| Caves and Waterfalls, June 2007 |
The Bintang Range, north of Taiping, culminates in Gunung Bintang (1862 m. Only one road, the A6, crosses this lonely mountain range, from Lenggong to Bagan Serai. From this road you can see two waterfalls, Tebing Tinggi and Lata Puteh. Tebing Tinggi is beside the road and can be accessed easily. Lata Puteh however looks forbidding, high up against a steep slope. No sign of a trail.
During a recent visit I had noticed a signboard near the road, stating that this fall is supposed to be the 3rd highest in SE-Asia. Could that be true?
When I mentioned this to Liz Price, aka Caving Liz, she was interested to join Aric and me to explore the fall. The region around Lenggong is famous for its caves, so we decided to make it a Caves and Waterfall trip.
We arrived in Lenggong in time for lunch in one of the fish restaurants there. We had fish ball soup and stewed pork. Nothing special really.
Before starting our cave exploration we dropped our barang in the Rest House.
Our first destination was Gua Badak. Here cave drawings can be found, made by the Negrito Orang Asli, about 150 years ago. We had to ask around a bit, but finally found the gua, which is more a rock face than a real cave. The charcoal drawings were still in reasonable condition, considering that the location is not protected at all!.
Next we visited Gua Gunung Runtuh. Here, in 1991, a 11000 year old skeleton was discovered, which is now known as the Perak Man.
In the cave the remains of the archeological excavations can still be seen, and also here there is no protection or fencing off at all.
Before going back to the RH, we explored the region. There are nice Malay houses and the mighty Perak river.
The condition of the rooms in the Rest House was appalling, worse than any other Rest House I have visited, but the food in the restaurant was good.
The next morning, on our way to Lata Puteh, we came across a Deer Farm, and, curious as we always are :-), we decided to enter and see if there were any deer. The manager took us to a spot where there might be deer, and yes, far away, we could see a herd of deer. He knew about the waterfall, but thought that there was no way up.
And it looked that way, when we started to explore the waterfall region. First we looked for a trail starting from the signboard. There was a vague trail going up, but it did not lead anywhere. Then we tried our luck at the other side of the stream, where we noticed a water pipe coming down. We followed this pipe, no real trail, but the jungle was not dense. After some steep climbing, we were rewarded by what we thought was the fall. But we soon found out that the main fall was higher up. This fall was quite impressive and really vertical, we were soaked within minutes. Difficult to estimate how tall the fall is, there are several tiers, if you add them, yes, then it is a very tall fall.
Mission accomplished, so we climbed down in a happy mood and went to the Tebing Tinggi fall for a refreshing bath.
In the afternoon, after a simple lunch in Kg Masjid, we continued to Batu Kurau for the last cave, near Kg Anak Kurau. No cave paintings here, but a colony of bats. Only access by following the stream. From far away the acrid smell could be noticed. This is real rural countryside, we passed on our way a barbershop, built against the rock face, where I got a haircut for RM 4 only!.
A very satisfactory trip! |
 Cenderoh Lake
1 comment |
 Lenggong
|
 Lunch in Lenggong
|
 The Rest House
1 comment |
 Signboard to the caves
|
 Asking for directions
|
 On our way to Gua Badak
1 comment |
 Almost there
|
 Gua Badak
|
 Taking pictures
|
 Nice rock face
|
 Negrito drawings
|
 A hunting party?
|
 Aric looking at the drawings
|
 In reasonable condition
|
 Beautiful fern
|
 Cycads, high on the cliff
|
 Climb to Gua Gunung Runtuh
|
 Gua Gunung Runtuh
|
 Caving Liz
|
 The opening of the cave
|
 Coconuts
|
 Torch Ginger
|
 Ginger flower
|
 Typical Malay house
|
 Cattle in rubber plantation
|
 The Perak River
|
 Dinner in the Lenggong RH
|
 Lata Ibol, not really a fall
|
 Okra
|
 Okra flower
|
 Young Ladies' Finger
|
 Flower
|
 The Deer Farm
|
 A herd of deer
|
 Tebing Tinggi fall
|
 Another torch ginger
|
 Fruits?
|
 Flower, species unknown
|
 Lata Puteh, lower fall
|
 Part of the middle fall
|
 Detail
|
 Flower
|
 Fruits?
|
 The main fall
|
 You get very wet here
|
 Lata Puteh upper fall
|
 We did it!
