8/9: Happy MId-Autumn Festival

Lets go to the beach and throw some oranges tonight. You might catch a big shark. Happy Mid Autumn festival to everyone. May you be blessed by the appearance of the full moon tonite. 5b4cb10df5a41d0b63000b612d0f20c04c7dc81baa7d9db811

31/8: Happy Independence Day to all Malaysian.

National Elephant Conservation Centre Kuala Gandah, Pahang

 

 Pahang :Located near Lanchang, this place is also called Kuala Gandah National Elephant Orphanage Sanctuary. It's aim is to protect wild elephants from poachers and the take over of forestry by human kind due to development, mining and replanting.

Kuala Gandah is about 2 hours drive from the city of Kuala Lumpur. You have to drive along the East Coast Highway passing famous Genting Highlands and Bukit Tinggi Resort route in the middle of the journey and exit at Temerloh-Lanchang. From there you will see a big sign board leading to Kuala Gandah National Elephant Conservation Centre.
There is no entry fee but visitors are expected to contribute food-in-kind such as nuts, sugarcane etc sold by the care takers. No outside food are allowed to feed the animals.
The adult elephants are brought out from the forest for public viewing at 2 pm everyday.
Save the elephants and be an eleFriends for life. More photos at: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?s...

Sungei Lembing, Pahang

Entrance to Sg. Lembing

I finally decides to make a trip to Sungei Lembing after a month in Kuantan, Pahang. Gettig there is easy if you are driving. All you need is drive straight across Indera Mahkota and Sg. Pancing.
There are two famous places which I wanted to visit. One is the Panorama hill (Bukit Panorama) and the other is the rainbow waterfall. You have to start your journey early if you want to watch the sunrise at Bukit Panorama or visit the rainbow waterfall. I only make it to Bukit Panorama but missed the 4x4 ride to the famous waterfall.

Sungai Lembing, a former tin mining town is about 38 km of Kuantan in Pahang, Malaysia..
Until the 1970s, Sungai Lembing was a major producer of underground tin. Sungai Lembing town developed in the 1880s when the British set up the tin mining industry, although the history of mining in this area extends much further back. From 1891, the Pahang Consolidated Company Limited, (PCCL), which was under British control, had a 77-year lease to mine the area. PCCL managed the mine from 1906 until its liquidation in 1986 when world tin prices collapsed.
The pit mines were closed in 1986 due to high operational costs and low yields, but during their heyday they were among the largest and deepest in the world. The total tunnel length is 322 km, with a depth of between 610 m and 700 m. A museum highlighting the tin mining industry was opened in 2003. The museum is housed in an old bungalow once used by the mine manager. The museum houses a collection of mining artifacts.

Stairs to Bukit Panorama

The town of Sg Lembing is in decline although it was once the richest town in Pahang, In the 1940s about 1400 people worked in the mine. Today many of the wooden shoplots are closed and people are moving away. The town straddles the river, and the main street on the right bank is split by an avenue of majestic trees. At the end, an old wooden building overlooks the padang where games of cricket and other social activities were held.
Today Sg Lembing has a population of about 5,000 locals. There are many locals and Singaporean tourist who visited there everyday especially during the holidays to catch a glimps of the sunrise at Bukit Panaorama and the Rainbow waterfall.
There are also many budget hotels to cater for overnight visitors.
To me, Sg. Lembing which is a small village is a must place to visit if you are in Kuantan. The small village has many bicycle stalls renting out bicycles for recreational activities and at reasonable prices. If you visit there during the fruits season, you can get to taste a lot of varieties including rambutans and durians selling at fair prices.

View from Bukit Panorama

Bukit Panorama view

University students at the base of Bukit Panorama enjoying durians

Public Library

Sg. Lembing town

Another attraction in Sg. Lembing is the hanging bridge

Exploring The River Of Kings - The Chao Phraya River

Taking the Ferry touring the long and wide Chao Phraya River or the "River of Kings" from pier to pier which cost only 15 Baht to observe famous tourist places such as Wat Arun or the Temple of Dawn, Grand Palace, The Royal Barge National Museum and many more. Till today, the river plays many roles in Thai life including communication, transportation and tourism.
Exploring the River Of Kings along The Chao Phraya is one of the must visit places in Bangkok and it has many foreign visitors daily.

 

Kelantan International Kite Festival

In conjunction with the Visit Kelantan Year 2012, the Kelantan Tourism Information Center with the cooperation of the state government organised the 30th International Kite Festival held in Pantai Geting, Tumpat, Kelantan from Jun 5th to Jun 9th.
The annual event attracted many foreign participants including those from India, Korea, Brunei, Germany, Switzerland, China, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Austria and Cambodia. 
Various activities were held during the 5-days event including coloring competition for children, workshop on kite making alongside school and national-level kite-flying competition.
Today’s event attracted many local tourist who came from near and far who took the opportunity during the present school term holidays to visit Kelantan.
The organizer said many participants were satisfied with the program. That is why they returned to participate in this annual affairs.

The Erawan Museum - Samut Prakan

 The Erawan Museum is one of the latest attraction in Bangkok. It comprises of a building with a huge 3 headed elephant structure on top. The weight of the elephant's head by itself  is 100 tons, and the weight of the elephant is 150 tons. The total height of the building and the elephant is 43.6 meters. The elephant itself is 29 meters high x 12 meters width x 39 meters length. 

 

 The interior of this building is made of mostly antiques china wares. The objective of this mix modern building with antiques finishes is to educate the new generation on the use of compass and rudder for vessels, and at the same time the use of arts and heritage that has been long collected and high in value. And also to introduce to the other side of the world the Asian traditions and culture.  

1967: Lek Viriyaphant was inspired by his wish to preserve his collection of antiques which include sacred and auspicious deities believe by people of ancient time to grant abundance to their lands and countries. One day, Lek had a visit from a Westerner guest who during the conversation mentioned the idea  of constructing an apple-shaped building in town according to westerners cultural belief. Inspired by the idea, Lek planned to build an elephant-shaped building based on the Eastern belief on Erawan Elephant. However, he didn't perceive the elephant as the vehicle of God Indra. Instead he imagined it as a Cosmic Elephant. When the idea took shape in a drafted design, he then assigned his oldest son Phakphian Viriyaphant to continue the project.    

 

Located at Samut Prakan, Thailand.  To get there by bus, take the bus no 25, 142 or 365. Air-con bus no 102, 507, 508, 511 and 536 from Bangkok.
The admission fee is 150 baht for adult and 75 baht for children of Thai citizen. For foreigner, adult is 300 baht and 150 baht for children, which is expensive for an Asian tourists.

Made In Thailand

One of the most convenient way to travel around Thailand is through driving. You can drive up from the very south to the upper most of Thailand. Among the famous places to visit includes Hadyai, Kok Samui, Krabi and Phuket at the Southern and Hua Hin, Bangkok, Chang Mai, Chang Rai and Mae Hong Sorn at the far North. Please enjoy watching the video from my previous journey in Thailand.