papa up and down

Papa was in Kuantan yesterday, to pick up some Bills of Lading to send to China and run some errands..that is boring stuff so Papa will talk about some other things which are not so boring.

Papa had some bah kut teh for a late lunch in some street (which has a name, except that Papa forgets) which Papa found out is just one branch out of a chain of 20 bah kut teh shops around Malaysia. Papa can't remember the name of this chain because Papa had other things on his mind. On top of it, Papa forgot to bring his camera along on the one time Papa had some time to kill in Kuantan. So, no pictures of the shop wither.

Doesn't matter, Papa will be back in this town next week. Since this was a 12 hour run, Papa left Kuantan for home in the evening.

On the way back to the city, Papa stopped at Karak for some dinner, but the little restaurant that Papa eats at has gotten expensive- they seem to have the idea they should cater to the tourist ringgit , so for dinner there was only one table occupied, ie Papa's.

Papa will have to find some new place to eat. Termeloh, Mentakab or something, comes to mind as possible alternatives. Maybe Papa will be able to take you along one day.

In the meanwhile Papa has to set up some birding sanctuary for the hornbills of Chini, starting with a birding table beside "Lake Summer". Papa has also got to get around to organising the proper people to work with, so Papa can instigate the setting up of a nature corridor up to the Chini lakes. Wow- Papa is trying on the naturalist hat on for size... its a really fit for Papa so Papa will make some adjustments to the hat (in a metaphorical manner of speaking).

ship in

The MV Yue Heng is in Kuantan port, having called and berthed 2 days early. At 6850 metric tons cargo hold, the ship is probably about 10,000MT deadweight. Papa is too lazy to rush down to Kuantan as it will sail tomorrow, since the loading of cargo will take only one day .

Papa has since found out that a fair number of people trek up Gunung Besar Hantu, and it is considered a tough climb. GBH is the highest mountain in the southern peninsular, but Papa feels it is probably not as isolated as the other hills and mountains that Papa has been to now.

In the meanwhile Papa is reading up on environmental issues; Papa has a scientific abstract a nd proposal to study, which is intended for submission to the Pahang state government. Papa feels that FRIM (the Forest Research Institute of Malaysia) is Overly academic and insufficiently hardcore about green issues, so Papa has some work cut out for him.

Yik Kee x2

Papa was working yesterday. Got up not too early, left at 7am, no traffic for once (Sunday and eve of another public holiday.) Reached Karak at 830, and had dim sum at Yik Kee before going into the jungles of Telemung, off the main road 12km from Karak.

Got in on a metalled road about 10km long I think, before Papa had to turn into an unpaved laterite road. Another 12 km of uneven road. "Very bouncy" as Summergirl would say. Papa and the other people in the pickup was tossed and bounced around. Not a car in sight, although we passed by maybe two motorcycles parked by the trail, probably by the Asli who had gone into the jungle.



The trail was unpassable in parts as bits of the trail had been washed away, so we had to do some minor repairs. Papa fell into one of this little holes in the road, but managed to climb out , albeit with some bruises....

Eventually we reached a bend by the river. Voila! Surreal...There were people camped on the bank, they were still busy sleeping in at 10 am. Breakfast was cooking in the camp, but Papa had gone in to see 1500 acres of jungle. No time to lose, we scouted around, and moved on.

After a couple more kilometers of bouncing around in the pickup, Papa reached the edge of the Pahang-Negeri Sembilan border by 1pm, 2 km from a mountain- Gunung Besar Hantu. Big Ghosts Mountain. Probably a descriptive name from long gone times. Papa has no idea.

A little bit of look see look see, then we turned back to Karak. Reached Yik Kee and had a late lunch at 3pm.