Proud of myself
I walked the whole 3.8km of Kelam Cave 2. It is said to be
the 2nd longest cave in Peninsular Malaysia.
Background
This is a limestone caves of Nakawan Range and is located
within the Mu Forest Reserve. Kelam Cave is estimated to be 100 million years
old and is used to be an alluvial tin mining cave back in 1930s, alluvial tin is
the purest tin ore. The cave is located at Kaki Bukit village, Perlis. Kelam
means dark or darkness, and gua means cave (obviously). There are 3 entrance to
Gua Kelam and I took Gua Kelam 2 and came out via Gua Kelam 1 as both caves
will meet at a secret garden where there’s a clear pool for you to swim and
enjoy a good picnic.
Gua Kelam 1, it is all boardwalk till the secret garden, no
steps/climbing at all. Some areas in both caves has stream/river flowing
underneath. As for Gua Kelam 2, it is cemented and with proper steps, so worry
not. You will also get to see rails for ore trucks as well as paved cemented paths
for tin miners back in those days. My biggest concern was on leeches, bats and
etc. Errr… Didn’t bump into any. Not sure whether is it because I am lucky or
maybe there isn’t one (mungkin ada kot but tak meriah jer and depa dok
diam-diam tak kacau orang). And both caves are very very very clean tau.
We were told that some of the scratches or marks were due to
the dynamite explosion. I personally finds it interesting interesting. You canview the video HERE on my Instagram.
Other interesting thing was on the so called ‘door’.
Apparently at some section on intersection you can see rocks resembling door
and when asked, I was told that its function is similar to current told gate,
if one company was to go thru another company territory/land, then the tin
miner (or their company) is required to pay the ‘toll’ or ‘tax’ to the territory/land
owner.
We also learnt that huts with buckets were built and placed
near the underground mining tunnel, this is for the ‘guard’ or ‘jaga’ to inform
the miners (those covering deeper ground) if there might be a possibility of
flood due to heavy rainfall outside (as they have no clue of day and night, nor
rain and shine). If there’s water dripping into the bucket means it is raining
outside, and if the drip gets faster and/or more, it means heavy downpour that might
lead to flood, landslide and etc. Smart kan.
Gua Kelam is managed by the Perlis State Forestry Department since 1997.
Thank you to Jabatan Perhutanan and @perlis_climb_development foreducating and sharing valuable information. And also to @unicastanaholidays for bringing and introducing us to Perlis.
Operating Hours
Daily : 9:00am - 6:00pm
Entrance fee
Adult : RM1.00
Kids : RM0.50
Gua Kelam
Kaki Bukit
02200 Kaki Bukit
Perlis
Pesta Angin Timur 2020 Media Trip is in collaboration with
Tourism Malaysia, Tourism Perlis and all its sponsors.
