Jun 11, 2014

Cool Places In Ipoh - Gua Tempurung


Quoting my last post; "I just want to go on a long drive to somewhere new. 
Go on more adventures. Be around good energy. Connect with people."

Well, mission accomplished i can say.

Ever watched the movie "Yes Man" ?
I'm trying to be like him. To say yes to every request. 

To say yes to every challenge. As long as they're not off the limit of course.

[June 7th , Saturday]
Went to Rawang for a wedding together with 'em. I decided to go at the very last minute, ((saying no to the temptation of the PS4 at home *cries* )). Luckily there was still one empty seat in Jelin's car. Phew. It was fuuuunnnn. Spent the 2 hours on the road sharing and exchanging stories and singing and bahan each other. It just somehow brought us closer. Pastu makan kenduri, spent like 40 minutes there pastu went to Kamal Bookstore to buy medical textbooks (I doubt that any of us will read them) using the book voucher pastu balik. 


I have never gone to KL pergi-balik-hari yang i only spent like an hour and a half pastu balik. Macam amboi dekat nya KL-Ipoh. Maybe some of you pernah/selalu macamtu so it's nothing to you but then again, I am writing about me ok.




Oh pastu Jelin and his housemates were planning to go to Gua Tempurung on the next day, so he invited us to join them. Since my housemates have been wanting to go there since forever (tak forever sangat pun, 3 bulan je), they immediately say yes. And I? Well, I was a bit scared actually. Back in 2009, I had an injury involving my left knee (patella dislocated). Knowing that later we'll have to crawl dalam gua nanti I macam hmmmm.....

That night, I fikir about all the fun and experience that I'll missed if I say no. Macam pehal lah nak takut sangat ni padahal tak cuba lagi. I have to stop overthink things. (I really should. If I didn't overthink stuffs, I would still have you here.)



[June 8th , Sunday]

Woke up at 5 that morning hahaha mangat tak mangat la kan. Jelin came and fetched us up around 7 pastu we had our breakfast together at New Hollywood. I had roti jala + kuah durian ya Allah sedapnyaaaaa. Restaurant New Hollywood ni very famous actually. Dia macam satu restaurant corner lot, pastu ada banyak kiosk-kiosk kecik jual food. Macam food court, but mini version. And mostly are Chinese food served by Chinese people. Tapi i bought the roti jala from kiosk orang Melayu ok.

From our house (Ipoh Garden) to Gua Tempurung tak jauh pun. Around 30 minutes. Lalu Medan Gopeng, pergi straight je sampai ada satu signboard besar tulis 'Welcome to Gua Tempurung', tu baru belok kiri.

Oh basically what you have to bring are 
- duit ticket RM22 (adult)
- torchlight (tapi ada je jual dekat sini disposable one for RM4.80)
- towel (optional. boleh je sunbathing sampai kering hehe)
- baju salin
- waterproof case for your phone mahal
- waterproof bag for DSLR

Nak caving ni ada banyak level, 1 until 4. Macam from easy to brutal ah gitu. Going with these guys, mesti la diorang nak level 4 kan, so ikut je lah. Kalau boleh, pergi awal. Sebab this caving thing ambil masa around 4 hours macamtu. Kitorang start at 0930 macamtu and habis around 1330. 

Caving ni ikut trip every half an hour from 0900 - 1100. Satu trip tu dalam 30 orang kalau tak salah. Lepastu kalau boleh, duduk depan and dengar explanation from the tour guide (?) in charge. Takdelah explanation apa pun, just macam dia tunjuk benda yang interesting yang ada dalam gua tu. "Situ awak boleh nampak seahorse-shaped batu, sana awak boleh nampak medalion-shaped batu, sinun awak boleh nampak heart-shaped cave" kind of explanation. I found this to be really interesting (well, i kan... always into this kind of stuffs), so I tinggal diorang kejap and jalan dulu dekat depan. Haih rugi betul, should have bought the waterproof phone case.

