Kuala Tembeling, the doorway to Taman Negara...

Continuing from The mouth of the Lipis river... the place where Kuala Lipis began ...

After Kuala Lipis, we headed for Jerantut. Soon enough we arrived at Kuala Tembeling, the mouth of the Tembeling river, another mighty river of Pahang.

The Tembeling river is THE main waterway into Taman Negara, the national park. Well, at one time that was the only Taman Negara in Malaysia. Now there's quite few including in Sabah and Sarawak across the South China Sea... so further names have to be attached to make it clear like Taman Negara Kinabalu, the Kinabalu national park in Sabah.

But the Taman Negara in Pahang (actually it also covers parts of the states of Kelantan and Terengganu) remains the most well-known. Thus if one says Taman Negara without adding any further name or names, most probably he or she is referring to this national park...

Here's the road leading to the Kuala Tembeling ferry complex...

Time to get down to the jetty. Up in the picture is the Tembeling river which flows out into the Jelai river. A trip from Kuala Lipis to Jerantut pass this point is practically a trip down the Jelai river...

The ferry, or rather the longboats available... it's just its off-season.

A better look at the jetty. That's all...

The mouth of the Lipis river... the place where Kuala Lipis began

You could consider this a continuation of the article Views from above the Karak highway . So we arrived in Raub and spent the night there. But we didn't take the old road all the way there... I was just to tired driving up the small road so we decided to enter the highway at Genting Sempah.

The reason I went to Raub was so that me and wife can enjoy a local cuisine before we head for Jengka, our real destination in this trip. A cousin was getting married Saturday night but since we started from Raub after lunch, there should be enough time to visit a few places en-route.

That's when we decided to stop at Kuala Lipis, a rather quaint town which I'm quite fond of. Only this time, I felt an overwhelming desire to look at the mouth of the Lipis river which I'm not sure I've ever had a look at before. After all that's how Kuala Lipis got its name... Lipis is the name of the river, Kuala is the mouth...

Luckily there's a new part of town which is situated on top a hill next to the Jelai river, the main Pahang river which cuts across the region. From there we managed to have a good look at the Lipis rivermouth which is halway between the centre and the left part of the above picture. The river flows out into the Jelai river while Jelai flows out into the Pahang river.

Realising that there's a clear metal bridge across it for railways, then for sure I've been at the river mouth as I've been on the train pass this route a few times. It's just then perhaps I wasn't looking. Never mind... now I can say for sure where is the Lipis river mouth and I've seen it with my own eyes.

While I'm at it, here's a view to the right and the old Kuala Lipis town in sight...

A view directly across the Jelai river shows an old colonial building which I think is the rest house...

Later, we walked down the old town. We were heading for the railway station when I decided to snapped this picture with the main mosque in sight...

We arrived at the station just in time to see a train stopped...

God, I'm always astounded at the sight of people boarding and taking off the train. What a sentimental guy hehe... :]

Views from above the Karak highway

Peace be upon you all. Its been more than 2 weeks since I made the last posting, the 292nd here. About eleven days ago, me and wife took the old road from Kuala Lumpur to Pahang to get to Raub. After a certain point, the tight small road rose significantly above the Karak highway. Here are some photos...

I started taking pictures upon seeing the Karak highway from this point...

There, this part of the highway should be a good 50 metres below us...

This is the point...

Slightly further is this tip of a hill... I think this should be the highest accesible point off the old road.



A view of our car from on top...

The transmission tower above...

Time to get to the hill-side.

On to a superb view of the Karak highway. Just look at the way it weaves in and around the main range!

At its highest point, the highway is located more than 400 metres above sea level. The point where we took these pictures from should be another 50 to 100 metres higher!

There, a look directly down. That should be equivalent to looking down from a 30-storey building or higher...

Then we spotted this part which should be another 15 metres higher...

Too bad, the way up is not clear. So enough for the day...