Thank you all for coming along and enjoying the journey with us on Day 1. Day 2 is the main adventure part of the trip, visiting a mining town which was once famous. Day 2 - September 29th. Right after breakfast we headed straight to Sungai Lembing, a place that I had learned about in primary school, being asked about, pass by many times but never once visited it before. Sungai Lembing was the only underground tin mining town and was known world-wide. It was a big town in the past, now ... One of the attraction is Panorama Hill, best visited in the very early morning to watch a spectacular sunrise and a delicious breakfast of "Yong Tow Foo" after all the hiking up to the hill. Nope we did not do that because we had to leave our hotel by 3:00am but we had the "yong tau foo" and it was yum! Just an idea of the view of the sunrise I had borrowed this video from You Tube and thanks to Yong Soon Shong for uploading it. [youtube]GQd2hG-x0UU[/youtube] yong tau foo ( photo / image / picture from KK Ng's Garden ) Anyway when we arrived, about 10:00am a large crowd of tourist had just descended from Panorama Hill and was having their fill of "yong tau foo" breakfast. We were surprised to see so many people there and we thought we were early. Main Road leading into Sungai Lembing ( photo / image / picture from KK Ng's Garden ) Rock Balls ( photo / image / picture from KK Ng's Garden ) The main road leading to the town have a large overhead sign board across the road welcoming visitors and along each side of the road there were large round ball like thing. I have no idea what they are, balls of rock, concrete, I think. Driving into the town is like going back in time, the buildings were old and the architecture were typical of the 50's except for a couple of newer buildings. Traffic ... what traffic? The cars, very few, were parked and the occasional motorbike rolled by. Peaceful and Quaint ( photo / image / picture from KK Ng's Garden ) First stop was at the town square which is the food court and there was where we had our yummy "yong tau foo". I guess this is the busiest part of the town. Food Court and Market ( photo / image / picture from KK Ng's Garden ) Just beside the eating place is a place that sells souvenirs like thing and is called a Local Product Center and there is also an Inn beside it. Local Product Center ( photo / image / picture from KK Ng's Garden ) The things sold in the Local Product Center did not catch our attention because they look familiar to us. We were surprise to see an Inn in this town and wandered how many people would want to spent a night here. I guess if one wants to enjoy all the activity that is offered here one would have to spend at least a night here. Country View Inn ( photo / image / picture from KK Ng's Garden ) We wandered around the town on foot, it was interesting and there were posters of adventure trips into the jungle pasted on the door of one of the shops. Things to do. ( photo / image / picture from KK Ng's Garden ) With all those outdoors activities, I guess it would be a great idea to spend a night to make it complete full day before returning to the hassle of city living. Facade of wood ( photo / image / picture from KK Ng's Garden ) The buildings here are unique, they have facade of wood and walls of zinc, I wonder how hot will it get on a hot day. walls of zinc ( photo / image / picture from KK Ng's Garden ) Right in the middle of the town is a gazebo that houses the only fuel pump. With the current price of fuel I guess it deserved to be honoured. The only petrol pump ( photo / image / picture from KK Ng's Garden ) A short distance from the town on top of a hill we came to the once famous underground tin mine complex. Entrance to the mine complex ( photo / image / picture from KK Ng's Garden ) Information Board ( photo / image / picture from KK Ng's Garden ) This guy looks real from the entrance ( photo / image / picture from KK Ng's Garden ) Only run in one direction -Forward ( photo / image / picture from KK Ng's Garden ) The transporter have two heads - front and rear ( photo / image / picture from KK Ng's Garden ) The other head. ( photo / image / picture from KK Ng's Garden ) The miners transporter had two engines, front and rear or front and front, rear and rear??? Anyway in a tunnel they cannot do a U-turn. Now they were used for tourist. For Tourist ( photo / image / picture from KK Ng's Garden ) This mine tunnel is open to visitors for a fee, we did not go in. No Visitors! ( photo / image / picture from KK Ng's Garden ) This is not and it had a permanent grill attached. Stones from the mine ( photo / image / picture from KK Ng's Garden ) This was what that