Makantrip.com

I saw this posting on the AMBP website inviting bloggers to participate in a photography trip to Sunway’s Lost World of Tambun in Ipoh, Perak. I did not think much and thought it will be a cool trip to be part of, so I submitted my entry but did not think much about it…

Then i got a call last week to join the trip and after much thought, I decided to go ahead with it. Next thing I know, Friday morning, I am with my backpack at Menara Star boarding the bus (compliments of Mayflower) to Ipoh!

I remembered back in 2004 when I did a makan trip to Ipoh, we stopped by the hot spring in Tambun and at that time, there were just building the Lost World of Tambun. The hot spring was 2 huge ponds with hot spring water and I remember the muds were burning hot! They also pumped the hot spring water into 2 swimming pool and I remember the owner back then had tiger cubs around too and we were told not to take pix of it.

So, I was quite excited to go to the Lost World of Tambun to see how they had turned the hot spring into a themepark. We got there well passed 1pm and were immediately welcomed with a dance by the Malayana Tribe before being transported to the Tiger Valley with a special tiger feeding show just for us! We also got to take photographs of the cute little tiger cubs before our lunch cum photography workshop at Kepura Cave which is a cave turned into a function hall… ermm.. function cave I mean .

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All these bloggers at the trip are pro la… DSLR with different lenses, really serious shuttlebugs. There’s even this guy Lawrence whom I lepak that made his own shutter release! Semangat betul! Me pulak play play here when it comes to photography .

We were later shown our campsite at Monkey Village where we had to built our own camps before a free and easy session. As I dipped the heat off at the wave pool, I noticed the nice view of mountains surrounding the themepark which was the same beautiful view I remembered during my first trip to the hot spring in Tambun back in 2004. To me the most magical thing about Lost World of Tambun are the hills surrounding it, combining nature with modern water facilities.

Dinner here was really worth mentioning, besides the fact that we are hungry, I never thought that catering food can be that good. It was a simple dinner, but I really liked the bbq assam stringray and the garlic bread! My impression of catering or themepark food is usually a so-so but this dinner seems to be good . The stringray are cooked just right (compliments to the pakcik at the bbq) and the assam curry is good.

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After dinner, the guys from Mayflower was kind enough to give us a ride to Giant to grab some essentials for the trip before proceeding with a tactical laser game. This is really fun, imagine running around a closed themepark shooting each other! This is how it works, basically we had to tied 2 censors to our head and 1 on our gun, we can take up to 4 shots before game over. The thing is, everytime you get shot, you have this loud “argghhhhhh…” sound coming your gun and whenever you reload, you hear a loud “ker-chak” and the whole themepark knows you are reloading. Hehe… never the less, it was a really cool game and our team (Team 2) won 3 games in a row! After a good game, we were pampered with more snacks and cold coffee, yummy!

Sounds good so far, well not yet, since its almost 11pm by then with the themepark closed, we got the whole hot spring pool to ourselves! We took a midnight dip to unwind the day and relax ourselves and it was fantastic!

The next morning, I was again surprised by a good catering breakfast of nasi lemak! The tiger guys whom joined me on the same table for breakfast keep scaring us with how tough our morning activities will be but poker face was all over these guys… so I went ahead and join the climb up to Gua Datok.

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We started off with a briefing session plus warm up exercises before being armed with a helmet, a head torch, a bottle of mineral water and a cereal bar each. We were then lead to the entrance to Gua Datok where we had to hike up in slippery condition (thanks to the rain the day before) with the help of rocks and ropes. It was quite a climb but I really enjoyed it after having to stop mountain biking for months due to my back condition. I felt good, as if this wildgeek is slowly coming back to action.

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After 3 checkpoints (and small mishap of 1 of my shoe falling off down 100 metres!), we finally reached the entrance to Gua Datok. From here, you got a nice view of the new housing project of Sunway by the lake with beautiful hills surrounding it. What a sight! Like any other cave, bats and insects made this their homes and you are able to admire the various stalactites and stalagmites rocks being formed. Too bad I didn’t had a tripod with me! Up to exiting the cave, I was still quite clean all over but just the opposite to mountain biking, easy up here means a hell downhill. The downhill are slippery and i was almost slipping from trees to trees (at this point, I start to believe the tiger guys are not kidding) with cuts and muds all over me!

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Nevertheless, once I made it to the bottom, I felt good. No regrets joining this mini expedition to Gua Datok and if I got a chance to choose, I would definately do it again! Thanks to the cool guides from the Lost Wolrd of Tambun for their caring and helpful attitude in guiding us and ensuring we had a good time during this hike!

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The trip ended with a good lunch at the cafe plus additional splashing time and not to miss out, I soaked myself in the hot spring to mend back my cuts and wounds from the Gua Datok outing. Although I hike like a wildgeek that morning, the next day, I was walking like a robot… hehe… old liao la… body ache all over .

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The folks at Sunway was really kind as they sent us of with a souvenir of Ipoh white coffee and a warm goodbye at the entrance. The folks at Mayflower then got us back savely and quickly as all of us was really tired from the great outing and just can’t wait to get home!

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Thanks again to AMBP, Sunway, Mayflower and all the friendly bloggers for a good trip . *Sniff sniff*… signing off from Hong Kong with a flu (what to do, hectic Sunday after the trip plus rushing for trip to HK today) but do check out some of the posting of the other bloggers on this trip I found on the web:

http://joyce-tedoen.com/2008/10/12/the-lost-world-of-tambun/

http://chongelaine.blogspot.com/2008_10_01_archive.html#5249466079514681582

http://my.0163286699.com/2008/10/sunway-memories-with-ambp-part-06.html

Lost World of Tambun
GPS: N4 37.555 E101 09.294