Raya & Merdeka Break

Over the Raya and Merdeka holidays, KS and I joined our church's conference which was held in Kampar. It was a good time of deep sharing from our Senior Pastor Daniel, good fun time when everyone let their hair down and performed skits and songs as well as going to Adeline's Rest House again for white water rafting. I didn't do the rafting since I've already gone and fell off twice before but went along to enjoy the company and great food.

The last time I didn't manage to get photos of the white water rafting so here are some:

Safety briefing before gearing up

Everyone gets released into the rapids to practice in case we fall out of the raft. 

Being rescued after struggling against the current

We stayed in the same hotel I did when I went caving in Kampar in 2008, The Grand Kampar Hotel. This was the photo I took of a row of shophouses beside the hotel back then:

So just last week, we were back in the same hotel for our church's getaway and the building looks a lot more faded and sadly, still as unoccupied:

After the conference, KS and I decided to pop into Ipoh to pay a visit to his grandma. Using our seldom-used GPS, we passed by Kellie's Castle and decided to take a detour. I'm glad we did because I've heard about this unfinished castle since young but never bothered to visit. Here's the version of the history we read when we were there but Wiki says something else.

It would have been tremendously grand, had it been completed since there's still quite none like such a structure in Batu Gajah. Terribly ambitious too with the proposed elevator which would have been the first in the land then and a rooftop built for parties. I could not walk anywhere near the edges of this - eep!

I loved the secret escape routes (tiny stairs from all bathrooms on the second floor), a materialization of Enid Blyton's mystery books on castles or manors with secret passageways!

One of the narrow staircases leading from the bathroom onto the grounds of the castle

Apparently there are three underground tunnels that lead away from the castle, one to the temple which William Kellie Smith built nearby. I didn't see where they were located but one small room was sealed from public eyes.

All in all, I rather enjoyed the short exploration of this place although the story behind it is quite tragic.

And to end this post, we kept seeing this billboard along the highway:

Who celebrates their 50th Anniversary in 2039 when we're still in 2011?? Well, apparently, they do.