Yesterday was my third visit to the hot spring; first time I visited the place at night with my parents and my sisters n their families. 2nd time was day-visit with my bf. Those were quite some years ago.
Yesterday I visited the place with my bro n his son, my sis n her son and my nieces (their parents did not join us). We reached there at about 1pm. Before leaving KL my sis told me to buy lunch for all of us as she said she had visited the place many times and the cafeteria ran out of food! So, I tapau rice with few dishes, roti telur, roti canai and teh tarik for our trip. Then I stopped by at the supermarket to buy snacks n bottled water for the journey.
Anyway, when we reached there I saw a signboard saying no outside food/drinks allowed within the park. My sis said "Well...they don't have enough food. I experienced it before". So we brought our food in and looked for a place to have our picnic. And found a shady place under a tree, a lifeguard came and told us to move from the spot as guests are not allowed to sit on the grass under a tree! My bro was upset and told the guy off but we obliged and moved away. We saw empty tables at the cafe with no label and decided to sit there (some tables were labelled for dine-in guests only). We were about to unpack our food when a security guard came and told us that we cannot eat food brought from outside the park and we should leave the food at the guardhouse! My bro was hungry, tired and the weather was really hot so he blew his top and scolded the guard. He said the reason we brought food in was because he had problem with the cafe before where they ran out of food and now his kid n nephews/nieces are hungry. So..tell me what to do? You want me to throw out all these food and buy from the cafe?
The security guard realized that he couldn't win the argument with my bro n decided to allow us to eat in peace but he told us to keep our snacks at the guardhouse and buy drinks from the cafe and he left.
My bro was still quite upset. Anyway, I think the operator should allow outside food/drinks to be brought in especially in the current economy situation. As it is guests has to spend RM10/adult and RM8/child. I think the management should allocate an area for picnickers where guests can put up their tents, spread their mats and eat their home cooked food and enjoy themselves. By having specific area, it is easy for the operator to clean up the place too. Of course the area should have plenty of rubbish bins and the families should be responsible to clean up after they are done with their picnic. To ensure cleanliness, may be the operator can impose a deposit of say RM10 which will be refundable if the operator is satisfied that the spot allocated is clean.
Ohh another thing - if the park operator is reading this entry, I hope may be the management can put up a signboard assuring guests about water cleanliness - I mean how do they treat the water? How do they remove dirt and bacteria from various pools at the park? For swimming pool water, we know they treat it with enough chlorine to kill all the bad stuff (read here on how swimming pool works http://home.howstuffworks.com/swimming-pool.htm) . As for spa pools normal way of maintaining cleanliness is explained here http://poollifemag.com/article.aspx?id=Immaculate-Spas . How about this place? From what I heard the water is from natural source and it is stagnant....n just imagine the same water is used by thousands of guests! and some people actually go there to cure their skin diseases...Eeew...if the water is continuosly flowing and replenish like river then I guess ok lah...
Anyway, after lunch we looked for a place to put our things and found an empty table. I sat there reading newspapers and guard our stuffs as I wasn't in the mood for wetting my body (and for reasons mentioned above), as for the children? Bacteria, macteria - they just sped off to the mountain spring pool for their swim without any care in the world. After the swim, they all came back shivering and asked us to move to hot spring pool. We left our stuffs there and moved to soaking pools. Nice pictures here http://forum.keadilan.ws/viewthread.php?tid=72673
After a while my sis decided to have a massage. They have a promo package where if you purchased 2 sessions (2 hours) you and your family will enjoy free jacuzzi at a private villa. So, I decided to join my sis and the others can enjoy the jacuzzi.
They only have one therapist, so my sis had to wait for me (and enjoy the jacuzzi). While I was having my massage (in the one room chalet - nice clean chalet) it rained cats and dog! Since I wasn't decent, the rest had to wait for the rain to subside outside the chalet on the balcony.
The massage? Ayurveda massage. I didn't enjoy it that much as they use oil all over my body and the pressure applied not to my liking. Too soft. After the massage therapist gave me a bowl of scrub, soap and shampoo to remove oil from my hair and body. The bathroom - very nice and clean.
