The caves of Gunung Senyum

Continued from Pahang river at Jerantut Ferry.

Next, we went to the recreational forest of Gunung Senyum, situated if I'm not mistaken in the district of Temerloh.

Gunung means mountain and Senyum is smile. I'm not sure if the facade of the so-called mountain looks like a smile. Perhaps it does but more of a spooky smile... :]

That's the wife carrying our then 40 days or so old baby closer to the 'mountain'.  As it is I don't think Gunung Senyum is high enough to be a real mountain, just a limestone hill...

In front of it lies what looks like a field. Don't be fooled. It is actually a lake covered by growth.

There's a pathway leading to another hill which like Gunung Senyum also has caves.

But we haven't got much time to explore every place.

So headed straight for Gunung Senyum and climbed its staircases...

Here's the entrance to one of its cave system...

There exists a Muslim tomb inside...

There are a number of caves to explore.

But we still have another place to rush to. So enough cave exploration for the day...

p/s: I did a double check later using Google Earth and found out the summit of Gunung Senyum stands at over 1,400 feet above sea level. I guess that does qualify it to be called mountain albeit a small one, not just a hill...

Pahang river at Jerantut Ferry

Time to tell stories about a trip to the East Coast made 26 March-4 April 2012...

The trip was started by going to Janda Baik in Bentong, Pahang before spending the night in Raub. The following day, Tuesday 27th March we went to Kuala Lipis then to Jerantut where lies this bridge across the river Pahang.

The area is known to the locals as Jerantut Ferry as before the bridge exists people used to cross the river by ferry.

As the bridge is not wide enough to park cars I had to walk to the middle to get a good view.

Here's a look downriver...

Follow the curves and turns for about 75 km and you would arrive at the town of Temerloh.

A look upriver...

Travel 25 km along it and you'll be at the mouth of the Tembeling river, gateway to the famous Taman Negara or National Park.

Bringing the baby to the megaliths at Pengkalan Kempas

Continued from Linggi river near the small town of Linggi.

From the town of Linggi it is not far to Pengkalan Kempas where lies a certain mysterious place.

The place houses a number of enigmatic stones placed in certain formations.

The one you see behind situated like a platform with stone chairs is said to be the tomb of a Muslim preacher who lived more than 500 years ago. But what about the other stones with some having symbols?

What about these megaliths which looks like it has been artfully carved. What does it signify?

Indeed this place is mysterious and enigmatic.

I have been here a number of times. If memory serves me right I have brought my two and a half-year old son Muhammad Al-Aminul Rasyid here when he was still a baby.

So it is only fair that I brought my other son, Muhammad Alauddin Johan who was barely two months old then. Like in the case of Rasyid I like to iniate Johan too into the mysteries of this place as a preparation for him to walk into my footsteps. Like father like sons huh? :]

Linggi river near the small town of Linggi

Continued from Rembau river at the Sungai Timun fishermen base.

Passing through the small town of Linggi I then came across the nearest bridge crossing the river Linggi.

A look downriver. Follow the curves of the body of water for about 6.7 km and you'll be at the small town of Pengkalan Kempas. Refer to the old article The Linggi river near Pengkalan Kempas. Go a further 4 km and you'll arrive at the point or rather, the area where the Rembau river joins the Linggi river.

Time to look across.

A view upriver. In the old days the Linggi river is used to navigate up to as far the Negeri Sembilan capital town of Seremban which is situated in an area called Sungai Ujong, Sungai meaning river, Ujong meaning its furthest reach. For the record this is the 929th article in this blogspot.

Rembau river at the Sungai Timun fishermen base

Continued from Pedas river near its estuary.


The journey then brought us to the fishermen base of a place called Sungai Timun.

Sungai is the Malay word for river. Thus the words Sungai Timun seemed to imply there is a river called Timun around here.

A casual look around shows this to be a recreational area.

The information reveals its historic and tourism value.

There is a sort of viewing gallery.

It sits beside a river.

Going for a closer look.

A check with Google Earth and some websites show this is actually the Rembau river. Perhaps there's indeed a river called Timun which flows into it but I can't see where.

A look downriver. Using Google Earth, I found that from here the Rembau river twists and turns for about 8.3 km before entering the Linggi river.

