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Title: Waterfall 1
Location: Commonwealth Forest Park, Selangor, Malaysia
Date: 17 April 2009, 1:18pm
Camera: Nikon D60 with Aperture: f/20, ISO Equiv.: 100
Exposure Time: 0.167 s (1/6)

This is a difficult shot. I was seeking for some good spot to capture the waterfall in ACTION. The surrounding area was sandy, stony, muddy and watery. Very difficult to balance my tripod. A slight move on the camera will produce blur image. I rely on the self-timer release mode for better outcome.

Title: Waterfall 1
Location: Commonwealth Forest Park, Selangor, Malaysia
Date: 17 April 2009, 12:43pm
Camera: Nikon D60 with Aperture: f/25, ISO Equiv.: 100
Exposure Time: 0.100 s (1/10)

Talking about POWER OF NATURE!

Title: Waterfall 1
Location: Commonwealth Forest Park, Selangor, Malaysia
Date: 17 April 2009, 1:49pm
Camera: Nikon D60 with Aperture: f/20, ISO Equiv.: 100
Exposure Time: 0.167 s (1/6)

Water gushing down at SUPER FAST speed. You can even hear the thunderous sound of water falling down to the river!

Title: Waterfall 1
Location: Commonwealth Forest Park, Selangor, Malaysia
Date: 17 April 2009, 1:54pm
Camera: Nikon D60 with Aperture: f/3.0, ISO Equiv.: 100
Exposure Time: 0.125 s (1/8)

I LOVE this picture :) The flow of water look like a large piece of transparent silky cloth.

Title: Waterfall 2
Location: Commonwealth Forest Park, Selangor, Malaysia
Date: 17 April 2009, 1:51pm
Camera: Nikon D60 with Aperture: f/3.0, ISO Equiv.: 100
Exposure Time: 0.167 s (1/6)

Taking waterfall shots is NOT AN EASY TASK! My camera tripod SUCKS! It's a small but considered reliable tripod. I need to squad down most of the time to find a better angle and also focusing my pictures.

Title: Waterfall 1
Location: Commonwealth Forest Park, Selangor, Malaysia
Date: 17 April 2009, 12:16pm
Camera: Nikon D60 with Aperture: f/3.8, ISO Equiv.: 100
Exposure Time: 0.077 s (1/13)

There are two huge waterfalls and three smaller falls. This waterfall 1 is really POWERFUL - the volume of water flowing down is ENORMOUS!

Title: Waterfall 2
Location: Commonwealth Forest Park, Selangor, Malaysia
Date: 17 April 2009, 1:43pm
Camera: Nikon D60 with Aperture: f/4.0, ISO Equiv.: 100
Exposure Time: 0.125 s (1/8)

Waterfall 2 is a bit milder.

Title: Waterfall 2
Location: Commonwealth Forest Park, Selangor, Malaysia
Date: 17 April 2009, 1:50pm
Camera: Nikon D60 with Aperture: f/13, ISO Equiv.: 100
Exposure Time: 0.167 s (1/6)

Lush greenery all over.

Title: The River to Waterfall
Location: Commonwealth Forest Park, Selangor, Malaysia
Date: 17 April 2009, 8:43am
Camera: Nikon D60 with Aperture: f/3.8, ISO Equiv.: 100
Exposure Time: 0.400 s (1/2)

There is o clear signage to direct visitors to the waterfalls. I move along this river to get to the waterfalls. My shoes is all wet and muddy as I need to cross over certain stretch of the river.

Title: AHHH!
Location: Commonwealth Forest Park, Selangor, Malaysia
Date: 17 April 2009, 12:43pm
Camera: Nikon D60 with Aperture: f/5.6, ISO Equiv.: 100

A sense of relief

I LOVE WATERFALL. I still remember the good times I had in Penang Botanical Garden. There are some small to medium sized waterfalls in the garden. The water was ICY COOL and it was a TOTAL BLISS spending two hours there.

So, on Thursday night, I did some googling looking for some great waterfall in Kuala Lumpur or Selangor. I stumbled upon this wonderful website http://www.nature-escapes-kuala-lumpur.com about nature exploration in Malaysia. I clicked on some links and end up on page about Commonwealth Forest Park. Hmmm....I've never heard or read about this place before. Upon reading the whole article, I was instantly attracted to this place. There are so many things to do in the park such as Camping and Cooking Out, Jungle Trekking, Mountain Biking , Jungle & Waterfall Photography, Mountain Biking, Horse Riding and more. The park is divided into lower forest, river and waterfall (for camping) and upper jungle (for recreation amenities).

I plan to discover the waterfalls in Commonwealth Forest Park. I'm not really into forest/jungle exploration because I just had a gruelling 5.5km jungle trekking in The Pine Tree Trail, Fraser's Hill.

I started my trip with a 30 minutes drive to the park. I parked my car on the big parking bay. I can see two pathways at the entrance. One of them is the tarred lane and another is a jungle trek. I decided to ask for directions. Upon entering the 'guardhouse', I can see two forest rangers. They asked me to pay a nominal RM1 entrance fee. I asked for a map but there is none. They told me to use the jungle trek to explore the park's waterfall.

