There were E-mails from visitors to my sites as to the whereabouts is this Gasing! Well it is at the boundary between the federal capital of Kuala Lumpur and the major township of Petaling Jaya in Selangor State. As for geography,  the areas where the two territories meet, there were 3 roads that linked them. Namely :- Damansara, Federal Highway and Old Klang Road. This place, Gasing is just beside the "Arch" along Federal Highway. In fact, lines along the hill itself, served as a demarcation . Then the next most popular enquiry would be, how to reach the actual spot?

This time I have updated this site with a sketch.

There are 5 hills, [the patches in dark green] inferring the existence of many slopes. The facilities and the privately given names are indicated with alphabet and numbers to convenience you, while discussing with your friends, as to the spots that you had being.

I trust that most information given are clear enough and self-explanatory.

Then I can go on to giving my views on what is Bukit Gasing Forest all about. Before going into more details on the trails, I would like to express my views on the differences that seperate "exercising" and jungle "trekking".

Exercising

Most urban folks have come to know this place as having a fantastic environment to do their quota of exercising, I am one of them. Exercising would mean burning away calories, tone up the muscles and getting some cardiovascular work done. But unknown to many too, the big varieties of terrain here offers much more than merely offering places for routine exercise.

For you, interesting in authentic fitness exercise, you could choose "H", the road walk. This is a stretch of tar road serving the houses at the fringe of the jungle. It is 1.9 kilometers long, over very gradual but the undulating Jalan Tanjong. Then again, if some of you would like to do brisk walking as the doctor recommended! But how strenuous and how often could you sustain that determination ?

To circumvent any doubts, you could substitute personal determination and leave it to the terrain, choose another more challenging road. That is the Road 5/46, marked "J"! This is a 1.2 kilometers tar road on a fair slope going all the way to the Indian temple. The walk fits nicely into a 30 minutes stroll.  Here the inclination pushes you.

Talking about that road! Here is the view of the summit. There is small public car park , complete with viewpoint to look down on the surrounding housing and built up areas of Petaling Jaya, Old Klang Road and Puchong. This summit at 523 feet high also houses the Telecom towers and the Sivan Indian Temple. If you are seriously thinking about this new place, it is best that you complete your hike to this place before 7.00 am. After that the road users pushing themselves up the slope, with their cars make the road not that conducive.  Years ago, a "Chi Kung" capitalized on the "clear air" atmosphere here to have their morning exercise. However, the secluded car park also attracted undesirable elements who stay away from home till the break of daylights hours. That factor could be the main cause as to why, up till today, the crowd to this place is very thin.

Nevertheless, when someone talks about exercising in Bukit Gasing, many would assume that you would have taken the road up the hills for your exercise. Not much residents even in PJ is aware of the trails in the jungle.

For Bukit Gasing as a hill, one consolation though! When you look down from Bukit Gasing onto the remaining 4 "peaks", you could see that these hills are not high or the trails within them should not be that formidable.

Look carefully, that dull brown patch, slightly off center, in the foreground is that Watch Tower. Those condominium in the background are the "Panoramas". The Telecom Offices are faintly visible. The trails in the jungle, they stretches from this Telecom Towers to the edge of the forest at the site of the condominiums. As the crow flies, it should be  just over a kilometer.

Having seen and with such excellent tar roads for exercising, then why do most joggers who frequent this Gasing Hills opt for the unpaved jungle trails?

There is a lot of differences between walking for exercise and trekking for real hearty morning work out. Walking on the road needs no concentration. Simply bit of determinations and pushing yourself to complete a daily quota. For me for example, having walked briskly on the road for 90 minutes, I barely sweat. But trekking is different. The fact that  when I am walking on uneven surfaces, needs concentrations, judgment and skills to negotiate each steps. A 30 minutes of trekking puts 3 times more stress on the mind and body.

Trekking

Citing the example of walking on a level road and that of a slope is a good analogy. On level road, you push yourself to obtain the desired results. On slopes, having to complete the walk itself will bring the desired result. So, when it comes to jungle trekking, the efforts needed just multiplies, brought about by the terrain. Therefore those bent on having vigorous exercises need that type of terrain.

Bukit Gasing offers just that! There are so many trails with varying degree of extremities. Length that rules the duration that each person has to choose from. One that he or she needs for the daily quota. As for those names you see on the keys to the sketch above, I would offer some personal experiences with the trails that I know.