Cold Camping

We went camping somewhere in Pahang..this time at a high altitude. Oohhh...all I can say is that it was shiveringly cold at night!!! We kept warm around the Korean BBQ wok and the adults had some nice wine to keep warm. Huh..yeah, 5 star camping with wine. :)  Just a few pics below. Next time before I camp in higher altitude it will be wiser to first invest in a thermal bed pad.

Early morn at campsite

Despite the cold, our friend was trying to be a hero here, dressed only in a caftan. Later she came to me with freezing hands!!

I think these are prayer flags?

 Lotsa pitcher plants here, we found about 3 different species. Hope it will be preserved and save from poachers.

Our campground.. and oh yeah, this place is Fantastic fo Star Gazing too!

Camping Latar Seminyang

Another lovely weekend spent camping with some good friends. Some photos below. Enjoy. :)

You  need a 4x4 to get to this place

 

Easy road in the beginning

Road gets muddy

Obstacles such as this boulder to cross. Fortunately for these drivers, getting scratches and knocks means making it worth the investment put into the trucks! I guess the dents and scratches give em a story to tell?

Lovely river right by our camp ground

Jo loves mushrooms and pink and pointed out this to me.

A spider...called..err...daddy long legs??

alright! Tents all set up! :)

Trekking to the falls, lotsa boulders to cross. All the children did very well! :) Proud of them.

Even little ones went with us. Here's big brother helping little bro cross this path.

There were a few steep slopes, but exciting. A few people collected souvenirs, or rather the leeches collected blood for their blood bank as we crossed their path. Jo actually had a tiger leech on her thigh.

But see..the leeches and jungle trek are worth it, just to see this beautiful, huge and refreshing falls!!

Fun for children = playing with torchlights and spade under open sky by the river

Enjoying the simple things, chilling in  hammock by the river

Making new friends and hanging out by the river..how wonderful :)

Early Morn by our campsite

Overall just such an exciting and wonderful trip with good friends and good food! Yeah! Temperature at night was about 21 degrees, lovely! Looking forward to next adventure.

@Martha . 2011

4X4 and Camping adventure -Ulu Slim

River crossing obstacle

4 by 4 adventures are always exciting and bumpy!!! It makes you go "wooh..ouhhh..oohh..uughhh" all the way. Exciting! :) We did one several months ago, into Ulu Slim. There's a lovely camping site there, but unfortunately a group of people had pre booked it, so we had to make do with a smaller space. It was also unfortunately a rainy day too..so we drove in mud (more exciting for drivers!), camped in mud, cooked in muddy make-do kitchen, and  pee-ed in mud! haha.. some pictures below.

A hill where several cars actually got stuck! So much so that everyone had to gather wood to place in some very difficult, slippery patches.

The lovely campsite which was booked already by a larger group

river crossing no. 2. team member checking out path first to make sure no large boulders in between

setting up communal canvas when it started to rain

Was nice that a doctor among us gave a lecture on first aid (especially for use in the jungle)

dipping in river

Freshly brewed coffee is added luxury while camping

preparing for a BBQ..yummmmmmmm....

cool luminous blue spider on my tent

this is how muddy it got after the rain.

We camped for just one night, the night was very very cold because of the rain. Overall, an enjoyable trip! :)

Camping on a beach (Teluk Segadas)

                                                                                                                                Early this year we went camping at Teluk Segadas, which is a rather isolated beach situated on Pangkor Island. The beach is only accessible by private boat, or by trekking about 45 minutes through mosquitoe infested jungle. We're fortunate that we had a friend who owned a private boat. Preparing for the journey wasn't easy. It involved loading a lot of items on the boat, supplies for at least 4 days.


Green waters as we approach the island



Here we've just arrived at the island, and unloading. more work!

However, the beach is really really beautiful, heavenly, almost a paradise on earth. The children loved it immediately and started exploring the place.

Here's a picture of the beach. Not a soul in sight, except for a little camping site, consisting of shacks right at the end of the beach. That too was empty, except for the owner himself.

See how isolated we are? All alone.

