Enchanted Sungai Lembing

It's been almost a month since I came back from this trip. It's not a complete account on this old mining town since I did miss a few locations. But no worries mate, I will be back to Sungai Lembing in the near future, and I will give a full acount then. Anyway, hope you guys enjoy what I have in store for now. Cheers! ^_^

DAY 1


Our first stop, "Gua Charas", a cave located nearby Sg. Lembing. We needed to climb a short flight of steep stairs before we can reach the caverns inside the top part of the hill.

There are actually 2 caverns here, one shown in the image on the left, and another where a Sleeping Buddha is found deep down inside the cave. Sorry, no nice photos from this cavern. Anyhow, I would say this is a good warm up for the big day on the next day!



Siew Mei aka Lil' Rabbito with her trademark handsign, and Chee Heng climbing up the stairs to "Gua Charas".



More shots of the inside of the cave. (Left) Chee Heng shooting and checking on his shots. (Right) There are lots of lights emitting through all the openings around the cave which makes it easier for us, photographers.



The nice view of palm trees and blue sky when one ascends and descends the stairs.



This place has a touch of feng shui. A pair of Fu Dogs flanking the gate into Gua Charas.


DAY 2
This is the day everyone has been waiting for. We woke up around 4.30am, and by 5.30am we have reached the hiking site. My room mates and I took a can of Milo each for our breakfast. Too early for a heavy breakfast. When we reached the site, it was already swarming with people and we thought we were early. I guess not.

Equipped with the camera bag on my back, the heavy tripod on my left hand and handphone torchlight on my right (yea, the consequence of not bringing a torchlight), me and my mates made our way slowly uphill. Please bring your own torchlight since it is pitch black at this wee hour in the morning.



The journey to the top was jam packed with homosapiens!!! Luckily, we did manage to find a nice spot to set up the cameras and tripods.

(Above) A scene at dawn. Thanks to Chee Heng's persuasion, I brought my tripod along. Else, this scene would have been impossible.



The sun is about to come out. As the golden hue emitted through the sky, everyone was very excited about it! This is truly an amazing view, golden hued skies with seas of clouds. I've never seen anything like this before. Truly, a heaven on earth.



This is the moment! The moment everyone anticipated. The best damn sunrise scenery I have ever seen. Well, this is the only time I have ever seen in my life till now :P



Playing around with the camera tripod. Isn't the sunrise amazing?



Car Mates (from left); Me, Chee Heng, Siew Mei and Aivy. As you can see, there were some people who spent the night on the hill top.



(Left) Sherrina, a new friend from this trip who is very proficient with film camera. Poor girl lost her camera sometime after we came back. Not good.... (Right) Aivy and Rabbito sunbathing! Plenty of natural Vitamin D for them.



The other side of the sunrise view. Beautiful!!!



Giant spider! As big as my palm! O_o



We have view like this everywhere once we are up on the hill. Bright blue skies with the seas of clouds amongst the hilly tops.



We're back on earth! On the way for breakfast, we went pass a school with this beautiful wall painting. This painting depicts the mining system Sungai Lembing was once famous for.



Lembing Public Library, located opposite the school.



We bumped into this alley. Being the curious photographers that we are, all of us went shooting around. Here you can see Chee Heng with Sherrina and Behn further down the alley.



The road signs in this town are very nice! Here is one, "Java Street"!



Finally, it's breakfast time! This is the famous "Lembing Yong Tau Fu". Look at the people queuing up! I skipped this and went for wan tan mee instead. But I did have this on the next day when there werent' so many people. It was pretty good.



Famous coconut biscuits & kaya puff. I didn't get to taste this because it was closed on the day I left. I shall be back for these on my next trip!



Colourful grills. Folks in Lembing are very good with colours. You can practically see lots of colourful grills and buildings all over.



(Left) Photographer and model at work. (Right) This is a shot of how the model looks like in the "aeroplane" pose.



Look at these old wooden buildings. The multi-coloured paints make these buildings look good!



One of the Chinese association building in town. This one had a "wu lou" (gourd) shaped design on one side of its wall.



