monarch butterflies.

Puddles on the ground were covered with a carpet of butterflies. Our guide, a middle-aged woman who did not speak a word of English, led us to a spot in the Oyamel fir forest which had us spell-bound in awe – whole trees were covered with butterflies! We had never seen anything like this before. It’s so unbelievable! And when we walked about, waves of butterflies swarmed past us and they were everywhere: in the air, on tree trunks, branches and leaves, on the ground, and on our body! A signboard said 80million monarch butterflies were found there!

According to scientists, monarch butterflies in the millions migrate from the eastern parts of Canada and USA over distances of up to 4000km to central Mexico to overwinter. They hibernate in Oyamel fir forests 3000m a.s.l. in Michoacan State and then fly back north in March when the days become warmer again. The sheer number involved in such a massive migration is by itself amazing enough, and yet even more amazing is the fact that the time needed to migrate over such a long distance may actually exceed the normal lifespan of 2-6 weeks of the butterfly. So how can the migration be possible?

The answer is: when cold air begins to be felt in September/October in Canada and USA, a special generation of monarch butterflies is born with an exceptionally long life-span of 6-8 months. This generation of butterflies is able to undertake the long journey to central Mexico. How they navigate their way to central Mexico is a mystery. After hibernating through the winter in Central Mexico they begin to find their way back to Canada and USA in March. They will breed and go through the life cycle of egg – larva (caterpillar) – pupa (chrysalis) – adult (butterfly) on their way north. 2 or 3 generations of butterflies, each with a life-span of 2-6 weeks, may be required to get the monarch back to its place of origin.

By September/October the monarch is ready to start its cycle of 4 generations of breeding all over again. What triggers the autumn generation of butterflies to be different from the other generations is yet another unsolved mystery. While waiting for entomologists to solve those mysteries, we just have to accept that the annual migration of the monarch butterflies is truly one of the most extraordinary phenomena in the natural world.

(This article was published in the December 2011 issue of Jurutera, the monthly bulletin of the Institution of Engineers, Malaysia)

In fact, it is not a mummy. The soil in Xinjiang is so dry that dead bodies buried underground may not decay even after a few thousand years. This picture shows a man who died during the Tang Dynasty, about 1300 years ago.

We had breakfast at 07:00 hrs and left for Bourg St. Pierre by van at 07:45 hrs. Our group had been reduced to 6 trekkers and guide Sonia with Beng Eng and Chin Teong staying out for the next two days. We started trekking from Bourg St. Pierre (1615m a.s.l.) at 08:25 hrs., going uphill initially like the past two days.

At 10:20 hrs, we had a 15-minute rest at Boveire d’en Bas (2200m a.s.l.)

At 11:15 hrs, we came to a farmer’s cheese factory at Le Coeur (2238m a.s.l.). Just then a large herd of cattle came back from the pasture and the big bells dangling from their necks made a pleasant melody. A man showed us the cheese-making equipment and gave us a brief run-down on the cheese-making process. He later took us into the cold room which was maintained at 10° C to cure some 1200 round slabs of raclette cheese. In Summer, this factory produces 15 round slabs of cheese from 700 litres of milk from 68 cows everyday. There were about 160 cows in the herd.

We resumed trekking at 12:00 hrs and just 20 minutes later, we stopped for lunch at a place 2315m a.s.l. We had beet root, bread with ham pâté, rabbit pâté and cheese. Mountain views from there were spectacular.

We were back on our feet at 13:30 hrs and in just 22 minutes we reached a place known as La Vuardette (2450m a.s.l.). A sign there indicated that it was another 50 minutes’ walk from there to Col de Mille. We stopped there for about 10 minutes.

At 14:30 hrs, we came to a small mountain lake and stopped there for 15 minutes. There were some other trekkers and children there. Some sheep were grazing nearby.

We reached Cabane du Col de Mille (2473m a.s.l.) at 15:30 hrs, after 7 hours and 5 minutes on the trail. After deducting all the rests, time spent at the cheese factory and lunch break, amounting to 2 hours and 45 minutes, we only trekked for 4 hours and 20 minutes. And the weather was good. It was a most relaxing day. I wondered why Sonia advised Beng Eng and Chin Teong to skip this day’s trek.

Cabane du Col de Mille was a refuge perching on a spur overlooking deep valleys on three sides. Water supply was a problem and because of that it had no bathrooms and there was only one chemical toilet at the edge of a cliff away from the building. The refuge could accommodate 36 trekkers. Some other trekkers were already there when we arrived. We learnt from the refuge staff that we were the first Malaysians to ever stay there. Some people were doing para-gliding beside the refuge. In fact we saw the para-gliders when we were approaching the refuge.

Dinner was served at 18:30 hrs: vegetable soup, salad, rice, beef, and canned pineapple for dessert. As usual, Sonia gave us a briefing after dinner on the next day’s trek. With nothing much to do as I did not have a book to read and it was windy and cold outside, I succumbed to my fellow trekkers’ persuasion and wrote something in English and Chinese in the refuge’s Visitors Book about our group and how I felt about the trek.