Lake Kenyir

It's been awhile since I have penned anything.  Was extremely busy with moving office and also preperation for our Proton Edar Satria GTi Getaway - Kenyir Back 2 Nature.  As the name says, the destination was Lake Kenyir.

I am not writing this down in the GTi Club section but in the travel section as I guess, these words fall better in the realm of traveling.

Kenyir Lake is situated in the state of Terengganu and a portion of it is in the state of Kelantan.  It is the largest man (and some women) made lake in South East Asia.  The sheer size of the lake can engulf the whole of Singapore!  That is how large the area of Kenyir Lake is.  Kenyir Lake is one of those places still unspoilt by development and I do hope that they keep it that way.

How to get there
If you are come from Kuala Lumpur, to get to Kenyir Lake used to take 7 - 9 hours of driving.  That was before the new East Coast Highway stretching from Karak - Kuantan which now take only 2 - 3 hours to reach Kuantan.  Previously using the old B-road from Karak - Gambang usually takes around 4 hours. 

Take the highway and head towards Kuantan.  Onced you have reached the end of the road, head towards Jabor or Terengganu. The uncompleted highway actually heads towards Kenyir but its not ready yet.  That highway will connect Simpang Pulai in Perak, cross through Pahang and ending up in Gua Musang Kelantan. Actually there are 2 parallel roads heading up north just before Kuantan and in Kuantan.  If you head directly into Kuantan town and head up, you will follow the coastal road which where you will pass places like Cherating, Kemaman, Paka, Dungun, Kuala Terengganu and then you head left towards the central part of Malaysia to get to Kenyir.  You will then reach a place call Kuala Berang.  If you exit the highway and head towards Jabor / Cheneh, you will follow the other road but its on the inside and this heads towards Bukit Besi.  This road used to be more quiet and serene and the sides of the road are palm oil plantations.  Follow this road if you want to get to Kenyir quickly but beware, do not travel after light as this road is can get to be very quiet and lonely after dark.  Either way, you will need to refuel before reaching to Kenyir as the distance travelled onced reaching Cheneh would be approximately 320km and there's still about another 2 hours of driving to go.

Follow the road and you will pass Bandar Al Muktafi Billah Shah, where it used to be just a FELDA settlement.  Lembaga Kemajuan Terengganu Tengah (KETENGAH) is the government body responsible for the development of rural areas in Terengganu to bring education and development to places that were hard to reach.  I used to travel to Kenyir some 10 - 12 years back and driving then and driving now was different.  What was very noticible was the number of vehicles plying the Bukit Besi route.  Back then, you would pass a car onced every 5 - 10 mins but now, you will see motorbikes, cars, buses and lorries using the inside route as development has been brought into the state and townships are starting to flourish.

Follow the yellow brick road and you'll reach a cross road at Kuala Berang.  You are very close to the lake.  Take a left and you will head towards Kenyir's hydroelectric dam.  Take a right and you will head towards Pengkalan Gawi or the jetty to get around the lake.  We took a right and headed towards our resort, the Kenyir Lakeview Resort.  Travel some 15 - 20 mins and you will need to turn left and then, driving FUN starts.  The road coming into Pengkalan Gawi is a major tarmac rally site.  Sweeping and sharp corners await every eager driver taking in steering corrections, left foot brake work and feathering the accelerator...okay, too much about that.  One corner you should take note is the medium sharp sweeper to the left which actually is like turn 15 in Sepang F1 international track.  It goes all the way around...yup 180 degrees before you take a sharp turn to the right, then a left, and a right, then a left...etc.

After driving for 494 km from Kuala Lumpur and within those corners, you can already see the edges of the lake with is clear greenish water seeping in creating miniature swamps.  You know you're near.  We arrived at our resort, the Kenyir Lakeview Resort and it was a sight to behold.  Developed on a palm oil plantation, this resort is somewhat hilly.  You park at the bottom of the hill and you will need to ride a buggy up to the main lobby.  You can choose to walk but it would definitely take more than 10 mins for city dwellers like me whose definition of excercise is climbing the escalator when it breaks down in the shopping malls.  As you make your way up, you just can't stop in amazing awe how the chalets were built without hardly touching the environment.  You see tall trees surrounding the small road where the buggies ply through and between the chalets.  They built the wooden chalets on stilts so as not to disturb much of the soil and environment as stilts have very small foot prints on the ground.  The chalets face towards the lake and you get the serenity of nature.  One will have to agree that this is the most harmonious marriage between modern development and nature.  The resort has a gym, 2 squash courts, 2 tennis courts and a deer sanctuary where doe, the deer, the female deer...resides with other deers.  The resort staff would leave a big bag of yummy tasting leaves for visitors to feed the deers and pet them when they come close to the fence.

