WHEN you have the time, take a ride with your family or friends to Tasik Raban, about 200-odd kilometres from KL. You take the North-South Highway, exit at Kuala Kangsar and move towards Gerik. You won't regret it.
Just before you take the long Raja Nazrin Bridge near Lenggong, turn right up to a small hillock. A very nice rest area awaits you, with promise of ikan bakar of the exotic kind. You get ikan kaloi, ikan tenggalan and sebarau if you are into fresh water fish. These fish are not sold in the city, and if they are, would fetch hefty prices.
But it is the view from the rest area that takes your breadth away! You can see the long bridge and beneath it is the river that provides livelihood to the local folks. You can see lone fishermen in small boats with their nets besides fish cages where the kaloi and tenggalan are bred.
I stopped there just before sunset last weekend and one can see white clouds on the green-blue hills yonder. It had rained before that and i could feel the cool breeze besides the smell of ikan bakar. At a distance, one can see flock of white birds resting on tree tops and they would occasionally fly in formation. I couldn't make out what birds they were, but they certainly keep everyone fascinated.
It's a great feeling really!
Stay awhile and you'll get to see a rainbow if you are lucky. I saw one, enough to make you wonder how blessed is this country of ours. Up there on the hillock, one is protected from the harsh realities of life, from the hard and dubious campaigning that had taken place in the Ijok by-election, of the traffic snarls that add to the mad rush and stress of urban life.
If you have a free weekend, then make the short trip to Banding, the gateway of the Royal Belum Forest, the world's oldest rainforest. The forest is God's gift to the world and one must visit the area before one retires to the Hereafter.
A gathering of conservationists, naturalists, members of the academia, the corporates and a couple of bloggers last week came away with the conclusion that the Royal belum Forest is the world's heritage that should be protected for future generations.
Dino, Baskaran, Angela, Maye, Latiff, Mashor, Mohan, Kadir, Fabio, Peter, Mus - to name some of those at the gathering - were unanimous that every individual must play the role of a custodian to what could be a haven that may provide the cure of the world's ills and diseases.
Pack your knapsack, load your cameras and make the short trip to Banding. As I said, you won't regret it!
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7 comments:
Mat, ever noticed that the Raja (Dr) Nazrin bridge at tasik raban, Lenggong looks kinda odd?
Questions have been posed as to why the sides are blocked with concrete, obscuring the view almost totally for travellers crossing the bridge in cars.
Really, why cant they have just railings to allow for better viewing of this MOST important part of Lenggong valley?
Maybe should ask Tajol or the people's reps in Lenggong and Grik...someone got away with it I suppose!
Anyway, try visiting this new blog specially for Hulu perak; http://huluperak.blogspot.com. Its another live web repository of news and reports pertaining to these areas.
Mat Talib!
I know what you mean, its like driving through the Yellowhead Route in Canada beautiful countryside! But, yes the dang bridge, why must it be blocked, must be a moron engineer!
While the route to Gerik is nice did you not notice a big, big chunk of forest reserve, yes reserve, along the East-West highway is completely shaved? And I saw a massive logging staging station with felled timber very close to the Belum Valley? You did not notice it! Well I saw it and I thought may be it was too far north and nobody would notice it said the perpetrators!
The same goes with Lojing and the area there is completely denuded! Well Mat actually everything is not fine and dandy in this country in so far as the green dimension is concerned!
Cheers!
dato' i've so heard so much about this spot but have yet to go there although i am a perakian. i will go there the next time i am back
aisey!!! where's the pictures?
mdnor: if you wish to see a pix of the Tasik Raban bridge (area), please go to : http://huluperak.blogspot.com.
bro that is my kg ,last time i use to go mandi ,jala ikan and so on la...but now so far from my home town ...miss my kg....
kcb boy@dubai
I live in one of the kampongs that dotted the foothills of the mighty Titiwangsa, in the southern part of Perak (Just to sound a bit mysterious... Although Tok Mat, or Yop, as some would like to call him here, knows these parts very well.)
One of my many joys was reading PAHIT MANIS for years when Ahmad Talib was with the NST.
It used to surprise my family that when we travel in the country I would take a detour, or gone off the highways to certain out-of-the way places, to taste simple food like roti bakar and half-boiled eggs in places where Ahmad wrote in his column.
I am familiar with Tasik raban, of course, but my point is that I like it when you write like this Mat. Thank you.
I read here about how some of your former staff was mocking the things you wrote about the simple pleasures of simple people at simple places. Maybe they were just joking...
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