Friday, December 28, 2012

trip to east coast 3

Woke up on Christmas morn and was worried the weather would continue to be bad. It didn't get worse, neither did it get better. Continued to rain but just drizzle. After breakfast, we went to the agents near the jetty....didn't want to do any tour with the hotel as we read somewhere that it is more expensive. Tour agents were not ready for business...we managed to get one guy. We hired a boat for RM150 to take us to two places....a waterfall and a herb garden ... all in an hour and half.

 Our first stop...Saok Waterfall. There are many waterfalls around here. See the water gushing out to the lake.
 We climbed up the steep flight of steps to get a closer view of the waterfall. The boatman warned us not to get to close to the rocks as they might be slippery. The waterfall was scary...violent gushing water. This is due to the rain for so many days.
 Getting into the boat again ... the stairs were like 75degree...real steep. Our next stop was the herb garden. Nothing great here ... lots of fauna which are labelled.
 The boat ride was most enjoyable. It was drizzling most of the time. So the weather was cool and cloudy. No worries about getting sun-burnt. The scene around us was beautiful but we did see lots of garbage...mostly plastic water bottles floating around. The worst was actually near the waterfall where there is debris from logging and a log floating in the water.
 Kenyir is a big lake. I think we only covered a small part of the lake. It is as big as Singapore. The cool and cloudy weather made us imagine that a monster might be lurking in the water like in the Loch Ness. We hope authorities will control development or over-development so that the beauty of the lake can be preserved. Logging has its effect on the lake. Certain parts of the lake is orangy brown in colour.
 This is the Kenyir Dam which is close to the jetty. As we got nearer to the jetty, the water became warmer and the colour was brown. Signs of development.
 It was a most satisfying ride on the boat. We left for Kuala Berang after that. Wanted to go to Kuala Terengganu but the locals discouraged us from going. Too far. So we went to Kuala Berang instead. Roads were closed here and there so we had to make quite a few detours. Wanted to look for a chinese restaurant but there was none. We ended up eating malay food....all of us enjoyed except Dan. Kuala Berang is a small town where the population are mostly Malays. We find the Malays here very friendly and helpful especially the older folks.
 Later in the afternoon while we were resting back in the resort, KC saw two iguanas swimming in the water below the chalet. This is the bigger one. There are lots of 'wild' animals here. We were told that due to the rain, there snakes will come out. Later that night, I saw a small frog jumped in from the balcony. It's those small slim frogs that jump real high. Almost jumped onto the bed!!! The next day I saw a lump of shit on the balcony. I wonder what animal climbed up the stilts to shit there.
 In the evening, we decided to walk out of the resort to explore the place a little. The picture above shows the row of chalets at the resort and a man fishing.
There is a retaining wall around this part of the lake. Quite steep....see somebody has to move like spiderman to get up.

It was a most relaxing and enjoyable Christmas day. Quite different from the norm....I still miss Christmas at home where we go to church and lepak at home.

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