Hainanese Association of Sungai Lembing! I have always have a preference for anything Hainanese since I'm half Hainanese. (Left) A sneak peek into the building, it was quite empty:\



After wrapping up the shooting session in Lembing town, we went back to our lodge. This was the place that we stayed in for the first night. It's pretty dusty but the beds were good with cooling ceiling fans. Not bad at all! You can get this place for RM150 per night with 3 rooms which can accomodate up to 10-15 people and 3 bathrooms. Although no hot shower, I still think it is a pretty good deal!



Location: Crystal House. Entrance fees: RM2.00



From the name, you can tell this is a house full of crystals. For an entrance fees of RM2 per pax, it is actually not quite worth the money. But tribute to the old couples who run and turned most part of their crib into a crystal collection center. They have been colllecting these crystals and other mining minerals since their heydays. The aunty even claim she could recognize each piece of crystal in the house. Now that's pretty weird but amazing.

Here are Aivy, Chee Heng, and Rabbito posing with part of the crystal collection.



These are mine shafts found in the crystal house. On the left, it shows an unfinished project. Anyhow, it took uncle 8 months to get where he was then. On the right, here is a completed mine shaft replica. It's not very deep, and there is a shrine inside where coins are found everywhere on the walls.



After visiting the crystal house, we went to this hanging bridge. It's very sturdy, pedestrians and motorcyclists alike can cross.



There are a few hanging bridges similar to this. It's pretty exciting stepping on this. It looked sturdy but still I couldn't help but feel a little bit uncomfortable at times when I stepped on the wooden plank.



This bridge leads to the famous Sungai Lembing noodle house. It's a family-oriented business who supply Lembing noodle to every corner of Sungai Lembing and some other places in Kuantan.



Our following destination is the Sungai Lembing Museum. It's on top of a small hill, so I guess it is not prone to any floods. lolz. No entry fees required but one do need to register for record keeping.



Aivy posing inside the Museum.



(Top left) An antique fire hydrant at the entrance of the museum. (Bottom left) One of the many antique typewriters found here. (Right) I never knew they have water filters as nice as these in the olden days!



A scene from the place that we stayed on the 2nd day. A trail of stairs lead us to the hill top. Once we reached the top, we were feasted with the blue sky and green hills all over Lembing.



Once we were done with enjoying the beautiful scenery at the hill top, we moved about, around our lodge looking for interesting stuff to shoot. I ended asking the pretty ladies to be my models. First up, Aivy!



Sherrina's shot!



Rabbito, ever so cute with her trademark handsign ^_^



Aivy and Rabbito looks like a fine pair of good sista! Aivy was trying to shoot their shadow while I was busy shooting them!


DAY 3
It was the last day in Sungai Lembing. Chee Heng, Rabbito, Siew Mei and I woke up around 4am in the morning for a short meeting. After some very early meeting, we decided to skip the Rainbow Falls trip. Everyone was pretty tired. Now, I kinda regretted that we did not go to Rainbow Falls, but I shall be back again! Nevertheless, this means we get to sleep for longer period. Hoorah! Sleep is very important in my life! :P

Later that same morning, we went to the market again for breakfast. This time I had the famous "Yong Tau Fu". This morning there weren't as many people as the previous day.



Sungai Lembing noodle workshop; (top left) Stock piles of flour, the main ingredient for Lembing noodle. (Bottom left) The ready made noodle packed for sale. (Right) The machinery used to produce the noodle. Too bad we didn't arrive in the right time to see the process of making the noodle.



The owner of this workshop was kind enough to explain to us about the process of making the noodle. All questions were welcomed! Many many thanks to the folks who let us into their workshop and home.



Lunch break! We went to this famous coffeeshop known as "Qin Hei" (Millennium) again. They are very famous in Sungai Lembing and it is a must stop here! Their food are good and cheap. The menu ranges from assorted "Bao", sponges cakes, fried noodles (economic packed style), glutinous rice to assorted kuih muih.



Makan makan in this famous coffee shop; (from left) Glutinous rice (Loh Mai Fan), Yin Yeong ice, steamed Bao and peanut roll. Yummy!




The boss, happily posing for us!

WRAP UP
This concludes the entry of my trip to the enchanted Sungai Lembing. A very good and enjoyable trip where I get to know a lot of new friends and fellow photography enthusiasts. I will definitely be back in Sungai Lembing!