Remembering FRIM

Yes, I'm revisiting FRIM. In pictures. The last time I was there was four years ago. Was frequenting it for a while before I dropped it all together. It's not to say it isn't a nice place. It is. It's just that I didn't find it much of a challenge (cheh wah, like real).

FRIM - for those of you who don't know - is a forest research institute somewhere in Kepong (don't ask me where; I only know that you need to pass 1U along the way). They do many things there like forestry and biotech and R&D and et cetera but I don't understand any of that stuff, so I'm not going to talk about it. What I am going to talk about is trekking at FRIM.

First of all, you need to pay RM5 per car to get in. There are four nature trails for walkers, joggers, runners, bikers and picnickers. The trail I used to take is called ... um, I have no idea what it's called. All I know is that there were steps, winding paths, large rocks, a mini 'waterfall' and you wind up walking alongside passing cars on the way out. Go figure.

The pic above shows the 'staircase' you need to climb in the early part of the hike. It's a short climb and not very steep.

The trail after the 'staircase' is pretty level, so no great exertion of energy there. While it's best to go in the mornings, I don't think it's a good idea to start too early. Apparently, the wife of a friend of a friend of mine came to FRIM to jog in the wee hours of the morning and was attacked by a babi hutan (!!!). Good lord. Talk about a bad way to start the day.

After the winding trail, we used to turn off into the left, down this route pictured above. You make your way through this rocky bit (just follow the pipes) all the way down. It can get a little damp but there's no river-crossing required, so your shoes will stay dry and intact.

You'll soon come to a little stream, which leads to a pond of sorts. Here's where you'll see a bunch of families picnicking away with about a zillion kids (a particularly popular pastime over the weekends). So if you don't fancy families/kids/people in general, don't come here. I do have pics of them but since I don't fancy families/kids/people myself, I decided not to post them here.

It's safe to say that the entire hike is about 1.5 to 2km. It's an okay place but personally, I'm not itching to go back there. There are just too many people there and parking is a bitch on the weekends. I'll stick to Kiara, I guess.

[All pictures by Adrian Tee]