By Brandon Goh

Less than an hour’s drive from the Woodlands Checkpoint is Mount Pulai, standing at 600 metres above sea level in Johor Bahru.

(For context, our tallest peak, Bukit Timah [the actual hill], stands at 163.63m tall: )

As the nearest mountain to Singapore, it takes only about half a day to scale its peak and come back home. It's barely high enough to be counted as a "mountain"; yet it doesn't at all fall short of providing a full mountain experience.

Here’s why hikers and families should visit Mount Pulai at least once:

1. Crisp, cool air in the morning.

Unlike Genting Highlands, Mount Pulai's peak is not high enough for you to enjoy a cooling climate.

However, its altitude does make it consistently 3 to 7 degrees cooler than at ground level, especially when you reach mid-range in the morning. If you start your ascent early enough, you'll enjoy a cool 25-27^oC breeze, which gets even cooler during the wet season.

Mount Pulai is always cloud-capped in the early mornings and during rainy weather!

2. It's pretty much as couch-potato-friendly as a mountain can get.

With its wide, tarred roads, this is one of the easiest mountains to climb in Malaysia.

This is also a plus point for dainty city dwellers allergic to mud and insects, who can now enjoy nature while keeping a safe distance from it, ironically. Even children and the elderly can reach the peak; how about that?

And if you're more adventurous, there's a more challenging jungle trail option that you can take. Singapore blogger Simon Chan shares this super nifty infographic comparing the trails side by side:

3. Super-friendly people

While hiking Mount Pulai, you'll enter a surreal environment where people actually greet you as they walk past.

No, not the stilted, awkward “hi-byes” in the office or the overly-wide grins of members of certain churches who can’t wait to save you, but genuine “good morning!”s and smiles that fill the air with a kampong spirit long lost to Singapore’s urbane HDB flats.

4. Natural tap water

Icy sky juice is channelled into tubes, flowing out just like it would from a tap, except that it’s 100% natural ground and rainwater, and perpetually on.

Despite its avouched cleanliness by our friendly counterparts, we'd advise you to use the hose at the highest point rather than those at the foothills, if you’re a stickler for hygiene. In fact, many Malaysians drink the water from the topmost “tap”.

5. Two non-barricaded scenery viewing spots at the summit:

The infographic above shows the other one. Quite pretty, no?

For those to whom nature is just homogenous greenery, there might not be much to see, but such scenery cannot be found in Singapore and there is something very peaceful and refreshing about a stretch of endless greenery.

6. A lesson in appreciation like no other

Yes, virgin rainforest, birds and all – simply amazing. But more importantly, hiking Mount Pulai will really make you appreciate NParks’ management of Singapore’s parks and nature reserves.

What better way is there of educating our kids and ourselves about the importance of environmental cleanliness than seeing loads of trash dumped at the waterfall, left to rot in Mother Nature’s artery? The authorities in question do not bother to manage such ecologically valuable land – it’s not even a nature reserve and logging activities have encroached upon its hillside – and so there are no dustbins.

Clean-up initiatives by Singaporeans have even been carried out before. So few words, so much import!

So here's a very important reminder: Please bring your own trash bag. Don't be a littering douche.

"How idyllic! Let's go tomorrow morning!" you might be thinking. We feel compelled to first inform you of the following:

a) There are no toilets.

Visitors are advised to use those at nearby petrol stations or the one at the foot of the trek. It is part of someone’s house, but is available for public use. It shouldn’t be hard to spot on a weekend morning, where people may be seen queuing up for it.

Many others, especially males, try to find a bushy area to hide behind and do their business — hence my advice for you to use the uppermost “tap” rather than those at lower points.

Protip: taking small sips of an isotonic drink consistently will keep you hydrated and your bladder less burdened than gulps of plain water taken at sparser intervals.

b) You'll need a car or chartered van/bus.

No, you can’t get a taxi because there won't be any around the area to bring you home.

As for directions to Mount Pulai, you can refer to Chan's blog for driving instructions, or save the Google road maps on your phone and rely on the GPS.

c) You'll see occasional military vehicles driving on the road.

Because an incongruous military camp decided to plonk itself atop the mountain, chances are you will encounter military vehicles driving up and down the road.

It would therefore be wise to consider this before packing a picnic as large as the one my friends and I did, expecting to be able to lay it right across the path:

Because the vehicles sent us scrambling off and on the road three times, before we gave up, moved ourselves to the side, and saw no other thing rambling by the rest of the time we spent there.

Nonetheless, I highly recommend Mount Pulai as a weekend single-day trip for you and your friends or family — it'll be well worth your while.

Top photo by Brandon Goh.

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