A look ahead.

A look upriver. The point where the Pedas river flows into this river is just 1 km away by water.

Pedas river near its estuary

Continued from Penajis river at Astana Raja.


Next we took a rural road towards Linggi and passed this bridge.

It crosses the Pedas river and here's a look downriver.

A look upriver. For the record the Pedas river flows into the Rembau river which in turn flows into the Linggi river.

A signboard nearby mentions this area as Kuala Pedas. Kuala means estuary and this indicates the point where the river flows into the Rembau river is not far.

After walking for about 100 metres downriver I could see a body of water near the horizon which could be the Rembau river. Back at home I checked with Google Earth and found the estuary of the Pedas river is around 200 metres from the bridge. So the body of water seen near the horizon should indeed be the Rembau river or the point where the Pedas river flows into it.

Penajis river at Astana Raja

On to a small trip made to Melaka a week ago with me and family later visiting a number of places including in Negeri Sembilan...

One of the places visited was the small town of Astana Raja where lies this bridge crossing the Penajis river.

It is one of the river with its water flowing into the major Linggi river.

I'm not sure if it flows directly into the Linggi river or another tributary first. This is a look downriver.

Next, a look upriver.

It is said that the first ruler of the state of Negeri Sembilan, Raja Melewar entered the Linggi river before emerging into this one on his way to be installed as the ruler. This happened more than 200 years ago. Just a kilometre or two upriver from here lies the site of what is believed to be his palace in the district of Rembau. A replica has been constructed there and turned into a museum.

A cousin's wedding at old town Bangi

Just something from the April file of pictures...

Last Saturday I attended a cousin's wedding at his father's house in old town Bangi. Looking at the tents at first I thought there was a political rally or something...

Whatever it was quite a grand affair.

Then again the cousin's father is a top gun of one of the biggest bank in Malaysia. Apart from the position and hefty salary there's other benefits like getting the bank's own pool of best talents to perform...

Somehow I didn't take much pictures except these ones.

Congratulations to Yusra (the cousin) and newly-wedded wife Fiza. Congrats to Uncle Razak and Auntie Mas for getting your first daugher-in-law. Really, I have passed this part of Bangi quite a number times but never realised his father, my mum's first cousin has his house right smack in front of a junction I normally take to get to a friend's house! Why, I almost didn't attend this wedding as me and family were just too tired after completing a 10 day 9 nights journey visiting places in Pahang, Terengganu, Kelantan, Perak and Selangor 3 days before.

If not for my parents insistence for us to make time for this event we might even be still travelling somewhere. For the record I've driven a total of 2374.9 km for the recent journey (of which the stories would be shared in this blogspot in time) and we had our around 40-day old baby in tow. The wedding's venue was more than 70 km away from our place and it did took some effort for us to get going. Never mind that, we met a lot of relatives and that did sort of took the tiredness away... :]

The "Berpetualang ke Aceh" travel collection

This in turn is the collection of links of articles under the "Jejak 'Berpetualang ke Aceh'", a series in my main blogspot CATATAN SI MERAH SILU with some supporting articles here. The series which took more than 4 months to present (15 Nov 2011- 25 Mac 2012) was based on a trip me and the family made 2-13 November 2011 to trace back the places I have visited alone in my first journey to Aceh January 2004. For the record the old travel has been made the background for my trilogy of novels "Berpetualang ke Aceh" (literarily the travel to Aceh) published 2006-2007. Then Aceh was still under emergency military rule and I had to go through plenty of trials and tribulations just to get through.

The trip end of 2011 actually covered more places as from Medan we went to Berastagi, then the island of Pulau Samosir at Lake Toba before returning to Medan. For information, these were never part of the places covered in the travel of 2004. It was after that the tracing process was conducted as places told/mentioned in the books were visited. Apart from that we also stopped at places which I didn't have the time of opportunity to visit in the old trip. Note that we also visited new places which were not covered in my later trips to Aceh, that was in the middle of 2009 followed by one in January then another in February 2010.

