Fraser’s Hill through the years: My journey.

Fraser’s Hill through the years: My journey

By Alfred Chia.

Since I started birding in the late 80’s, I must have visited Fraser’s Hill more than 40 times. A hill station situated between Genting Highlands to the south & Cameron Highlands to the north, it has never failed to draw me back even up till today.

I’ve taken the rickety Pahang Lin Siong bus in the earlier years when it was still in operation up to the hill station numerous times. Always an experience riding on it, the aged bus will painfully drag itself up the final eight kilometres from the Gap to Fraser’s, the driver changing its noisy gear from first to second and then back from second to first again many times. Foul-smelling diesel fumes will be emitted each time it makes an ascent, much to the consternation of the long line of cars and motorcycles that would have formed behind it over time. A couple of times, it even had to stop on an ascent to change its gear, the gradient of the slope being too much for its feeble body! Everytime it does that, I clasped my hands and pray that it will not roll back downhill!

Morning mist just outside Hemmant Trail

From grand old Tudor-style bungalows like Raub, Kuantan, Johor and Singapore House to Ye Olde Smokehouse; from the former Merlin Hotel (now Shahzan Inn) to the crammed rooms at the old Puncak Inn and from Silver Park, Telekom Apartments to Pine Resort, I’ve stayed in them all. There’s also the now demolished Jelai Highland Resort and the long-gone Temerloh Steakhouse where you can hear Rusty-naped Pitta calling from the ravine from your room.

Pine Resort

For food, there’s the Hill View Restaurant serving Chinese food on the left side of Puncak Inn and Arzed Restaurant on its right serving delicious nasi lemak and roti canai, always a good place for breakfast after a bout of early morning birding. As you eat, Eurasian Tree Sparrows hopped on the ground beside you, picking up crumbs of food that had been dropped while Black-throated Sunbirds flit among the flowers by the side. The sparrows are hardly ever seen nowadays! Both restaurants are still around but have since been relocated to the playground area further uphill. I also remembered fondly Kheng Yuen Lee Eating Shop (now permanently closed) on the left of the approach road leading to the Clock Tower where I had a simple plate of fried mee hoon or curry laksa, washed down with a can of alcohol-free stout or teh!

But it was our avian friends that first attracted me to Fraser’s. With names like niltavas, minlas, sibias and mesias, it conjure up feelings of mystique and excitement for me then. I had to go, if just to see what these birds look like! And that began my love affair with the hill station and the many birds that call it home.

All around Fraser’s, you hear birds singing and calling. You wake up to the melodious song of the Oriental Magpie Robin and the Chestnut-capped Laughingthrush. Silver-eared Mesias, Streaked Spiderhunters, Fire-tufted and Black-browed Barbets and Long-tailed Sibias added to the morning chorus. Not to be left out, Orange-bellied Leafbirds, Fire-breasted Flowerpeckers, with their tik-tik-tik calls, Black-throated Sunbirds and Grey-chinned Minivets joined in. The call of Dark Hawk Cuckoo in the distant valley is always a welcome addition too.

Silver-eared Mesia

Large Niltava

Rufous-browed Flycatcher

Dusky Broadbills

My long-time Birdman friend of Fraser’s Durai accompanied me on many such trips in the earlier years. With him, I’ve walked up the 8km road from the Gap to Fraser’s three times and the loop at Telekom Loop several times too. Such long walks, although tiring, are always productive and often produced many species of birds. Many bird waves were also encountered.

Those who have birded with Durai in the 90s, when we have only Ben King’s Birds of South East Asia, surely cannot forget how Durai memorized all the FH birds by their reference numbers in the book.

Walking the trails brought me immense satisfaction and results and nothing beats the exhilaration one gets when you come face-to-face with a rarity. I’ve encountered Mountain Peacock Pheasant twice: once in Hemmant Trail and another along the Abu Suradi Trail while walking the leech-infested trail of Bishop’s produced Large Scimitar Babbler, Rusty-naped Pitta and Malaysian Hill Partridge. Bird baiting was unheard of in the earlier years and nothing beats the excitement of encountering such birds via the good old way of birding through sheer hard work and perseverance.

White-tailed Robin

Also unforgettable were my encounters with some rarely seen species. Pygmy Blue Flycatcher was seen twice in a day on the road near the trailhead of Bishop’s while it was always a delight to see Brown Bullfinch high up on the conifers at High Pines garden. Calling Cutias on Jalan Valley (it actually pooped on my car, how’s that for a poop!) and along Telekom Loop, near Green Acres, also stopped me in my tracks on a couple of occasions and it was a joy watching them picking out food from among the epiphytes. These three species are even rarer nowadays in Fraser’s and you’d be very lucky if you see one.

I also had the fortune of witnessing a nest of the Long-tailed Broadbill being parasited by the Little Pied Flycatcher at Bishop’s Trail while the first sighting of a Barred Eagle Owl from Fraser’s Hill atop an antenna of the Jerantut Bungalow with Mike Chong, Dennis Yong and Kim Seng was memorable.

Little Pied Flycatcher

Long-tailed Broadbill

Fraser’s Hill International Bird Race, now into its 34th year this June, has attracted more and more participants each year. The organisers had done a great job getting schools and families involved. It augurs well for the future if such interest can be sustained through the years. Usually held in June, the hill station become festival-like on bird race day, with the town centre packed with various bird-related activities. Like-minded friends rekindle their friendship and share their experiences. New friendships were also forged.

Bird race day at Town Centre

I took part in quite a number of the bird races through the years with my team-mates, emerging tops in the advanced category on a few occasions. Such races get your adrenaline flowing and it was always an experience racing against time to get as many species of birds as possible in the time allocated. We learned through experience too that the winning margin between the top three teams can be as close as one species of bird! And therein lies the importance of trying your best to squeeze in that last bird, even if it is during the last one minute of the race!

Where mammals and primates are concerned, the best and most memorable one has to be the beautiful Malay Weasel that Ju Lin and I saw one morning along Hemmant Trail, scurrying down the slope across the trail and down the valley, only to come up once again not one minute later to cross the trail to go up the slope yet again. It’s distinctive golden body, appearing almost yellow, will always be etched in my mind whenever I walk Hemmant Trail.

Malayan Flying Frog

One of the most distinctive call in Fraser’s Hill has to be the far-carrying whooping calls & yelling of the Siamangs, the largest of all gibbons. Hearing their calls reverberating from the forests is always so soothing and gives one a feeling that the forest is very much alive.

Siamangs opposite the Children’s Playground

White-thighed Surili are common

Dusky Langur

Of the three main hill stations in West Malaysia, Fraser’s Hill remains the only one which is relatively unscathed by commercial development. But this is not a given and constant vigilance is needed by those who care about her natural heritage to ensure it remains a hill station where biodiversity continue to thrive. Recent proposed development of a 15-storey resort and spa at the site of the demolished Maybank Lodge and Jelai Resort is one example of a senseless and unnecessary development. The existence of a heritage non-government organisation like the Persatuan Alam & Warisan Bukit Fraser to constantly provide checks and scrutiny to thwart such acts is to be welcomed and supported. Fraser’s Hill is a repository of immense diversity of flora and fauna that needs to be protected for all Malaysians and the world to enjoy.