Gepai Waterfalls

Nov 2008 - After our Geruntum Waterfalls trip, we dropped by this accessible waterfalls near the town of Bidor, Perak. The route to the falls or rather cascades, was an easy one if you paid attention to the directions given by Jan from waterfallsofmalaysia. Its not situated in a reserved forest, but probably on private land.. I think visitors were requested to pay a cover charge, but since we arrived quite late.. nobody asked us any money. When we were there, there were no huts and other public facilities, and watch out for potholes..

It was already raining when we got there and it looked like the Nov skies were about to pour its heavenly contents on earth again.. as it was near 6.30pm, many visitors were packing up to leave. I was not impressed at all by its first sight, and there were stray dogs and piles of rubbish around the river banks.. :(

Where's the waterfalls? I was getting impatient because it was getting dark and rain started to drizzle. There were still a few picnickers around so I guess bringing the kids do a little bit of exploring would be ok. This was a view taken from near the iron bridge and weh! That looked very deep, those daddies better be good swimmers cos those children looked way too young to be good swimmers!

Aaahhh! There it is! Small and uninteresting actually. But the surrounding rocks and boulders were quite nice. Those boulders with water erosion marks is a good indications that water levels here could reach very dangerously high and swift.

Very deep and quite a turbulence down there..

Full view

I don't know why, but that calm pool gave me the chills that day..

As there was nobody around to ask, I assumed the pool is VERY DEEP! Not tall, but water volume was quite impressive!

Zachwan playing in the clear water.. 

It's very beautiful and inviting.. but it was getting very late, rain has started falling. By the time we reached back to our parked car, a few picnickers who were obviously locals, warned us that its very dangerous to swim here when it rains.. "Air dah deras ni..bahaya!"

Lubuk Timah

It was actually supposed to be an afternoon dip whilst on our way to Sungai Petani, Kedah. Like always, I would plan a couple of stops at nearby waterfalls everytime we would tag along on Al's work trip. So apalagi, rujuk ler site Waterfalls of Malaysia and cari waterfalls di sepanjang perjalanan ke utara nak sampai ke Sungai Petani tu.. so I chose Lubuk Timah, near to Simpang Pulai, thinking that it would be a short stop and this waterfalls was listed to be one of the easiest and most accessible of them all in Perak along the NorthSouth Expressway.

The unique landscape of Perak

So Perak, here we come. Equipped with our trusty road map (nyeh! not enough money to invest in GPS yet..) we set out journey and headed north.  hhmmmm.. Simpang Pulai exit, and then it should not be that far, unless there were signs to the waterfalls.. not! Berpusing2 jugalah mencari junction, we almost given up hope when we saw the exact signs we saw in WOM website.. through some palm oil plantations and quaries, not long enough we came to a spot where there were parked cars and a guard hut.  After almost 2 and a half hours, we have arrived.

 

So we parked under one of many palm oil trees after paying a cover charge of RM2, parked at our own risk and headed straight to a beaten path we assumed would lead us to the falls. It was a very hot afternoon indeed, and you could imagine how terribly humid it was being in a middle of a palm oil plantation.. soon as we started the short trek and saw the murky greenish-terracota colors of the water in the river, i knew my choice of waterfalls this time was a terrible one.. the trail was uphill and you could tell how much it has been 'visited' by the smooth surface of the terracota trails, how 

unmistakenly often it was trampled by human feet and motorcycles.. 

this place IS popular among the locals, obviously. So popular that I think some of them even made this place either their permanent lepak place or their home/hideout..

After about 3-400 meters of walking, we could hear the roaring sounds of the waterfalls and there it was! The twin waterfalls of Lubuk Timah.. it was quite a sight, slightly more spectacular than the photos I've seen on the net.  It was bizarre sight to me because 1) did the people actually built the dam before it was a waterfall then? or 2) was it actually a natural waterfalls and how on earth did they managed to build the dam? .. such a mystery, but not mysterious enough to make me go ask around..

We did manage to climb till on top of the dam, not much of a view, just a slow flowing river of moderate width. It only became interesting when it hit the broken walls and the water started to fall quite aggressively on each sides of the dam. The water that fell created a large and slightly deep pool, suitable for swimming.  But we were warned that it was quite deep for children at certain areas.. the water was warm, the sun on our heads were scorching and besides of all that, there was just this one thing that kept us out of the water.. the RUBBISH!

It was everywhere! At the parking area, along the trail, in the bushes and even in the water itself! There were styrofoams, plastic bottles, broken glass liquor bottles and omg!, can u imagine what kind of idiots would throw thorny durian skins in the river??? A sore and sad sight it was, the kids begged to have a quick swim, and later hesitated when we pointed out to them the possibilities of getting hurt and sick from swimming in the heavily polluted river.  Oh yes, the place was an eternal mosquito kingdom, food containers were discarded everywhere making it a perfect nesting grounds for the blood suckers..

An alarming disrespect to mother nature plus stupidity.. a lethal potion to destroy our nature.. who can we put the blame on? I seriously do not know, after all, it was private property Though its easy to say that both should share the blame, the public and landowner, but it does help if the local authorities would check on these private places that opens to public to ensure safety and public awareness...  

*sigh*.. Lubuk Timah Waterfalls.. quite beautiful, but for how long? more photos, click here.

Lata Iskandar

Everbody who's been to Cameron Highlands would know about this waterfalls.  Along the old road from Cameron Highlands to Tapah, the almost vertical falls can be seen from the road.  

Small pool.. children can play, but must be attended by adults... The smaller pool at the background is much shallower.  Its nice for showers, but definitely not for swimming and for the adventurous... u can 'terjun tiruk' in this pool, the deepest point is probably 5-6 feet... 

Cemented path upstream.. there are about 2 more tiers.  From this photo, you can see that there isn't much parking space and there are a few stalls selling snacks, simple hot meals and fruits.  During this visit, there were some upgrading works going on and I'm not sure if there was any toilet or changing huts nearby..

Blocked by fallen tree.. this was about a year and a half ago.. maybe they've cleared the path..

Deep... and crystal clear. Water is super cold and refreshing.  There's not much room for picnic either.  I don't think most people come here to have a picnic or BBQs, they just want to have a short dip in the freezing mountain water..

I like this waterfalls.  Its quiet and the kids loved the clear water and pool.  A bit too deep for Awan, but nowdays we always bring our life-jackets, just to be on the safer sides.  Maybe if I get the chance to go to CH again, I'd stop by this scenic waterfalls and next time, I'll trek a bit further up to the 3rd tier :)

more photos, click here.