crystal cave and hot spring

as i mentioned, on 23 may i went on a trip to the crystal cave in ipoh and the sg. klah hot spring park in sungkai, perak.

we left penang as early as 6.30am! first stop was at ipoh for breakfast, then off to the crystal cave. a guide, who is a staff in the crystal cave temple took us around. she only spoke in cantonese of which i understand only little bit here and there. luckily some of us in the group understand cantonese so when i was interested i asked for translation.

it seems that almost all the rock formation inside the cave depicts some kind of animals, either full or part. there was a dragon’s tail, a sleeping dog, a crocodile, a lion’s jaw and so on. i swear if the guide did not pointed them out to me, i wouldn’t be able to tell! one of this is the elephant rock formation as picture here on the right. (the eyes were painted on).

on the left shows the entrance of the crystal cave temple.

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after visiting the crystal cave, we had lunch. very nice and tasty food… especially when my favourite of all favourites – prawns was there! yummy! then we proceed to the sg. klah hot spring.

here at the pic (left below) you can see the main entrance. the words “sg. klah hot spring park” are partly covered by the plants. on the right is the ‘dip pool’ – a huge pool for kids and adults to splash about or dip themselves. it is not deep enough for swimming though. i did not went in this pool as i did not brought along a change of clothes. this pool is popular with children since it is shallow and has a waterfall and a huge tub complete with diapper for children to bath themselves!

i first went to the small pool that is very long and shallow (pic on left below) to dip my feet in the hot-water. the temperature there is 40c to 45c. at first when my one of my feet went in, i flinched as it was very hot but i slowly brave myself and emerge both of my whole feet in. very nice! was there for about 15mins.

the pic on the right shows some eggs boiling! yeah, this is the place where you can have eggs boil using the hot water itself, which is about 100c temperature. eggs are on sale of course and after buying the eggs, you can have a do-it-yourself to boil the eggs. a basket is provided for you to place the eggs inside, then place the whole basket above some rocks with an opening where the hot water bubbles.

then we move on to the cafeteria. not much things on sale i see. bought rojak and orange juice. the orange juice was terrible. very little orange taste! i then walk around the park and took pictures here and there. at a shed, i spy a few people from my group, one of them with guitar, and they were singing so i joined them. later on i found out from them, that at the other end, there are 3 man-made mini pools for feet/leg dipping so i went there. this dipping pool is much cleaner than the earlier one i went to. it has 2 steps. on the first step, the water reach about near my knee and if i went in the 2nd step, i guess the water would reach my thigh or so. i spent about 15mins here too and when emerged, my feet was very red! good… as this means the hot-spring water is working on my feet. it was a nice feeling and sensation on the feet with the hot-water. (sorry. me bad england don’t know how to describe the feeling).

when we first reached the hot-spring, the sun was burning brightly but an hour or so later, it rained cats and dogs! funny thing was that the rain came immediately after we sang ‘you are my sunshine’! about 10 of us (who were singing under the shed!) could not get back as only a few of us had umbrellas and anyway the rain was so heavy with strong breeze blowing. anyway, at 4.30 when we were suppose to gather back at the bus stop, someone came armed with several umbrellas for us. if not, we would still be stuck under the shed.

all in all i did enjoy the trip. oh i forgot to mention the shopping. before we reach the hot spring park, the bus stop at bidor for us to buy fruits. my mum bought some ‘jambu’. and after the hot spring park, the bus stop at ipoh for shopping of ipoh foodstuffs. i don’t like shopping so i did not buy anything except a packet of spicy satay fish for the office. my mum and sis bought about RM50 worth of things! ayoh. women! 🙂

NOTE: to see all pictures taken by myself, go to my online albums here:
hot spring
crystal cave