Cuti-cuti Malaysia….. Kalumpang Resort & Training Centre

The Chalet at KRTC

The week had been pretty hectic so the invitation for a weekend getaway at Kalumpang Resort & Training Centre (KRTC) was very much welcomed. I had no idea what was waiting there but the prospect of being closer to nature was good enough to entice me to jump on the bandwagon.

We left Manjung at about 11.15am on Saturday. The 170km drive was pretty much uneventful. We made two stopovers to buy guava at Bidor and the famous “pau” at Tanjung Malim….and we were hard pressed to reach our destination as quickly as possible once the constant “Are we there yet?” started barely one hour into the journey.

We arrived at the junction in Kalumpang leading to the resort shortly after 1pm. According to the resort’s website, the place is about 2km from the junction. The road was narrow alright, at times we were forced to stop on the curb to allow the incoming car to pass through.

We were the second group to arrive after Kak Shida & her family. The resort was made of various types of bungalows and chalets nestled in between rocks and trees alongside the Inki River. At the first look it felt like being in a kampung (village). The buildings blended fairly well with the surroundings, with ayam kampung and cats running around. I even saw some Rajah Brooke butterflies flying comfortably among the huge heliconia plants found abundant in the area. The main attraction, the Inki River itself was nice and clean with lots of rocks, big and small, scattered throughout. We quickly changed and made our way to the river which was less than 50m away. I was really starving and the sight of nasi lemak, sambal sotong and ayam masak kicap was just overwhelming, so the river just had to wait a little longer. The twins wasted no time in getting into the water allowing Lin & I to really enjoy our late lunch. After finishing my second helping of nasi lemak, I was ready for all the fun. I discovered that the water was very cold despite the scorching heat…..unbelievably refreshing. The rest of the family group arrived a little over an hour later; my parents in laws, Kak Yan, Shera, Ijan & Haikal. More swimming and playing in the water until it was time to prepare for the family BBQ.

 The twins really enjoyed themselves

Fun on the first day

Natural jacuzzi

I wondered if the chalet was going to be sufficient to cater for the 13 of us. However, since this was a family get together, I was sure we’d be able to somehow work our way around it. That evening Kak Shida & Abang Pedi managed to acquire the chalet right next to ours at a special rate, thus solving the accommodation challenge.

The weather was nice when we had the BBQ. The BBQ menu consisted of stingray, chicken, squids, prawns, crabs and sausages. We also had fruit & vegetable salad and leftover nasi lemak to complete the meal. Ohh yes, food was abundant for everybody to enjoy. Hjh Azizah never lets anybody go hungry when she is around. Everything was nice, and I particularly enjoyed the stingray, the crab and the squid. Everybody hit the bed shortly before midnight. Farzana decided to try the upper bed of the double-decker……it worked well for her as she was fast asleep within minutes, but not for her over-worried parents. Fearing that she might fall down due to her lasak nature of sleeping, Lin decided to accompany her up there.

After all the effort, the tent was only useful for about 10 minutes...sighhh:)

It was an early rise for everybody, with me being one of the last ones to leave the comfort of my bed at about 7.30am. While my mother in law was busy preparing breakfast, I took the family for a quick walk around the compound. We saw the workers gathered together for a session of “poco poco” before starting to work…..that was original.

You have to know "poco poco" to work here....I do not qualify obviously

During our morning walk

The children hit the water again right at 8.30am……are you guys not cold? Then again….children will always be children. The adults slowly gathered around to have breakfast by the river bank, while the children continued to splash around in the water. Breakfast was bread, egg salad, scrambled eggs and sardines plus some left over BBQ. Perfect!!! Watermelon and all sorts of nuts were the later additions as we spent the whole morning there chatting, munching and swimming. The adults, including my mother in law (…way to go!!!) decided to join the children in water slightly later in the morning. It was fun all around…..

Everything is fun here

 The twins love photo opportunities

 The adults watching the kids while chitchatting & munching

Everybody "berendam"

We got out of the water at about noon. Then it was a super quick process of packing up to check out of the resort. Everybody was super efficient…..seasoned traveler you have to say. We bid each other goodbye and made our way home, my family back to Lumut while the rest to Shah Alam.

The Aziz Clan all set to go home...it's been great fun

Another short and sharp break but was definitely worth it. One interesting idea came up during this trip. We decided to initiate a “vacation fund” with Lin unanimously being appointed as the Coordinator. Ha..ha…a quick vote…cadangan dibuka, cadangan ditutup tanpa sebarang bantahan…kecuali yang empunya diri. Well done Lin for accepting the appointment. Everybody is to contribute a fixed amount of RM50 per head monthly and the collection will be used to facilitate a family vacation later in the year. Let’s hope there’s more Cuti-cuti Malaysia news in this blog as a result of this initiative.

My overall view of the resort – It is a nice value for money place. The chalet was very basic but when we spent 90% of your time outdoor all that we needed were a clean bathroom and decent beds. The highlight, the Inki river was marvelous, and clean. However, I just think that the workers should pay just a little more attention in cleaning up the trash, and not so much of the leaves. The place is generally clean, much cleaner than any public picnic areas I’ve seen. However, I think it’ll do the resort more good if they could pay a little bit more “detail” attention to the upkeep and maintenance of the place. I’d love to come back…..definitely, that’s my overall verdict.

They were spent....all the way to Lumut like this