Tempurung Cave Tour!

A breathtaking gallery of Tempurung Cave.

Silent, dark, and peace.

Underground river.

1st step; I could not control myself from being super excited!

Thank you for these superhero girls.

26 March 2020 | Tempurung Cave, Gopeng, Perak.

7.00 AM – First Passenger of the First Train

“Attention to all passengers, ETS train 9029 to Kampar will arrive in a minute” announcement was made to alert the passengers on the upcoming train. 7.00 AM was the perfect time since it was the first train in the morning. I checked my ticket, phone, and wallet as they were already prepared. I could see the train approached the station.

I took a deep breath then whispered to myself, “You can do this, Farahin.”

The train passed by KL Central station and started heading to Perak where it took 2 hours and 15 minutes. As I arrived at Kampar KTM Station, I called a Grab Car service and straightly to Tempurung Cave where all my friends were waiting there.

9.45 AM – “Are you ready?”

Sabrina, Tisya, and Amalina welcomed me very well. We checked and prepared some caving stuff like a helmet, a headlamp, a small backpack and a pair of good grip shoes. Knee pads and gloves would also be useful. The view of Tempurung Cave from outside seemed peace with birds-chipping and monkeys-chattering as they were welcomed us. We get a briefing from a ranger that will guide us throughout the tour. 

“Are you ready?” he asked.

“Absolutely ready!” we shouted excitedly, I mean super excited!

10.00 AM – The Caving Begins!

First step, second step and third step. At this moment, my jaw was going to drop when I saw inside of the Tempurung Cave! I was like “Wait, are we really standing on the earth? Someone, please slap me!” No, I was joking, no one was going to slap me. A strange feeling of excitement filled myself as I watched the curves, scratches, cave mouth and dark spaces of this largest cave in Peninsular Malaysia.  The show cave started with a dry walk along the steel staircases and electric lighting. We also got the chance to enjoy the eye-catching views especially the rock formations to be amazed! The ranger showed to us some illusions of the cave walls. Wow! Magically my eyes can accept the mind-tricks on the images of a dog, a jellyfish, a pregnant woman, an old man and the Lord of Buddha. Fascinating!

11.15 AM – A Tempurung Ceiling

We arrived at the 2nd platform where the ranger showed us 5 huge domes with ceiling resembling coconut shells called ‘tempurung’ in Bahasa Melayu. We were informed that each of the domes has different calcium formations and marble that are formed by the dripping of water saturated with minerals. As the outcomes, we could see the breathtaking gallery is full of stalagmites, stalactites, volcano-like rocks, glittering crystal-covered walls and lots more rock formations that are speleological fantastic! 

The path was getting darker until the 3rd platform. Standing at a height of 90 meters, Golden Flowstone describes a golden hue with water flows over it, helped by a gentle lighting supply. Moving on to the next platform, we climbed the Top of the World in dark and surprisingly we need to slide down a 9 meters slippery hill! Oh no, it was the most shocking part since the sliding was extremely dark and slope! I was about to turn back to the main entrance, rather than killing myself here at the age of 21. Acrophobia!

I forced my body to slide yet my shaking hands kept grasp everyone nearest, barely not even moved! “Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!” — The scream of a frightened soul. I opened both eyes. Nah, I safely arrived and survived at the bottom of the 9 meters hill. Thank God!

1.15 PM – The Return Journey.

This tour covers all 5 caverns and the eastern side of the cave. The return journey is by an underground river of 1.6km in length, which I think was more thrilling and strenuous than the previous one! Our return path was challenged with duck-walks, climbed a most 90° wall and crawled in the one person’s holes! I was almost stuck between the cave walls while crawling due to the size of the hole, obviously not because of my body size. We continued walking and crawling in the river until we could see the cave mouth and that was the end of the Tempurung Cave tour.

2.00 PM – A Priceless Achievement

We took a lot of pictures and videos to keep the memories, smiles and laughs beyond. Exhausted yet satisfying! With the help and supports of my peers, I would not successfully explore Tempurung Cave. Indeed, this tour is the most adrenaline-pumping spelunking adventure of my lifetime!