Once done, it was my sis's turn and for me to wait on the balcony as it was still raining heavily. I encouraged my nieces and nephew to stay in the jacuzzi n play in the rain - after all how often can you do that? I mean the water is warm and the rain is cold....what a combination.
We were at the villa (or chalet) for more than 2 hours while we wait for the rain to stop and the kids really enjoyed themselves.
On the way back we stopped at Sg Buloh rest area to eat and pray. We had satay, curry mee, chicken rice and cendol.
When we reached KL at about 9pm I heard my 8-year-old niece said this to her 4-year-old cousin "I had the best time of my life today." I guess..that wraps up our day trip...
What others said about this place:
- http://www.nstp.com.my/Current_News/TravelTimes/article/ShortbreakEcozone/20070723114755/Article/index_html
- http://cheething.blogspot.com/2008/10/sungai-klah-hot-spring-sungkai-perak.html
- http://jy-s.com/2008/09/11/hot-spring-sungkai-air-panas-sungai-klah/
- http://ipohchai.com/weekend-at-sungai-klah-hot-spring-park.php
- http://travelerfolio.com/trap-hot-springs-sungai-klah-sungkai-perak/
- http://www.malaysiavacationguide.com/hotsprings.html
- http://blurryhunniee.blogspot.com/2008/10/sungai-klah-hot-spring-park-sungkai.html
- http://www.malaysiabest.net/2008/12/03/hot-water-spring-sungai-klah-sungkai-perak-cooking-eggs/
- http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g298297-d878063-Reviews-Sungai_Klah_Hot_Springs_Park-Perak.html
- http://blog.benghan.com/2008/02/sungai-klah-hot-spring-trap-sungkai/
- http://www.sabahan.net/forum/sungai-klah-hot-spring-park-t-29.html
- http://dy4is.multiply.com/links/item/5
- http://danielctw.com/2007/03/17/hot-springs-sungai-klah-sungkai/
- http://portal.cyspeak.com/archives/tag/sungai-klah-hot-spring/
- http://hengm.blogspot.com/2007/03/sungai-klah-hot-springs-park.html
- http://allmalaysia.info/news/story.asp?file=/2005/4/16/state/10557690&sec=mi_perak
- http://travel.webshots.com/album/561591795AAxqgj
- http://mytravelbay.com/2008/09/08/sungai-klah-hot-springs-park/
- http://www.ah-hong.com/travel-escape/malaysia/sungai-klah-hot-spring-park/
- http://leemyjessy.blogspot.com/2009/02/sungai-klah-hot-spring-park.html
- http://www.worldisround.com/articles/171075/
- http://metta.fotopages.com/?entry=297645
- http://www.geocities.com/mgoodhandz/sgklah.html
- http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/TravelTimes/article/ShortbreakEcozone/20070604145231/Article/index_html
- http://www.hcfoo.com/2007/04/cameron-highlands-and-sg-klah-over.html
- http://econaturetravel.com/eco-tourism-and-travel/hot-springs-malaysia/
- http://bootingravy.multiply.com/journal/item/32
- http://littlehealer.wordpress.com/2008/01/12/trap-sg-klah/
- http://malaysiatrekking.blogspot.com/2008/04/sungai-klah-hot-spring-sungkai-perak.html
- http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2005/11/24/north/12487581&sec=North
- http://clovetwo.com/articles/story.asp?file=/2007/8/11/travelnleisure/18354192&sec=travelnleisure
- http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/TravelTimes/article/FeatureStory/20061023105446/Article/index_html
- http://endroog.com/2008/02/23/hot-spring-in-sungkai/
- http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/388086/+40
- http://mibckk98.blogspot.com/2008/05/sungai-klah-hot-springs-park.html
- http://www.xanga.com/Fiona_Sean_babe/595889454/hot-springs-park-sg-klah/
- http://www.travelling2u.com/malaysia/trap-hot-spring-park-malaysia-sungkai
- http://soifung.multiply.com/photos/album/54/Sungai_Klah_Hot_Spring-Ipohs_Temple_-_12102007
- http://gohnaihsing.blogspot.com/
- http://xsunsan.blogdrive.com/archive/120.html
- http://www.noeman.org/gsm/tourism-friendship-travels/55657-sungai-klah-hot-springs-park.html
