A look at the Sungai (river of) Selangor...

I'm always fascinated by rivers especially major ones. A few days, after a stop in Ijok, I felt like going to Batang Berjuntai again and then head towards Kuala Selangor. On the way I thought about taking a peep or two at the Selangor river. So here are some pictures...

This is a view from a place called Kampung Asahan some 8km from Batang Berjuntai...

A view downstream, that is to the west heading towards Kuala Selangor...

A view upstream, heading towards Batang Berjuntai...

I went another 8km or so downstream to get to Kampung Kuantan for another perspective of the river...

This part is famous for its large population of fireflies, said to be among the biggest in the world!

You can see the jetty building for the firefly watching complex from here. Have a look at the older article The fireflies at Kampung Kuantan...

And here's a look at the small jetty where I took the last few pictures. By the way, this is the 292nd posting in this blogspot. Cheers! :]

The loose name of Batang Berjuntai...

Good lord, it has been a good 3 weeks since I last made any posting here. So let me make a new one based on these pictures taken early this month. Come...

OK. This is a picture of the small town of Batang Berjuntai in Selangor taken about 3 weeks ago. This is the main road heading towards Rawang.

After having a meal at a restaurant in Ijok, I felt like taking a ride to Batang Berjuntai. I'm not sure if I have been in this town ever before in my life. Perhaps once or twice while on the way to somewhere else.

This is the same road facing the opposite direction, that is towards Kuala Selangor.

And a clinic nearby should verify I am in Batang Berjuntai.

OK, why do I feel like sharing these pictures... and then making a posting under the title "The loose name of Batang Berjuntai"? First, let me tell you, the official name of the town since the last few years is Bestari Jaya. This should indirectly answer why I choose the particular title for the posting.

You see, to those who understands the Malay language, the name Batang Berjuntai sounds and has some vulgar connotation. For the record the word "Batang" could be translated as a stick, or even better, a rod depending on the context. "Berjuntai" means hanging down, often referring to something that is so long that it tends to hang down to a very noticeable extend. Now try taking the words together, "Batang Berjuntai". You could say it is a long rod hanging down...

Hmm... I might not be able to explain this so clearly but get the picture? Or I could say it this way, "Batang" is also a colloquial way or referring to the male sex member. Come to think of it, the Englis word "rod" also has the same connotation. Get the picture?

And so whenever the name "Batang Berjuntai" is mentioned, people tend to snigger. Why, they can't help it. It's in the maps and official references. After all it is the name of a town.

That's why after a while, the officials decided to rename the town "Bestari Jaya" which could be loosely translated as the town of the succesfully smart. That's a long way for long hanging rods. Then again, one couldn't just erase the memory or name of "Batang Berjuntai" (snigger!) just like that as shown in the name of the clinic. That's all! :]

The quaint small town of Batu Arang

OK. This posting should have been completed days ago along with the last few postings here. But due to lack of time and other matters it's only today I can get it done...

This is a picture of the centre of the small town of Batu Arang, Selangor. Notice the tower on the left?

Here's a closer look at the tower. It is part of the remains of a coal mining complex which gave the town its name... Arang Batu is coal in Malay, get it...


Here's some of the shophouse which makes up the town. Here, I just take the ones around the round-about which is literally the town centre.



You see, Arang Batu is situated just 2-3 km from my latest place of residence, that is the house I stayed in since getting married again almost two months ago. Some 3 weeks ago, me and wife decided to go around this place... I can't remember if I've ever been here before.

Whatever, I found its quite and quaint atmosphere to my liking. Thus I felt like I must share a pictures about Batu Arang here along with some thoughts. That's all! :]

Down from Fraser's Hill towards Raub

Continuing from More of Fraser's Hill...

Me and wife spent couldn't stay long at Fraser's Hill, not for this trip at least as we wanted to spend the night in Janda Baik. Although at first we wanted to sleep up the hill, we have to adjust our plans so that we could meet our friend Shamsul Yunos to complete a job involving taking pictures of some mosques.

Shamsul would be coming from Kuala Lumpur while the target was to be in Ulu Dong, Raub then Kuala Lipis before returning to KL. Thus it is more convenient to meet in Genting Sempah, slightly more than 10 km out of Janda Baik yet on the route from KL to Raub.

To get to Janda Baik, we got down Fraser's Hill through to Raub. Halfway or so we came across a massive clearing which looks like it was made after a recent landslide. The above picture was taken after we have cleared parts of the road strewn in mud. I felt like parking the car to have another look of the mayhem we have passed.

