Day 10

Another day has passed. Slept at an empty home offered by a pair of husband and wife and made good use of the facilities available.

Woke up and got ready to leave Sungai Petani. Was about to drop the house key that was trusted upon me on the letter box along with a thank you note but the uncle saw me outside the gate and greeted me. Then I just expressed my gratitude and passed the key back to him and leave.

On my way towards the ‘pusat bandar’, a car hon-ed me and it was the husband and wife. Picked me up for breakfast and I managed to save some money and walking effort again. Dropped me at bus station and I took the bus to Gunung Jerai to challenge myself again.

Apparently, bus is really no good for me in my sleep-deprived mode as I slept throughout the ride and missed my stop. Luckily, a ‘mak cik’ woke me up and I’m just one stop away from where I’m suppose to go. Ended up in Guar Chempedak and I walked to Gunung Jerai Recreational Centre which isn’t far at all.

Scout around the area and was about to leave to ‘conquer’ the mountain and walk to the peak. However, met a group of typical malay kampung boys who stay at the foothill and we walked together after that. In the end, I would say I only ‘visited’ and not ‘conquered’ Gunung Jerai as a van ‘tumpang-ed’ us after walking about 3km. Nevertheless, these are the details:
Gunung Jerai – Distance: 15 km total, Duration: whole day?

Although a van drove us to the camping site and museum 12km from foothill, we did walk the remaining 3km to the peak after ‘lepak-ing’ at the campsite. Worst of all, we actually walked all the way downhill and it was even raining halfway walking. Spent the whole day at Jerai.

Used an alternative route from Jerai to Gurun to catch KTM but the train stopped long ago. Wanted to cactch a bus instead but changed my mind to staying at Gurun and leaving in KTM to Alor Setar (Star) in the morning.