 So what did the children do? Well they
-swam,  went crab hunting at night, played in the parked boats, made camp fires and built sandcastles.

Scooping out water. Rather rough waves here.

We also took a trip to main island. To do that we had to reload the children in the bigger boat parked further out at sea.

  Now for just a piece of warning if you decide to camp here.

1) Do NOT leave your things unguarded! Monkeys will come and steal things right from your tent! Once we were cooking, we had monkeys coming from every direction. In  the future, I might consider bringing a grenade for them. (kidding! )

2) Beware of THIEVES. Take your expensive belongings with you if going on a trail or boat ride. We thought the island was safe, and left our things in camp while away. When we got back, all of our expensive things were STOLEN! We prayed, and one of our kids saw footprints leading to the jungle behind our tents. After a 4 hour search in the forest, somehow, thankfully, we found EVERY single item stolen. The thief had hid our items in various spots of the jungle, hoping to retrieve them later.

3) Beware of STORMS! The second night of camping there was horrifying. We were hit by heavy rain, thunder and lightning, strong winds of at least 80 m/p/h. It was frightening. The wind threatened to blow our tent, or smash it to pieces. My husband and I held on with every ounce of strength we had to protect our children inside. Thankfully we made it through the night unharmed. But look at the pic below, it showed what happened to our friend's tent.

The damaged tent

 Finally..do not let the last part of the post deter you from trying it out yourself. haha.. FOr us it was certainly an unforgettable adventure! :) Heavenly if not for the storm and thieves.

@flourpaint, 2011

Endau Rompin

(bits taken from post March 2010 on previous blog)
 Endau Rompin,  I have wonderful memories of the time we had there. I miss that place. The whole vacation was just absolutely beautiful….Beautiful weather, the sound of the gurgling river right beside our camping ground, the singing of the gibbon early in the morning, the funny “three tone” toad as I call it coz of it’s song…the singing of the insects…the cool weather...all created such a  Magical  place.

Our tents all set up

There are several trails there, each taking you to a different waterfall. Do ask your guide which would be more suitable for your children's age. Also, it is wise to trust your guide more than the information given at the office in Bekok. Your guide will know more! We trusted the office at Bekok and ended up on a very long, tiring and strenuous trek for children. So tiring that our youngest trekker Du (aged 4) fell asleep and his dad had to carry him out, and we arrived back at campsite almost dark!  Thank goodness we had sufficient food and water, plus change of clothes. It is always better to have extra food/water on a long trail then too little.   The waterfalls there are worth the trek! but just remember that waterfalls can be dangerous and take extra caution with your children. 



A nest of millipedes which we saw while trekking



Our guide cooling down in the middle of the falls (Takah Berangin). Some of us topped up water at this fall too.

What did our children do every night? They visited each other’s tents, had  fun doing shadow shows, playing with  torchlights, building sand castles at night and telling jokes and stories.

Refusing to sleep they played late into the night under the clear moonlit sky... So lovely to hear the giggling and laughter of children playing their hearts out..

We went during Cap Goh Mei and had a FULL moon to brighten the nights



We set this up to attract insects. Later kids used it as platform for shadow skits :)



I’ll definitely be there again…… When I asked the children “do you want to come back here again?” All 11 children shouted with a unifying “YES!!!!”

children feeding fish before jumping in to swim

Finally if you plan to go, you'll need to prebook your campsite. There will be a fee per camper, and guide fees (compulsory.) You'll also need a 4 wheel drive to get in there, or hire the ones provided there. They'll drive you in, but I hear the charges are rather steep.

Finally if you're gonna go on the trails there, you need to be extra prepared in case you take longer then intended. We brought with us:

-Extra Water

-Lots of food (we trekked a total of 6 hours!)

-Enegy bars, chocolates

-First Aid

-Change of clothes

-Mosi Guard

-Trekking poles/sticks..whatever you call em. (this came in useful when my bro sprained both ankles coming down a steep slope)

-whistle

-torch light (also useful coz we came out later than expected)

-Camera for the amazing things you'll see on  the way.

@Martha, 2011