Pulau Banding, Tasik Banding And Tasik Temenggor (Perak)

Coming back from Kedah in December 2013 we decided to use the Gerik highway.  Before that we stopped for a kenduri kahwin in Jeniang. It's been a looooong time since we last attended a kenduri.  The food was the best!  Masakan kampung is always the best. 

Then after waving goodbye to Maktok and Tokwan we started our journey. It's tiring but we couldn't stop anywhere because it's raining all the way.  We passed through so many small, quaint towns and Papa was busy entertaining Zoey with stories of Raja Bersiong and she was really fascinated with those stories.  At least she's not bored, that's good!

This was the kenduri.  It's exciting to see they still have the service of a DJ to make the wedding livelier.
 The DJ was friendly and talkative, of course!  This kenduri was held in Tokwan's orchard and rubber plantation - the daughter of the person who manages the plantation was getting married.

Then we continued our journey.  We arrived at Tasik Banding and stopped at the Pulau Banding rest area for a while to let Papa stretch.  The lake is divided into 2 - Tasik Banding on the north and Tasik Temenggor on the south with Banding Island in the middle.

*Image taken from google map

The place was beautiful!  The rest area was on Banding Island.  We had to go down a steep slope from the main road to get to the area.  Parking was easy because there weren't many people around.

*Image taken from google map

Zoey was sleeping and she was a bit cranky when she woke up.  But she did cooperate to take these pictures - albeit pouting to the camera.

Then we went to the hawker stalls there but most were closed and this was the only one that was opened.  There were quite a number of people, mostly stopping for the loo and to refresh. We ordered some drinks and 2 plates of fried maggi - which we later found out was not enough to last till Kota Bharu.  The reason we ordered only 2 plates was because we just had (we felt we just had) our hearty lunch at the kenduri.

After we ate, we took a stroll around the area.  Since there weren't that many people, walking and enjoying ourselves were done leisurely.

This was the jetty to get to the Royal Belum National Park - dating back to 130 million years ago and the oldest rainforest in the world! We enjoyed the scenery before continuing our journey to Kota Bharu.

The bridge was long and beautiful from the jetty.

And so it was that we thought the 2 plates of fried maggi were enough.  I drove from here until Kota Bharu.  The road was winding!  It was drizzling and I was praying all the way.  There were mists where it didn't rain. So, it was still dangerous especially also because I never drove on this road before.  At places where it's safe to overtake the front vehicle (straight road), there were oncoming vehicles.  So, the journey was tiring and to me, dangerous.  But we did arrive in Kota Bharu that night, tired and hungry - and also cranky!