4 comments |
 View of the valley
|
 Going down
|
 Resting Tarzan
|
 Tarzan junior
|
 Tree roots
|
 We were up there!
|
 Refreshing bath
|
 Anak Kurau barbershop
|
 I get a haircut
|
 The barber and I
|
 Modern rock "drawings"
|
 Walking in Sg Kurau
|
 On our way to the cave
|
 The cave entrance
|
 The cave
|
 Taking a picture of...
|
 Cave cockroaches
|
 Watch out for the bat (poo)
|
 Flying bats
|
 More flying bats
|
 Back to the car
1 comment |
 And back home
|
|
 |
wrote on Jun 29, 2007:
Hi Jan, welcome to the world of Caving, some nice examples of phreatic and Vadose zones within the cave system, oh and you Images are up to your usual interesting standard. |
|
 |
wrote on Jun 30, 2007:
Good now that you are introduced to the joy of Caving! I thought that these caves should be like at the palms of Liz hands, why the asking of directions. Some trails altered? |
|
 |
Kwai Loh wrote on Jun 30, 2007:
She has, like you, a very good geographical memory. But it was many years ago that she had visited these caves, and the world changes, you know..:-) |
|
 |
wrote on Jun 30, 2007:
This used to be one of the earliest, if not the earliest, hydrodams in the country. Operated by the Kinta Electrical Distribution before the National Electricity Board (now TNB) took over electicity supply for Ipoh town (now city). A good fishing spot, too. /stephen |
|
|
wrote on Jun 30, 2007:
proves that appearances can be deceiving. /stephen |
|
|
wrote on Jun 30, 2007:
without bathing? worse than carrying durians in your car. bat caves stink like blazes (i used to visit them, for reasons which i will not make public) and the smell of cockcroaches crushed underfoot only add to the nasal adventure.you sure are not birding with me for the next two weeks. ;>0 /stephen |
|
|
wrote on Jun 30, 2007:
Oh! It's a marvellous feelings. The preserverance paid off. |
|
 |
Dan wrote on Jul 2, 2007:
Looks so interesting .... love to explore these places one of these days, I'm like 1-1.5 hours away from the Bintang Range. Thank you very much for sharing these pictures... |
|
 |
wrote on Jul 2, 2007:
Such a beautiful, peaceful place! |
|
|
wrote on Jul 2, 2007:
You two guys (and Liz) are admirable! I get tired just looking at your pictures! (Not because they're not interesting, but because I never was this adventurous, even when I was young enough to be able to do it!) |
|
 |
wrote on Jul 8, 2007:
The Flying Dutchman has produced some stunning shots again. Hi Jan! Great pictures on your sister's visit and your adventure.. |
|
 |
wrote on Jul 9, 2007:
This looks like a trip with all the essential ingredients: food, fun, adventure, history, nature (never mind the Rest House).... |
|
|
Kwai Loh wrote on Jul 11, 2007:
It was, and it still fascinates me how easy it is to make this kind of trips in Malaysia! The government should have asked me for the Visit Malaysia 2007 promotion..:-) |
|
|
wrote on Jul 11, 2007:
Unfortunately, they have a knack for NOT getting the right people..... |
|
 |
wrote on Sep 9, 2007:
this photo is awesome.. really pays off all the hiking and climbing to be blessed with such a view... |
|
 |
wrote on Jul 14, 2008:
this is sooooooooooooooooooooooooo beautiful........... Jan, wait for me to put up a similar photo one day.... LOL :p |
|
|
 |
You are welcome to comment, but you must register and/or
login first.
|
|
