Gunung Panti Day Hike : From Panti Barat to Panti Tengah (Forest Trail >>> Lukut Trail)

 

Gunung Panti is no stranger to most regular hikers, especially Johorians and Singaporeans. It’s the second most popular day hike destination, apart from Gunung Pulai due to its proximity to JB and Singapore and its easy to access trail head. However, most people only trek via the forest trail, the same one I hiked a couple of months ago. Wide, clearly marked and full of people, this trail is likened to that of “a highway in the mountain”, and not many hikers are actually aware of another less trekked trail – the Lukut trail. In fact, this may just be the official trail as there is a big arch gate at the trail head with the wordings: “Tapak Rekreasi Gunung Panti” (“Mount Panti Recreational Site”).

Taman Rekreasi Gunung Panti

Fun fact: Gunung Panti is also nicknamed “Swine Head Mountain” among the local Chinese hikers, as it is said to resemble the animal’s head when looked from afar. 

I was lucky when Joe who nowadays seldom join us for short leisure hike is joining us one fine day for a hike to Gunung Panti, and this time around, he decided to guide us down from Lukut trail. So our hiking route that day would be an ascent via forest trail (the usual way) but instead of heading back there, we would descend via Lukut. For this, Kenny who going to do some solo adventure somewhere that morning will be picking us up at Lukut trail head.

Breakfast before starting our hike

How To Get There

As Gunung Panti is located at Kota Tinggi, you’ll need a car to get there from Singapore or JB. It’s about an hour drive from downtown JB or 1.5 hours from Singapore, but considering the traffic at both checkpoints, the total travelling time from Singapore is around 2-3 hours, so time your journey wisely.

There are two three known trails to trek to the summit:

🔼Forest Trail (this is the most commonly used trail, also our starting point)

Address: Jalan Lombong, Batu 8, 81900 Kota Tinggi, Johor Malaysia

Coordinates: 1.809824, 103.846976

Waze: Gunung Panti Hiking Point

To get to the trail head of forest trail, drive to Kota Tinggi then follow the signboard to Air Terjun Kota Tinggi and stop just before a small bridge that go across the river. You will find two junctions on the right side of the road, where the 1st one will lead to Rainforest Resort (tarred road) and the 2nd one that will lead to the trail head (small road with no premix). Take the 2nd junction and drive until you find the traffic barrier. You know you are in the right place if you see many cars parked along the roadside. Park your car along the same road, and walk pass the traffic barrier, and go straight until you reach the oil palm plantation.

🔼Lukut Trail (this is longer, steeper trail and lesser known with high chance of getting lost, and was our point of exit)

There isn’t much resources online on how to get to this trail head, and I forgot to pinpoint the location when I exited. However, I looked through the map and it should be around Kampung Lukut (hence the name of the trail) and Kampung Batu Lintang.

Coordinates: 1.813283, 103.895037 (not sure about this, as I agak-agak, I included some photo I took of the location at the end of this post. Will definitely be updating this post again when I am sure of the exact location).

🔼Third Trail (this is a trail hardly mentioned, but I believe it leads to Panti Timur and Panti Utara, as well as the Transformer Rock, before going towards Panti Tengah and Panti Barat. A real Trans Panti?)

Sources online mentioned that the trail head is near Panti Bird Santuary. I’ll update this if I ever get the chance to hike via this trail.

Ascent Via Forest Trail

Tree Trunk Bridge, Rest Stop and Big Wall Rock

After parking your car at the side of the road, walk over the red barrier and walk on the path leading into the plantation. After a short walk, you will come to a diverged path into the forest, on your left. You won’t miss it with the trees clearly marked with three red strokes. Take that trail and you are entering the forest.

Until you see the entrance to the jungle trail. See that tree with three red stroke? Turn left here

The forest trail started flat and gentle and about 15 minutes later, you will reach a small creek with fallen tree trunk bridge. 

Creek crossing

After crossing the bridge, the path starts to gradually incline, but also undulating with some ups and downs. Half way through the trek, you will come across with rest stop with a fallen tree trunk. The trek is step from here onwards, so it’s a good spot to rest before continuing on.

Rest stop

After bracing through the steep slopes, you will reach a 90-degree rock wall, which is about 100m away from the peak. You can either climb up or take the staircase on the left. 

90 degree wall rock

Climbing cautiously

Following the rock wall, you will make the final push to the summit but fret not, as it’s only a short journey of about 50m. You will find wooden bench and table where hikers enjoy their breakfast with a view of the Sumalayang Mountain Range. However, this is not the real summit. Walked further to the right (where it connects to Lukut trail), and you will come to another open ground, where the sign of Gunung Panti Barat is.

The peak is on the other side

(For a more detail write up of Forest Trail, read here)

Picnic at The Summit

Just like before, we have our picnic near the bench where we enjoy watermelon, kuihs, coffee and tea while chit-chatting about random topics. Time seems to pass quickly, and we spent about an hour and a half up there. 