When you reach the lobby, you will get to see the most amazing sight, which is the view of the lake from the top of the hill.  You will see numerous islands which are actually the tip of hills and mountains submerged by hunderds of feet of water.  Quite a scary thought onced you think of it but one can also feel the tranquility and peace that transcends from the lake to the resort.

The next day, we took a boat ride called the Lake Tour. The lake tour consists of several stops on the lake. Our first destination was the 'pokok kayu mati' or dead trees.  These are the tips of tall trees which still stands in the water.  Nothing much there except seeing some sticks sticking out of the water which is somewhat 40 - 50 feet deep.  A short 10 min boat ride away, we stopped an island call 'Pulau Sah Besar and Pulau Sah Kecil' which literally means Big Island and Small Island.  This island is also called the Herb Island or 'taman herba'. KETENGAH has developed this island as a research and development for natural herbs and plants to grow.  These herbs and plants have medicinal properties and some have been scientifically proven to cure certain illness and ailments.  Many of these plants, roots and leaves have been used traditionally in healing the many indigenous people for centuries.  Some plants have certain properties such as the very well known 'tongkat ali' or the staff of ali which is well known to help impotency in men.  The application may not be as immediate or drastic as viagra but it does help those to rise on many occasions and stay that way.  There are several varieties of 'tongkat ali' and it depends on its strength.  We were also shown on how to identify these plants when in the jungle.  These plants grow in the wild and hardly are being cultured.  There is also one for women called 'kacip fatimah' which is known to excite women.  There are stories behind the names of the plants.  KETENGAH has taken a point to study the plants and which part of the plants can be used for medicinal properties.  Some plants you use the leaves, some trees you take the bark and mostly are the roots. Since the indigenous people have been using these leaves and roots for many years and their women can bare children and work on the fields just 2 days after labour when modern medicine would take several days to heal, KETENGAH takes the initiative to study what these people eat and drink and hopefully bring the extracts and goodness of the natural plants and trees to hopefully heal some of the modern illnesses that we have.  We were also given the opportunity to sample some 'tongkat ali and kacip fatimah' which is freshly brewed in a kettle on top of a wooden stove.  Luckily no one get extraordinarly randy that afternoon.

Next stop was the hydroelectric dam.  I have driven towards the hydroelectric dam twice some 10 - 12 years ago but this was the 1st time I took the boat towards the dam.  It was amazing as some 300 - 400 feet of water was beneath us.  A short break at the dam for some picture taking and some ice cream at the concessionary store, we took the boat again headed towards the 'sungai lasir' waterfall or Lasir River waterfall.  Again, I was amazed at how developed the waterfall area was which surely was targetted at giving tourists some comfortable steps and ammenities.  That was something which I forgot to write about.  The ammenities such as clean toilet was found on each and every stop either at the herb island, the damn even at the waterfall.  Here one can see that careful steps were taken to develop the area with wooden and concrete steps but again, I was amazed that hardly any of the natural surroundings were touched or moved.  There were no trash to be seen and no soil movements or red earth unearthed.  Everything was well balanced and seemed to have a synergy between the development and the natural surroundings.  The wooden steps built seemed to have naturally grown in between the shrubs and trees.  Nothing feels better on a hot day than the icy cool water of the waterfall.  Clean and clear, we took a dip on the nice hot day and seriously, it was again, blissfull.  After lunch at the waterfall, we took the 30 min boat ride back towards the resort.  Cool strong wind blowing in the face, hot sunny day after a meal surely did put several people to sleep on the way back to the jetty.

We came back down to Kuala Lumpur following the coastal route after skillfully dodging several goats and cows that crossed our paths.  We exited at Marang and Dungun passing through numerous small backyard factory producing salted fish and 'keropok ikan' or chips made from dried fish.  Made our way down towards Paka the small township of PETRONAS, Kijal where the Star Cruise boat would stop and very famous Cherating beach area where Club Med is located before joining back the East Coast Highway that would take us back to the hustle bustle of the city. 

It was indeed a great journey and a true back to nature adventure.  I would recommend anyone who is high on the stress list to take some time and smell not only the roses but daffodils, petunias, orchids and other trees and plants surrounding the Kenyir Lake.  It would definitely be what the doctor ordered.