Bukit Broga and Rabbit Fun Land Trip with NTU ODAC

The trip to Bukit Broga, Semenyih with NTU ODAC can be considered as my first trip where I took photography seriously. At that time, I only had my Nokia Lumia 1020 (along with an assortment of cheap Taobao lenses which attach to the phone's camera). I tried editing the photos used in this blog post in Lightroom and was pleasantly surprised by the amount of details I managed to recover. The photos will not make large prints for sure, but they are good enough for web-sharing.

The short hiking trip took place from 10 - 11 December 2014. It was a 2N1D trip without shower and sleep as we crossed the Woodlands checkpoint at night. As the checkpoint was crowded, we decided to walk across the causeway. Although I had heard of people crossing by foot during busy periods, I did not know that there were no dedicated walkways for pedestrians. We had to dash across the paths of motorcyclists and cars.

After several heart-stopping moments, we arrived at JB Sentral and waited for our bus to arrive at 10.30 pm. Our bus driver got lost and we reached Broga Hill later than expected. Nevertheless, we still made it in time for the sunrise.

Sunrise at Bukit Broga Hill (second stop). I really like the colour rendition by my Lumia 1020.

Another view of the beautiful scenery at Bukit Broga Hill.

A blurry shot of my back-view taken by my friend.

We had our breakfast on the hill and I ate two slices of bread with kaya and instant noodles. After breakfast, we descended the hill and waited for Rabbit Fun Land to open. The toilets at the base of the hill has a RM 1 entrance fee and the sinks had no water. There were stalls selling coconut and shirts emblazoned with 'BROGA HILL' for around RM 15 as well.

Breakfast made using camping cookware.

Entrance of Bukit Broga Hill. I slipped and fell right at the signboard (as usual).

Rabbit Fun Land, despite the name, housed other animals like deer, horses, goats etc. The place was not well-maintained as the animals were unkempt and there was an obvious stench. The animals were treated like toys by visitors which was quite upsetting.

You can buy rabbit meat here...

The deer was shy in the presence of humans.

The amount of details in the photos taken with my Lumia 1020 under good light is amazing and actually comparable to photos taken with DSLRs. Sadly, my Lumia 1020 died a few years ago, otherwise I think it would make a good vlogging camera. I have a strong urge to fix it and allow it to rejoin my arsenal of photographic equipment.

I did not remember how beautiful the sunrise at Bukit Broga was until I looked at these photographs again.