Darn it!! I accidentally deleted my Taipei Post. Oh Wix, please get us the recovery feature sooner...
It's been some time since I last wrote, mainly due to my day job gaining traction. Post Brunei, I had been travelling quite a fair bit, be it for personal or business reasons. If you happen to follow my Instagram, you would have noticed I travelled to Bangkok for several times this year. The short trips were filled with hectic schedules hence nothing to shout about.
To relief my overheated engine, I've decided to take some time off and grasp some fresh air. Back in school, we were taught that Malaysia has the biggest man-made lake in Southeast Asia, Kenyir Lake. There is where I finally land myself on a boat after several dry months on land. Kenyir lake was built in 1985 for the Hydroelectric dam. Though it's sad that part of the oldest rainforest in the world lost 260,000 hectares to the Hydroelectric dam, the plant had been generating and supplying 165 megawatts of electricity to most parts of peninsula Malaysia. To give an easier reference of how big is Kenyir Lake, you need a GPS to navigate around on boat, even local boatmen could get lost. Guess that's the trade off one have to make between advancing the country and preserving the nature.
I spent 2 nights on a floating platform (a.k.a. rakit) owned by a dear friend, enjoying the nothingness. As it's about 1400m above sea level, we are literally in the mist. Take a moment to imagine, 22 degrees Celcius with cool breeze, surrounded by greenery, calm freshwater mirroring the blue sky with cotton candy clouds, minimal sound pollution. That's totally a getaway for me. The temperature dipped further at night and it rained several times throughout the day. We were expecting to spot some resident elephants near the rakit but sadly the elephants decided to swim to the other islands for vacation according to the boatmen. To collect evidence of its existence, I've swam over to shore and true enough, there are elephant footprints near the shore.
Of course other than enjoying the nothingness doing nothing, we did take a boat ride to a Lasir Waterfall which was 45 minutes boat ride from the rakit. A 10 minutes of simple steps from the jetty, you will arrive at the spectacular waterfall.
You may also go for some hikes or some conservation center visits setup around the Lake.
If you happen to be of interest to visit, you may checkout the services provided by this operator. The boatmen are all locals and are very capable of explaining to you about the entire lake and its latest happenings.
