My Very First Blog

In my last post, I mentioned about my fear of heights. I was surprised to receive many comments from bloggers saying they suffer from this fear too. I wondered how this fear came about.

I am sure that when we were first born, we were not afraid of anything! As a baby, we were not afraid of climbing out of the cradle. We were not afraid of falling down because we had not experienced pain from falling. Try putting a baby at the rooftop and I am sure the baby will be enjoying himself while we adults suffer from panic attacks!

So it seems that this fear of heights or acrophobia is a learned reaction. Somewhere along the way, we may have experienced pain from falling, or we had adults putting this fear in us by constantly drumming into us not to climb the stairs or out the window.

One way to cure acrophobia is to go for hypnosis. This method will help us trace back to our childhood and find the cause of our phobia. I thought this was time consuming and probably costly as I may need to engage a hypnotherapist.

Another way is to practise behaviour therapy. One kind of behaviour therapy is to gradually exposing yourself to your fear. You may start with climbing up a short ladder, then progress to looking out the window of a tall building, to climbing up the rooftop and so on.

Another kind is to immediately expose yourself to your most fearful situation without gradual steps.

I decided to go for the latter. By going canopy walking at FRIM.

I know, I know. It's just walking on a suspended bridge. Thousands have probably walked on it without any unfortunate incident. How dangerous can it be?

Well, those who do not suffer from acrophobia will never understand someone with acrophobia. I tell you, walking that suspended bridge is like risking my life!

Confucius once said "A journey of a thousand miles begin with a single step". And so with much hesitancy, I placed my right foot forward.



And I just walked without looking down. The bridge was pretty sturdy, I thought. I walked with the help of the ropes by the sides.

And then I reached the middle part of the bridge. I did not know why but I decided to look down. Oh my God! My heart almost popped out! I was very high up, as I could see the top of the trees below me. Falling down below would spell instant death!

My legs were turning a little rubbery like and I felt slightly dizzy.

Even then, I was thinking, should I take some photos here? I found myself saying, "Are you mad? You can't even stand steadily with both hands holding onto the ropes, you want to let go of the ropes to take some God damned photos?"

And so I steadied myself and walked on. I could see a wooden platform at the end of the bridge. I made myself walked a little faster to reach it. When I finally stepped onto the platform, I heaved a sigh of relief.

I looked back at the bridge I just walked, bent down and took this photo.



I rested for a while at this platform. I realised I did not dare go too near the edge of the platform as standing near the edge made me feel dizzy again. I was so glad there was no one near me at that time as the platform could only take the maximum load of 4 persons!



I have to say the scenery around me was quite beautiful. But I did not take any photos as I was more interested in crossing the next bridge.

I proceeded to step onto the second suspended bridge. This time, I felt braver and calmer. When I reached the middle, I decided to stand there and enjoy the view. It was great! But I still could not bring myself to take any photos!

Then I reached the second platform which was slightly bigger than the first one. No wonder it could take up to 8 persons!



On top of this platform, I saw some breathtaking views and could not help taking some photos.







And then I was off again onto another suspension bridge and another platform. I would not say that my fear of heights had completely disappeared, but it had certainly reduced to a level that I felt was manageable.



Finally I reached the end of the canopy walkway, after walking all 150 metres of it! Yes, I made it!! It was a good feeling indeed!





Now that I have conquered the canopy walkway at FRIM, what's next?

Well, I am thinking about going for the longest canopy walkway in the world! Do you know where that is? Believe it or not, it's right here in Malaysia, in one of the oldest rainforests in the state of Pahang. Yes, it's none other than Taman Negara National Park!

The canopy walkway at Taman Negara is 500 metres long, which is more than 3 times the length of the one I've just walked in FRIM. And it's also higher, at 40 metres above ground as compared to FRIM's 30 metres.

Anyone interested to join me?

I have acrophobia. If that sounds alien to you, well, it actually means a fear of heights.

Somehow, I don't think my phobia is that serious, but I do get dizzy when I am somewhere high looking down. Like on top of a building, or a mountain, or a bridge.

So yesterday, I decided to face my fear. Yes, either I fight it or I allow it to haunt me for life!

What did I do?

Well, I went to FRIM in Kepong. If you don't already know, there's a canopy walkway in the jungle at FRIM, which is like a suspended bridge about 150 metres long and about 30 metres above ground.

Now, I am a lover of nature. I love the forests and the sound of wildlife around me. I love the smell of plants and I like to hear the sound of river flowing in the distance. That's the reason why I love to go FRIM to jog and to walk the jungle trails.

Although I've been there many times, and passed by the canopy walkway each time, I have never tried going up the canopy before, probably because I have this fear of heights! Well, all that changed yesterday.

I could not find anyone free to accompany me. It's a working day, by the way. Who in their right mind would follow me to go walking in the jungle and climb up a suspended bridge in the late morning? So I guess I had to face my fear all alone! No one to help me if I suddenly go paralysed with fear in the middle of the bridge! Boo hoo! Well, so be it!

I arrived at FRIM at about 11.15am. After paying RM5 at the guardhouse, I drove my car inside. Oh, just driving along the road made me feel so relaxed. The vast greeneries seemed to welcome me with open heart. For a moment, I forgot about the canopy walk.

Everytime I go to FRIM, I always thank God for the forests and the nature that God bestowed upon us. I don't understand why humans would want to cut down the trees and log the forests. It breaks my heart each time I see trees being chopped down in the name of development!

After parking my car, I went straight to FRIM's One Stop Centre to purchase the ticket for the canopy walkway. After being briefed about the walkway, I registered and paid RM5 for the ticket. The lady told me the walkway will be closed by 2.30pm so I should not wait too long to go there.

I left the One Stop Centre and walked a short distance to enter the Rover Tracks after passing the mosque. I often go jogging here, so this place was like my backyard to me.


Map courtesy of FRIM

Here's how the Rover Track looks like, with greeneries all around.





I really think my blood pressure drops a few notches when I am surrounded by these trees and plants! Somehow, I just feel so comfortable being with nature.

After walking for about 900 metres, I reached an open space area where I saw this signboard directing the way to the Canopy Walkway.



The steps you see are the beginning of the jungle trail.



Inside the jungle trail, it was really shady as the trees blocked out most of the sunshine. You could hear sounds of animals and birds here.

As I went deeper, the steps became steeper and it was getting harder to climb. In fact, when I first came here, it was physically demanding for me, and it still is, though I'm slightly fitter now. If you have never exercised before, you will definitely find the jungle trail a huge challenge!



At one point, it was very steep and you just keep going up and up with no end in sight! If you have leg pain and heart problems, this may not be the place for you. But don't let me scare you! As long as you are quite healthy, you should give this jungle trail a try! It may leave you breathless, but you will be much fitter for it.

Some parts of the trail had wooden planks on the ground as a small stream ran below the planks.



I was in awe with some jungle sceneries here I just had to capture them on my handphone camera.





Finally, after about 15 minutes climbing the steep jungle trail, I reached the entrance hut to the Canopy Walkway. I entered the hut and passed the ticket to the person in charge.

As I stepped onto the suspended bridge, I could feel the fear coming. Somehow, I got to do this. And do it alone! To some people, this is no big deal. But to me, who have a fear of heights, it was a big deal.

I held on tight to the ropes as I put my right foot forward.



Will I make it? Find out in my next post coming right up!