Cave Tempurung, Perak

Have you heard or watched the movie "Cave"? That was a story about 4 adventurous, death-defying women who seek for thrills exploring difficult caves. Very, very difficult caves. Watching it gives me the creeps, dungeons, pitch darkness, mutated humans, it wasn't really a fun watch, but some might think it can be kinda entertaining.

Now, what has it got to do with Cave Tempurung, huh? Basically, nothing.

Might be informative to know about this..

"Gua Tempurung stretches 1.9km, is the largest and magnificient limestones cave in SM. Made up of 5 huge domes, each of them has different formations of stalagmites and stalactites made from different temperatures, water level, content of limestones, and marble. Concealed within this limestone massive is an intricate system of caves honeycombed inside the limestone hills.

These caves are actually breathtaking gallery of stalagmites and stalactites and other amazing rock formations which super geological wonders found only in this part of the world."

I knew of this "wonder of Perak" (some say could be Malaysia too), a long time ago, since I hail from the nearby city, but never really been there before. The closest I had been was passing the great waterfall on the way back to Ipoh from KL, which you can spot from the PLUS highway. That waterfall looks kind of majestic, especially after a heavy rain. But never explored nearby.

Then, one year ago, to be precise, She made me realized what I have missed. How embarrassing. Ipoh mali pulak.

So, I said to myself and to hubby that we take the children there one fine day, ok? He agreed.

And it took 1+ year that we kept our promise. That's because we are so bankrupt now we have no cash to go overseas. Holidays come, we balik kampung, visit the wonders of Malaysia, sounds not too bad, yeah?

Look at the serenity of the environment around the lake. It is really beautiful. Err, not the one below I meant, browse up, the pics above I'm talking about.

When we arrived, we were surprised that the place was packed! Mostly students, girls and boys in their teenage years. Oh, that made me really felt old. How we used to go around places with boys when at their age.

Everyone of them was drenched, from top to toe. Some of the members in our entourage were worried sick, they kept saying, "look at them, wet la, how to go with children, and it's raining, nanti where we find dry clothes to change..."

I was thinking, "Eh, cave woh.. even if it's raining outside, inside also rain meh?"

Well, some of them, remembering how they wade in the water to explore the cave decades ago, probably meant the stream water level will rise from the rain. I do not know how dangerous the this trip was, but trusting my friend's words, she couldn't be pointing a danger zone for me, as she had been there with her little boys too and gave very good reviews.

So, we went to ask the woman behind the counter and the guide. The friendly guide happily told us not to worry, it's as safe as Afghanistan, and we won't get wet, not until we go for tour package 3 and 4.

No wonder la, we see all the teenage girls and boys there splashing around in the river like that, how not to get wet from top to toe?
There are 4 package tours, 1 being the shortest route, just go in and out of the big dome (Imagine you are eating banana and you were only tasting it at the tip, the banana sure don't feel shiok la, right? Hehe.. what a good analogy! I have a better analogy, but that would be kinda x-rated, and I have a good reputation to keep here, so I better put up the banana story. I know you can imagine the other one yourself.)

The 2nd package is the "Top of the World" tour, whereby there would be 600 steps to and 600 steps back. It'll be an all-dry entourage. The following tour 3 and 4 are categorized "Dry and Wet" for the more adventurous types of people.

No doubt, we went for Top of the World, together with a few other families with similarly young children like ours. It was a guided tour, the same friendly guy who told us that it's very safe.

Time to enter, and I was eager to see for myself what the cave is going to be like.

Safe pathway like in the picture from the beginning till the stop point. Some of the paths are in steps, ascending and descending steeply. I was only more worried for the children, but fortunate for me, the auntie and her daughters who joined us were very helpful in taking care of them.

Meanwhile, I could enjoy a bit more myself looking around more, and taking pictures on the way too. Later I realized I myself was feeling my legs and knees wobbling when climbing up and down the steepness pathway. No easy feat that would be if I would be to hold my kids in both my hands. Glad we invited our guests along.


Light still coming in from the entrance. About the only place where the light would be shining in. It would be total "eclipse" if not for the lamps and lights the gomen put in to develop that place into a tourist spot.

It was really a spectacular sight. My camera wasn't doing it justice enough.

If not for the whole gang was so far in front and I was afraid to be the only one left behind, I quickly took a few shots, admired for a few more glances and quickly moved on to join them before I was suddenly alone by myself.

The guide has a lot of stories to tell. He will point to some sections of the cave hovering above our heads and say this part looks like a monster, a car, a pregnant woman, an old man, hantu and the secret hiding place of Communists last time.

The cave does really look like a huge dome inside, with amazing structures. It was said that most of it was made from thousand of years from the movement of the air inside the whole cave.

Someone in our group was complaining non-stop about the stillness and stuffiness inside, particularly when panting for breath walking up the staircase. I wonder other than me, if there are anyone else thinking inside she should just U-turn and go back to the starting point?

Then, surprisingly out of nowhere, there was a spot where it was like an air-con was blasting in full! It was amazing. The guide explained about something the hot air from outside, pushing the air inside, the cool air then don't know how pushed to small and tiny holes, then retracted and pushed back out in force... OK, I don't really get the idea, maybe they hid an aircon somewhere la.. try to con us only.

That was almost to the End point for us, what a relief when all of us heard it. haha.. The guide told us tour package 3 and 4 would continue and descend down from that point until they touch the stream which runs in the cave. And some canoeing and boating would be in store for us if we had taken that route. How exciting! Ok, we come back next time and we'll be more prepared for that adventure, can? Yeah, so, we shall take a short break and U-turn to go back to where we started.

The children were totally worn out from the whole exercise of walking and climbing. Not only ours, the rest of them in the group was worse. One of them was carried by her superduper daddy and she was sleeping soundly on his shoulder, what a big-hearted dad that was.

Lucky for us, I had, thank God, put some sweets inside my bag the day before and let them have one each. That was really a source of energy for them. That's the good thing about sweets when you don't use it too often on them. It was like precious stones to them and they will do anything to get their hands on it.

The return journey always seem to be shorter and easier, no matter what trips I am talking about. Do you feel the same?


And we quickly hurried back home to solve our hunger pangs. It was 4+ and we only had breakfast so far. Mealtimes were turned topsy turvy for that day, by dinner time, we were still full, the children were exhausted, so we let them have something light, tuck them to bed, and we later went to have supper in Lou Wong that night with my dad. It was a great day indeed!