Adventurous Weekend Outing (A)

Last weekend, I went to Mukim Teja, a hidden village in Gopeng, about 30 mins from Ipoh, together with my Cadet Reporter mates - KL, KY and KY's mates - YW, WT & JA, for a short weekend break.

It's a 2D1N outing and we were going to stay at Adeline's Rest House; RM138 per person, accommodation + 5 meals. What's a good deal, right?

The hut that I stayed in

Stop imagining people bathing by the river; digging holes to do 'business'; sleeping on the bamboo flooring with mosquitos circulating! There's nothing like that! Mattresses and pillows were provided. Modern bathroom and toilet were found.

Inside the hut

We arrived there around 1pm , after nearly 30 mins drive from Ipoh. Once we reached the town of Gopeng, we passed through the kampungs & orang asli settlement. Towards the end of the journey, the road became windy and narrow. Luckily, no other cars came from the opposite side and my driving skill wasn't tested much.

One of the canteen

After checking into the 'hut', we were served the lunch. We expected only simple meal. But, Adeline's a excellent cook!! It's good food!! It could easily defeated some of the hotel buffet meal.

For sure, we weren't going to spend the day there doing nothing. RM130 person for water rafting; some of us found it expensive. However, after much suggestion and persuasion by Adeline, we decided to do caving at Gua Kandu later and white water rafting along Sungai Kampar the next day morning.

so clean...

Led by the experienced guide - En Helmi, we went to discover what's hiding inside Gua Kandu. Personally, I found doing this was much tougher than caving at Gua Tempurung, another cave nearby. On the hand, it's dry in there so we didn't get wet.

the great guide - En Helmi

It's used to be the hiding shelter of the Malayan Communist members. Some drawings and writings on the wall proved that. When all the torch lights was switched off, we saw nothing at all. I really couldn't imagine how the communists could stay there for such a long time.

JA, YW & WT - in the cave

We found some uncommon creatures inside the cave, for example, the cave spider. There're porcupines too, but we could only find their spines with fungus growing on. Bats! Their shit and urine stung the whole cave. Unpleasant smell!!

Cave Spider

Since we're in a limestone cave, there're stalagmites and stalactites everywhere. Of course, there're some in funny looking weird shapes. It took such a long time to form them. Moreover, it's a proof of how old's the Earth. It made me thinking that human were in fact small and insignificant!

Me & KY - under the lion head

Besides, crystal stone were found in the cave too!! Too bad, we didn't bring along any equipment to knock down some. Tempting to pack some home??

some action in the cave

En route to the exit, we had to crawl, duck, slide, climb, jump, cross ...... etc. Some mini accidents occured. Fortunately, no one got injured badly. A big applause should be dedicated to our wonderful guide!

abseiling

After exiting the cave, we got to do some jungle trekking before going back to where we came from. But, due to the rain, the slope became slippery. There's where everyone of us slipped and fell. Just couldn't think of what would happend if there weren't ropes for us to hold on to. Maybe we would just roll down the slope!

we reached the exit!!

Then, we requested En Helmi to bring us to the river for some wash up. The water was so cooling. It's always fun to play with water by the river. I'd never done for such a long time!

so dirty...

We had some time chit-chatting with En Helmi. He used to ride motorbike everyday from Gopeng to Prai for work and was once kidnapped while on business trip in Manila. OMG! He then quitted his job with the multinational company and became a freelance guide. He said he wanted simple life.

Well, people nowadays have become materialistic and forgotten what's the true meaning of life!

It's time to have dinner! So, we headed back to the rest house to bathe and change. No one wanted to eat in such a filthy state.


(to be continued ......)