Raft House on Lake Kenyir I went to Lake Kenyir on April 29,2010 with my niece and her family members.

The journey to Lake Kenyir via the East-West Highway from Butterworth was eight hours. On the way we stopped at Gerik and Besut for refreshment.

We stayed at a raft house floating on the Lake Kenyir about 500 metres away from a private jetty. The basic amenities provided in the raft house included an uninterrupted flow of piped water from a mountain stream connected through an under-water piping, and a daily twelve-hour of electricity provided by a diesel generator in the evening.
Surprisingly,there wasn’t any mosquito biting us during our three days’ stay at the raft house. I supposed it would take a mosquito with the stamina of a marathon runner to fly over the lake. And most probably before the mosquito could land on the body of any one of us, it would be too exhausted to have fallen prey to the fish awaiting in the lake with their mouths wide open.

Actually we were totally unaware that the trip was organised solely for the twenty odd people of enthusiastic and vibrant anglers. We knew it later on when we were about to reach our destination.

The organiser of the trip was Mr.Lam. He is the family friend of Mike, my nephew-in-law. He allowed us to join the group as non-participating guests. We were the earliest group to arrive at the raft house. The other two groups reached the place at different times,one at 11 pm in the evening and the other at 3 am in the next morning. One could imagine our sleep was disrupted intermittently throughout the night by the talking of those late comers. On the following morning, after the breakfast was over, Mr. Lam made arrangement for the anglers to go out fishing in the boats provided.
Subsequently, Ah Keat, the son of Mr. Lam, took us for a boat ride in the Lake Kenyir. In the lake we could see grey coloured branches protruding from the water. They were once tree trunks before water was introduced into this area. He brought us to a nearby waterfall where the children had a great time enjoying in the pond.
For the children,even the simplest things like boating or immersing in a pond beneath a waterfall,would fill them with a sense of joy beyond the comprehension of the others, especially the elders.

As we all know,Lake Kenyir is the largest man-made lake in Southeast Asia, spanning 260,000 hectares. It is also Malaysia's largest rock filled hydroelectric dam. When the area was flooded, most of the hills were above the water level, thus creating about 340 man-made islands.
It is a popular retreat for nature lovers as it is surrounded by lush tropical rain forest. It is also an angler’s haven as the lake is home to hundreds of species of freshwater fish like Baung, Toman, Kelisa, Lampam and Kelah. In the evening Mr.Lam took us for another boat ride in the lake intending to demonstrate to us his superb fishing skill. On its course to the fishing spot he stopped at another raft house to buy some small fish from a Malay friend to use as baits. These baits are crucial and invaluable to the anglers just like the players in a tennis court waiting anxiously for somebody to get the tennis balls to start the game.
This was the first time I came to know that a small fish is used as a bait to angle a big fish although it is a long established fact that "big fish eats small fish" [大鱼吃小鱼]。

However, luck was not with Mr.Lam then as a three-kilogram fish escaped from his line with the hook attached to its mouth. Jokingly, Mr.Lam was telling us, “The fish has got to visit a dentist!”
As night fell, we had to return to the raft house for dinner.
It is a marvellous experience to stay in a raft house floating in a serene and peaceful lake. The only shortcoming is the noise produced by the generator throughout the night.

Nowadays it is not easy to find a place where one could lead a life temporarily cut off from the outside world, enjoying being alone with the nature doing nothing except watching the moon climbing up lazily from behind the distant hills, casting a golden beam upon the tranquil lake. This lake will be registered in my mind for quite sometime as I hope to come back again for jungle trekking and exploration of other caves and waterfalls.