‘Party Animal’ at Kuala Gandah
Having bored ourselves to death for the past few weeks, we decided to give a visit to some cute and friendly faces for a change. We travelled some 100km up north to the state of Pahang for that.
The early morning target to start our journey ended up being at 11.00am (as usual 
). Guess we were so cozy in the blankets rather than moving our lazy ass up, bright and shining. Well, what the heck. It’s Saturday and getting late is not a crime. Thank god the journey was smooth and by one and half hour later we reached the place.
So, if you are planning to come here from KL, just drive along the Karak highway bypassing the Genting Sempah toll and the Karak toll and take the exit at the Lanchang-Raub-Kuala Lipis interchange (exit 816). Turn right at the first junction after the Lanchang toll to Kuala Gandah. Drive about 10km further up along a remote road and scattered village houses. It is natural to feel a bit lost as the short, lonely, journey is giving you the impression of going into the deep Malaysian rainforest; we soon felt relief and confident that we were on the right track when a few tourist buses start tailing behind us.
A secluded road into the jungle
Our prime objective was to visit the Kuala Gandah Elephant sanctuary, however since the activity will not start until 2.00pm, we diverted to the Deerland first. You will eventually pass the park on your way to the elephant conservation centre.
We obediently paid the entrance fee, RM6 for adult and RM3 for kids. (The charges are slightly higher for foreigners). The place is not much; more like a petting zoo but what’s important is that we are having fun.
The entrance to Deerland
Our first and a very close encounter with the deer. The keeper gave us a basket of cut tapioca to each of us, to feed to the animal. These animals are quite friendly and harmless; not like some other petting zoo that I have been where the owner doesn’t even bother to tamed them.
I'm wondering what they have been gossiping...
Ahnaf feeding the deer with cut tapioca.
A curious fella came up to my lens, trying to licking it up.
and DH hand...
Thank god we were feeding them from over the fence. Otherwise we might end up being followed and siege like this poor guy!
"Hey mister, where do you think you are going? Hand me the tapioca, or I'll..."
chocolate anyone?
A stag came forward and introduced himself. We quickly become good friends.
Ahnaf and DH with their new friends
After having fun with these ‘deerie’ , we wander around to pay a visit to the other members of the clan. I was busy snapping pictures and suddenly having these goosebumps. I almost jumped when I realized that I’ve been very near to this slippery reptile. The keeper assures me it is harmless and offered to put it around my neck for picture sake. Yeah, thank you, but no sir, thank you . Oh, did I ever mentioned that I suffer ophidiophobia? I did break to tears once when my 3 year old son threw me a rubber one. Lame! Lame! Lame!
Instead he put the python on this guy. I managed to steal a snapshot (and that was taken using telezoom if you want to know).
We leaved the python and the guy and moved on to the more cuddly ones. The sun bear! I can’t help myself gawking at the bear’s dangerous-looking paws. I cowardly came nearer and gingerly patted his back.
see, no wires that divide us actually..
To our surprise the keeper feed him with kuih kasuwi (a local traditional pudding) and a can of jelly grass drink. What a diet.
BJ Me and the Bear!
Other than these animals, there are a few others such as the parrots, rabbits, mouse deer, hedgehog, the white Dutch quail (puyuh belanda) etc. It didn’t bother me to take their photos as some of them are quite common and for the Dutch quail, I still hold my remorse over the loosing of my favorite team Brazil to Holland in the last night world cup match. Darn!!!
>> To be continued…
