Sungai Lembing was once well-known for its underground tin mines being the biggest underground tin mine in the world. In the Malay language, “Sungai” means river while “Lembing” means spear. Sungai Lembing was developed into a tin mining central in the 1900s by the British under the Pahang Consolidated Company Limited. Business was booming in Sungai Lembing for several decades, right until the global tin prices crashed in the 1980’s and the company had no choice but to close the mines, leaving the local folks without a job. Since then, Sungai Lembing became an abandoned ghost town.

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Fast forward to today, the township of Sungai Lembing has been given a second lease of life as a tourist attraction. As you arrive the former cowboy town, explore the old market square to take sight in the surroundings of where the Chinese clan houses are located. Step into a home bakery which still uses wood-fired ovens to bake delectable delights such as buns, coconut biscuits, cakes and “coffee-croutons”. Discover more of this charming little town and observe how the locals use the high hanging bridges during the rainy season to cross the Lembing River.

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Sungai Lembing is one of my favorite stopover in the eastern part of the Peninsula Malaysia. Whenever I am traveling up to Thailand via the east coast of Malaysia or just overnight cruising within Malaysia, and if I prefer to stay away from the concrete jungle of the other popular stop, the city of Kuantan, which is just 40km away. It is also connected to the E8 East Coast Expressway which will leads you to Kuala Lumpur or northward bound up to the state of Terengganu at present. The future phase will connect E8 to Kelantan – the northeastern state bordering South Thailand. My family and I decided to travel to Sungai Lembing for a 3 Days 2 Night trip.

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Meet tour guide at 8am and start the journey to Sungai Lembing (around 3.5 Hours).As we arrived a little later after our stop at Sungai Pandan Waterfall, it was already 1.30pm.After parking our car, we decided to take a walk to the food court hoping to try our luck wheather there is any food store that is still selling any food. When we arrive, most of the hawkers at the Sungai Lembing Food Court are already in the midst of cleaning and packing for the day. We then decided to take walk around town to see whether any other shops are still opened. We manage to find one which is a Coffeeshop next to Lembing Tea House which sell duck egg noodles. It looks more like the pan mee. The taste of the broth was very tasty much like taste Japanese Ramen to me. The small bowl that we had was RM7.00 and RM10.00 for a big bowl not that cheap considering we gotten only 4 pieces of meatballs.

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After that, while walking around town, we met some local people around and had some chatted with them to share their opinion about the hidden gems or most attractive place in Sungai Lembing and also our option for incoming dinner. According to him, the most recommended place or highlight of Sungai Lembing is the tin mining cave tour. Entrance fee is RM15 per adult, you will get a 80 meter mini "locomotive" ride which was nice entering the cave. Then you can walk another 500m to explore. Air inside was cooling and there is a guide for your disposal. You will get useful facts only when you ask questions. The tour lasted approx. 30-40 mins. For the food there told us the most authentic original shop that sells the tomato noodles is at the Restoren Hoover and us to check it out.

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The next day, we wake up super early in the morning in the morning on our second day have a hike up Bukit Panorama. It was super dark outside but luckily we brought torch lights when we packed for this trip. It took us about 40 minutes to hike till the top of the hill. We can’t really see anything until about 6.20AM, the sun started to rise and its getting brighter. The view of the sun rise is spectacular and it’s worth the hike up. After taking photos, we went back down to the morning market, food court to have our breakfast. Next, our tour Guide pick up and proceed to Rainbow Waterfall in 4 x 4 truck. Photo stop at Midway Plateau for sunrise view. After that, another 1 Hour journey to reach the entrance of Rainbow Waterfall. From here, cross bridge and trek uphill for 1km (about 45 minutes) by foot to reach Rainbow Waterfall. 1 to 2 Hours spend at waterfall, light snack will be served here (included). Transfer back to retreat at 10.30am and should be reach about 12pm. Check out from Time Capsule Retreat. Proceed to Cherating (around 1 Hour journey), Lunch at local restaurant, Visit Cherating Village, Turtle Hatchery Centre and Handicraft Centre. After that, we decided to go the restaurant that were recommanded by local and ordered their main dish is Thai Style Talapia. The fish is fried to a deep crust and topped with some vinaigrette mango.

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On our last day on Sungai Lembing, we left early in morning after having our breakfast at 8 am. On our way back home, we stopped by to visit Black Stone Beach, Beserah Fishing Village, Teluk Chempedak, Handicraft shop and also Sungai Lembing Museum. It keeps a lot of history that most people might not know. A visit session at this museum is sure to remind the visitors about the glorious history of Sungai Lembing. Various treasures, replicas and interesting artifacts related to tin mining activities are available here.

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This trip intend to make all of us relax and strengthen our family bonds. It was really stress-free and we enjoyed our time here. Sungai Lembing is a great place to chill, to take a break and leave your busy life in the cities.