Sungai Klah Hot Spring and Teluk Intan Trip

Want a short weekend getaway? You might want to try out hot spring at Sungai Klah then. It just about an hour drives from KL after all. Or you might want to consider copying my Sungai Klah Hotspring – Menara Condong Teluk Intan – Teluk Intan “Chee Cheong Fun” one day trip itenary.

Sungai Klah Hot Spring Park started operation since December 2003 and is reputed to be one of the best managed hot spring park in Malaysia. Me and George tried it out last year and found that it is quite an ideal place to relax and de-stress, and it’s suitable to go as a family activity as well. It was quite crowded during our last visit, due to school holiday. So please don’t go on public holiday or school holiday if you want to avoid the crowd.

SUNGAI KLAH HOT SPRINGS PARK
36000 Sungkai, Perak, Malaysia
Tel: +605 441 4493
Fax: +605 438 8760

Getting there:
Take the Plus North South Highway and get out at the Sungkai toll plaza. Take the left turn towards Trolak at the T-junction after the toll plaza.

After driving about 500m from the T-junction, you should come across a turnoff on your left. There is a school at this turnoff called the Sekolah Menengah Sg Kruit.

Once you are in the turnoff, you will see many signboards that will lead you to the place.

You’ll need to purchase a ticket at the entrance, RM10 for Adult, RM8 for Children. The operation hour is from 8 am to 10 pm.

There’s a directory board showing the map so as the facilities of the park:

Hot Springs Swimming Pool

Cold water Swimming Pool ... Crowded!!

There are Hot spring Therapeutic Pools with temperature range from 40°C to 100°C too. There's a yellow plate showing the temperature of the hot spring pool. So, please consider before soaking your legs in.

We choose to try on hot spring range from 40°C - 50°C, since most of the aunty and uncle soaking their legs here.

The hot spring is really hot… After few minutes I started to sweat and my skin gone red…. Really hot!!! My blood must be circulated really fast that time...

If your family loves egg boiling activities, you'll love it here. The water temperature at this area can go up to 100 °C. The reading of the water temperature can be seen by the thermometer that is placed here. However, you’ll need to prepare your own tools for egg boiling --- Basket and eggs.. I didn’t get to boiled egg because I didn’t prepare the basket!!

For those prefer to have the privacy of soaking in a private atmosphere, try the normal or the superior private Jacuzzi. It cost RM75 per hour for a normal type and RM125 per hour for the superior type. Due to the crowd at the big hot spring pool, me and George decided to take the private Jacuzzi room. We didn’t book early, in order to not leave with disappointment; we also get the Traditional Local Massage that can guarantee us a private Jacuzzi room.

The normal private pool is quite big, and can soak like 5-7 people. So I think RM75 is quite worth as you can get privacy and enjoy the Jacuzzi as well as hot spring water… There’s also a massage room beside the pool, with bathing and changing facilities…

Wooden bed for massage...

This is the Ayurveda massage that we tried. I can’t remember the price, but I don’t suggest you to try… They use oil (I’m not sure what kind of oil, but it got a weird smell) for massage, which is really oily and made me spent a extra long bathing time to get rid of the oil…

After the refreshing hot spring Jacuzzi bath, we headed to Teluk Intan, which is just an hour drive away by taking the old road. Visited “Menara Condong” and getting around Teluk Intan town.

The operating hours of Menara Condong..

It almost dinner time, so we look for the famous “Chee Cheong Fun” at Teluk Intan. After asking around, finally we found the factory. It only operate from evening to midnight.

A lot of people lined up there already..

The machine for “Chee Cheong Fun”..

After half an hour queue, we finally got our “Chee Cheong Fun” at RM3.00 per pack!! It is different with those “Chee Cheong Fun” we have in KL, there’s no sauce for it .. It with some minced pork filling and eat together with green chilies… Yummy… Me and George finish 3 packs of it and “tapao” some home ...

Penang Cultural and Nature Trip - Butterfly Farm

After our failed mission at Penang National Park, we decided to go for a successful one - Penang Butterfly Farm, which just around the corner from National Park.

Penang Butterfly Farm is located at Jalan Teluk Bahang. About 10 ~ 15min drive
from Batu Ferringhi. There are plenty of signboard so don't have to worry that you'll lost your way there!

Address:
Penang Butterfly Farm
No 830 Jalan Teluk Bahang, 11050 Penang, Malaysia
Tel: 604-885 1253 Fax: 604-885 2011 / 885 174
Official Site: www.butterfly-insect.com

We need to pay for entrance fees before going in. Information brochure is given upon entering to help walk your way around the farm. The brochure provides the actual name of the plants, insects and others small creatures that can be found there.

The entrance fees price:
Adult RM20.00
Children (4 - 12 years old) RM10.00
( 50% discount for MYKAD holder )

* Video / Digital Video Camera: RM5.00 per pc.

Penang Butterfly Farm has a population of 4,000 live tropical butterflies from 120 different species. It is a well designed landscaped garden with a fish pond, and with thousands of tropical butterflies flying freely in the farms.

