Day 1 | Royal Belum Houseboat & Rafflesia

Boathouse or Houseboat?
What is the difference?

After much planning with #TravelholicAwesome and friends, we finalised on the date, cars and route. The plan was that we depart on Friday evening to Chawanna parents' home and at around 9ish Saturday morning we will make our way to Royal Belum. And the passangers of each car have been allocated as well, totalling to 5 cars and 19 participants, including 1 infant (Suci) and 2 kids (Sami and Aqilah).

Few questions pop into our mind...
1. Mattress - Do they provide? Are we to sleep on the floor? Do we need to bring sleeping bag? Toto? Blanket? Katil? Nyamuk????
2. Bathroom - Where are we gonna bathe? Is there a bathroom? Are we to bathe in the lake? Howabout toilet? Poo-poo how???
3. Internet - No internet, we die. Period. (Memang tak da network pun)

Buzz... buzz... buzz... My Whatsapp kept buzzing.
(Semua dah tak mood nak kerja dah on Friday, dok pikir packing and nak balik je, dasar traveler kan kan kan)

Byya pinged saying she will be 'slightly' late, hence I decided to buy popiah basah, pulut panggang, cara berlauk, kuih lapis and kuih koci for the everyone (sebab confirm semua akan lapar), then I also decided to wash my toilet, feed my cat, clean the house etc before showering. Gigih dak? While doing all this, Afif called me at least 3 times worried that I got lost getting to his house (cite nye Byya sampai pun belum adek ooiii, terlebih excited budak nih, keh keh keh). Apparently Afif fried nasi-goreng-bungakantan-ikanbilis-homemadekimci-sayurcampur (dengan banyaknya) and another food that the 'name-should-not-be-mention' (as we sworn secrecy to not tell anyone, Hang Dhanim kata national security).

Once everyone on board I soon noticed one thing, semua kanak-kanak hyper dalam kereta ini and that there is an undelcared selfie and whatsapp 'game' enroute to Ipoh. The jokes started with our car ie Team Byya having the 'nur' (as we have ustaz Afif with us) and Team Janggel claimed that they have a doctor (Dr. Shahrul) in the car but the winner goes to Team Chawanna as the have 'Yang Arif' in the house (Dan Arif - "The Learned")! Terus whatsapp diam seketika.

Other than queuing for bathroom at Chawanna mom's house, we were delighted by her mom's nasi lemak and kasui (sedap giler ok) and like Chawanna; her mom is friendly and kind (nampak tak permainannya disini, ampu).

Team Byya added another passenger, Mas Kaki Jalan before leaving to Royal Belum. We are so fortunate as Mas is the kakak kawasan or territorial manager of this whole area, there isn't anything that passes her knowledge, she even knew where and when the night market in Sauk is, the fun fair in Gerik or the house where they make ikan pekasam (fermented fish). Facepalm.

We arrived at Royal Belum!

First time seeing our houseboat, besarnyaaaaa.

We were required to fill in release form and a quick briefing was conducted.

Leaving the jetty.

Perasan gambar ni lawa sebab tuh letak.

While the houseboat cruises, we roam around taking pictures upon pictures upon selfies (!?!), none was spared. Having one person owning a RM10k DSLR, one with a RM10k lense, another with a monopod, how could there not be few hundreds of our pictures everywhere right? (Sambil fliphair)

Jeng jeng jeng
Let's play a game, detact which guy below have the most move?

Pemes mereka lepas ni.

Lazing around is a must, this is the top deck. Tetami on the top deck and hammock at the bottom, memang layanlah...

Our first stop was to view the magnificent rafflesia, we were told that there were 3 types of rafflesia in Royal Belum, Azlanii, Kerrii and Cantheyii. And that they only bloom for 5-6 days during its season, hence it is highly depending on luck for one to catch this magnificent sight. It is said that the flower smells of rotten flesh hence the name "corpse flower" or "meat flower" was given.

Another interesting story we found out is that elephants eat the flower to heal themselves from indigestion (do counter check on this).

Kanak-kanak Ribena.

They are actually acting out the scene on their musical video, theme song : 'Dindaaaaa..... kandaaaa.... burung pun turut menyanyi, cinta pun turut bersemi, lalalalalalalaaaaa....'

Aqilah naik pakai selipar je, cool lak tuh.

Kakak Santek carrying 11kg Suci, so the rest, please don't whine ok!

We saw land, we saw Kampung Aman Damai. Docking soon.

To be continued...

#TravelholicAwesome

(hyperlinked)

Globetrotter

Kaki Berangan

Janggeltrekker's Life

Beauty in Darkness

Chawanna

CocoNutz

Kaki Jalan

From Malaysia To The World

Journey of Life

This is Our La La Land

My Story Is On Lifetimes

Traveller Anatomy

Travelista

Pengembara Tumpangan

Friends
(hyperlinked) 
Time Traveller 

Living To Explore 
Hang Dhamin 
The Province of Chroma

Belum Outdoor Adventure (BOA)

Tel : +6017-451 4939

Email : belum.outdoor@gmail.com

Facebook : Belum Outdoor Adventure

Special package : RM150 for 2D1N