Really an 'unforgettable' experience at Lata Kinjang

Last Saturday, which coincidentally is Hari Raya Day.... (Happy Hari Raya to all Muslims!) we went to Lata Kinjang in Tapah for a trip. It was raining heavily which made me hesitant to go at first, but since the people which had reached the waterfall said it was not raining there, we decided to go and take a look. I had never been to Lata Kinjang before....

For those of u who dunno what is Lata Kinjang, it's one of the tallest waterfalls in Malaysia. U can see it easily when u travel along the North-South expressway towards the North. It's over 800 feet of cascading vertical water, originating from a stream....

As u can see, it's really magnificent.

So, we made our way all the way across Tapah, reaching Chenderiang village, and following the signboards up to Lata Kinjang. On the way, the weather alternated from heavy downpour to slight drizzling. Occasionally, we would be greeted by a patch of sun peeking out from the rainclouds. I'm thinking we must be crazy to go to a waterfall amidst such crazy weather.

When we reach, it's just drizzling slightly. We park our car at the carpark below and climb the steps all the way up to the top. The steps only reach the suspension bridge sumwhere 2/3rds up the waterfall. We find the rest of the gang sheltering under some bamboo trees there. It really really is a beautiful sight..... I'm standing in the middle of the bridge --- look up and I can see the water just gushing down from the top.... look down and I see that the water continues cascading over huge rocks and flowing into little pools at the side.

Okok, I didn't bring a camera, so I took these photos from a site called waterfallsofmalaysia.com.
That (Indian?) man is standing on the suspension bridge. The waterfall sumhow looks a bit dried up in this pic, cos when I went it was raining. Anyhow, pay attention to that tree on the left. It played a pivotal part in the disaster that I'm gonna talk about.

So, I was sitting at the sideway near this part of the waterfall, just letting the water rush past my feet. When suddenly, the people were hurriedly saying lets go lets go....o.O Not being one to argue, I just got up and went back to the 'picnic' place where we had left our bags. Suddenly, I heard a really loud noise of water rushing down, and I looked back to where I was sitting just now. A big gush of water came tumbling down from the top of the waterfall, it was brownish in color, not the clear water just moments ago.....the water had covered up the rock that I had been sitting on earlier.

I looked back up at the suspension bridge, and I saw a Malay woman standing near the tree which I talked about on top. She was frantically clutching on to her child ( I think a little girl about 7 / 8 yrs old). I could just see the water pouring fiercely down from there.... and I was so afraid that they would get washed down the waterfall. Luckily the tree managed to block some of the water that was gushing down, and her family/ friends managed to pull her up from the side.

We quickly took our belongings and left cos the water coming down was getting heavier and heavier.....really really gushing down and swallowing the rocks that were so prominent just moments ago. Just imagine the few pics above. No sight of any rocks to be seen, just brown water rushing down..... The little child which nearly drowned was so afraid, her face was just white as a sheet. Some of us lost our slippers cos the water came too fast and washed the slippers away. It's lucky that they didn't go back to pick the slippers lest they got washed away too.

I'll try to get the pics of the waterfall, before and after the flashflood. Somebody did take some pics of them that day.... Anywayz... the lesson of this story is... never go to a waterfall or a river when it is raining!!!! You never know what lesson Mother Nature might try to teach u.