bababoy: April 2009

Feed the elephants? Bathe the elephants? Where can you do this kind of activities? The answer is Kuala Gandah Elephant Sanctuary. Since this is a sanctuary, the number of visitors per day is limited, which is 100 visitors per day. I immediately asked LeLe to call the sanctuary and do the reservation for 5 pax. You can get more info at their website http://www.myelephants.org/.

We are lucky that we managed to do the reservation for that Saturday trip, even though we only do the reservation on that week. We even managed to book 5 yellow stickers, which means we can feed, ride and bathe the elephants. For those with red stickers, they can only feed and ride the elephants.

So, that Saturday, 25.04.2009, we start our journey in one car with the 5 of us- Ijay, Jess, Lele, Sek and Luke. First stop, breakfast at Batu Caves, where they served these nice "Wan Tan Hor" and Fish Porridge. We didn't took any photo because we are busy satisfying our empty stomach, but actually we are shy to take the food photo. I think this link http://www.awhiffoflemongrass.com/?p=370,
is the restaurant that we went.

After the nice breakfast, we continued our journey to to Karak Highway towards Kuantan, before exiting Lanchang Toll Plaza. From the exit, it took around 8km to reach to the elephant sanctuary. We reached there at 1pm, and we registered ourselves at the Visitor Registration Office. Since we had do the reservation earlier, we were given the yellow stickers to stick on our shirt. We change to the suitable attire since we are supposed to bath with the elephants.

First activities, Video Documentary show at 1:30pm. After the video show, we gathered at the respective area to feed the elephants. There were lots of fruits such as papayas, bananas and watermelons, and to be able to hand feed them personally is just an unforgettable experience. Second activities was riding the elephant. This is the first time for me to ride an elephant, and the first time for us (Jessica and me) to ride an elephant together too. So, I rode with Jes, Sek with LeLe and Luke rode alone.

After that, it was time to bath with the elephants. All we need to do is climb to the elephant from the platform, and after a few walks, the elephant will purposely felled down to the river to make the riders wet. Unfortunetly, I have to become the photographer and took the photo of others. Luke, Lele, Sek and Jess all felled to the river and were in soakingly wet condition. You can also bathe the elephant while you are in the river. After cleaning ourselves up, we went to the office to make some donation. It was truly a nice experience for us to be with the largest land mammals on the universe.

From the sanctuary, we headed to the deer park,which was situated about 5km from the sanctuary. We paid RM5 each for the entrance fee. Inside, we fed the deer, and touch lots of animals such as snakes, quails, hedgehogs, ostrich, rabbits and the best of all, The Malayan Sun Bear. We enjoyed our time with the beast as we managed to be closed with him. We left the park about an hour later.

Since waterfall is my passion right now, we decided to stop by at Bentong and search for Chamang Waterfall. The Chamang Fall can be reached by taking the road from Bentong to Raub- http://waterfallsofmalaysia.com/25chamang.php.
It is about 10km from Bentong Town. This waterfall is not really good for swimming, except for some good spots at the ground, where the pool is located. However, the view is breathtaking, with the water keep flowing drastically. Me and Luke decided to swim in the cool water for a while.

After Chamang Waterfall, we took our dinner at Bentong Town. After seaching and driving in this area, we came across this shop selling "Wan Tan Mee". We give it a try, but the taste was so so only, just to fill our empty stomach. We did also try the "Tong Sui" and "Yu Cha Koi" at a hawker stall where we parked our car. Finally, after settling some monetary issue, we headed home with a full stomach and money-cant buy experiences, especially with the elephants and the bear.