First thing first, let me
briefly introduce the place of Sungai Lembing. Sungai Lembing has a glorious
history as that place was the home for the deepest and probably the largest underground tin mining in
the world. The discovery of tin mineral in Sungai Lembing by the then British
Colonists had brought economy prosperities and job opportunities to the locals
there. Unfortunately, the town was doomed and became a stagnant town after 1986
closure of the tin mining sites there. In the mid of 80’s tin price dropped
drastically and caused the cost of mining became higher than the price of the
tin, so the Pahang Consolidated Company Limited (PCCL) forced to give up the
mining activities there.
As a saying goes, there’s
an opportunity hidden in a crisis, many locals began shifted their attention
and priority to the tourism or eco-tourism sector as Sungai Lembing was deemed
as a stagnant town which is surrounded by jungle. There are a few tourist
destinations for us to visit there such as Rainbow Waterfall, Hanging Bridge of
Sungai Lembing and Panorama Hill. These few places which I will be covered in
this blog post later as well…
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| View of the Sungai Lembing town. |
On the first day of our
trip (18/8/18), we arrived at Sungai Lembing small town in the evening. The
small town itself gave me kind of relaxing as well as laid back environment.
However, the only you have to sacrifice, if you really plan to travel there, is
your mobile data. My Umobile mobile data was basically couldn’t function well
there as the Umobile signal there was too low (It turned back to normal after I
went to Kuantan city centre, which was 45km away from Sungai Lembing.) …
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| Hakka Association of Sungai Lembing, it is also offer place of accommodation for a large group travellers. |
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| Rapid Kuantan No. 500 from city centre (Hentian Bandar) to Sungai Lembing |
Meanwhile, we checked in
the hotel, namely Country View Inn Hotel. It is located in the centre of the
small town. So, it was convenient for us to search for eateries there as most
of them were just walking distance away from the hotel (we had our breakfast,
lunch and dinner there). Speak of the hotel, that hotel is being renovated from
the old shophouse into a 3 stories budget hotel. It has roughly 10 budget rooms
for us to choose and it has a few of entertainment facilities for their
customers to utilise such as ASTRO tv programmes, TV Karaoke system, card and
board games as well as mah-jong on the first-floor lobby. Nonetheless, there’s
no toilet in each of the budget rooms, therefore we have to share using the
toilets on the ground floor and first floor of the building. There’s also have
a pantry for the guests to make the beverage (coffee or tea) and mineral water
dispenser. Thus, I could say this budget hotel is fulfil the needs of the
guests even though it seemed so cheap and budget lah…
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| Television in the lobby hall |
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| On of the bathrooms on the ground floor of the building |
On the second day of the
trip (19/8/18), we woke up in the early morning (5am) in order to prepare to go
to the well-known Rainbow Waterfall of Sungai Lembing. Prior of we departing to
the Rainbow Waterfall, we had our breakfast at the Sungai Lembing food court.
In fact, the food court is just located beside of the hotel we stayed (just
like I mentioned on the paragraph above that lots of eateries were nearby to
us.). So, we order the local delicacies there, the delicacies there were just
the same in the Kuala Lumpur/Klang Valley area. The noticeable difference there
and in KL is the tofu here was cooked and steamed with the mountain water.
Indeed, their dry mee and curry mee are also the must try foods when you visit
the small place, Sungai Lembing.
Upon we finished having our
breakfast (5:35 am), we were called to commute a modified 4wd to the main
entrance of the rainbow waterfall with 2 other families. We were been passing
through the jungle and bushes trail, and the journey itself took about an hour
to reach the main entrance of Rainbow Waterfall. The jungle trail from the main
entrance to the waterfall is rather dangerous as the trail is filled with
slippery stones which makes our jungle trekking journey a bit challenging.
Besides, there are people who are renting out rubber shoes for those who didn’t
wish their sport shoes being soaked into the water (P/S: I also noticed some
people who go for jungle trekking there also wear slippers, pro sia…).
Fortunately, the scenery there was considered a reward for us lah, after we
passing through the dangerous jungle trail. There, you can do the activities
such as swimming, taking photos of the rainbow in the waterfall and even have
some coffee or milo and instant noodles there. After an hour, we began to leave
the waterfall and back to the small town.
