I went for a second trip to Perhentian Island in March and a return short trip to Genting Highlands in April this year (I have written the travel diary on both trips respectively). Then, in May, I joined the company's sports club who organized and subsidized day trip to Gua Tempurong and Lata Kinjang Waterfall. In June, I took a break to Sunway Lagoon Theme Park. In August, I went to Redang Island again. The most recent trip was to Pulau Besar Johor last month.
As usual, I would like to share with you my travel experiences gained during the trips mentioned about. I hope you will enjoy reading them. As I have received some feedbacks saying that my travel diary was rather too lengthy, therefore I will try my best to cut it short and precise.
Gua Tempurong
Surprisingly I received an e-mail sent by the president of our company's sports club on organizing a day trip to Gua Tempurong and Lata Kinjang Waterfall. I did try to organize one by myself last time but due to poor response, I had to put the plan aside. The trip was really cheap as the sports club had subsidized part of the cost. Immediately I confirmed my participation of the trip.
On 25th May, I took a taxi back to office in Segambut our departure point at about 6 o'clock in the morning. I was the third person who reached before the departure time, however most of the participants, as usual being a common Malaysian, were late. The response of the trip from the staff was rather too disappointed, as most of the participants were friends of our staff; there were less than 10 staff that joined the trip whereas the rest are outsiders. The trip was initially organized for the benefits of the staff but as expected nowadays there were not many people like to go on such adventurous activities.
The journey to Gua Tempurong was quite comfortable as we were using our company's luxury coach and traveling on the North-South Highway known as one of the best in the world. I was falling asleep during the coach journey in order to retain my energy for the cave exploring activities, as I did not have a good sleep the night before.
It was used to be a very narrow and rocky path leading to Gua Tempurong from the main road last time, but just recently the State authority had opened up another entrance by building a tarred road and also a spacious car park area in order to promote this place. We equipped ourselves with the necessity for the cave exploring and waiting for our turn to go into the cave. It was quite many people visiting the place that day. A local guide for the cave exploring led us the way to climb all the 5 platforms and return by river; we took the Top of the World and Short River Adventure Tour which would take about 2 and a half hours journey. The formation of the rocks inside this limestone hill was fascinating. The journey climbing up hill was quite comfortable as there were walkways and platforms have been built up to the last platform so called Top of the World. There were some lights in the cave along the walkways but we still have to depend on our torchlights to have a better look on the rocks.
It was really amazing, the cave was huge and well preserved with lots of rocks formation and furthermore the cave was clean and not smelly! It was used to be a tin mining area long time ago and later on it became a hiding place for the communist last time, and now it becomes one of the famous places of interest. The authority used an Australian engineer to build the walkways and platforms inside the cave last time and the construction work cost billions of dollars and the State government is now still repaying the loan.
The local guide was humor and knowledgeable. We had a very pleasant trip inside the cave. He showed us a lot of the nature painting works and the amazing formation of rocks. There was one huge rock looked like a long hair pregnant woman but our guide said it looked more like a fat woman to him. He even showed us how a monkey driving a car, a dinosaur killed itself by hanging itself with a rope, human faces, and so on. At one time, he asked whether we were interested to see how a hairy leg looked like, when we were so excited to see more things, he pointed his torchlight to the guy who standing beside him and say: "this is how it looks like!"
While we were sweating during the climb, our guide told us that we would soon enjoying the cool natural air-cond when we reached somewhere. Amazingly when we went into a tunnel, a very strong cooling wind blew to us from one side of the tunnel to the other side. It was non-stop blowing and we were really enjoying the cool breeze. This phenomenon was due to the difference of the air pressures in the cave.
Our guide also showed us that there was holy water dropping from the limestone and people believed that whoever touched the water would gain good luck. There was also a living stone that is still growing and its substance is totally different from the rocks around it. We even saw the real crystal on a big rock standing in the middle of the cave, sparkling like a Christmas tree. There was also holy water raised from the ground and people believed that by applying the water on one's body, that person would be younger by 3 years, but the water shouldn't applied on one's face. I did follow the guide said to touch and apply these holy waters. True enough, I got good luck when we were at the Top of the World, i.e. platform no. 5. One of my colleagues picked up something paper liked from the ground and showed it to me, as I have the headlamp to see what actually she found. Guess what, RM 1.00 note! We shared the money that we both believed it was due to the good luck from holy water.
At the last platform, we could actually touch the ceiling of the cave; this is the highest point of the cave. Right after this, we had to go down hill and there would not be anymore well-built walkways or platforms. We had to move on in the dark with the little help of our torchlights. There was a slope of 50 meters height. Every one of us, no matter what, had to slide down the slope one-by-one. It took 3 steps before one could safely touch down, and each step we needed one person preferable a gentleman to be placed there to support the participants when sliding down the slope. It needs teamwork for accomplishing the task. Quite a number of ladies were so scared to slide down the slope. We had to use psychology tactics to pursue those who scared. The guys were looked okay but I knew they were pretending in front of the girls. In fact, the slope was dangerous. One crash would probably caused a serious injury and it would also difficult to carry the patient out of the cave.
