Broga Hill Then and Now

It was in 1999 when hubby and I first climbed Broga Hill with members
of Backpackers Association. Back then Broga town was a sleepy little
village, undeveloped and the only attraction was the temple at the end
of the village. Rubber trees lined the side of the road leading all the way
to the temple and Broga Hill could be seen as you come into the village
all covered in lalang grass with an occasional shrub or small tree here
and there. Climbing Broga Hill then was quite agonising as there was no
proper path and you step on the lalang which made it slippery. Trying to
stabilise yourself, there was nothing to hold on but the lalang which cut
into your hands and legs if you were wearing shorts. This was what
happened to a group of visitors from England whom we were hosting.
They were friends of our President’s son who was studying in England.
I can therefore declared that we were the first group to climb Broga
Hill then.

Broga Hill in 1999

Flash back to 11 years later when we climbed Broga Hill to G. Tok Wan
with Hash members recently. What a big difference it was now in terms
of everything. Broga town is now so alive especially the temple which
receives busloads of visitors every weekend and the road coming in to
town is wide with a nice private university and plenty of restaurants to
have your meals.

But the biggest surprise is Broga Hill now. Saturated with climbers of
every build and creed and looks more like a carnival, I thought it
reminds me of Gasing Hill on a Sunday morning. The hill is now bare
with steps cut into the hill for the convenience of climbers so no wonder
its so popular as its an easy climb now. Convenience aside, the bare
hill now is a bane as we were literally baked in the sun on our climb
of Broga Hill though there were some relief when we entered the jungle
to go to G.Tok Wan. Nevertheless the jungle was hot and humid too and
full of blood thirsty mosquitoes. We took about 3 hours to reach G.Tok
Wan and after having our lunch on the summit we went down
immediately as we knew that the sun would be blazing hot when we
reached Broga Hill. One girl had heat stroke but luckily she recovered
when she reached the foot of the hill when we poured water over her
and gave her a wet towel to cover her head.
I would say that we could have started early to avoid the heat but after
all the dilly dally we only started the climb at around 9.45am which was
bad as when we were on our way down it was already 2pm, the hottest
time of the day.

Oh well, this will be my last time climbing Broga Hill because my matured
skin cannot take too much UV rays and will need to slather on more creams
and whatnot to counter this recent abuse.