Yet Another Visit .... Part 2

Danish, Aqil & Mia absorbing nature. The first night in the wilderness. Though they have been spending most of what is left of the day in the water and by right they should be tired and sleepy by now, but it seemed like they need a little "used-to". As for Mia, she hardly sleep early - doe not matter where she is.

Early in the first morning, my man was already busy "building" a kitchen shelf for me.



The finished shelf. How proud am I of my man (:-D. As you can see, part of our pots and pans, cooking oil and coconut milk.


Among our ration - we hardly go without honey and of course kicap kipas udang. And more importantly the nursing bottle - you can spot it can't you?

Highlight of the day. My man finally caught the King of the River - seen here happily and proudly holding what else but KELAH! (If I am not mistaken it is called Empurau in Sarawak)




A happy moment like this need to be shared. Father and children happily posing with the "golden" catch. Our day went as smoothly as possible. What with the potential of savouring Kelah the next day. Back when I was still a young child, we never thought that Kelah will be scarce to find. I remembered the days when I followed my brother Zaid fishing. More often than not, we will bring back one or two kelah home. Hence when I first met my husband and he told me about his craze over kelah I was quite dumbfounded. In my heart I was like "Craze over Kelah? Something must be wrong" Little that I know then. Kelah is slowly vanishing from our rivers. However, with the steps taken by the Wildlife Department, serious efforts are being taken to ensure the continuity of Kelah existence. Since last year the Dept had set up a Kelah Sanctuary at Lubuk Pertang some 10 minutes boat ride from Lubuk Kaloi where we set camp. I'll tell you more in the next entry.

Taman Negara Kuala Koh Part 2

There's so much beauty if only we take a look around us. There is always something that is meant to be appreciated and to thank the Creator for. And as a kampung girl I always love the beauty of my surroundings. This is not exactly a sequel to Taman Negara Kuala Koh Part 1 - not much to tell in this entry but I would love to share some of the snaps I took in the trip. I am not that good at taking photographs but I hope it is not too disappointing. I sincerely hope that everybody (especially those who appreciate beauty of jungles and rivers) will enjoy the few shots that I include here. Most of the photos here are taken in the boatride. The trees in this photo are so tall and they have spiderweb kind of branches.

Big mossy rocks.

Somehow I imagine some kind of wild animal will jump out from this bush...

Reflection

View ahead - straight from the boat

Suspension Bridge
Canopy Walk

My Little Camper,... & Angler Too

During our stay in Kuala Koh, we made a boat trip to Lubuk Kaloi. For a time, it managed to worry me - how will Aqil take it. Though he has been on a ferry to Langkawi before but this time it will be different. It is a boat, a real boat, where the water can get in to you, where you are "exposed", where you will get wet if it rains. So, when all of us got in the boat, I took a deep breath and hope for the best. But of course, I worried for nothing. Aqil is a good traveller. He enjoyed the journey. He's even brave enough to stand in the boat enjoying his new experience, trying not to miss anything - the web like branches of a tree, the suspension bridge, the fallen tree showing its enormous bark, the flowering trees, anything, everything managed to get his attention. He's quiet in the journey trying to absorb his surrounding. When asked whether he love the boat ride, he nodded excitedly.

Came the second part, when we arrived at Lubuk Kaloi, it's fishing time. Much to his father's liking, before he could properly finished getting his fishing gear ready, Aqil impatiently took one of the rods, "I'm going to catch jaws." he said. That led to a little bickering when Hakim said, "Ibu, is there any jaws here? No, right?". "What do you think?" I asked back, trying to give myself some time before giving the most appropriate answer. "There cannot be. Jaws lives in the sea, the ocean." he answered back. "Well, jaws are actually sharks, there are some species of river sharks, as far as I know, there are river sharks in the Ganges river, New Guinea, Australia and Indonesia. but I do not know if there is any here." My answer seemed to satisfy Hakim. All the while Aqil was muttering "I'm gonna get jaws, I'm gonna get jaws.." Though I do not know it that time, the Whale Times Fishin' for Facts stated that there are five types of River Sharks as follows :

(i) Ganges river shark, Glyphis gangeticus, India
(ii) Speartooth shark Glyphis glyphis, New Guinea
(iii)Bizant river shark, Glyphis species "A", Queensland, Australia
(iv) Borneo river shark, Glyphis species "B", Borneo in Indonesia
(v) New Guinea river shark, Glyphis species "C", New Guinea

(Well, should anyone have more knowledge on river sharks, please leave your comments. And if I am wrong, do correct me. Tq)

After the bickering stopped, and I started setting my "kitchen" to work, looking at my children's enthusiasm and passion for fishing, I wonder if they will grow up following their father's footstep. As I mentioned in my earlier entry, my husband will make it a yearly trip to hunt for kelah. As shown in the photo (taken some time in 1999), this is among his proudest catch - a 6.0 kg kelah. Look at his "toothpaste advertisement" smile.

We stayed at Lubuk Kaloi the whole day. My husband and children spent their time trying their luck to catch kelah. As can be witnessed here, Aqil (well, he's aiming for jaws anyway, not kelah) faithfully guarding his rod even during "makan time". It broke my heart a little seeing his persistence. At that moment, I prayed for him to get any fish at all. But my prayer was not answered - well, it's such a selfish request, anyway.

