The 20 Quick Tips that you need to know if you are planning for a camping and hiking trip at Sg. Chiling are:
1. The place is open for visitors only on Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 8 am until 6 pm.
[caption id="attachment_2703" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Sungai Chiling Fish Sanctuary Regulations KKB"]
[/caption]2. It's a great place for day trips, BBQ and picnics by the river.
3. Cooking is not allowed at the waterfall although there are still people who will sneak a portable gas stove in their bags.
[caption id="attachment_2706" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="A healthy breakfast we whipped up at the camp site using our portable stove"]
[/caption]4. After 3 pm you are not allowed to go hiking up until the waterfall due to safety reasons since it will take 1 hour to the waterfall and another hour back down. Nevertheless, you can still take a dip or picnic around the river near the entrance or the river by the roadside.
5. Entrance fee is RM 1 for each person which you will pay at the registration counter.
6. If you would like to camp, usually you don't need to book ahead of time. You can just walk in to the registration booth and pay up RM 10 deposit per person. I think the place is huge enough to accommodate a lot of campers. So no worries. There were only 5 groups of campers with minimum of 5 people per group the day we were there. Most day trip visitors will leave the place the latest at 7 pm. The RM10 is a deposit for you to maintain the cleanliness of the camping site. If you are coming with a large group, you can give a call to this number : Yusri 013-3089463 and arrange for camping site bookings. The number was given to me from the lady at the registration counter.
7. Fishing is not allowed at this fish sanctuary. It is a sanctuary for ikan kelah and these fish are obviously protected here.
8. There is a toilet, surau, a couple of wakaf and a designated camping site at this place. Camping is at your own risk. I don't see any guards around but it is generally safe to camp here since most campers are friendly and nice.
9. It takes about 5 minutes of walking from the entrance (roadside) to the registration counter. No cars/motorbikes are allowed to enter beyond the gate at the entrance. If you are camping and barbecueing this calls for heavy duty load carrying on your two shoulders. Multiple trips are required if they aren't many people to help you to carry your countless number of stuffs.
[caption id="attachment_2707" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="5min walk through this path. It's fairly flat."]
[/caption]10. The best shoes to go around this place is a zap on sandals or slippers. You can wear shoes but then again it will be soaked wet. Also be prepared to get wet right after the suspension bridge from the registration counter. For short people like me, the water level reached up until half of my body during the 6 river crossings. If you have a waterproof bag, it is highly recommended to swim across rather than wade through the current. It's faster and safer to swim across actually but you will be drenched which shouldn't be a problem.
11. You have to keep the place clean and bring back whatever trash you have made from your picnics. The huge dumpster is located near the parking lot just before the entrance. In short, you have to carry your rubbish back out yourself.
12. Don't expect to have a sparkling clean toilet or shower room. This is afterall the jungle and why bother showering when you have the nice, cold river to dip in! None of us showered because it was freaking cold. Oh, a couple of guys actually jumped into the river at night for a quick dip and just under 5 minutes, they were already back at their camps.The water was COLD!
13. Do mind the wild dogs if you are camping. Make sure you clean up your camping site after the massive BBQ cook out you had during dinner. You don't want to have the dogs sniffing down your rubbish and trashing the whole place out. They dogs didn't roam around the camping site but I did hear a couple of them barking from afar about 4ish – 5ish in the morning.
14. Be nice to your next door campers. We were literally gawking over the bunch of guys who bbq-ed with a couple of bamboo sticks and the next thing we knew, a guy came up out of the dark and offered us food! Hehe.
[caption id="attachment_2705" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="This is rice cooked in bamboo over the charcoal fire. The guys offered us this bamboo rice and some grilled chicken. Yum!"]
[/caption]15. Return the gesture of your kind next door campers by offering them your portable cooking stove when you see them cooking burger patties with their bare hands over the small fire they made for breakfast. Hehe.
[caption id="attachment_2704" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Trusty portable stove"]
[/caption]16. It's best to pack up the camp and put everything back in the car if you are planning to go hiking to the waterfalls in the morning. You will be wet, tired, hot and it will be noon by the time you come back down from the waterfall. The last thing you want to do is to pack up your tent and stuffs. At this time, you will look like crap, sunburned, wet and you'll be dead hungry!
17.This place is safe for all ladies campers and hikers although being typical Malaysian people will still question why they aren't guys who are accompanying you girls. Unless you are camping with guys who are a true campers, they are worth to drag along with. If the guys had never made BBQ fire in their entire life, don't bother asking them to tag along for company. Haha.
18. There are no monkeys at this place. Thank God! I just don't fancy this creature that much although some find them utterly cute. Hmm...
19. If you are lucky you will get leeches but we didn't. Instead we saw a huge spider. It looks poisonous but maybe it's not. I really don't know.
[caption id="attachment_2708" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Spider during trekking towards Chiling Waterfall"]
[/caption]*photo by Marl
20. The ikan kelah is a load of fun to play with. They are bunch of smart fish and you will be lucky if you can catch them with your bare hands. Don't bother trying to scoop them out with a pathetic plastic bag. We tried that, the bag broke instead. Hehe.
There you go 20 Quick Tips that you will hopefully need to know about camping and hiking at Sg.Chiling, Kuala Kubu Baru.
For more information on driving directions to Sg. Chiling - read here by DeXXy.Net
Note : To get to the waterfall, cross the suspension bridge, make a left turning and go through the rocky and wet path. You can take the right path but I think it will take you on a much farther route.
