Our journey from KL to sungei lembing took roughly three hours. We drove with a Malaysian friend in his car. Our ride was smooth through the occasional showers.
Sungei Lembing is a little tin mining town in the Kuantan District, Pahang, Malaysia. Lembing in Malay for spear, and “sungai” means river. Per local legend, the local ruler saw a vision of a spear in the nearby river and thus named his town after this vision.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sungai_Lembing
We met up with the whole group at a little motel had our dinner and set off to climb up the Panaroma Hill around 10pm at night. With our head torch we all looked like miners.
Panaroma hill is just 127m in height and and the climb has about 1127 steps. Major part of the hike consisted of climbing steps and a few areas where the roots formed natural steps.
Our group had a kid as young as a 7 years, who amazingly even with her heavy backpack did extremely well.
Once we reached the top, we all rushed to put up our tents since we already knew that it was going to rain.
I would be lying if I said I slept well. The beautiful starry night was a sight to die for. The silence, the village lights from below, was peaceful and it was beautiful.
After a lot of tossing and turning I did eventually fall asleep but was woken up by the sound of heavy rain on the tent roof. It was definitely music to hear the rain mixed with all the other sounds from the surrounding.
We all woke up anticipating a beautiful sunrise. Sadly, the sun decided to hide behind the clouds, and we could not witness a colourful sunrise. But of course nature as always is a treat to the eyes.
photo credit : Radzi
photo credit : Radzi
After spending sometime admiring the scenery we packed our tents and started our journey towards the town. Down the steps we went.
Even though everyone was tired from lack of sleep and the climb up and down, after a quick shower we were all ready to hit the road.
Visiting old mines, exploring the abandoned caves; not so abandoned anymore since we saw a lot of work going on inside the caves.
Sungei Lembing mines were once reputed to be the world’s deepest mines. http://sungailembingmines.com.my/
The mines have been preserved in such a way that the natural setting can still be seen, and visitors are able to witness the life of the miners.
From a hike into the caves and then to the beach.
Pahang is in the east coast of Malaysia and is popular for it’s beaches, mountains and forests.
Coming from a country where we are surrounded by beaches, it still felt good to see the sea and the beach. The color doesn’t matter. Every beach has it’s unique features.
3 days in Sungei Lembing were not enough; there was more to see, more to explore. But I had an amazing experience. Starting from the hike, to the sleeping in the tents, to the beach barbeque, I enjoyed every bit of it. Experiencing the local food and trying new cuisines. Having rice and noodles for breakfast was not easy, but hey why not.
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