I am actually kinda scare of all these butterflies and insects, so I didn't pay much attention to recognise them. Here are some photos of the butterflies, you may tell me their name if you can recognise any of them.



Other than butterflies, there are also a mini zoo consisting live collection of small insect and reptiles such as grandis lizards, beetles, horned toad, oriental water dragon and many more.

A vigorous chamelon posing on the stone..

Look carefully, there's a insects in this photo..

Unique beetles that look like Old style Japanese..

If you are tired seeing all these insects, you may visit Art & Artifact Gallery which exhibit South East Asian art or Gift & Souvenir Outlet for shopping.

I met 鸢鸯 (Mandarin Ducks)near the fish pond while taking photo. These 2 birds suppose to be one pair but that day they decided to stay apart.

It's a really nice experience eventhough i never fancy of insects and reptiles.

Penang Cultural and Nature Trip - Penang National Park

Penang is one of my favorite states to visit in Malaysia. It’s rich with cultural, nice foods and nature spots.

I tried out one of the nice Banana Leaf restaurant “Passion of Kerala” located at New World Park during my last visit with my family: my sisters – Jolene and Esther, my nephew – Vick and Jet, my mum and grandpa.

The waiter uses Banana Leaf as plate and put tomato rice together with some side dishes on it. The rice is free-flow, so it’s really enough for big eater like me.

We can also order some side dishes like chicken, fish, prawn and vegetables. One of their signature side dish is fried bitter guard. It’s so crispy, and because it fried with some Indian spices so it didn’t taste bitter at all.

It's now advertisement time!! If you happen to be in New World Park, please also drop by Boutique – “Beaugro” just opposite Passion of Kerala. It’s owned by my aunt and you can get some souvenirs, clothes and fashion accessories from here!!

Okay, advertisement over. After lunch,we visited Dhammikarama Burmese Temple and Wat Chaiya Mangkalaram (Thai Buddhist Temple), which located opposite each other at Burma Lane. This offer tourists a good comparison between Thai and Burmese approach to Buddhism display where temple architecture and decoration is concerned.

Dhammikarama Burmese Temple was the first Buddhist temple to be built in Penang in 1803.

Wat Chaiya Mangkalaram is most notable for its Reclining Buddha Statue. The statue is the 3rd largest of its kind, being 33 meters in length.


We pay only short visit of these temples because mum and grandpa is tired, so we sent them back to aunt’s house.

The next day George, I and my sisters woke up early to visit Penang National Park. We never know that Penang got a National Park, and we have no idea what to do there. So I and my sisters wear really “casually”—shorts and slippers there….

As usual, George was driver and tour guide to Penang National Park, but in fact this is just his second times to Penang. The park is located in the north western corner of Penang Island, on what resembles an outline of a face. The main entrance to the park is located near to the fishing village in Teluk Bahang at the end of Batu Feringghi, about an hour drive from Georgetown. Alternatively, you can take Rapid Penang bus no.U101 from Komtar Bus Terminal to the Penang National Park.

Visitors need to register before and after enter the park at the reception area. It is free of charge. All you need to do is to keep the entrance ticket for validation purposes when you are inside the park.

Next to the main entrance, there’s a nice view of sea and jetties. This is the place where the fishing boats dock. It is also the place for visitors to take boat to Teluk Duyung, Teluk Ketapang, Pantai Kerachut and Teluk Kampi.

We decided to explore on National Park first. There’s a nice built path just next to the sea. Esther, Jolene and me can’t wait to take a nice photo on the beach.


After taken photo, we continued and reach Jambatan Pasir Pandak.


Walk through the bridge; we reached a junction with map and direction boards. There are five major trails with unique attractions: Pantai Kerachut (2.3KM/2 Hours), Sungai Tukun (500m/20 minutes), USM/CEMAC (1.25KM/50 minutes), Monkey Beach (2.62KM/2 Hours 20 minutes) and Light House (3.8KM/3 Hours 20 minutes).


By considering on our strength limit, we would first try to get to the nearest Sungai Tukun. It’s a hiking path, and due to our “casual” wear that really not suitable for hiking, we walked halfway and decided to turn back.



Let’s take a photo with the “Taman Negara Pulau Penang” board as memory. It’s really pity that we can’t continue hiking because of our unplanned “casual” wear.

After I google on the park information: “There are ample avenues to observe and photograph birds, turtles and other wildlife in their natural habitat. The park is ideal for jungle trekking, made all the more interesting by uneven terrain, challenging slopes, and rocky outcrops.

The visitor will have a chance to experience different habitats ranging from sandy and rocky beaches to mudflats, mangroves, a meromictic lake, and tropical rainforest.”

It seems a nice and interesting place to visit. We will definitely come back again!! On the way back we took some photo of flora and fauna near the park.




Before we went off to our next destination, we also took some photo near jetty… I think the view should be better when sunset..




http://www.tourismmalaysia.gov.my/en/destinations/item.asp?item=Penang

To be continued....