One of the pleasant surprises of the latest trip in Malaysia was Sungai Lembing.
Not really knowing what to expect we drove there from Kuantan. It's about 40 kilometers from there, and the drive reminded me of Borneo a bit. A long stretch of green into the middle of nowhere.
At the end of that 40 kilometer long road lies Sungai Lembing. A half deserted mining town. Once blooming and an economic hot spot with tin mining - apparently the biggest tin mine on the planet -, the town is now in decline. Closed up shop lots, some of the few streets deserted. The building style quite different from other places in Malaysia, mostly wooden houses. It felt a bit like an abandoned Hollywood set from a Western; The town in 'High Noon', right before the fight starts...
We visited the small museum on a hill at the end of the town, all about the tin mining, which lasted till 1986, when tin prices on the world market dropped and the cost of mining started to outweigh the profits.
Then we drove a bit further into the kampung area behind the town and saw some spectacular views of houses along the river side and a very long but small suspension bridge across the river wobbling up and down when walking over it...
Sadly the sun didn't corporate and photographing landscape in Malaysia seems almost impossible. The view is never clear due to the humidity. Perhaps at sun rise - I'm not a morning person - but during the day landscape pictures always suffer from this blue dispersed haze, due to the light being broken by the water in the air.
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