The mission of sliding down the slope was rather time consuming especially for a big group like us. At the end of the mission, we had to get in a hole on the ground that only one normal adult width; it would be difficult for a fat guy passing thru it. Our guide was at the bottom of the hole to support us. Again, one-by-one we let the ladies passing thru first. After getting down into the hole, the river journey started.
At first, we were trying to avoid stepping on the water but later on every one of us had to dip our body into the water in order to pass thru some narrow tunnels. We had to be aware of passing thru the stalagmites and stalactites inside the tunnels. One could easily injure by those rocks if not careful. It would be difficult for passing thru certain tunnels if it were rainy season where the water level of the river would be very high. At the end of the journey, everybody was wet.
At one time when we rested at the riverbank in the tunnel, the guide asked us to switch off our torchlights and sit tight to feel the total darkness. We saw nothing; it was no difference of close or open our eyes. We could only listen to the sound, sound of water flowing and dripping. Nobody said anything; it was totally quiet and very peaceful, it seemed like you were the only person in the tunnel. When the next group approaching, we could only see the rays of lights searching everywhere and the noise passing thru the tunnel. We had to move on while the next group of people was catching up.
My shoes were filled with water and sands. Before leaving the cave, we washed off the sands from our shoes and took a rest on the surface of rocks at the riverbank. Our guide was busy counting the number of people in our group in order not to miss out anyone. According to him, it was not surprising that there would be additional persons in a group after the journey. I hoped he was just kidding then.
The changing and shower facilities were rather too rundown. The old half wooden and half concrete building with huge water container on top with not well-maintained sinks, wall and floor. The water taps were dripping and the shelves were either dirty or broken. Anyway, we just wanted a place to wash of the dirt from our body and change our clothes.
Next, we proceeded to a small town, Kampar for our late lunch. We had "bread chicken", curry and Chinese herbs flavours, the famous dishes in the town. The chicken was first cooked in either curry or Chinese herbs then wrapped with paper. It then baked inside the bread. The taste of curry chicken was quite nice but not the one with Chinese herbs, I guessed it was not cooked long enough for the fragrances of the Chinese herbs. The dishes had to be ordered before hand otherwise we had to wait for a very long time for the restaurant to prepare. The restaurant was then full of customers and luckily we had already reserved the tables.
We continued our journey to the next point: Lata Kinjang Waterfall.
Lata Kinjang Waterfall
The waterfall was very well known and had been seen by most of the people who used the
North-South Highway traveling between Kuala Lumpur and Ipoh. It looked very beautiful far from the highway but the path going to the waterfall was not easy, it would be flooded during rainy season. There was no parking area and all the vehicles had to be parked on both side of the path. It was a crowded place during weekends and we had to park our coach far away from the entrance. No admission fee for the visitors but the villagers collected a token for looking after the vehicles that parked at the roadside. There were many little hawker stalls alongside the road selling snack foods, soft drinks, fruits and even swimming clothing. The place was rather rundown and crowded with the local people. We walked further up hill to look for a place with lesser people. There was a hanging bridge that linked both sides of the river. The view of the waterfall was really fascinating and magnificent, the sound was very loud and I was attracted with the waterfall, it was very tall and huge!
Surprisingly there were people everywhere! Some of us dipped into the cooling water and the rest just hanging around at the riverside or at the side of the waterfall. I liked the moment when I sat on a surface of a huge rock in the middle of the river looking straight at the waterfall and listened to the sound of the water that surrounded me. I enjoyed the cool breeze that flew on me. It was a peaceful moment that I couldn't find it in a big city like Kuala Lumpur.
The toilet and bathroom facilities at that area were very unacceptable. One who used the facilities might get nightmare. I noticed that there were many people changed their clothes or pissed behind the bushes at the area beside the waterfall or riverside. Anyway, who would know if one decided to piss while dipping in the water? That was one of the reasons why I didn't get into the water.Later we proceeded to another small town, Bidor for a comfort stop. The town was famous with local snack foods and fruits. I liked the noodle cooked with duck meat and herbal soup at one of the restaurant that well known with this dish. The restaurant was crowded with customers and we had to wait for a very long time for our orders. It was supposed to be a short stop but end up we wasted a lot of our time.
We reached Kuala Lumpur at night. I was really tired and sleepy taking the LRT back to my home. It was really a wonderful day trip.
Yoke Ming
8 Nov 2003
[View Gua Tempurong & Lata Kinjang Photos]
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