| Gunung Senyum 12-2-2010 |
Many years ago the sultan of Pahang traveled from Temerloh to Kuala Krau and noticed a conspicuous limestone crop on the opposite side of the mighty Pahang river. He asked his servants about the name of the hill, but they did not know and just smiled. So the Sultan decided to name the hill Gunung Senyum, the Smiling Mountain.
What a nice story, even if not true..:-)
In 1989 Gunung Senyum and its surroundings were declared a Hutan Lipur, a recreational forest. Its main attraction are the numerous limestone caves. It is located about 40 km north of Temerloh. There are chalets, toilets, a surau and a rangers office, but on weekdays you may be the only visitor. For the biggest cave, the Gua Terang Bulan, you need a torch.
I went there with "Caving Liz" Price, she was a valuable guide. Without her I would have overlooked many of the critters living in the caves. Have a look at her website Caves of Malaysia.
It was a fascinating trip with beautiful weather. But my DSLR was under repair, and a simple point and shoot camera is not optimal under these "difficult" conditions. So I will come back...
Picture captions with * have additional text
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 Colorful Entrance
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 Gunung Senyum
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 Detail of the rock face
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 Nice chalets
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 List of the caves
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 Entrance to the caves
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 Bridge over troubled water
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 Colocasia gigantea
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 with its inflorescence
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 A lecture hall?
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 Cave entrance
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 Signboards
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 Terang Bulan cave
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 Almost glowing green
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 Begonia's
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 Inside the cave
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 One of the many (insect) bats
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 A dead bat
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 And another one
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 Liz in action
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 A freshwater crab
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 Crickets all over the place
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 And spiders
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 Detail of the cave wall
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 A beginning caver..:-)
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 And the master herself
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 An unexpected find *
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 P2120077.JPG
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 Natural art
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 Cave flora
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 Cave roof
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 Ladder to the 7 wells cave
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 Two of the seven wells
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 So beautiful
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 Light comes in through the collapsed roof
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 A dead snake
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 Luscious vegetation outside
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 Collapsed roof
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 Another one
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 Dramatic formations
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 One for the album
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 Me too!
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 Fascinating beehive shape
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 A dangerous cave
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 You have to go down here
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 Almost like a cathedral
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 Solid ladder
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 The burial cave
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 Remains of old graves?
1 comment |
 The burial tomb
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 Interesting isolated pillar
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 Skin of a Cave Racer(?)
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 Beautiful begonia flowers
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 Leaving the caves
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 Across this hanging bridge
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 Gunung Senyum and Pahang river
2 comments |
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wrote on Feb 13, 2010:
Very interesting.
Your "repertoire" is growing. |
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Liz wrote on Feb 13, 2010:
These are archaeological digs |
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Dan wrote on Feb 13, 2010:
cool ...!
gong xi fa chai! |
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wrote on Feb 16, 2010:
You visited the "crystal cave?" Would be nice to see some updates as to how the place is like now! |
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wrote on Feb 19, 2010:
wonderful photos! |
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