Food, Football & Travel, A Bit More on Life: October 2014

Tasik Kenyir, a place I was once so reluctant to come, now became one the best memories I had with nature.

The reason of my reluctance was because I wanted to join a diving trip to Pulau Tioman that clashed on date with this trip.

Anyway, if you search Tasik Kenyir on Internet, you will be amazed to find out that this place which is nestled in the heart of Terengganu, and spanning over 209,199 hectares, is the largest man-made lake in South East Asia. It is almost as big as the whole Singapore! It stretched as far west as Kelantan and south to Pahang, it serves as an alternative gateway to famous Taman Negara (National Park) too.

I woke up 5.00 am in the morning and it was really hard for me to get out of the bed, I seldom wake so early! Deena picked me up at around 6.00 am, an hour later than expected. She just got back from Kashwhat, India and look a little bit fatigue to me, though still at least one of the drivers of the day. Strong woman I would say to describe her, or really that outgoing and adventurous she was, she just don't looked like she wanted to miss out all the anticipated fun in Kenyir. The night before she was still in KLIA rushing back to Kerteh.

We all departed late, around 24 of us divided into 5 or 6 cars, I could not remember. The first part of the journey to jetty Deena was the one driving, then when I was awake, I offered to drive the second half. Throughout the journey it really felt good to like catch up with an old friend, chatting about all the funny things happened along.

When we reached the jetty, it was around 8.45 am but the houseboat we rented was not there yet. We were busy carrying stuffs from car to be brought to the houseboat, for we will be spending 2 days on it. The ladies were careful and thoughtful, already bought chickens, lambs, chicken balls, and many others FOOD for the whole gang. It took us quite some time to find the owner of the houseboat due to a reclamation project at the jetty. And we managed to take the first photo before boarding.

The weather was perfect, it was a cold and blustery morning.


Not sure why I closed the eyes, this was just part of the people who joined!

At the jetty

Several houseboats parked next to each other

The reclamation project that connects jetty to the small island opposite of it

I believed you like the blue sky and the adorable clouds very much like I did. They both have always been the perfect match.

Tadaa, our rented houseboat

This houseboat has a karaoke room, kitchen, sleeping rooms, several washrooms and toilets, we each paid RM100.00 to rent it. RM100 per person x 23 persons = approximately RM2,300.00 for 2 days 1 night stay, seemed like a really good business for the boat owner.

There were 6 sleeping rooms, each can accommodate 4 persons.

All ready, set to go!

The houseboat has 2 smaller boats tied to its back

What best is the ASTRO! Imagine watching EPL in the middle of the lake

Sometimes when you look at the lake water, it gives you green colour perception

Lovely ladies already taking selfies, or welfies haha

Just everybody wondered, why signboard can be found in island

Wildlife Groot spotted

Our first destionation, Air Terjun!

At this point, I am still amazed by the beauty of Kenyir by looking just at the photos.

It took us 3 to 4 hours to our first destination, and what these people have been doing, well : 1) Checking out the boat, every corner of it, to see what was interesting; 2) Selfies, selfies and more selfies and welfies!; 3) Ice breaking and games!

Earlier when everyone was on the boat, I had to admit it was quite awkward seeing each other around but did not interact much. It was pretty much we did not know each other yet. Thanks to the organizers, we had ice-breaking session and then everything just went out of control because we got too close and crazy by then!

First, each of us were divided into a group of 3. Then each of us introduced ourselves and each group members have to say out everybody's name. Somebody said I am from Korea, do I really look like a Korean? Guess I have to be proud of my Korean face.

Because there were 3 persons in a group, the average time of the 3 persons will be taken as the group's time to see which group is the fastest to say out everybody's names.

The fastest group will then be excluded from another game called Citizen and Mafia where there were several 'mafias' among us and every remaining group members other than the fastest group members, have to find them out by nominating one name who could possibly was the mafia.

Before this, we all drew a card from organizers to ourselves and the card will indicate whether you are a Citizen or Mafia. Of course, we cannot tell each other whether we are Citizen or Mafia. This made the game more interesting and funnier.

The top 3 alleged Mafia, whether we guess them correctly or not, will wash all the kitchen equipments, plates, cups and everything used to prepare our morning tea.

Crazy, wasn't it?

Nobody wanted to do the washing job and we all really did had lots of fun pointing to each other saying he/ she was a Mafia.

Lastly, we all guessed wrongly where the top 3 alleged Mafia were all Citizens, not Mafia but who cares, they still washed everything hahaha, which also meant that all Mafia survived this round of game.

And, lastly we arrived at the waterfall, but looked like we needed some walking.

This made me feel like the lake connected to the sea

Finally arriving

More or less like ordinary waterfall

It was my can't-wait face, others were already at the pondok

The weather was kind of windy and cloudy, which made our waterfall playing more enjoyable.

The ladies cooked lunch and brought the food to the waterfall spot, so some of us ate before playing, and some like me played before eating.

The best thing to do in waterfall was always standing on the bottom of it and let the water from top splashed on your head and body. I thought I let the water splashed for around 15 minutes. It felt good and refreshing like you had done some water acupuncture.

What was even better when we took selfies with the GoPro camera.

There was another activity at this waterfall where a really big and thick rope was tied to a tree and people swung with the rope and "Blush!", jumped into the water. I tried it thrice but too bad no pictures or videos of that.

The rock surfaces that the water was flowing through were extremely slippery and could be quite dangerous that people will just slip and fall on the rock surfaces. The water itself was also as cold as ice, some of them preferred to stay on the plain rock.

The organizers even organized game - to ask each group to find 18 different natural things at the waterfall, the group which was fastest in finding 18 different natural things considered winner, but I was really too lazy and sluggish in the water to participate.

By the time we left the waterfall, I guess everyone was exhausted. The crowd walking back to the houseboat was quieter. But no one will forget selfies. I realized most of them really loved self and group photograph, I was infected with that as well.

Peace

Apparently, back on boat did not mean that the playing was over. They wanted to play the real lake water. Oh man, they were really overwhelmed by all the young and active cells inside their bodies. Of course I was young and active too!