Sungai Lembing
One Of The Deepest And Longest Underground Tin Mines In The World, Worked For A Century, Abandoned In 1986, And Now Entered On A Small Train · Kuantan, Pahang
SUNGAI LEMBING WAS CALLED THE EL DORADO OF THE EAST AND IT WAS NOT ENTIRELY A BOAST. FROM THE 1880s TO 1986 THIS WAS ONE OF THE DEEPEST AND LONGEST UNDERGROUND TIN MINES IN THE WORLD - not the open pits and dredges of the Kinta Valley but HUNDREDS OF KILOMETRES OF TUNNEL DRIVEN HORIZONTALLY AND VERTICALLY INTO THE HILLS, worked by Chinese labour under British management, with a company town built around it. THEN THE TIN PRICE COLLAPSED AND IT SHUT, and the town emptied and went quiet. PART OF THE WORKINGS HAS BEEN REOPENED AS A MUSEUM and you go in on A SMALL TRAIN, into tunnels that are cool, wet and genuinely unnerving. ABOVE GROUND ARE THE WOODEN SHOPHOUSES AND THE COMPANY BUILDINGS, and above those RAINBOW WATERFALL and a hill people climb before dawn for a sea of cloud. The mine is an hour from Kuantan and keeps all day, so go to the waterfall first if the morning is sunny, stay overnight if you want the dawn climb, and remember that the monsoon here runs roughly November to February.
Sungai Lembing, Kuantan, Pahang, Kuantan, Pahang, Malaysia
SUNGAI LEMBING IS ABOUT FORTY-FIVE MINUTES TO AN HOUR FROM KUANTAN by road and a car is the practical way. THE MINE MUSEUM keeps daytime hours and charges an entry fee; THE UNDERGROUND SECTION IS ENTERED ON A SMALL TRAIN and is a guided route rather than free wandering. RAINBOW WATERFALL IS THE OTHER DRAW AND IT IS CONDITIONAL: the rainbow appears in the spray only on SUNNY MORNINGS, roughly mid-morning, and the approach involves a FOUR-WHEEL-DRIVE RIDE AND A RIVER WALK arranged locally - IT DOES NOT WORK ON A CLOUDY DAY and nobody can promise it. THE SEA-OF-CLOUD HILL is climbed before dawn with a local guide. THE TOWN'S WOODEN SHOPHOUSES are open streets. It rains often; the monsoon here is roughly November to February.