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| Waiting for our evacuation |
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| Chooi, Mindy and Mr Lim crossing the river |
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| Mawar restaurant used as a floating dock since the concrete dock is completely under water |
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| One of the 2 pick up trucks |
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| Whiling time away as we waited for our van to arrive |
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| The van |
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| National Disaster Management Agency getting ready to help flood victims should the need arise... |
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| ...near Lubuk Payung |
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| Sadly, Mutiara Johor Bahru fell victim to the Covid 19 pandemic and had to shut its doors on June 1, 2021. Its moveable assets such as this van were moved to Taman Negara. The property was the first 4 star hotel in Johor Bahru with its inception in 1982 as Holiday Inn. In 1992, it was taken over by Crown Plaza before Mutiara's took over in 2000. |
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| One for the road, thanks to Nasa |
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| New Year's Eve Dinner at Delight Restaurant, Temerloh |
The bed was perfect but Claudine could not sleep very well throughout the night. She was listening hard to the sound of the raindrops falling on the roof of the chalet.
When the pitter patter became loud, it causes distress. When it was less noisy, it gave hope of a better tomorrow!
Last night's dinner had started triumphant. Mr Lim had bought everyone beer. The teetoallers had stood by and cheered.
When it was time for desert, Henry had quietly singled out Claudine to discuss the weather. They had decided on a self evacuation plan the next day, provided the resort is ready to refund the unused portion of their stays. On such basis, Henry was assigned to check with the reception TWICE and TWICE returned with inconclusive news.
Fact is, Taman Negara has been frequently subjected to floods, with the worst recorded in 2014. They have a set of written SOP to follow.
As an anchor resort in the national park, Mutiara Taman Negara works closely with the Forestry Department. Up river, the forest rangers monitor the water levels on Sungai Tembeling and will flag the resort on the need to evacuate the guests. Should such need arise, Mutiara will refund all unused portion of the stays and provide complimentary transfers to Jerantut.
TWICE Henry returned with the same updates...the call for evacuation will depend on the updates given by the Forestry Department. In other words, any decisions will be made after a "good" night's sleep.
While we tried to enjoy the night, Mindy returned from the buffet table with alarming news for all. She had overheard the F&B staff chatting about a confirmed evacuation tomorrow morning with everyone pre-informed EXCEPT our team!!! The last 3 words caused a lot of panic for us, especially Claudine!!!!!!!
Mindy was sent to clarify further but returned with a jumble of news. Thomas took over the job and came back with more or less the same set of information Henry had obtained....the call for evacuation will depend on the updates given by the Forestry Department.
During the breaking news, Kelvin had sheepishly declared his clean bike obsession! He had washed his bike upon checking in!! Looks like we were all JINXED by Kelvin!!!
Before turning in, we had set our own SOP's. The first persons to get to breakfast the next morning shall text the whole group of any evacuation notice!
This morning, a staff at the entrance of the restaurant was tasked to share on the evacuation order. Claudine immediately relayed it to the group by WhatsApp, ordering everyone to come for breakfast before packing up.
It was a sombre breakfast get together. There was no denial that everyone had taken a peek across the riverbanks and noticed certain transformations. While the concrete dock was half inundated in waters at 10 pm last night, it had completely disappeared by daylight !!! Plus the little island in the middle of the river had drowned!
After a quick breakfast, Claudine and VT walked over to the reception to make arrangements for their boat and van transfers. Yes, they want to cross the river as early as possible. No, they do not want to wait for the van before crossing the river. And, please get the boatman ready by 8.30 am. Yes, we will wait patiently across the riverbanks for the van, no matter how long it will take.
In short, we did not want to waste any unnecessary time. Crossing a swollen river is one thing. Crossing a swollen river with bikes is another thing. Moreover, we do not want to cross when everyone else is rushing to cross. Scenes of Titanic came to mind.
Our team was precisely on time, waiting by the front desk at 8.30 am. Checking out took another 15 minutes as only one staff attended to check outs while the other staff was tasked to call every room about the evacuation.
A short briefing on our Evacuation Exercise was called for 9 am. We decided we could spare Sati, the hotel manager some peace of mind and stayed to hear him out.
According to Sati, the Forestry Department has yet issued a red alert. The evacuation exercise was called by the resort on their own initiatives as they do not want a repeat of the December 19 floods. Back then, a few guests were stranded in the resort for 4 days as they had gone for an excursion in the morning and returned too late.
Sati went on to share on the numerous flood incidents. The worst being in December 2014 when the water level reached the roof of the very restaurant we had dined in. All guests had to be evacuated by helicopter!
Before he ended the briefing, he assured everyone the water is still safe for crossing comparing the depth of the sea and the river. Then he singled us out to offer help as we were the only guests on bicycles who will need van transfers to Jerantut.
Even though Sati tried to persuade us to stay in the comforts of the resort until our van transfers have been arranged, we insisted we wanted to leave. As such, he had no choice but to direct his team to help us.
This time, life jackets were readily available and handed out. This time, the resort management were there to assist with our transfers.
Henry, KH, Zoe, Kelvin and Claudine, were part of the first group to cross the river. The whole process was not as dangerous as Claudine had anticipated.
However, the boatman may have misjudged the complexity of bike transfers for he split the latter group into 2. Chooi, Mindy and Mr Lim were next, followed by VT, Thomas and Jasmine.
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| Note the log coming after the boat |
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| Boatman sped up to avoid a collision |
Looking back, the pattern of the river flow changes by the minute. By the time the last members of our team were crossing, the river began to fill with more and more debris. One tree log was coming after the boat when VT, Thomas and Jasmine were crossing! After that, whole trees with branches and roots still intact came down the river. We saw at least 3!
Even though the resort offers complimentary van transfers, there was no we way we could transport our bikes without pick up trucks. 2 trucks were arranged for a fee of RM500. As a safety precaution, Wong volunteered to ride in one of them.
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| Arriving in Jerantut at 12.30 pm, there was a bus ready to roll for KL ! |
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| Cattle class seatings |
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| New buses comes with big trunks |
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| Kelvin securing the bikes to the bus' chasis |
As soon as we arrived in Jerantut, there was a bus waiting to leave for KL. KH, Mindy, Kelvin and Jasmine were whisked off with just enough time for a pee only. When they arrived in KL 4 hours later, Team JB were still waiting for their van which was coming all the way from JB.
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| We spent many hours at Nasi Kerabu Mek Ghraa, for lunch and to wait out for our van |
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| At 4.30 pm, while Team KL had arrived in KL Sentral, Team JB were finishing this complimentary kuih, compliments of our restaurant that was closing its doors! The night team members continue to prepare dinner in the kitchen but allowed us to sit at the corridors |
Team JB finally set home at 5.30 pm. They celebrated New Year's eve over dinner at Temerloh and ushered in 2022, at Pagoh R&R. Huddled together in a small van, they traveled from 2021 to 2022, finally reaching home past 2 pm.
Click on below video by Henry on the boat crossing. Watch the log coming after the boat
Photo credits :
Mindy
Kelvin
Chooi
Henry
Thomas
Van transfer JB to KKB, Jerantut to JB - RM1800 including tax
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Delight Restaurant, Temerloh
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