The state of Perak in Malaysia is known for the earliest tin mining industry in the country, harking back to colonial times and even now boasting of an impressive array of equipment—albeit scarcely in use now—visible from the train and bus routes as they skim the highways. The actual quarries of those days are more or less closed and set away in the hinterland, and one such spot rests upon a slight elevation known as ‘Frog Hill,’ which has since become a popular hiking destination, but only for the most intrepid.
But so what, decided my friend and I. We are not seasoned adventurers, but we do have that incorrigible streak of curiosity that seems to help with breaking the monotony of our otherwise dull jobs. One fine morning, we therefore decided to take off in search of the amphibian attraction. Almost missing the correct by-lane we had to turn around for a kilometer and then had to make for a suspiciously narrow dirt track overgrown with shrubs and running between large tracts of waterlogged paddy farmlands, and going deeper and deeper into the surrounding village before finally giving up on yet another misadventure!
The GPS seemed to be completely off the mark and useless, and a Google search revealed the only somewhat detailed blog by two dogged wanderers who had somehow traced the rain-soaked, almost invisible trail to the erstwhile tin quarry; thus the inefficacy of the GPS was revealed, and the realization also dawned that the pictures doing the rounds of the Internet were mostly captured by drones, which make even the most mundane appear insanely magical…
Nevertheless, our little excursion had been hair-raising in its own way, what with the drive in our tiny car terrified that we would slide off into one of the patches of wet paddy barely skimming the water’s edge, and finding the mention of not a well-marked hiking trail, but instead a set of geographical co-ordinates with which to reach the site sought after. Such pursuits, we admitted, were for another day—maybe with a small army of hardcore enthusiasts in tow.