Picnic at the summit

With a group photo taken to commemorate our hike, we proceed to follow Joe towards Lukut trail. Two uncles who had overhead our plan to descent via Lukut trail were interested to join and we allowed them to tag along.

Group photo at the peak

The view of Sumalayang range from the peak

Descent Via Lukut Trail

Kem Tengah

The first section of the Lukut trail led us towards Panti Tengah. The trail here is not difficult and quite flat. However, since it is not as frequently hiked as the forest trail, the path is much narrower in comparison. 

Descending via Lukut trail

It's much rawer here

Keep following markers

After about half an hour we reached Kem Tengah (Panti Tengah). There is some view here but partly obstructed by trees. It was a little cloudy when we were there, so I could barely register what we could see from the viewpoint.

Reach Kem Tengah

494m above sea level

Group photo before we continue to the peak

View from Kem Tengah

Quite obstructed

Transformer Junction

After a quick group photo at Kem Tengah, we moved on. About 15 minutes after Kem Tengah, we came across a Y Junction. The trail on the left which is marked with a ribbon tied on a tree leads towards Transformer Rock and another Panti trail (Panti Timur and Panti Utara), while the one on the right leads towards Lukut exit. Of course, we took the right one, but part of me is excited for any future opportunity to explore the rest of Gunung Panti.

Turn left towards Transformer, turn right towards Lukut exit

Steep Descent

After the junction, we finally had to start descending steeply. From this part onwards, we went significantly slower than our usual pace as we have a teenage girl in our group who is hiking for the first time. 

Steep descent

Rock which resembles a rice dumpling

Petai flower

 

Poisonous mushrooms

Not someone who exercises regularly, she wasn’t too fit and had already burned herself out during the ascent. As a result, she could only descend very slowly. Since it was almost everyone’s first time doing the Lukut Trail, we decided to hike in a pack and not to split up. The trail has many divergence and it is best to stay together to avoid getting lost.

Exit – Tapak Recreaksi Gunung Panti

The steep slope went on for about half an hour before we finally get to walk on flatter terrain. At 1.30pm, we finally walked out into an oil palm plantation where Kenny’s 4wd had been awaiting us for the passed two hours. 

Nearing the exit

Kenny's car awaiting us here

There's even toilet here

Kenny drove all the drivers back to their car and the rest of us who couldn’t fit into his 4wd had walked a short distance (about less than 10 minutes) out from the plantation. We waited at the road side for Kenny to return and pick all up for lunch.

Walked out from the oil palm plantation

Exit from the plantation where we came out from (right)

We walked a little further until this house (right), and waited for Kenny's car

Lunch at Restoran Everybody

The team has been to Kiang Kee Bak Kut Teh Restorant Sin Mei Lee for countless time whenever they hike Gunung Panti, so when the two uncles who followed us for the descent suggested a new place, we decided to tag along. Service is a little slow, but the food is generally not bad. We ordered steam fish (Teochew-style), sweet and sour pork, stir-fry kangkong and homemade beancurd. Everything was pretty good although the sweet and sour pork unfortunately comes in tiny bites so we taste more of its flour than flesh. There is also a public toilet (3 stalls in the ladies) next to the restaurant so we got take turn showering while waiting for our food.

Lunch at Restoran Everybody

Restoran Everybody

Address: Jalan Mawai, 81900 Kota Tinggi, Johor, Malaysia

Operating hours: unknown

After lunch, the girls and I headed back to Singapore, ready to get back to our mundane weekly 9-6 the next day.

Epilogue

Lukut Trail is definitely a more interesting trail compared to Forest Trail and I was glad Joe was there to guide us along. Having chosen to descent via Lukut Trail instead of making our ascent here proved to be the right choice as it is quite steep at certain section and would be too challenging for Mei Mei who only joined us for the first time that day. 

Direction towards Gunung Panti peak (where we descended from)

However, I do think it would be a better training ground for the rest of us as compared to the Forest Trail. I’m actually interested to return for an ascent and descent via Lukut, not to mention another chance to hike the other trail. Real Trans Panti anyone?

Let's do another Panti someday

Although our descent is longer than planned, what matters most is that all of us came out safe and sound. Mei Mei did well for her first time albeit struggling the entire descent. She will definitely return stronger if she ever decides to continue hiking. Keep it up girl!

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Thank you for reading all the way till the end. Too much info and you just want a summarised itinerary but too lazy to scroll back up? Here’s a summary I’ve drafted up for you. Hope it helps you with your planning.

Itinerary:

**Disclaimer: Below is my timing according to my speed. So please take it with a grain of salt, as everyone have different pace. Have fun hiking this mountain. *wink*

Day Hike

Total distance hiked: approximately 10km (one creek crossing) 

0730: Gather at trail head

0800: Start hiking

0815: Reach log bridge – creek crossing

0845: Reach rest point (break 10 minutes)

0930: Reach rock wall (break 15 minutes)

1000: Reach peak (puncak Panti Barat)

1130: Descent

1200: Panti Tengah (Kem Tengah)

1215: Transformer Junction

1330: Reach trail head

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-Thanks for reading-