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| One of the famous food stall in Sungai Lembing food court |
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| The famous dry mee of Sungai Lembing with Yong Tau Foo and less sugar tea. |
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| Rainbow in the waterfall. |
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| Picture of me. |
In the afternoon, we had
our lunch there. We order some hakka mee and tomato mee (the popular dish of
Sungai Lembing). For me ah, that tomato mee seemed to be so delicious and the
noodle itself was so succulent, I like tomato mee (I’m not a food expert so I
just briefly talk about the food). Then, the hakka mee there was also taste
good and it was slightly differing than in KL ones as it was filled with more
ingredients rather than just the wantons only. Both of this noodles cost about
RM5.00 (the price is already comparatively lower than in the city).
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| Tomato mee |
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| Hakka mee |
A traveller whom he or
she visits a place certainly will visit the local museum as well. We arrived to
Sungai Lembing museum and Tin Mining museum which are about 3 minutes driving
distance from the town centre, after we finished having our lunch. Both of
these museums are having a similarity as these museums are depicting and
exhibiting the past’s local economy activities (mining activity and business
activity in town) and the lifestyles of the then society who lived there.
Meanwhile, the price of entrance tickets for Sungai Lembing museum and Tin
Mining museum are RM2.00 and RM7.50 respectively. However, I only remembered
the price of the adult entrance tickets but not the children entrance ticket
fee. So, don’t ask me about the children entrance tickets price ah…
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| Sungai Lembing museum |
Then, we moving on to Sungai Lembing hanging bridge. The hanging bridge is connecting to the other
side of the small town. After, crossing over that bridge, there’s a bean curd
(tau foo far) shop is waiting for you there. Tau foo far is the Sungai
Lembing’s prestigious local production. Thus, you can have some try of their
tau foo far there. Frankly, their tau foo far is a bit jelly alike, and it cost
only for RM2 for each of the tau foo far.
Moving to the last day of
the trip (20/8/18), we again woke up in the early morning (5:00am) to hike the
well-known Panorama Hill in order to view the picturesque of Sunrise moment and
the layers of cloud beneath the hill. We had climbed lots steps of stairs up to
the hill, usually it took us an hour to hike the hill, but I merely used 20-30
minutes to finish hike the hill. The weather on top of the hill is breezing and
slightly cooler than on the ground. Then, we relaxed there with other group of
people who also hiked with us at that time. I felt so fortunate as we up to the
hill prior of the sunrise, so I could get to capture the picture of the sunrise
on Panorama Hill. Here are few pictures of Panorama hill, the sun in the dawn
is totally like a salted egg yolk, yellowish red in colour. We stayed there
nearly an hour, then we went down the hill by 7:20am. I was among the earliest
one to reach the foot of the hill compared to others. It was totally a good
“leg day” (best workout day) for me.
It was time to say
goodbye to the tranquil and peaceful small town as we departed to Kuantan. Nearly
half an hour later, we had arrived to Teluk Cempedak Beach. It took us so long
to reach there (usually an hour can reach there already) due to the traffic
congestion in the town centre. Teluk Cempedak is the nearest beach to Kuantan
city centre. Since it is accessible from the town centre by 5-10 minutes of
driving distance, so indirectly it has become a must for the travellers in Kuantan
to go to that beach. That beach does have lots of fast food restaurant outlets
and malay stalls there. We strolled at the beach and take photos there, and
then later we had our tea break at A&W there before we go back to hustling
and bustling city of KL. Indeed, you will find yourself to be relax and chill
there as there has a picturesque view of the seaside for you to enjoy. Besides,
you need to be aware of the monkeys there, especially when you want to cross
the bridge to the other side of the beach, as monkeys there will attack you if
you accidentally provoke and injure them.
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| Beware of the monkeys, they will fight with you if you provoke them accidentally. |
In conclusion, this 3-day
2-night journey is totally like an eco-tourism for me. This is in light of we
had travelled to destinations with lush green landscape and going for jungle
trekking and hiking hill. Besides, it is also my second time in this year to
visit the same tourism destination in Kuantan which is Teluk Cempedak. I really
like that beach as there are lots of restaurants there, where you can order the
foods then viewing the seaside and getting to feel the sea breeze. I hope I
will still got chance to revisit Kuantan and Sungai Lembing in the next time.
That's all sharing of my trip to Sungai Lembing and Kuantan, do give a +1 for my blog post and follow me on my blogger and google+ as well... Tqvm.
