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| Chalets for rent similar to the orang asli homes. Even though some of the villagers have upgraded to simple brick homes, many are still living in these attap houses |
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| The men cooking breakfast by the campsite with the communal kitchen in the background |
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| Morning at the campsite |
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| The communal kitchen comes equipped with a sink, tap, stove and gas tank |
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| These 2 toilets are located at upper stream near our campsite while another 5 more are located by the gateway |
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| Some of our team had to camp across the river, including Serena and her husband |
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| This poor banana plant will soon turn bald !!! |
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| Early morning risers at the campsite |
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| Walking trail connecting the carpark to the waterfalls |
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| On our way to Lata Penyel...short walk into Kampung Pendeq from Route A19 |
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| The guard post / office at Kampung Pendeq right off Route A19 |
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| Lots of Cocoa pods along the single lane tarmac, by the river |
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| Kampung Pendeq, Pos Yum |
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| Chalets by the riverbank |
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| View of the chalets with Lata Penyel as backdrop |
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| The majestic falls |
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| One more shot before we leave the falls |
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| The one and only Kedai Runcit in the village |
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| The village square consists of a kedai runcit and a food outlet...The End! |
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| Football field with the townhall as a backdrop |
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| Cempedak at less than RM6 fed the 5 of us! |
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| Picnic at upstream waterfalls, Chalet Dusun |
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| Taking a dip |
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| The view of the falls with the upper levels not accessible |
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| We were enjoying our picnic lunch by the falls until we found out what we had missed out.... |
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| A ride around Pos Kuala Mu |
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| Kampung Gepeh Hulu is located on lower stream, at the opposite of the riverbank |
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| Campers at Kg Gepeh Hulu |
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| Circling Kampung Gepeh Hulu, there were at least 20 houses in the settlement |
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| Kuala Mu, another settlement with similar camp and chalet rental is about 2 km downstream from Pos Kuala Mu |
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| Giving back to the community |
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| As they had welcomed us with free durians! |
Day 1
Pos Kuala Mu had come into Claudine's radar since early 2019. Back then, photos of quaint attap dwellings by grassy riverbanks caught her attention. Situated within the Titiwangsa mountain range, the village is actually home to the Temiar tribe; an indigenous group and one of the largest of the 18 orang asli groups in Malaysia.
If you are travelling from Sungai Siput on Route A155, Temiar tribal influences can be spotted after the right turn to Route A19. All along the way, scattered housings of the indigenous people stands out with several key characteristics; simple brick structures with little thoughts to aesthetics, little to no flowering plants on lawns but one that is overtaken by poultry and canines instead. There are some cross ethnicity closer to town but as you reach deeper into the outskirts; tanned smiling faces, framed by curly locks are all that greets you!
It is little wonder why there are good infrastructures all the way into Pos Kuala Mu. Besides a vote winning strategy and a means to move raw materials (logging and plantations are prevalent on lower ground), the relatively good 2 lane road connects all the way to Kelantan's Gua Musang! Power lines runs alongside the road which happens to hug the hillslopes and embodies Sungai Pelus.
Knowing we will never make it to roll out time with team Ipoh, Selangor and KL who had set out from Masjid Bawong, the four of us from JB decided to take a relaxing drive instead. Setting out at 8 am after breakfast, we made a lunch stop in Subang Jaya and a tea break in Chemor; our last port of call where we picked up our supplies.
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| Claudine's orange tent flanked by Lim's and Henry's |
Thank goodness Mindy had sent the campsite locations with a photo of the gateway to ease our search, for we arrived at dusk, just as twilight was setting in. Thank goodness, Yee had arranged for us to camp on the main campsite without having to cross the river to the other side of the banks. We must say, we were given the best location to set up our tents; a stone's throw away from the toilets and the kitchen!
There was little to do that night besides setting up camp and eating our takeaway dinner of roast duck, steamed chicken and chop sui. Albert welcomed us with a bottle of cold beer whilst Yee insisted we join the party of whisky drinkers. Watching some of the Ipoh riders drink reminds Claudine of a bachelor's party where the groom is pumped with liquor until stupor! Of course, we hung around as long as we could before escaping slowly to our tents for a good night's sleep!
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Day 2
Our morning began on a positive note. Claudine felt rested despite waking up several times throughout the night. Possibly charged by negative ions which comes in abundance in the forest, she has never felt better.
After last night's briefing from the Yee Brothers, we no longer felt the need to escape to Taiping as planned. The area has so much to offer and not as daunting as initially presumed.
As a start, we decided to take a drive to Lata Penyel with Mindy as our guide. Pass Kuala Mu, the car again grunted through the 2 fearsome slopes we had glided down from yesterday. Once the struggle to scale the slopes were over, we began our descent....