I was a bit hesitant at first having another round of tiring jungle trekking. Luckily, they told me the waterfall is just 5 minutes walking distance from the entrance. So, I started trekking along the river hoping to find those wonderful waterfalls. I spent 20 minutes searching high and low for the waterfalls. The jungle treks are overgrown with trees and shrubs. I wanted to call it a day and return back to my car. Halfway, I met this big-size forest ranger puffing a piece of cigarette. He told me to look for green strings that were tied to trees.

GREEN STRINGS? What the heck is that?? Gosh....finally I saw these long pieces of plastic strings. These strings supposed to 'link' directly to the waterfalls. The forestry department can do a better job by putting up permanent and easily visible signs instead of using these strings. The strings were broken halfway. I have to find my way to the waterfall by following the river and listening to the sound of waterfalls from afar.

It is not an easy task reaching the falls. You have to cross the knee length river and also leap on those slippery stones. I only slipped once trying to cross over a 4m wide river - missed my step and landed on my back. Fortunately, I'm still holding tight to my Nikon D60 camera. It was a one hour walking from the entrance at a moderate pace - not 5 minutes!

There are two HUGE WATERFALLS and three smaller falls. I'm not really sure whether these falls are natural or man-made. The place is simply amazing and scenic! I position my tripod and camera at different location to capture the powerful flow of water. Later, I dipped my feet into the river. The water is not icy cold but clean and clear. There were three leeches sucking blood on my legs - YUCKS!

I spent another one hour at the waterfalls before walking back to my car. Overall, Commonwealth Forest Park is a great place for photography and camping. I truly enjoyed the scenery over there. Here are the remaining photos from my collection.



Commonwealth Forest Park (YouTube Videos)





Commonweatlh Forest Park, Selangor - Getting There:

1) From Kuala Lumpur head out on Route 1 past Kepong and Selayang and towards Rawang

2) Look for the brown signs for Taman Rimba Komenwel and Hutan Lipur Sg. Kanching

3) After passing through some road works, the road slopes downhill and past a housing area on the left

4) Look on the left for a single brown sign with Taman Rimba Komenwel and slow down

5) Take the quick exit left on the trunk road parallel to the main road (Caution: very easy to miss)

6) Continue for 100 meters to the parking lot for the lower forest or cross the bridge to access the road to the upper forest park

Fees and Facilities:

Lower Forest (Selangor Forestry Department)

Entry fee RM 1
Food and drink may be available on weekends, but better to bring your own
Toilet facility available and a few covered shelters for picnics or rainstorms
Camping available for RM 5 per site (public) and RM 2 per site (students)
For further information please contact:

Pejabat Hutan Daerah Hulu Selangor
48000 Rawang, Selangor
Commonwealth Forest Park
Tel: 03-60916131

Jabatan Perhutanan Selangor
Tingkat 3, Bangunan Sultan
Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah
40000 Shah Alam, Selangor
Tel: 03-55190443, 03-55447490
Fax: 03-55102358

Upper Forest (Commonwealth Forest Park and Resort)

Tourism packages for various activities
Chalets available for package groups (mainly corporate)
Public Access Fees (may be revised by operator)

RM 5 for vehicles
RM 2 for motorcycles
RM 2 per person
Resort's Information Center:
Commonwealth Forest Park and Resort
KM 23, Jalan KL-Rawang
48000 Rawang, Selangor
Tel: 03-55105879
Fax: 03-55119062

More info:


Commonwealth Forest Park Location (Map):


4 comments

  1. AdeYing Says:
  2. This comment has been removed by the author.  
  3. AdeYing Says:
  4. now u make me wanna go there!!! i might just go there to camp one of these days!! looks like a nice place..hopefully it is save enough for me to set my tent there

     
  5. shloke Says:
  6. @AdeYing,Hmmmmmm........I just returned from Kanching Recreational Forest. I have to say Kanching is da BOMB! Over four MEGA-WATERFALLS - like a medium-sized Niagara Falls!!!! The place is WAY BETTER than Commonwealth forest Park. You should pay a visit to Kanching!!

    I went there today (Wednesday). Quite a lot of people including foreign tourist. The place is managed by Tourism Ministry. Try to avoid weekends as the place will be crowded.

    I'll be updating a post about the place soon.

    Cheers!
    mylo

     
  7. Anonymous Says:
  8. First of all,love your work. It is awesome! Thank you for blogging and sharing all about your adventure.

    I am planning to do one of these waterfalls but would appreciate if I can get some tips on the directions. I must admit that I am hopeless when come to this matter and specially being new in this country. I was looking at the map you had to the Commomwealth Forest Park and Resort. Am I right that the Plaza Toll Rawang can be reached using the NKVE highway? -Jackie-

     
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shloke
Traveling & photography are the most rewarding & enriching experiences in my life. Photography is all about discovery, enjoying myself, having adventure, learning people & nature. The greatest experience for me is the connection I felt with NATURE. If you haven’t seen Malaysia, you haven’t seen the world! My photography works are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported.
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