Sweet Home Merbok

Sadly, I'm back. would have loved to stay there a bit longer, heck I'd love to stay there period. The pictures don't really do justice to how beautiful the place really is but I thought I'd just share anyway.

Night 1/Day1

We left the house at abt 2130 on the 8th and set off for Merbok. Merbok is a small town in Kedah which is the 2nd most northernly most state in Malaysia and abt an hr's drive to the Thai border. so that meant travelling practically the whole of NSHW to get there. It took us 9 hrs and abt RM100 to get there but it was so worth it. We got there at abt 7 in the morning and immediately was just astounded by it all.

we stayed in the guest house which was this wooden house with roof made of woven palm leaves. the rooms were open so you had to sleep in tents or be eaten alive by mosquitoes at night.

and because it was open, you had spectacular views just next to you as you lay at night. the stream runs right past the guest house so you have the sound of water to send you to sleep.

These are the views out of my room.

The toilets were another interesting concept. they were all kinda Balinese style open concept bathrooms, so you could bathe under the stars at night (thank God they also had water heaters). the water ran directly from pipes placed further up the waterfall, so water isn't really an issue there not like back home where every drop of water is used. the shower area is just surrounded by trees and stuff so you really feel immersed in nature and yet comforted in the luxury of modern sanitation.
after unpacking, I took my first visit down to the "pool". Uncle Steven's (our host) house is built right next one of the many falls that the stream takes on it's way down. Nature blessed him in the sense that he has two pools that he can access. A shallower pool for the kiddies and a deeper rock pool where the water first flows down.

Here you can see the two pools, the upper one being the deep pool and the lower being the shallower one.

[Above]: The Pathway to the pools

[Above]: One of the structures on his land is this poolside deck.

The big rock in the pool is the natural springboard. You can dive into the water from there where the water is abt 12ft deep.

The kitchen area is simple but with all the necessary amenities like running water, a cooker and oven etc. Auntie Linda was cooking lunch for us all the time that we were there.

Day 2

The day began where the last one ended off, playing in the pool and having some really good times. Uncle Steven brought a few of us up to the higher parts of his land to show us the rest of the falls. It was really nature at its best. the rock formations and the jungle around us made for some spectacular sights. it's a pity that i didn't have my camera there to capture some.

We then made our way down to Sungei Petani which is the biggest town in the area. we went to this road side market kinda like the Sungei Rd market that we have here.

It was so different from what we have in S'pore. the Kuehs at the table are just left there. you eat what you want and at the end when you want to leave, you just tell the person what you ate and pay for it. it's that kampung style integrity that we really are lacking here.

Another thing was the fact that food was so cheap. a bowl of laksa for Rm1 and satay at 20sen a stick. but it was rather sobering to realise that while it was dirt cheap to us, the prices are proportionate to their incomes. it was kinda hard not to seem like snobbish out-of-towners at that point. we bought cuz it was cheap to us but to some of them, it might be a once-in-a-while kind of thing.

We then went off the see the sun set at the Fisherman's jetty.

Now seriously. Picture postcard kinda stuff. I haven't seen a sunset like that in a long time. The sun just sank before my eyes beyond the horizon and the sky when a dark pink which reflected in the clouds.

We then had dinner at this zi cha place nearby.

BEFORE

AND THE AFTERMATH

'Nuff said. it was that good.

Day 3/Night 3
Prob the worst day that we had there. worst cuz we had to leave that day. we spent it in the pool and just relaxing in the house. After a bit of Area Cleaning and tidying up, we went for dinner. From there we left on the long journey back home. 8 hrs later we were back in S'pore and turning into our driveway.

MERBOK AUG '07

Sigh. The fact that I'm writing this post means that my holiday is over and it's back to work tomorrow. shucks. that's just lame. I wanna go back there........