I guessed Aqil finally got bored. "Ibu, I threw away the food in the river. Perhaps the fish will like it." he finally decided. "So, you are not going to get your jaws?" I asked him. "There's no jaws here." he said with finality. With that , he asked me to take of his clothes and wellie and happily run into water. After a few minutes, he got up and ran to the small island nearby. "I want to watch Baba!" he yelled. Already he was in another mode. I saw him joining his sister looking at some stones. Not long after that, I heard my daughter calling out to me. "Ibu! Ibu! Look at what I found!" she said, holding something in her hand. "A heart-shaped stone, and it's for you!" And it is the most perfect heart-shaped stone I've ever seen. Excited with her find, we looked around and really, there are a lot of almost perfect shaped stones here - round, rectangle, rhombus (or diamond as my children call it), triangle - this trip is awesome!

One thing I really appreciate my children in this trip is that they do not let their frustration of not catching any fish get into them. But, the Al-Mighty is Kind. Just a few minutes before Mat the Boatman arrived to fetch us back, my husband's rod stirred. He quickly checked on it and like a bonus, though not kelah, a temperas submitted itself to the palm bait. What more can we asked for? Syukur Alhamdulillah. We are all smile on our boat ride back.

Taman Negara Kuala Koh - Part 1

All these years, my husband never take any leave during the school holiday. Believing that all tourist attracting places will be flooded with tourists & accommodations will be in full occupancy not to mention having to pay peak period surcharge - it's expensive to travel during school holiday, he never take us anywhere during school holiday.

So when he told me a week ago that his leave application has been approved, I was pleased but a bit shocked at the same time.

This time our destination is Taman Negara Kuala Koh. Actually, he promised to take us here since many years ago. But, every year since he made that promise, he will be going with his fishing friends - hunting for kelah (malaysian mahseer or malaysian red mahseer; scientific name : tor tambroides from the cyprinidae family - nowadays, the fish is facing extinction due to unscrupulous activities like bombing, poisoning and illegal netting. Such, a lot of efforts have been taken to ensure that this specie will not go into extinction; for eg. setting Kelah Sanctuaries at Sg Tahan, Lubuk Pertang (Kuala Koh) and Tasik Kenyir - most anglers will catch and release it), leaving us for 3-4 days each time.(There will be more stories on Kelah hunting in my coming entry).

All of us were very excited and soo... looking forward for the trip. We left Shah Alam on Monday, (March 16). We headed north through Kuala Kubu. Subhanallah,... the view at the Kuala Kubu Dam is sooo..... beautiful. I can't share any shots this time since I am still figuring out how to transfer images from my mobile. But trust me, it is. If you have the time, take a joy ride there. I do not know whether there are any picnicking area but the view itself is well worth the trip.

Kuala Koh is situated 90kms from Gua Musang. This is a shot taken of Felda Aring - the entry point to Kuala Koh National Park. We stopped by the road site to pick some palm fruits - those left by the roadside - not sure why but looks like these were left out as they may not have met the pickers' standards? We took those which were already brown turning dark and a bit soggy - this is said to be the best bait for kelah.

Our accommodation - Chalet No. 3. Word of caution though : If you are going to stay at the chalet (I think it is true for all the chalets here), do not leave any crumbs or if possible do not sleep on the floor (even with mattress) because you may leave with ant bites.

Our clan getting ready for the boat trip to Lubuk Kaloi to try our luck at hunting kelah. We considered ourselves lucky as the wheather is clear and it is not raining that day.

Lubuk Kaloi, here we come...!

Our makeshift kitchen. We're very thankful for those who built the structure. We were made to understand that the previous fishing groups left earlier than their intended stay due to the heavy rainpour the day before. Menu for the day, masak lemak kobis, sambal tumis mackerel, telur goreng, ikan masin. Life is heavenly. We brought along our food ration. We did not actually expect to get anything, but we're just happy and cherished the time that we wpent together.

Our temporary home. Another word of caution : It is quite tricky to perform solat in a tent. Maybe due to the sand were still soft from the previous two days heavy rain, or I'm moving too fast when changing my position, I slipped from my ruku' straight to sujud. Well, I finally managed, after a few trials.

My husband and two sons found this source of spring water close to our tent site. Hmmm.... talking about our very own source of mineral water... This is bliss.

Our catch for the day. Though not kelah, our day is made. And since it is not listed as an endangered specie, we turned the Temperas (Mata Merah:cyclocheilichthys apogon) from this,....

.... to this. Gulai tempoyak. Pehh!...We left Lubok Kaloi, satisfied and with a promise to make a return trip.

Other than fishing & camping, there are other activities to do in the National Park. Among others, walking through suspension bridge,...

Canopy walking....

.....and all these activities from jungle trekking to bird watching.

Somehow, this trip is so... special, not just because we spent time together and having lots of fun - also due to the fact that about 10 minutes after leaving the National Park, we witnessed a procession of the Batik tribe - which we never dream of seeing. Here are a few snapshots of them - at first, we were not sure if they let us take any photograph of them but they agreed when I asked for their permission. They are quite friendly (maybe a bit shy). Please note their headgears which form part of their accessories.