I'm not sure if this is an old already existing metal bridge or a new one made after the landslide.

But looking at the boulders and parts of road strewn down the hillside, I'm not surprised if these are the remains of a whole section of road including a concrete bridge later replaced by a quick-fix metal one.

Later we arrived at this section which looks like the hairpin corner at the end of the main grandstand at the Sepang F1 Circuit.

A look to the right...

Turn clockwise another 30 degrees or so and see a spread of durian trees followed by some settlements.

Here's a view facing diametrically the opposite of the 'hairpin' corner...

Another 30 degree turn clockwise and this view follows...

Just down another corner or two, there's this tall tree standing out heads and shoulders above everything else. I believe this is a giant tualang tree which can grow more than 100 metres-high and this pne seemed to fit the bill.

As it turned out, we soon reached the t-junction of the very small town of Tranum situated on parts of a hill or area called Tras. No wonder there's plenty of settlements which could be seen from the 'hairpin' corner. This picture was taken after we came out from the road on the left. Going straight is the way to Raub, another 10-15 km or so...

The road the going up to Fraser's Hill...

We wanted to take this road leading to Bentong and Kuala Lumpur.

The pre-world war II buildings here is etched in my child-hood memory. I still remember the times passing the winding roads from Kuala Lumpur up to here only to be greeted by a military checkpoint with serious personnels mounting large machineguns. Then my dad whole give a hearty smile before we continued the journey to Raub to see his parents, my grandma and grandad. That time, the 70s, this area was still infamous for its communists guerillas on hide-outs. That's all...

More of Fraser's Hill...

Continuing from Enter Fraser's Hill . Let the rest of the pictures be presented in slide form ya. Here it is...

Enter Fraser's Hill

Continuing from At the foot of Fraser's Hill...

Soon it's time to go up. The first thing I did once up and pass the checkpoint gate there is to take this picture just after the gate...

Then I went up to one of the further points of the hill to look for this bungalow, the TM or Telekom Malaysia bungalow...

You see, in the first place I went up Fraser's Hill to bring my wife who have never been there. As she is a TM staff, we thought why not check the bungalow which offers superb view and atmosphere...


Then we went around checking other areas...

Too bad, the fog (or cloud?) was rather thick then. So let me just leave you readers with these pictures at different areas...

At the foot of Fraser's Hill...

The title might sound peculiar but bear with me a while...

This road-sign stands at a rather important junction somewhere in the middle of the main mountain range Banjaran Titiwangsa.
Here is the junction and the black one is my car...

A number of cars were parked on the roadside.

That while a few other set of wheels including this purple van on the right was seen going out of the junction. What is going on?

On the roadside also was a map of Fraser's Hill.

What happened was the cars which wanted to go up the hill have to wait at this junction.

This is because the road used to get on top is pretty narrow, only safe enough for one car to pass at a time. So we have to abide by the time-table to get on top or to get down and I happened to reach this place when it was time to go down.

This set-up has been in operation for decades. It's only about a year or two ago another road was built up to the summit to allow traffic coming up and down at all times. But I learned the other road is now closed because of landslides and such. So it's back to the drawing board and the old set-up...

With another half an hour to go before 4 pm, the next shift going up, I went walking around...

With a number of people waiting, there's a slight carnival atmosphere in the air...

Oh by the way, the signboard here shows that you are in the districtof Raub once pass this point. This means this area is the state border between Selangor and Pahang...

A look at the Sungai Selangor dam and catchment

And now, time to share some pictures from last weekend's trip... God, I just can't stop travelling around even when I'm married again. Just not yet...

I was going to Fraser's Hill from Kuala Kubu and passed the Sungai (river of) Selangor dam...

At first I taught I just want to go on but after a while passing through the road which follows the man-made lake or catchment area, I just have to take pictures...

So there I was snapping these lot...

If I remember correctly, the last time I went pass this area was some 2 years ago. I think it was on the way down Fraser's Hill via a small bus which is actually a remnant of Kuala Lumpur's minibuses, famous for 'terrorising' the city roads in the 80s. Back then (I mean not the 80s ya...), I used a cheap digital camera which tends to get blurry pictures if snapped while moving. And there's no way I could ask the driver to stop just for me to snap pictures.

Last weekend was probably the first time I ever passed this area on private wheels. So might as well take some pictures at least to share with you, dear readers!

And here's the part of the road where I stopped at. Next... at the foot of Fraser's Hill...