Lepastu kaaannn, I rasa macam terharu sangat with the people yang satu trip dengan I ni. I ada je torchlight, tapi I malas pegang sebab I rasa macam boleh je nampak. Dalam gua tu ada je lampu dinding plus cahaya from torchlight orang lain. Tapi ada one guy depan I ni dia macam.. I taktau lah, dia ingat I takde torchlight kot. So dia macam tolong tolong suluh for me. Kalau ada batu ke apa, dia macam suluh kan, macam nak bagitau i to be careful. Random act of kindness. Pastu I rasa macam so inspired that I did the same to the people who walked behind me :)

Bila dah makin jauh ke dalam, the track makin susah. No more laluan bertangga tapi lalu dalam air, and memang fully depending on torchlight. 

Picture courtesy from google
Ni gambar atas ni, air tak tinggi macam masa kitorang pergi. Pastu ada one time tu, the roof tu macam rendah gila-gila, memang kena betul baring kalau tak memang sedap la terhantuk dekat batu-batu tajam tu. And ni sebenarnya sungai (kot), air ada arus bukan bertakung so sungai lah kan kan? Arus dia macam deras jugak la. Sampai I terhanyut hahahaha.


Ada banyak je tempat yang require us to slide down the slope tapi this one (the first picture) paling mencabar la sebab memang curam gila and tinggi and licin nokharom. And I am so proud of my guyfriends sebab diorang volunteered to lend a hand. Jelin tunggu dekat tengah-tengah macam the guy in the picture, and the others tunggu dekat bawah, sambut/tahan kaki. My trip-mate ada a few yang badan besar jugak so kitorang risau jugak la kot kot tertarik Jelin jatuh sekali ke, takpun tertendang muka kawan-kawan yang tunggu dekat bawah tu. I almost fell ok. Was sliding down too freaking fast yang sampai macam nak tercampak ke depan. Cuak tak cuak la kan. Depan tu dah la gaung batu-batu tajam stalactites stalagmites semua.

Pastu kena turun dari lubang pulak (the second picture). Lubang ni tinggi tau. Dah la akak-akak ni semua katik. Pastu John pulak volunteered to help. Dia turun dulu, sandar dekat dinding pastu macam kneeling ke tah cemana, macam offer his thigh untuk orang-orang katik ni pijak. Kita memang jadi orang last la untuk gerak sebab tunggu diorang ni tolong orang-orang semua kasi lepas haha.


Pastu jalan ke dalam lagi and lagi, pastu jumpa cahaya/opening. Pastu ingatkan dah sampai penghujung, so kitorang pun lepak la duduk keluarkan pasir dalam kasut semua. Tiba-tiba je tengok semua orang dah tak ada. Rupa-rupanya tak habis lagi and kitorang dah kena tinggal!! Terus kelam kabut pakai kasut then redah je entah laluan betul ke idak. Tapi nasib baik lepastu jumpa balik orang-orang lain tu. Kalau tak, jadi Perak Man lah kitorang mereput sesat dalam tu.

Sampai lah kita betul-betul dekat hujung gua, semua tersadai. Dekat nak akhir-akhir track ni la akan nampak batu marmar (yang orang buat lantai tu) cantik-cantik. Memang macam, 'wow I wish my mama was here' haha. On the way nak keluar tu, the guys jumpa satu spot yang macam air deras yang seronok untuk water slide hahahaha terus jadi budak-budak. Pastu ada 2 orang budak aged around 8 y/o macamtu main slide sekali, tapiiii diorang ni lagi mengalahkan budak-budak tu siap suruh ketepi "Dik, dik tepi sikit abang pulak! abang pulak!" -.-

All in all seronok sangat. Tak adalah bahaya like how I expected it to be. 
See? Kalau I said no to them, I takdapat merasa seronok macamni :) 


Yes to more adventures to come (insyaAllah).

And you, we will meet again someday and that time it will be forever. We'd spend our holidays holding hands while going on adventures and we'd spend our nights dreaming together of what new things we'd do in our lifetime together. Just like how we planned ok 

2 comments:

Amni. said...

i saw........... hehe you know what i mean ;)

Unknown said...

Waah.... caving @ Gua Tempurung... besttttt gila, kaan? :)