Gunung Chamah | Gunung Bagging

Facts

Elevation: 2,171 m (7,123 ft)
Prominence: 1,041 m
Ribu category: Tinggi Sedang
Province: Peninsular Malaysia
Malaysian state: Kelantan
Range: Banjaran Titiwangsa / Main Range
Google Earth: kml
Rating: (1 votes) Add your rating
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Other names: none.

Bagging It!

Gunung Chamah is one of the highest and most significant mountains at the northern end of Peninsular Malaysia. It is also one of the most challenging, not least because of access requiring expensive 4WDs from Kuala Betis near Gua Musang to Pos Simpoh, with a journey time of 3 or 4 hours depending on the recent weather conditions and the thickness of the mud on the track. This is not a hike you can feasibly do in a small group so the first task is to find another 6 hikers keen on joining you. The summit is in dense forest so views are limited.

The two options are only doing Gunung Chamah and then returning the same way, requiring another 3 or 4 hours in very bumpy 4WD, or continuing on to Gunung Ulu Sepat, another of Malaysia’s so-called G7 peaks. Doing Chamah on its own usually takes three days, with 2 nights spent camping at Kampung Rekom. Combining Chamah with Ulu Sepat requires 5 or 6 days of hiking in total and brings you out on the Perak side, several hours by car from Kuala Betis. It is therefore essential to have transport waiting for you at the other end if this is your plan. You will, of course, need a forestry permit and guide arranged well in advance.

From the trailhead at Pos Simpoh (820m) to Kampung Rekom (910m, an Orang Asli village) takes 2.5 to 3 hours and is along a slippery but well-defined track. It is not strictly necessary to bring a tent here if you are only doing Gunung Chamah, because Orang Asli huts are available at a very reasonable price and these provide excellent shelter. This means that Day One basically consists of a 3-4 hour journey by 4WD along bumpy tracks followed by a 2.5 to 3 hour hike.

Day Two is a much more challenging one and you need to start early, ideally no later than 6am with headlamps. From Kampung Rekom it takes one hour via Kem Sungai Rekon (970m) and Kem Pakma (1,010m) to Kem Tengah (1,125m). From there it is a further 1.5 hr to Camp Tongkat Ali (1,260m), a further hour Anak Chamah (1,695m), and a further 2.5 hours via Kem Cinderella (1,725m) to Chamah summit, so in total around 6 hours one way from Kampung Rekom to the summit, not including breaks. And it takes a smiliar amount of time to descend back to Kampung Rekom, so with a 6am start, assume a day of 12 hours of hiking, plus 1 hour of breaks, meaning getting back to Kampung Rekom for around 7pm just before dark. Another night is then spent at Kampung Rekom, usually at the Orang Asli shelters.

Day Three is Day One in reverse for those returning to Kuala Betis. For those continuing on to Gunung Ulu Sepat, the trail leads northwest from Kampung Rekom via Kem Sungai Peres (1,105m), Kem Maggi (1,440m) and Kem Sempadan (1,685m). If you can make it as far as Kem Sungai Lepir (1,700m) on Day Three (taking approximately 12 hours) then you can conceivably reach the top of Gunung Ulu Sepat on Day Four, descend to Kampung Lelar and therefore complete the entire traverse in just four days. Most groups do not make it as far as Kem Sungai Lepir on Day Three and spend their third night at Kem Maggi, and their fourth night at the Orang Asli huts at Kem Sungai Lenweng (1,075m) before hiking out to Kampung Lelar and 4WD. Note that because of the availability of shelters at Kampung Rekom near Chamah and Kem Sungai Lenweng on the other side of Ulu Sepat, only one night requires camping in a tent or similar whether you take four or five days to complete the traverse.

Trail Map

For a high quality PDF version of this and other trail maps, please download from our Trail Maps page.

Local Accommodation

Booking.com

Practicalities

Getting there: For Malaysian domestic flights and flights within Southeast Asia, for example to Kuala Lumpur, we recommend Baolau. From Kuala Betis, take a 4WD to Sungai Simpoh (3-4 hours depending on the road condition).
Trip planning assistance: Would you like Gunung Bagging to personally help you in arranging your whole trip? Please contact us here.
Permits: Register at Gua Musang Police Station. You can register and pay for an e-Permit online from the Forestry Department of Malaysia website.
Water sources: At almost all of the camp spots, notably not at Kem Cinderella.
Accommodation: Try the Booking.com map above or use this link to search for suitable hotels, homestays, resorts and apartments for your trip.
We recommend Safety Wing as travel insurance for overseas travellers and tourists hiking up to elevations not exceeding 4500 metres.

Local Average Monthly Rainfall

Location

Dan

July 2, 2022 at 19:44

As seems to be common in Malaysia at present, our planned trip ended in failure due to unprofessional guides and poor communication.

The original plan had been to hike Gunung Benum after Tahan, but the access road remains blocked, so we decided on Chamah after it appeared that Benum would be shut for a long time into the future from the Raub side.

Our Benum guide who I had paid RM450 deposit to back in 2020 for a trip that never happened due to covid kindly sent RM300 of that as deposit to our Chamah guide, Arif Jamaluddin of Selangor. Perhaps he was expecting us to cancel after Tahan, but we didn’t so he decided to cancel 24 hours prior to the start of the hike, citing ‘urgent matter’. The urgent matter later turned out to be a forestry course – not really urgent, and incredibly poor manners.

He did at least pass on contacts for 4WD and new guide, but couldn’t be bothered to give them our itinerary. I passed on a short trek up Gua Musang peak with 2 friends because I wanted to get some sleep before the Chamah trip, and I was still having to negotiate with the new contacts. Naturally the price had changed and it’s very interesting how the price never goes down, it always goes up.

I was supposed to be sleeping ready for a 1am wakeup in Gua Musang but at 1030pm I was still negotiating. Nightmare – thanks a lot to Arif Jamaluddin for leaving us in the lurch for his ‘urgent matter’.

Well, we drove over to Kuala Betis for 0130-0200 meeting at the mosque as planned. We waiting until 0230 and neither driver nor new guide showed up. There’s a police check on almost every road in and out of Gua Musang so they must have been confused with 3 foreigners driving back to the hotel in Gua Musang again. At 0350, the new guide – Poncho – sent a message saying he had fallen asleep but was waiting for us to call him. Perhaps he had no idea we do not have a Malaysian phone, so we just meet at the place and time as arranged, which he failed to do.

He still wanted the trek to go ahead, but doing Chamah in 2 days with no sleep and all this stupid delay and poor planning and communication was looking unlikely. The trek is expensive due to the 4WD, so why bother unless you are sure you can make it by starting early.

So, Chamah didn’t happen. I guess this happens a lot in Malaysia. In Indonesia you half expect a problem, but the guide prices are much lower. In Malaysia, you pay through the roof for a guide and sort out the ridiculous permit system weeks in advance only for the guide to cancel last minute and his replacement not show up at the designated time and place.

Perhaps the Datok in Perak is right that something needs to be done. After all, our permit would have been invalid given that the name of the guide would be different. Basic tip for guides – when you take money and agree to be a guide for a trek, you need to stick to your word. Is it really so difficult to know that integrity is important?

Chamah… perhaps I’ll do it with Ulu Sepat next year.

Chamah