The glide to the junction of Lata Penyel went on and on. While we had marveled over our team's struggle yesterday, we wondered how their descent will be on their return route.
...and then, the first cyclist on a fully loaded touring bike began to pass us. Minutes later, his friend followed from behind. We cheered them on before proceeding to Lata Penyel...
While the orang asli are enterprising enough to build chalets for rents by the falls, they are quite laidback when money is concerned. As in Pos Kuala Mu, each tent is charged a daily rate of RM10 despite the number of persons sharing a tent; here at Kampung Pendeq, Pos Yum, no admission fees are charged for day trippers to Lata Penyel. We enjoyed the beautiful tracks carved into the hillslopes for free! This 10 to 15 minutes long track took us from the main road to the village and up the hillslopes; all the way to the falls.
The shallow river from the start of the track, had not prepared Claudine for the majestic view at the falls. The towering wall of cascading water is said to be at least 10 storeys high and divided into 2 layers. What we viewed from the campsite is the lower segment; estimated to be at least 4 to 5 storeys high and a jaw dropping experience!
The pool at the base of the falls is quite shallow with the deepest end, waist deep only. This makes it perfect for family outings.
Judging by the number of holidaymakers on a long Merdeka weekend, this place is a HIT! However, throwback to before 2017, this falls used to see few tourists as it was only accessible by 4WD from Kampung Bawong.
After the falls, we returned to Pos Kuala Mu passing by our group of tourers. This time, we met the bigger group somewhere near our earlier viewpoint with their 2 lead riders 1 km ahead. Feeling compassionate, we stopped to offer water to which they were well stocked. We also informed the lead riders where the rests of the group were resting. Little did we realize, we will meet them again at Kuala Mu in the evening, past 4 pm when we took our bikes out for a short spin with a feeble attempt at the 2 challenging hillslopes!
Now, for a full recap, we met them during our car trouble; about 1 km to the junction to Lata Penyel @ 10.30 am. We met them again on our way back from the falls @ 12 pm. Finally, we bumped into them at Kuala Mu enroute to Pos Kuala Mu @ 4 pm. The distance from Pos Kuala Mu to the junction to Lata Penyel is about 17 km. Do the maths and be awed by their struggles. Adding spice to the story, one of them had burnt both his front and back brake pads. They had started from Kampung Bawong the day before and camped a night at Lata Penyel before arriving at Pos Kuala Mu!!!
Arriving back at Pos Kuala Mu after Lata Penyel, Mindy made a beeline to the convenience store and bought everyone a coca cola which we had over dinner that night. Just like the hill gradients in the area, the price of coca cola soared from RM1 yesterday to RM1.30 today! Nevertheless, we continued to support to the local economy, buying a large cempedak which was too heavy to carry back to camp. We had no choice but to devoured it right at the stall.
Back at camp, we decided to have a picnic lunch by the waterfalls. Armed with a stove to brew coffee and warm up our canned tunas, we were having a fantastic time until we found out what Yee's extended family had for lunch....communal sharings of banana leaf rice, complete with tandoori chicken and fish curry! That explains what Yee Junior was doing, cutting down the banana leaves by the river this morning!!! Thankfully, he mercifully left a single leaf for the tree to continue its life or was it because the single leaf was too close to the waters ???
That evening, Yee's Kitchen continued to taunt us. While they had brought their own chicken to roast over their portable "Made in Taiwan Roasters" yesterday, the menu on the final night of camp extended to organic free range chicken @ RM25 sold by the Orang Asli, char siew, skewered prawns, straw mushrooms with bacon, etc. Not to be jealous as we had a sumptuous meal of fried chicken drumsticks, egg omelette, french beans, black dace with mixed vegetables, canned sambal, leftover chop sui and the list began to go down the drain.....No wonder, when Albert came over, armed with another bottle of beer for us, he declined to dine with us but stayed to chat only.....for he had tucked in the spread at Yee's Kitchen, a menu fit for a King or in our case a Tribal Chief???
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| Our Tribal Chief! |
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Day 3
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| Thanks to the man who made it all possible! |
Checking in with the group on our whereabouts, we soon learnt we were not the lasts to reach home that day. Ah Shiong, a fellow rider from Ipoh had taken a fall during the descent. He dislocated his arm and was sent to Ipoh hospital by Tan........Pos Kuala Mu, proven a challenging place to ride without support!
Breakfast stop : Kedai Makan dan Minum Dtomyam Jambatan Chekin Simpang Perlop3 Kampong Lasah Sungai Siput (https://goo.gl/maps/4REneoqxntr6Byqm8)
Photo credits :
Mindy
Yee
Henry
Mr Lim
Tan
All participants of Merdeka Mu Ride
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Chalet Dusun, Kg Kuala Mu, Pos Kuala Mu
