Sungai Klau - Kebun Ayah Fishing and Camping Trip
Sungai Klau is located in the Raub District about 2 ½ hours from Kuala Lumpur. This area is mainly oil palm estates with big lakes on both sides of the road. The Klau Dam is located in the area. And during durian season, you can get durians at the collection centers that supplies durian sellers with the fruit. Individuals can also purchase from these centers.
Sungai Klau is a favorite destination for anglers and there are fishing centers that arrange fishing trips as well as boat rentals. You can find these centers along the main road just next to the lakes.
Our intention in coming to the area was to find a nice secluded to camp and fish. We drove around the perimeter of the lake near the dam. Unfortunately, we could not find a suitable spot. The locals warned us that the place is not safe for camping and a few campers had been robbed here. So, we decided to fish here and move elsewhere to camp.
It was already getting hot as we had spent the earlier part of the morning hunting for a possible camping spot. We located a nice spot within an oil palm estate and started fishing. Unfortunately, we only ended up with 1 fish, an Ikan Haruan, or Snakehead. We heard from friends that there were also Ikan Toman (Giant Snakehead) in the lakes. This is the species that many anglers come here for as they put up a good fight when caught.
After lunch, we decided to head for Kebun Ayah, a camping spot in the Perting Valley. Kebun Ayah is a nice, peaceful spot with lights and toilet facilities. It is located just next to a river that flows from a popular waterfall upriver. This waterfall is known as Lata Hammers. Lots of people will pay to park their cars at the parking lot and take the 40-minute hike to the falls. On weekends and public holidays, the falls are can be quite crowded with campers and day-trippers.
Kebun Ayah is popular with campers who like to getaway for a weekend camping trip not too far from Kuala Lumpur. Even companies and other groups like to hold their events here as the place is big and can accommodate large crowds. If you are planning to come here, it is better to call first to find out is the place is available.
The campsite has many trees that provide shade from the heat. The washrooms are well maintained and clean, with toilets and showers. The men’s and women’s washrooms are separated.
There are lights until 10 pm. After that you have to use your own torches or other light sources. The washrooms have small solar lights that light up when there is someone detected.
A short distance away from the campground you will find buildings that can be rented out for group functions. In my visits there, I had yet to see anybody occupy these structures.
The river is nice, but during the rainy season, there tend to be flashfloods that can raise the water level in just minutes.
This area is great if you just want to relax and take a dip in the cool, refreshing mountain stream. We setup our tents and started to prepare our food for an early dinner. The fish we caught was fillet and seasoned with a bit of salt and fried. Nothing tastes better than fried fish that was just caught a few hours ago. We also prepared a few other dishes so that the children who were with us on the trip could have a good meal after their swim.
We used to drive our 4WD vehicles along another track to get to the other side of the river to camp. At night, wild boars would visit our campsite. We only saw their prints near our tents in the morning. On one occasion, we even saw a deer run through our campsite in broad daylight.
So later that night, the boys decided to sit by the river to see if they could catch a glimpse of any wild animals across the river. Unfortunately, they did not see any. There were too many trees that blocked their view.
In the morning, we had breakfast and then a swim. Tried to catch fish at the river but as we did not bring the right bait, our efforts turned up empty. We had another swim to rejuvenate our bodies and then started to pack up.
When you leave the campsite, even though there are bins around, you are expected to take out all your rubbish and throw them into rubbish bins elsewhere.
We decided to have lunch at Bukit Tinggi, a nice little town with lots of restaurants as well as small stalls that sells vegetables from farms located at the hill slopes. This place is also famous for their Bentong ginger, which many people swear are better than the ginger sold elsewhere.
We love coming to this area for camping. There are a few camping spots, both paid-for as well as free to camp. The free spots involve travelling in 4WD vehicles as the tracks are difficult and not accessible to normal vehicles. But this place is changing fast. More and more people are buying up land for farming as well as for building resorts. The trees on many of the hill slopes have already been cut down. If you want to enjoy the area, now is a good time to do so before the area is gone to development.
