the lost world...

of tambun!

yes everyone, this is yet another climbing entry.

so a week ago i went with zak to the lost world of tambun to bring the alice smith school kids for an outdoor climb.

what is the lost world of tambun?

well the lost world of tambun is a water park. coolest part about it is that Team Mammut went there to set up loads of new routes.

so the day started with a drive which started at 7:30am. zak picked me up from my place with jeremy's new old BMW. the drive to ipoh was looooooonng...

whats worst is that jeremy's car has

loads of freaking ants which crawl all over the dashboard!



anyways, when we arrived at our destination, i saw this.


i would say the location was really cool. first thing you see other than a car park is that building with a huge mountain thats all green as a backdrop.

the entry into the park is pretty con, and also quite a fuss. if you are interested to climb there, you have to go to the office and go through a few things and pay a fee of 21 bucks before you can enter.

after all the registration and stuff, we were escorted to the climbing area.

the first glimpse of the main feature of the climbing site was

the needle of tambun, its called.

its a really cool feature. a monolith tower in the middle of a valley.

so we set up a few routes and just supervised the kids and teachers climbing.

the kids were really really noisy. one of em kept singing 100 beer bottles of beer on the wall, which stopped at minus 87 beer bottles on the wall, and later changed to another song which could actually go on forever! it was as if it would never stop! ahhhH!!

here are some of the kids.

this kid has only one hand! and he climbs pretty well!

can't really remember their names...

this is tommy. he might look cute here, but he is the most irritating kid you can ever find. hence me able to recall his name.

i have no idea where this picture came from, but its cool. just look at the scenery! its really cool! those 2 people in the background are just weirdos who don't climb.

after all the kids were tired from climbing, they headed over to the water park.

what does that mean for me and zak? well it means that we can climb!

i did this really cool climb on the needle. here is a pic of it.


but thing is i kind of climbed the wrong route. so this was how i climbed.


yes, i went the wrong way. i had to down climb and climb back up again because i didn't want to kill my rope which would rub against the sharp surfaces of that stalactite.

well later on we decided to head off home.

so it was back to the highways again.



the time i left till the time i got back home was almost 12 hours!

so here is my review of tambun.

tambun is a place which is probably the most beautiful crag i have ever been to. the place has probably been landscaped by the land owners, but never the less it still looks good. this was the only place where i ever saw a really green lawn. there are 2 lakes nearby, and the entrance to the climbing site has a huge wooden door which makes you feel like you are in jurassic park. the climbing area is also enclosed by green hills all around. this means that there are no noises from vehicles. all you hear is the birds tweeting, and the occasional roar from the water park's atmosphere setting speakers. the climbing area also has a big open lawn.

for those of you who doesn't like the sun, this place is the best. most of the routes are shaded from the sun all day. even if there is sun, there is always an ever present breeze which flows through the valley. this is the only crag that i have been to that does not have any sound pollution from the highway or even roads.

the routes there range from 4b to 9a, and there are loads and loads of routes to do. this climbing area would not be so good for climbers who only climb 5c and below, you wouldn't really have much to climb, cause there are only a handful of those. click here to get a copy of the route map. you gotta search for it tho. look under general info, downloads.

now for the bad part. the damage to get into the place is 21 bucks if you are a camp5 member, and 29 bucks if you are not. cool thing is, you can swim after your hard climb. besides that, there are houses on the other side of one of the lakes. for now they are still uninhabited, but when they do get inhabited, it would probably be noisy. good thing is, the houses are really nice, and look real expensive. so the place wouldn't be as noisy as a normal housing place.

-end of review-

ok so here are a few pictures of the area.

this is the infamous needle. in front of a lake.


a picture from in between the wooden gates.


the houses which are behind the climbing area.


this is another wall which has a really cool roof section for climbing.


the needle from the back view.

now tell me, where can you see really nice green lawns? nice ain't it? well except for tommy who kinda killed the picture.

well, we all need a cool pose picture.

another wall which is called the playground section.

this is how the people in tambun spell group, or is it grup? lol


all in all, it is a really cool place, really nice.

best part of all, is that i left my beloved climbing shoes there. time to get a new one.