1. Akan datang - Jejak "Berpetualang ke Aceh"

2. Jejak "Berpetualang ke Aceh" : Dari Medan ke Berastagi

3. Bukit Gundaling, the "Good bye darling" hill

4. The waterfall of Sipiso Piso

5. Jejak "Berpetualang ke Aceh" : Dari Berastagi ke Danau Toba

6. First appreciation of the beauty of Samosir island at Tuk-tuk

7. The place where Samosir island meets the mainland

8. Jejak "Berpetualang ke Aceh" : Cabaran pusing pulau

9. The boat ride from Tuk-tuk to Parapat

10. The Saturday market at Parapat

11. Jejak "Berpetualang ke Aceh" : Keluar pulau untuk ke Medan

12. Jejak "Berpetualang ke Aceh" : Raya Haji di Medan... dan penceritaan sebenar pun bermula

13. Jejak "Berpetualang ke Aceh" : Kerajaan Haru Deli Tua dan legenda Puteri Hijau

14. Jejak "Berpetualang ke Aceh" : Tanjung Pura Langkat, Amir Hamzah, Sheikh Abdul Wahab dan Kampung Besilam

15. Walking at the market area of Pengkalan Brandan

16. The river Babalan at Pengkalan Brandan

17. Jejak "Berpetualang ke Aceh" : Jeti bercat kuning dan masjid di Pengkalan Brandan

Boat ride to Pulau Kampai

18. Jejak "Berpetualang ke Aceh" : Pulau Kampai , keberadaan kerajaan Haru dan faktor Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jilani

19. Jejak "Berpetualang ke Aceh" : Mengenang 3 malam di Langsa, tempat pertama kali bertapak di Aceh

20. Jejak "Berpetualang ke Aceh" : Menelusuri sejarah Perlak sebelum ke makam Sultan Malikus Saleh

21. Jejak "Berpetualang ke Aceh" : 3 x 11 dan jejak warisan Bugis Aceh

22. Jejak "Berpetualang ke Aceh" : Dari Saidi Mukammil ke Hamzah Fansuri

23. Jejak "Berpetualang ke Aceh" - Legasi Sheikh Abdullah dan ikatan ukhuwah Turki Uthmaniyah Teungku di Bitai

The Johor-Riau travel collection

On 14 March 2012 a series titled "Kembara Johor-Riau" (the Johor-Riau travel) was completed after running for almost 3 months in my main blogspot CATATAN SI MERAH SILU. As usual supporting stories were made in this blogspot. The series is on a trip to the south, that is to Johor and Singapura which also brought me, the wife and kid to the island of Bentan in Indonesia. The journey which was made 10-18 November 2011 also brought us to Pahang via the east coast of Johor. This is the collection of articles...

1. Diperkenalkan : Kembara Johor-Riau

2. Kembara Johor-Riau : Muar, Singapura, Parit Betak

3. Boat trip to Riau from Johor

4. Kembara Johor-Riau : Melihat nasib Melayu di Geylang Serai dan Jalan Ampas sebelum berkejar ke Riau

5. The Pompong ride from Tanjung Pinang to Pulau Penyengat

6. Kembara Johor-Riau - Dari Tanjung Pinang ke Pulau Penyengat

7. The scenic rivers at Hulu Riau

8. Kembara Johor-Riau - Makam-makam di Hulu Riau dan alamat salasilah ibu

9. Kembara Johor-Riau - 333 tahun Hulu Riau menjadi pusat empayar

10. Johor river from Kota Tinggi jetty

11. Kembara Johor-Riau - Mencari kesinambungan pemerintahan di Kota Tinggi, Johor

12. Johor river from Kota Tinggi town bridge

13. Sedili river just before Tanjung Sedili

14. Sedili river at Tanjung Sedili

15. Sedili river at the main bridge

16. Sedili river estuary from Sedili Besar

17. Kembara Johor-Riau - Menjejak Sultan Alauddin II di Johor Lama dan Sayong Pinang sebelum berkejar ke Tanjung Sedeli

18. Mersing river near its estuary

19. Going around Mersing town

20. Mersing river from its town bridge

21. The beach at Mersing's Kampung Makam

22. River Endau just before town

23. River Endau from the town bridge

24. The Rompin river at the fisheries complex

25. Rompin river at the eastern main road bridge

26. Kembara Johor-Riau - Dari Mersing ke Endau-Rompin