Best multi-day trek

What say you on the issue below?

THE six-day Trans Titiwangsa trek ranks high in the tick-off list of must-try adventures in Peninsular Malaysia.

Starting from Ulu Kinta Dam in Perak and ending in Blue Valley in Pahang, it’s a trail that takes trekkers over Mt Korbu (2,183m), Mt Gayong (2,173m) and Mt Yong Belar (2,181m) on the Titiwangsa range. Breathtaking views of the Titiwangsa range and the magical mossy forests more than make up for the gruelling, lung-busting climbs.

Spectacular waterfall at the Maliau Basin.

Over in Sabah, the ancestors of Dusun villagers around the slopes of Crocker Range used to bushwacked through the dense, hilly forest for days to reach the nearest village by the sea to get salt — a crucial ingredient for preserving meat and vegetables. Today, hikers can retrace their footsteps on a five-day “salt trail”, starting from Kg Tikolod near Tambunan, through bucolic villages and ending near Penampang, a 20-minute drive from Kota Kinabalu.

Crocker Range is the backbone of western Sabah, rising from Tenom in the south and culminating at Mt Kinabalu. Hikers will have to wade through waist-deep rivers, shuffle up steep hills and hobnob with villagers along the way.

After 10 years of combing the outdoors in Malaysia (part of the job!), I find my all-time favourite wilderness area to be the Maliau Basin Conservation Area, Sabah. Aptly dubbed the Lost World, Maliau is the Shangri-La of forests: trees reach up to the heavens, wild orchids hang like beaded curtains, and raucous gibbons give you the daily wake-up call.

Local kids at Kg Terian, one of our stopovers along the salt trail.

For millions of years, rare and endemic flora and fauna have thrived in the self-contained forest in a saucer-shaped basin hemmed in by sheer cliffs. Trekking an average of four to seven hours a day over five days, you cross lowland dipterocarp, highland heath and conifer forests. Maliau’s Murut name, meaning “Land of the Giant Staircase”, comes from its step-like landscape and countless waterfalls –19 and still counting.

And the superstar is none other than the awe-inspiring Maliau Falls – seven tiers of cascading waters.