The road to Tasik Kenyir

Continued from the article Foray to idyllic Kuala Medang in Pahang...

And so the journey to the East Coast was continued. Me and wife arrived at Kota Bahru, Kelantan around midnight. Later we rest at the old mosque of Kampung Laut which has been relocated to Nilam Puri some 15 km south-west of Kota Bahru. When morning arrived we went to the house of a relative to take our kids who have been staying in Kelantan the last one year or so. Details are told in the article Perjalanan ke Pantai Timur bulan Ramadhan - Sungai Jelai di Kuala Medang dan Masjid Kampung Laut di Kelantan... at the Malay blogspot CATATAN SI MERAH SILU .

For the record the school holidays have just started. We wanted to take the kids for a trip in Terengganu. On the way to Kuala Terengganu through the inland route we saw the junction to a certain place called Tasik Kenyir. Immediately I felt like taking them there...

Neither the wife nor kids have been to Tasik Kenyir. If fact the kids have never been to Terengganu ever while the wife has only been to the state once her whole life, during our previous trip to the East Coast earlier this year. As for me, I have been to Terengganu many many times but vaguely remember going to Tasik Kenyir at night sometime in 2004. Whatever the first time I got to this particular place was during a solo riding trip all over Peninsular Malaysia in 1997. That was when I had a good look at it and found out what the hoo-haa was all about...

The road to Tasik Kenyir passes through a number of kampungs, Malay traditional villages...

So what is so great about Tasuk Kenyir? We'll get to that later...

Another 30 km to go...

Far along the way only that I realised that the petrol on our car was running low... it was already in reserve and there was no petrol station to be seen along this rural route...

Luckily after a few kilometres or so fearing if we could make the distance with what little was still available, we came across a small kampung shop selling petrol in bottles...

Otherwise we have to take the road to the left heading to Kuala Terengganu for some 15 km before we could find a proper petrol station. This would be a complete waste of time as Tasik Kenyir is on the opposite direction at about the same distance. Besides at this point there is no guarantee we could even go that far on what was left...

So the journey to Tasik Kenyir was continued...

Ah... we are appoaching the last junction to Tasik Kenyir...

Here it is... just another 3 km to go...

The area is located within a mountainous part of Terengganu...

Here we are Tasik Kenyir. Beginning to get the picture? You'll get a better one with the next article. For the record Tasik Kenyir is the biggest man-made lake in Malaysia! Covering an area bigger than the island state of Singapura (I prefer the Malay-term than the Anglicised Singapore), what you see here is barely one per cent of the body of water available. To be continued...