Weekend Hike at FRIM, Kepong

A few months ago, I had my second hiking experience (the first was at Gunung Ledang during a youth camp a decade ago) at Forest Research Institute of Malaysia (FRIM) located at Kepong.

For regular hikers, FRIM is probably easy peasy like taking a normal day stroll. But not for amateur like me! What’s more I don’t exercise regularly (or at all :/)

I must say, going up hill was rather easy. Just follow the trail which was mostly staircases. It was just like going up flight of stairs at your condominium, except with views. The descending part was tricky, because many times I had to keep myself from slipping my way down and die the horrible hiker accident way.

It was about 10.30am when I started to ascend, but the late morning sun didn’t bother us at all as it was shady in the forest.

My favourite part of the hiking experience has got to be the canopy walk! Somewhere along the journey you would find a stairs that leads you up a hanging bridge. There were 2 Malay men on guard there, and apparently we were supposed to purchase tickets at the entrance to access the bridge (dunno true or not, have not verified). We simply paid them off on the spot anyhow to let us cross the bridge.

The canopy was built with very basic tools like pieces of woods, ropes, nails and seemed rather dangerous. But what is life without a little adventure? I wouldn’t trade off the opportunity to cross a hanging bridge in order to take a safer yet longer route. I instantly felt like Jane from Tarzan already! Fun fun fun!

Too bad if you’re afraid of height. The bridge could get really shaky if some hikers in front decide to be assholes XD

We were told to keep a distance from the person in front. But we weren’t told that was because the bridge would not be able to support our weight and would collapse if we do not follow that instruction. LOL.

While descending, we diverted from the usual trail and arrived at a waterfall.

Picnic at the waterfall sounds easier than done! It was quite a challenge trying to find yourself a comfortable spot on the mouldy rocks.

Dipped our feet into the cooling stream water. Appreciating and indulging on the gift of the nature. One downside - there were water spiders in the stream!

But well the good news is, the spiders wouldn’t really bother you, if that gives you an optimum level of assurance :P

To sum it up, FRIM is a great place for weekend leisure hike. The entire journey up and down the hill took us about 2 hours inclusive of the time we spent chilling at the waterfall. Don’t really need to bring safety tools for hiking at FRIM. Just remember to bring a water bottle and some snacks/chocolate bars in case you feel out of energy up there (which I highly doubt you will).

Forest Research Institute of Malaysia (FRIM)

Address: Jalan Frim, Kepong,

52109 Selangor.

Joggers Opening Hours: 5.00am – 7.30pm
Website: http://www.frim.gov.my/

Note: According to FRIM's website, the canopy walkway has been closed since Oct 2015.