This year, the Diong clan decided to pay a little visit to the jewel of the Perak State, The Royal Belum State Park. Having spent most of my schooling life in this state, I heard about the state park only after I left. Many of the uncles in the family were very game for this but cannot say the same for the aunties in the family. Anyway,
On the second day of the Lunar New Year, the Diongs set out to Belum through the route of Sitiawan-Ayer Tawar-Beruas-Manong-Kuala Kangsar -Lenggong-Gerik-Belum to reach this wonderful place.
The drive took us about 3.5 hours from Sitiawan to reach the resort; The Belum Rainforest Resort
Upon reaching the resort, the check-in was a rather chaotic affair. Despite having to have booked the rooms much earlier, the staffs at the reception was still not equipped to handle a party of 23 people. There were some confusions about the mix of rooms we booked. Some were deluxe rooms while others were superior. The hotel wasn’t fully occupied and they had plenty of rooms to spare and yet this can still happen!
Upon reaching our rooms however, all the chaos were quickly forgotten when we peeked outside our window and found this splendid view of the River.
The place was just so serene, so green and so un-spoilt (if there is a such word!) .
Since it was already in the afternoon, plus it is after all Chinese New Year, we took a lazy afternoon playing some board games with the younger cousins. It was of course initiated by me. The cousins were already begin to head down to the river, but me being so very afraid of the sun, casually suggested, ” Who’s game for Scrabble?” Surprisingly, all of them was enthused and sat down quietly; quickly forming themselves into a team of two. The teams were Alex (aged 31) & Gareth (aged 12), Melodi (aged 17) and Ashlin (aged 8), Jeffrey (Aged 18) & Janet (aged 17) and me. (it was the eve of my birthday, so I’m still considered one year younger!) From that game, I discovered that having played Scrabulous and other online versions of Scrabble was a great advantage. But I was also disadvantage since everyone was playing with so many helpers besides them being 2 against 1 of little old me. Plus, Jeffrey represented his school at a state-level competition for Scrabble!
After the grueling mental workout, it was still pretty early and the gang decided to go down to the river anyways to try their hand at some fishing. As bad as it sounds, it is rather bad to mix women, children and fishing together! The whole time that we were down at the river bank, I think all the fishes ran away. The womenfolk must chat, so they retired to one nice little hut near the river bank. The kiddies however, were very excited to try their hand at fishing, but kids being kids shrieked in excitement when they manage to just cast their lines into the river. Mana-lah nak dapat ikan kalau bising bising nie!
So my BIL pretended to have caught a big fish that got away, when his hook was stuck to some weeds! Isn’t he so cute?
After dinner, everyone was tired from the journey and went to bed early. We got up pretty early in the morning and was very excited for what was in stored for us today.
The day was rather cloudy and I was pretty happy about it. Cloudy skies are just perfect for exploring out in the open. But then, by mid morning most of the clouds disappeared and the sun was blazing hot! Luckily the journey into the deep forest of Belum wasn’t as long as the one in Taman Negara. The unfortunately part however was the boat we rented had only a little canopy and not everyone was able to be under it. Having to share the boats with my parents-in-law, the younger ones, i.e. their children and myself had to be out in the sun.
After 1.5 hours cruising down the river, we reached out destination. The reason for coming here to Belum was that this was also home to the world’s biggest flower, the Rafflesia.
The variant that is in The Royal Belum is not the biggest of the Rafflesia species. Our guide told us that the biggest of the Rafflesia species can only be found in Sabah, but that flower is also very stinky! The one we saw however was not stinky at all. In fact it just bloomed the night before. Probably because of that the flower did not trap too many small animals and insects yet. Most of the unpleasant smell, according to our guide was due to the rotting flesh of animals inside the flower!
Next on the itinerary was the orang asli village. At this point, I decided not to take any photographs of the place. Not to say that it was not picturesque but I felt that if I were to go around snapping pictures of the these folks, I was really intruding into their privacy. Mind you, this orang asli village is not one of those villages set up for tourist. These people actually live here. Before arriving at the orang asli village, our guide kindly reminded us to be very respectful of these people and do not ask them silly questions such as ” Kenapa pak, rumah tak de tilam? Tidor kat mana?” Despite the guide’s warning, some members of our party actually did ask silly questions. ” Sini tak de elektrik, so lepas 7 malam buat apa?” When that question was asked, I was both pissed and embarassed at the same time. Really don’t know where to hide my face! Gosh.
We finished off our big adventure by having a swim at one of the many waterfalls that they had in the park.
This was the part where I was most excited. Heavily shaded area filled with cool waters and the best part the surface was rocky! While I was at the watefall, there was this surface next to the waters, where you could actually scale the wall! I being a reckless fellow, went to scale before Alex quickly yelling to me to come down. Guess it wasn’t such a bright idea to do it in front of the kiddies in case they wanted a go at it! Thank God all of them were more sensible. chickens
Last but not least, from all the members of the Diong clan, we would like to wish all of you :
