My daughter and I woke up early at about 6 am and did all our toilette and headed to have our breakfast. Breakfast was buffet style, of course, with Char Koay Teow, Beef Bacon, Chicken Sausages, Baked Beans, Hash Browns, etc…etc and an Omelette counter where I ordered my preferred Omelette stuffed with mushrooms, onions and cheese… they also have capsicum and chicken sausages if you so desire…

When breakfast was over, my daughter and I slowly walked around the resort taking pictures of flowers and insects we happened upon… on the way to the Belum Rainforest Resort Jetty…

We got to the Jetty and waited for the rest of the people to arrive…and then we boarded the boat. The first trip was halfway around Pulau Banding to a little grocery shop where tourists and visitors can go to the toilet or purchase some necessities or tidbits for the Orang Asli/ Indigenous people at the village we were going to stop by …

By the way, when you are on the boat, only do you realise how truly vast the lake is… For your information, the lake is 15,300 hectares wide and the depths can vary from 80-100 metres at its deepest point… so if you want to go in search for the ‘lost village’ or ‘lost city’ below the water….

Be well prepared ya…. Hahahah… and oh… be careful of the giant monster fish also… there are some rumours or believes that there is a giant monster fish living and lurking in its depths… or maybe a few.. it is hardly surprising right… I mean there are many giant fishes living in the Mekong river also…

Then we made our way to another island where we were awed at the sight of two black and white hornbills flying (but not enough time to grab the camera and take some pics..huhuhu) just before almost everyone hiked up the hill through the primeval rainforest towards the look out tower on top of the hill….

Your reward when you have done this gruelling climb?

A breathtaking view of the Temengor lake and some of the islands….

The third stop was at a Talapia fish farm which was pretty impressive.

This fish farm was a joint venture between our local fisheries and with the Norwegian Fish Farm and there were many ‘cages’ all around… and Desmond, our guide told us there were about 50,000 fishes in each cage!! These fishes are better quality fishes, and more expensive than our local Talapia fishes and most of them are exported to Europe.

Then we had a look at the Temengor Hydro-Electric Power Centre and the Temengor Dam before heading to another island well known to be the Elephants Salt Lick.

It was another hiking trail and most of my fellow ‘tourists’ were groaning at the thought since many has yet recovered from the first trail… but our tour guides promised it was an easier trail, so we all went…

A salt lick, in case you do not know it, like I did not before I came here…  is a place where animals go to to get their essential mineral nutrients from a deposit of salts and other minerals. Salt licks provide the biometals (sodium, calcium, iron, phosphorus, zinc, and trace elements) required for bone, muscle and other growth other wildlife and also is a source of medication when the animal is unwell….

It was interesting as we got to see ‘souvenirs’ the animals left behind despite not really seeing the animals… such as the Malayan Sun Bear’s claw marks on trees, Elephant dung here and there, baby giant centipedes/ millipedes, the actual Salt Lick which is said to be medication for the animals around who were unwell or hurt, so that they could recover faster, elephant marks on trees where they scratched themselves and even a wildboar’s wallowing pool.

We all manage to see a lantern bug high up in the trees as well…

It is said that the Belum-Temengor Tropical Rainforest is home to fourteen of the world’s most threatened mammals. These would include the Asiatic Elephant, Sumatran Rhinoceros, White Handed Gibbon, Siamang, Malayan Sun Bear, Tapir, Seladang, Malaysian Tiger, The Clouded Leopard, Golden Cat and Marbled Cat….

The Belum-Temengor Rainforest is also the place where you can find 3 different species of Rafflesia and 10 different species of Hornbills and the endangered Thai Mahseer or Kelah Merah fish….amazing huh!!!

Anyway, continuing on our tour, we headed to the Base Camp of Pulau Tali Kail where there were chalets as well as a beautiful waterfall there but because we did not manage to get the permit to visit the area in time and also due to the low tide of the lake, we could not see it… We had our lunch there which consisted of some sandwiches, curry puffs and an apple.

This all depends on your luck, and if you are lucky, you could even get to see the Rafflesia if it was in bloom. Unfortunate in our case, there were none in bloom and we did not get to see any as the guides would not bring us to see the area. The Rafflesia is a very sensitive plant as well and needs peace and serenity to thrive. When too many people visit the area when it is not in bloom, it may disrupt the blooming process and it would refuse to bloom or even deteriorate without blooming…

So our last stop was at the ingenious people/ Orang Asli’s village.

These ingenious people/ Orang Asli might live in small bamboo/wooden homes with chicken and ducks running around, and wash their clothing in the lake, but because of the generosity of some foundations and people who visit them, they actually have solar power electricity and even Astro satellite in the village!!

We left the village just before it started raining and were caught in the rain on our journey back to the Belum Rainforest Resort’s jetty…and was drenched…well, because I chose to be so… LOL… The tour guide had handed out plastic disposable rain ponchos to everyone but since my daughter and I were actually dressed in our swimming gear, we just braved the storm.

Once back at the jetty, we quickly boarded the resort buggy back to our room and had a hot shower which was just so blissful and then rested before heading back to the jetty again for dinner…

Jetty for dinner? Ah yes, this is because we had a special treat which included and evening sunset BBQ on the Houseboat with some of the cast and crew of a new RTM Eco Tourism programme soon to be aired in our local TV RTM as it slowly cruised part of the lake and back….

We got to enjoy the lovely sunset and indulge ourselves with awesome BBQ lamb, chicken wings, stingray slices, sausages, mussels, squid, prawns and fried rice, salad and dessert….

Once our hunger was sated, we headed back to our rooms, stopping to check out the Puteri Dewi Spa near our rooms.

The Puteri Dewi Spa is a Spa in the forest which uses forest in their spa… heheheh….they offer a variety of very interesting spa packages and rituals for those who are weary and in need of some pampering or indulgence.

One thing that makes the Puteri Dewi Spa different from other spa would be that they actually use their own blend of fresh local garden herbs which are all grown by themselves which you can see just as you enter the spa in the many little pots along the way…

And once we had take a peek inside the lovely spa, we headed back to the cocoon of our room and beds……. And that is the end of Day 2……

For more pictures of Day 2 in Belum Rainforest Resort, please click here…

If you haven’t read Day 1, please click here to read…

Click here to read day 3 at Belum Rainforest Resort