Gua Tempurung.....2 June 2007

If you are looking for adventure this is one place you should not bother about.... It is all hype over nothing....

A group of us decided to go on a trip to Gua Tempurung.... I was all excited... I have had 2 experiences; albeit at the same location but on different routes previously and it was a blast... there were really challenging obstacles and a sense of adventure and mystery because you never know for sure where it leads to.. according to the guide, you could go there 10 times and still not repeat a route... it just depends on the weather (if it rains certain path might be flooded) and your luck..... the name of the place? Gua Maloi... it is located somewhere is Tampin... it was a real exciting experience right from the entrance of the cave itself....

So... back to the Gua Tempurung trip... well obviously my expectations was high since I had a great caving experience in the past and Gua Tempurung is after all a much larger cave and so well advertised as a must go for all who wants to see what Malaysia has to offer...

The day started at 5am when I woke up.... such an unGodly hour to be waking up on a Saturday no less.... "Why do I do this to myself? I have no idea".... Gathering point, Center Point, BU at 6am.... Got myself there... had McDonalds pancake for breakfast... Not so great tasting... and off we went... We drove up all the way and exited Simpang Pulai.... (though the website said Gopeng, our organizers were told to exit Simpang Pulai by some Ipoh counterparts)... it took approximately a 2 and a half hour drive from KL.... or maybe slightly less... we dropped by a coffee shop (nothing famous) and had wantan mee and yam cake... ya, ate a lot... was thinking it is going to take quite a bit of energy to go through the whole thing... Then off we went an additional 20 minutes or so and there we were.... the place was so different from Gua Maloi where there wasnt anyone around...instead this place was so commercialized and there were hoards of ppl there... Then we got our tickets... Rm22.00 per head... we took the "Grand Tour"... description of it was "Paling Mencabar".... fuiyoo.. dun play play... english description was "Challenging & Strenuous". Duration: 3 1/2 hours.... this was suppose to be the mother tour of all their tours... the tour that was one less than this was described as "Exciting & Challenging".. so we were all jokingly thinking..... great.. they took out the exciting and put in the strenuous... haha!! so it shall not be exciting just strenuous.... haha!! So we waited for out slot..

the entrance....

10.30 am and our slot was up... went in... then the guide started explaining bout all the rock formations and how certain things came about and how certain stalactites and stalagmites were formed and that they were still growing but at a very slow pace of 1 inch every 200 million years or so... (hmm...wonder whether i remembered correctly or not?)... anyhow... he said that there were 10 platforms which were connected by 1200 steps of stairways which we needed to climb before we entered below the cave for the supposed wet part of the tour... he stopped at every platform.. pointed at some stuff.. explanation was not great.. the group was big and the place was stuffy... I was yawning the entire time.. everything was well paved and so commercilized that it was no more interesting...plain BORING!!!

The only thing that i thougth was quite cool was the wind tunnel which was this narrow passage way inside the cave which was always breezy... continous flow of air rushes through this particular tunnel... the reason? Scientifically it is due to the pressure drop between the outside of the tunnel and the inside causing the air from the higher pressure zone (outside the tunnel) to flow to the lower pressure zone (in the tunnel). After that it was staircase, staircase aand more staircase...

When we reached the end of the route for the staircases and were told to get off the path on to the rocks, I was excited... !! Finally... something interesting.... then we started treading carefully on the unstable rocks down a slope and right into a stream of water... it was part of the river that flows beneath the cave... oooh!!! water.... They did promise we would get wet in the tour summary (In Gua Maloi, we were drenched from head to toe like drown puppies).

So we started walking...water was about knee high... then we walked and walked and walked.. occasionally had to duck our heads and squeeze under some bolders.... but other than that it was just walking and walking and walking... then there was a spot we had to crouch.... then we continued walking... this lasted for about an hour or so.... God it was so BORING!!!! I started imagining things to keep myself from dozing off.. I was literally yawning every 5 minutes or so... Was there with my bf so we were just holding hands and walking... as if we were at a mall... I told him... "Lets walk over there and look at some shoes....!" Oh the clothes there are nice... What do you think?" Hahah!! This was what people called 'mou liu'.... So we got to the end of the cave to an opening... there was light at the end of the tunnel!!! haha!! then guess what we were told? " Lepas ini, kita jalan balik jalan yang sama... tapi keluar tempat lain" I was like WHAT?? walk back? and yeap we did... it sucks.... We just had to walk the boring route all over again... and then finally we got back to the end of the stairway.... So what is next?

this was the supposedly exciting part...

the light at the end of the tunnel... Which we had to go back into!!!

Now here comes the one and only fun thing on the entire journey..... We actually had to slide down rock to get to the next cave entrance.. It wasnt an extremely high slope but it wasnt too low either... I would say approximately 8-10 metres or so... we were taught how to slide, in which direction and how to stop ourselves.. I though Yipppeee!!! hehe!! So it got to my turn... I sat down and started sliding... then I realized... it was not a smooth rocck surface so there was much of a possibility that you would accidently slide off cue.... and since I was in shorts.. my poor thighs were slightly burning when I got down due to the scrapping... :( Then we were told to get down through a manhole thingy... looking down at the hole we were not too sure how deep it was but after the demo it turned out not so deep after all.."Cheah!! :P Again when it came to my turn, I was pretty confident I could get myself down without help but the idiot guide immediately tugged at my leg from below the hole and left me real unstable.. I told him to let go and that I could do it myself but he just kept tugging... IDIOT!!! Made my landing so ungraceful... :P

So it was back to walking and walking and walking... and just as i thought, okay I shall only get wet up to the height of my knees.. Good Good.. no need to shower, just change my clothes and I can go home for a shower.... :) (The toilet/bathroom was stinky!!) we came across this part of the river which was waist high in water.. just for 2 seconds of water i was forced to take a bath in the stinky bathroom.. ewww.... :( I was not heppi at all...

So as we followed the trail and got led out to a stream of river right outside the cave... I realize the supposed adventure had come to an end.... Finally.... nothing to shout about... Even my other friends who have been to Gua Maloi with me said that after Gua Maloi, this was just a bore.... :(

Oh well, my trip did end off on a good note!! On our drive back, we stopped at Bidor to have our lunch at 4pm... we had the famous Duck Thigh noodles and the "Wu Kok".... it was quite good.. especially the "Wu Kok"... it was piping hot right out of the wok!! :D

Then it was back home... slept all the way like a pig... Poor WJ... :( hehe!! always chauffering a sleeping pig around... hehe!! Paiseh...