Sungai Lembing Revisited - Day 1: Where Is My Rainbow?

It was 4-5 years ago when I first visited Sungai Lembing, a tin mining town 42km northwest of Kuantan in Pahang, for the amazing Rainbow Waterfall and the sunrise with beautiful sea of clouds at the summit of Panorama Hill. The captivating sceneries linger in my memory every since and the place would definitely worth a second visit.

On 19 & 20 April, I revisited Sungai Lembing for a weekend getaway, joining a leisure trip organized by KM from OX (Outdoor Explorer). It was leissure in a sense that there would not be any camping in the jungle and we did not need to bring our big backpack up with full gear, unlike previous hiking trips with camping at the summit during the good old days when I was quite active with hiking with another group of outdoor kaki few years back.

There were a total of 17 of us going in 4 cars. We gathered as early as 4:45am at Kelana Jaya as the meet up point on 19 April. That means I got to force myself to sleep super early on Friday night in order to get adequate sleep and wake up darn early on Saturday morning. Ya, waking up so early in the morning is somewhat torturing but the joy of going places would always offset this feeling.

At the meeting point, I saw some familiar faces including the Snakebuster, Mr. Kanasai who came all the way from Penang, petite CM, whom I got to know them from previous hiking trips as well as Mr Big, someone I met before for work purpose, who seemed could not recognize me. There were also some other totally new faces, which included a Thai sweetie pie who is working in an MNC in PJ on a work transfer, Mr. Hum Sup (wearing a T-shirt that self delares that), Ms. Small Wanderer who disappears and reappears like a 'sip cheng guai', Mr. SK IV (Sammy Cheng only uses SK II, you can imagine how fair he is), and some other more normal beings. Interesting group.

Off we went, heading for the East West Highway. We exited at Gambang and arrived at the Sungai Lembing Town after about 3 & 1/2 hours of journey. The first thing to do was to EAT as we departed with empty stomach. We had breakfast at the happening morning market. Food and drink there were dirt cheap. I ordered a bowl of curry mee with 5 pieces of Yong Tau fu for only RM3.

After breakfast, what's next? 1 hours plus of lorry ride into the jungle awaiting us. I was quite impressed with how the lorry condition has imporved over time. It now comes with cushion seats and strings to hold on to accomodate to the bumpy route in the jungle. It's a big difference compared to the 'pig selling' lorry used for my last visit here, where everyone just squeezed at the back of the lorry with nothing to hold on, exactly like how slaves or animals are transported.



During the lorry ride, there were lots of branches and leaves from left right center corner along the path that posed some treat of hitting us as the lorry drove passed if we were not watchful. Thus people sitting in front were busy alerting passengers at the back rows. Everyone was busy avoiding. I was sitting at right side of the last 2 row, busy covering my face apart from avoiding. Haha, what to do, cannot afford to have my face scratched mah. :) Some parts of the route were really bouncy that you would feel like riding on a mad horse. On a milder extend, you would enjoy an Osim iGallop effect on the cushion seat. There were short stretches of river with shallow water for the lorry to cross too. The journey was quite fun though, filled with chit chatting and laughter by the talkative group.

After 1 hour plus of 'galloping' journey, which we were fortunate enough not to suffer from internal organ dislocation, we finally reached the starting point to hike in to the Rainbow Waterfall. I was excited and couldn't wait to see the rainbow.

There was a river to wade through at the beginning of the hike. River? How come I couldn't remember this river at all? Am I suffering from memory loss or it's a sign of aging?







It was a combination of natural and rocky path and took us around 45 minutes to reach the Rainbow Waterfall. As magnificent and splendid as it always is, something was missing from the waterfall! Where's my rainbow?! Aikss, we missed it! The rainbow would only be seen around 8-10 am something in the morning. We were just a bit too late to have missed it. I was a little disappointed as I was hoping to take some nice pictures of the rainbow with my new camera, my main objective of trip.



Well well, it seemed that I just had to settle with Rainbow Waterfall without rainbow and enjoyed the waterfall alone. The waterfall was gorgeous. The water breeze was so invigorating. It felt good to be close to nature with freshness installed in my mind.

Some jumped into the waterfall to enjoy the cold water, while some other were busy camwhoring. You could easily hear the shooting sound of the 4 to 5 DLSR cameras that the group brought along. It seems like everyone is into DSLR nowadays.



We had sandwich with tuna, sausage, scrambled egg, tomato, cucumber, as well as cup mee, some snacks and fruits for lunch by the waterfall side. It was self-service, you could stuff your bread with whatever you like to make your own sandwich.



After lunch, we hiked back to the place where the lorry waited for us and took a lorry ride back to the town. The sun was burning hot and imagine us having to endure it for 1 hour plus. I covered my face and neck with my jacket to avoid sunburn, which made me looked like an Aminah. Hahaha :D Lazy to apply sunblock thought I brought it with me for the trip. :)

As soon as we got back to the town, I immediately showered at our rest house and searched for icy cold drink to quench the extreme thirst from the hot lorry ride. We took a nap till dinner time.

Had our dinner at a stall at the market, where the dishes were pre-ordered by Mr. Kanasai before we came. A conversation at the dinner was the highlight of the day, which made me completely understand why MC (an outdoor friend who is also from Penang) called Mr. Kanasai, kanasai. Hahaha...

I Was sitting at the same table as Mr. Kanasai. The stall served only Chinese Tea and Herbal Cooling Tea (leong sui)which was 'Luo Hon Kuo' that night. Loh Hon Kuo was on high demand as the weather was very hot. It was not enough to cope our orders. After serving a few cups of Luo Hon Kuo, an auntie came to our table telling us there was not enough of it.

Autie (taking order): What would you like to order?
Mr. Kanasai (in Mandarin): Liang Cha (凉茶)。
Autie: No more Liang Cha, but next stall has. Only left with Chinese Tea.
Mr. Kanasai (Mumbling): Cannot be what, look at that pot of black drink, must be Liang Cha.

Autie walked away to serve drink, leaving Mr. Kanasai to decide on his order.

Me: Today's Liang Cha is Loh Hon Kuo, no more already. Only left with Chinese Tea, can you understand or not?
Mr. Kanasai: Impossible lah. You look at that pot of drink, black black one, if it's not Liang Cha then what is it?
Mr. Big: That is not Liang Cha lah. Auntie already mentioned it's Chinese Tea lah!

Autie came to our table again, serving the drinks.

Mr. Kanasai: Autie, no Liang Cha meh?
Autie: Next stall got. You want or not?
Mr. Kanasai: Don't want. I want 100 Plus.

The rest of us burst into laughter with his surprising final order, at the same time speechless. He's simply... kanasai! MC didn't tell me wrongly that he's kanasai and why every calls him kanasai. Hahaha...

Anyway, credit had to be given to Mr. Kanasai for the dinner that he arranged. We had rice with ginger spring onion wild boar meat, kangkung, Fu Yong Egg, Yellow Wine Chicken, Steamed Tilapia fish, and Yu Wat Soup. The food was good and satisfying, especially the Yellow Wine Chicken and the Steamed fish.


After dinner, we went back to the rest house for some TV and chit chatting before hitting the sack.