The views from a fully elevated part of the Sungai Koyan-Cameron Highlands road

Continued from Jelai river from further up Pos Betau.

Some 25 minutes later I saw another point of the road which merits a good stop.

By then I was also much further up the sea  level as wide vistas of hills and mountains widen up.

What is interesting about this portion of the road is it is totally elevated.

A look down.

While the road elsewhere follows the contours of the land this portion sits on a number of concrete stilts to optimise travel.

Notice the stilts underneath?

A look behind shows this portion is practically a curved bridge.

Jelai river from further up Pos Betau

Continuing from Jelai river near Pos Betau.

Going up further towards Cameron Highlands I could soon see parts of the Jelai river from a distance above...

Zooming in with my camera which has 12.5 x optical zoom I could also see the settlement which should be Post Betau.

That's the river closest to the settlement.

Zooming out, you could see the river in relation to the settlement furthest right.

Turning further anti-clockwise I could surmise the bridge shown in Jelai river near Pos Betau  is somewhere below behind the greens.

Turning more anti-clockwise. That's part of the road I have just passed.

Jelai river near Pos Betau

Continued from Lipis river at Batu Malim.

From Batu Malim I continued up north to a place called Kuala Medang where lies a rather long bridge crossing the river Jelai. Look at the old article Foray to idyllic Kuala Medang in Pahang.... Then I  turned back about 10 km to Sungai Koyan where lies the latest road going up to the resort area of Cameron Highlands, up the main mountain range of Banjaran Titiwangsa. Taking the road for the first ever in my life, I soon arrived near the Orang Asli (aborigine people) settlement of Pos Betau and stopped at this bridge.

I found out the bridge crosses the river Jelai which forms the river Pahang. This should be a look upriver.

As usual I would take in views from both upriver and downriver directions.

This should be the view downriver. My calculation using the satellite pictures in Google Earth showed the river twisting and turning for about 25 km before it is joined by other tributaries near Kuala Medang.

Lipis river at Batu Malim

Peace be upon you dear readers. Five days ago I've started a new series on my main blogspot CATATAN SI MERAH SILU. It is about a big bike journey I've made towards the end of the fasting month of Ramadhan. So now it is time to put some supporting articles here.

The journey was started from my house in Bandar Tasik Puteri, Rawang 11 August 2012 or 22nd Ramadhan 1433 of the Islamic calender. From there I climbed up to Fraser's Hill before heading for Raub where I slept at my deceased grandma's house. The story here starts from the following day, Sunday 12 August. From the house I headed north through a road known as the Cheroh road. Upon passing the village of Batu Malim I felt like making a stop.

You see there's this bridge crossing the Lipis river. The river here just looked too scenic to be ignored. Here's a look towards the upriver... a look too of my trusty big bike... :]

For the record the Lipis river is one of the main rivers of Pahang.

A look downriver.

Many many miles after it flows into the Jelai river which in turn forms the Pahang river. Look at the old article The mouth of the Lipis river... the place where Kuala Lipis began.

Second raya when the extended family gathered

Continued from Johan's first Hari Raya.

Monday 20th September, second day of Raya. Me and wife brought the kids to visit the grave of their uncle, my youngest brother at Bakri Batu Enam, Muar.

There, we also visited the graves of my mum's father and mother. Then we went to town and found to our delight that our favourite Mee Bandung shop, a very famous delicacy of Muar was opened.

We felt lucky upon finding out that the Mee Bandung shop was closed during the whole fasting month of Ramadhan and was only reopened that day! Next we brought the kids to the recreation area of Tanjung Emas to play with monkeys.

This was followed by a stop at our favourite coffee hang-out, Kopi 434.

Ah. Muhammad Al-Aminul Rasyid who is going to be 3 in less than 2 months just can't stop making faces...

At night we went to our late grandma's house for a traditional family event.

It is when the extended family, my mum's siblings, their children and grandchildren get to converge and then display their performing talents, at least by singing.

For many years we have set the event starting in the evening or night of second Hari Raya. This year's was originally set to start at 4 but many family members who came for many parts of Malaysia got caught up in traffic jams.

We ended up converging after 8 pm. Even then we can't start the performance yet...

You see a relative invited us for a function starting around 9 or so. At the same time some family members had to leave early.

So we decided to take pictures first.

Mind you this is only about half of the family. There we some overseas while others had to spend second Raya at their respective in-laws'.

The function at the relative's...

It was a qeqah function, a Muslim celebration for newborn/s.

In the centre is master of the house, my second cousin who was the local wakil rakyat (people's representative) at Johor state assembly and an executive council member.

He was asking our grand-uncle Tok Yahya, the oldest man in Kampung Temiang and its surroundings to bless his grandchildren.

Then it's makan (eat, dinner) time.

My wife with baby Johan and a nephew posing with Tok Yahya.

We only get to start our performance session after 11. This time I didn't take much pictures as I was just too tired and decided to catch some winks.

Johan's first Hari Raya

Peace be upon you all. As all Muslims and those who have studied a bit about the Muslims should know we are still in the festive month of Syawal. Today is the 11th day of the month and it should not be too late to share a story or some pictures on 1st Syawal.

After fasting from dawn till sundown everyday during the month of Ramadhan Muslims get to finally celebrate the festive month of Syawal. The 1st day of Syawal, at least in Malaysia fell on Sunday, 19th September and it is customary for Muslims especially males to do the special recommended (but not obligatory) morning prayer on that day.

The festives days in Malaysia are fondly known as Hari (day of) Raya (festival, celebration), the prayers called Solat or Sembahyang Raya. I did mine at a mosque near my parents home in Kampung Temiang, Muar. Upon returning home I found my baby Muhammad Alauddin Johan already dressed for the celebrations but fast asleep in bed.

Soon he was woken up. Johan has just turned six months old 2 days earlier. His mum is wearing the same colour.

That's my mum and dad, both 70 this year.

This is the first decent family picture taken for Raya. Guess which one is me and my two brothers. We had another brother, the youngest but he passed away 10 years ago.

I must say I looked very tired then. You see on Thursday I've just completed a 6 days solo big bike trip covering 1,400 km in the states of Pahang, Perak and Selangor. On Friday I had to run some errands in Kuala Lumpur taking a whole day. In the darkness of very early Saturday I had to drive my family to Muar for the Raya. Apart from tiredness I got sunburn showing up on my face...

Later my sister, our youngest sibling arrived from Johor Bahru with her husband and kids.

In the middle is the sister, a medical doctor playing with baby Johan.

But she could only stay for a few hours as the following day she and family have to fly to Australia.

Here we took a more complete family picture. Basically everyone in the family were around minus the brother who had passed away. His place in pix was taken by an uncle far right...

Then the kids could have their own time...

Kids nowadays... they just had to have tablet PCs...

Later came and old relative, my mum's uncle, her father's youngest brother. They had like 10 siblings or more but he is the only one left, going 90.

From the complete picture shown earlier I cropped up this section and enhanced the colours. I guess you could say this is our family potrait for this Raya, the very first one which has the latest addition to the family, Johan in it. :]