Date : 29 Sept to 1 Oct 2017
Organised by : Kelab UMW
Payment : Ahli Kelab RM200
Non-Members RM380
29 Sept 2017 - Friday
The journey starts at 1 am on Friday morning so we had to be at UMW at 12 midnight. As I was working on that Thursday, I went back home first to continue packing my backpack that I bought specially for the trip, a 40L Decathlon backpack with blue and turquoise color. I also bought another bag of 15L but decided against using it as it had no front pocket. I need to put lots of things and organised it properly so I decided to bring my red Kipling bag.
I went out from the house at 11 and reached the office at 11.25 pm. I parked at the back of my office building with Kak M and Rose. Had to carry the heavy backpack to the bus parked at the side of the road. The trip organiser is Caravan Serai and a guy named Mok was assigned to take care of us. It was cold in the bus and I used my light sweater to act as my blanket.
The bus stopped twice, one at a rest area and I bought a pack of seedless jambu that I thought could be eaten at the boat and another one for subuh prayer at Masjid Gerik. We had another stop at a restaurant by the name of Rahim Maideen before we reached the jetty to have breakfast. I had nasi lemak bungkus with telur goreng and teh o for RM4. We reached the jetty at about 8.30 am.
We took group photo and was given an hour to look around the jetty. It had a food court at the main terminal, a toilet that you had to pay 50 sen to use and shops selling shirts on Royal Belum.
We had to go down hill to the houseboat of Caravan Serai and I slipped and fall flat on my butt with the heavy backpack because it was covered will gravels and it rolls when you step on it. I don't understand why they had such a huge and nice jetty but the houseboat is not using it but instead they parked at the side of the hill where there is no steps or stairs for people to go down. It was dangerous and I suggest you use the rope that they put to help you go down.
When we are inside the boat we were told that it had technical problems and will take some times for them to fix it and the latest we will depart is at 11 am. We take the time to look around the boat and set up our place to sleep upstairs. There are a big hall at the front of the boat, 2 crew rooms, 1 toilet, 1 shower room in front and another 1 toilet and shower room at the back assigned to the boys. Upstairs had 4 room (3 for girls and 1 for the boys to change) and another family area for us to solat and for the guys to sleep at night. The 4 of us had the last room for girls with no bed, only 3 mattresses. The other 2 rooms had double decker bed.
We finally depart from the jetty at 11.20 am had cekodok as our brunch. The houseboat rule is, we had to wash our own utensil after we eat, I don't really like it as we had to go to the kitchen so often.
We reached our destination after we had our lunch. We went to perkampungan org asli named Sri Wangi and pass our contribution to the kids and their head named Kuwong. They plant ubi kayu, keledek and raise chicken for their food and to sell in exchange for money. They also fish for their food. It was raining when we go down to our boat and it was slippery as hell as I was wearing my slipper. I had to hold on to Sabrina while going down.
In the afternoon, we swim in the lake with our life jacket on. It was difficult to breath wearing the life jacket, need to slim down huhuhu. Queuing for shower reminds me of my hostel life in school. The bath is a bit smelly so I don't intend to stay in there for long. It was very basic really. The water is being pumped from the lake itself and stored in a water tank. We had tea of cekodok and kuih keledek.
At night we had an introduction session and after that karaoke and we play UNO with Ju and the gang from IPS. Finally slept at 12 midnight and was told that I snored huhu
30 Sept 2017 - Saturday
My day starts at 5.30 am as I had stomach ache and need to go to the loo.. I might as well take my bath when the rest is still sleeping. We had our breakfast at 8.30 am, mee and meehoon goreng, ubi kayu with sambal hijau pedas and kuih keledek goreng. After that we did warm up exercise and went by speed boat to Sungai Kooi, Royal Belum. There's a pretty pokok kayu tumbang there that we made as our backdrop to take our pictures. When everyone's done with picture taking, we proceed to hike for 30 minutes to reach a magnificent waterfall. My shoes is wet crossing rivers 4x, going up through rocks and trying to avoid the pacat but the view is totally worth it. We spent about 30 minutes and we start our hike down.
Went back to the houseboat and had our lunch of telur ikan and ikan pekasam. First time tried the telur ikan, not bad. At 2.30 pm we went by speed boat to Sg. Papan via its jambatan gantung to hike for 20 minutes to see the salt rock. Saw a giant ulat gonggok on the way.
We came back and when I went up to change my tudung for the swim, a big pacat rolled down from my feet. Arghhhhh!! Finally I got bitten by a pacat that I had tried to avoid so much! It was so big euww.. lucky I didn't even realised that it was there. It doesn't feel anything, but the bleeding wont stop. Had to ask Azra for a handyplast to stop the blood. We had a swim in the lake again but this time I saw something unpleasant. I kept quite and try to wash away the thing and continue swimming. That thing however later got stuck to our rakit and I told the girls on the rakit and they go euwww and everyone quickly climb up huhuhu. And that time, Mok doesn't have to remind us to come up from the swim hehe.
They served us tea (can't recall the food hehehe). Dinner is BBQ (chicken and lamb). The lamb is a bit tough but the chicken is nice. After dinner, we played UNO while some of us participated in karaoke contest. I slept early as I felt so tired. The food on the boat was good and I really enjoyed it.
Day 3 - 1 Oct 2017 - Sunday
I woke up around 6.30 am. It was easy waking up here, and you don't feel sleepy, I really don't know why. Q for a while to use the bath.
There is a problem fixing your kiblat when you solat on the boat as it can head in different direction. Most of the time I just follow those who solat before me.
We had a marvellous nasi lemak for breakfast, really enjoyed having it at the front of the boat facing the lake. Mok had set up a tikar for us to eat in front.
We went to Sg Ruok by speed boat that takes about 10 minutes to reach. Had to hike for 25 minutes to reach the waterfall with ikan kelah in it. Managed to keep my shoes dry this time but wet on the way back haha. The water was freaking cold but once you are in it, u don't feel the cold already. The group from UTP is already there, so the waterfall is pretty crowded. We swim for a while but was called to go back 30 minutes later.. arghhhhh!
We choose the track along the river on the way back and we actually had to walk in the river with our shoes. That's how my shoes got wet. Came back and got to Q again for shower. It was so hot in the room by this time but I decided to solat first, drenched with sweat. Then go down, had lunch and continue packing. By the time I am done, the boat had already reach the jetty.
The crew of Caravan Serai are very helpful and they assist me in carrying my 2 bags to the bus. The bus departs at about 2.30 pm and after 3 stops and traffic jams here and there, we reach Shah Alam at 11.30 pm. It was raining heavily when I drove home and arrived at 11.50pm.
Good experience over all for me, I get to know other staffs in UMW, particularly those from IPS aka geng UNO i.e. Azra, Azam, Faisal and Ajib.
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