came out of the mine. A lift? ( photo / image / picture from KK Ng's Garden ) Some of the unmaintained display, a lift I believe. I was glad that we made the trip, the tin in some of the tin cans that we used before could have came from here ... maybe! Soon we were on our way back to Kuantan to do the next thing on our list, salted fish. Yes one of the famous product from Kuantan is salted fish, not just any kind of salted fish the "Mui Hiong" kind. Sorry I do not have any idea how they were made. The flavour of this salted fish is just heavenly if the dish is prepared right. Along the way we come across a group of sheep crossing the road, comparing to what we had seen in New Zealand, these sheep are pathetic Sheeps ( photo / image / picture from KK Ng's Garden ) Not long after that we saw a large bird house on top of a hill and there were a few of these structures along the way. These house are for swiftlet that produces the bird nest which is a delicacy to the Chinese when made into a soup. I have no idea how this bird nest culture started but this BBC report will give you an idea. Big Bird House ( photo / image / picture from KK Ng's Garden ) Soon we were back in Kuantan and we decided to go to the other side of the Kuantan River mouth to have a look see which I thought would be interesting. A fishing boat returning from sea ( photo / image / picture from KK Ng's Garden ) The river mouth, the thin thing sticking out of the river are markers for boats ( photo / image / picture from KK Ng's Garden ) Sunbathing cows! ( photo / image / picture from KK Ng's Garden ) The city side. ( photo / image / picture from KK Ng's Garden ) Back on the other side. ( photo / image / picture from KK Ng's Garden ) Surprisingly development on the other side of the river was like almost none. When back on the city side of the river we headed to the old town area and the main road is "Jalan Besar" or literally in English is Big Road Road is not that big but very busy. ( photo / image / picture from KK Ng's Garden ) But it is very long. ( photo / image / picture from KK Ng's Garden ) This road is facing the Kuantan river and there were lots of old shops along the way. We had to walk quite a distance before we reached the recommended salted fish store. It was a nice and interesting walk. Slicing a salted fish. ( photo / image / picture from KK Ng's Garden ) We left the shop happy with our purchase and continue to explore this part of the city on foot until it was dinner time. Our next dinning place was also a result of some research done on the internet and it was just OK. ( photo / image / picture from KK Ng's Garden ) Steam egg tou-fu with abalone mushroom slices and beside it is stir fried yam leaves. The yam leaves were good but the tou fu thing was kind of a plain. Need more excitement to it. ( photo / image / picture from KK Ng's Garden ) Prawn in spicy sauce cooked in coconut. Looks interesting but it was not yummy, prawns was over cooked and lacked flavour. ( photo / image / picture from KK Ng's Garden ) King boneless ribs in sticky sauce, looks plain, flavour was just ok. Overall it was an average dish. This place used to have good ratings but I guess ... After dinner we headed back to the hotel to spend a quiet evening.
KK it's time to start a new career - KK Virtual Tours Ltd When did the mine shut down? I like the way you add links to relevant pages within the text. Thanks for taking us on your tour!
Was it hard to head back to all the hustle of a city after being in that old town? Thanks for the trip... so sorry that one meal was disappointing.
It was great to go along with you two on your trip. So fun and informative to see places you will never get a chance to visit. I also hate it when one goes to a place to eat and the food is not very good. But the scenery was.
Seeing the pictures, what I find very interesting is that all the cars seem to drive on the left side of the road - Same as in my country! While majority of the world drive on the right side, except in UK... So I guess any country that was once part of the British empire inherits this method of driving!
Glad you all are enjoying it and thanks for coming. Thanks Frank, Virtual Tours ... hmmm. Anyway the mines were shut down in 1986 due to high operational cost. Another interesting fact is that Sarah "Sally" Gilmour a famed British ballet dancer was born there. Cherylad the old town was just beside the new part and it was much busier than the new part even though the new part was busy too. It was past the mad rush hour when we were on the road again to our hotel. About the meal, I guess it was expected sometimes. Shall we go on the final part ... homeward-bound.
