I thought I needed a break from work. A friend suggested going to Kuantan and Sg Lembing for a weekend. I jumped at the chance and off we went. We left after Sunday service and drove to Kuantan. I havent driven on this stretch of roads but it was adventurous to try! It was quite a pleasant drive along KL-Karak highway, not too windy. We reached Kuantan at about 2.30 pm and headed straight for the curry mee at Teluk Cempedak. Because it was a Sunday, there were many families at the beach, strolling and playing water. As I sat under a tree with wind blowing to my face, I thought what a beautiful scene I'm seeing here. The waters were blue, the sky was clear. So cantik. We took a stroll down the beach and saw such beautiful scenes. Reminded me a lot of what God says in Genesis where He said,"Let the waters be separated from the dry. The waters shall be called sea and the dry land".We continued driving to Sg Lembing for roughly another hour. It's a very small, quaint town. We started exploring around, on car and on foot. We found a nice homestay and decided to put up the night there. It wasnt too expensive to get a room. We paid RM 80 for an air-conditioned room and because it was a Sunday night, there werent other guests around. So we had the whole house to ourselves! We decided to explore the town a bit more on foot, having gauged our bearings during the drive earlier. We crossed the river via hanging bridges, like the ones below. Sg Lembing is unique in the sense that some houses are separated from the town by a river. And people built hanging bridges to cross to get to the town. It's very easy to walk around and it's relatively safe too.
Sg Lembing used to a tin mining town. It has the world largest sub-terrain mine underground. It's quite amazing reading the facts outside the museum. We came to one of the deserted tin facotry, and we couldnt make out what we were seeing. We saw an uncle cycling past and out of plain curiosity, we halted him and began asking him the background of the factory. It turned out that he used to an ex-miner working at the same factory 20 years ago. As he re-tell the story, you could sense the pride in him, being a worker and part of the development of the town. The Sultan of Pahang, then, signed a 100 years concession agreeement with PCCL, giving them full access to mine from this place, and in return an increment of 1cent per year. 1 cent per year?!
In exchange of that, the town grew and become posperous. Many more ang mohs came and you could still see big bungalows up hill and surrounding the place, apparently homes of the managers and senior employees. There was also a cinema and club houses. We went in to the museum as well and walked through the tunnel of history, detailing the past activities and the growth of the town.
On Monday morning, we woke up early and started our hike up Sg Lembing hill at 6 am. It took us approximately 45 mins to reach the peak and we waited for the sunrise. It was spectacular! I have never seen such beautiful sun rise! The whole sky evolved in such majestic colours, from dark grey borrowing lights from the stars to the breaking of dawn and stripes of yellow-orange tore the sky and out emerged the yolk! It was most awesome. As I stood in awe, I couldnt help but praised my Almighty God. Who else could design such magnificence?We hung out a bit more at the peak and at about 7.30, we made our descend. And guess what we saw? The entire town was covered in mist! We were like walking down through the clouds. It was beautiful. I'm running out of adjectives to use here. Pictures paint a thousand words. Enjoy the pictures below.
After breakfast and a final attempt to eat tofu (Apparently famous in Lembing), we found out that tofu are not delivered on Mondays by suppliers because they usually do a lot more on weekends to cater the tourists and rest on Mondays. Bummers! A reminder, the roast pork is also only available on Saturdays. We missed that as well. After a hearty breakfast, we decided to leave and stopped by Karak for a late lunch. It was durian puffs and they were expensive! Our most expensive meal for the trip. Oh, the dinner we had at Lembing, it cost us only RM 19, for 3 of us. I dont remember spending so little for dinner. And it wasnt too bad a dinner. We had tomato noodles, kao yoke, vegetables and canned drinks. We tried doing the maths again and again but it just doesnt add up. Haha..
Hanging bridge
River half-dried up
