Mandi Sungai on 3rd Syawal

while some kids their age are still goin from house to house collecting duit raya, my boys took a dip in the icy-cold river or mandi sungai on hari raya!

 

my boys @ air terjun batu hampar @ kampung paya lintah, padang rengas, perak

 

i haven’t been to any river for the LONGEST TIME.

my last memory of swimming in the river was my siblings and cousins on my mom’s side splashing in the river in kulim, kedah – my grand-uncle’s home which is right next to the river! i was barely 10 years old, i think!

the funny and wise tok njang has passed away for so long, and we haven’t been to kulim for a very long time too. however, the memory of swimming at that river remains one of the most adventurous times of my life!

 

khaleef was ecstatic in the water, kahfi was surprisingly NOT scared of jumping into the icy-cold waters while kazim just loved splashing around. they were SO at home at the river!

* * *

we went to batu hampar, in kampung paya lintah at padang rengas. it’s a place near my in-laws’ house in kampung lalang. there’s a small stream that leads to a lovely little river that is so cold and just so refreshing!

i can safely say is kids-friendly too :

• it’s easy to get to – you don’t have to climb huge slippery rocks to get across
• also most importantly, it’s shallow, that even my 2-year old kazim can safely trod slowly through the flowing water at knee-high
• the ground under the water is soft sands, and they’re not uneven so kids can easily walk without fear of toppling down
• although there is a part where there’s raging water flowing from upstream, the rest of the water in the river is fairly calm so there’s no worry of the kids being swept downstream

 

my boys khaleef, kahfi & kazim enjoying themselves to the fullest under the watchful eyes of bapak.

 

this was the ‘raging waters’ from upstream that i mentioned. haha. not so raging la but boleh tahan! if you stood at the top of the stream like mr. khairul and slide downwards, it would be a very fast and bumpy ride down the icy-cold river!

 

my mom-in-law actually cooked nasi lemak and packed up everything from the rice, sambal, crunchy ikan bilis down to the telur mata kobau and kacang too! her nasi lemak, especially her sambal was simply delicious – and was even more tantalizing when you eat it after a cool dip in the river. yum!

 

thanks to my sis-in-law tina for all the pretty pictures of our time at the river!

 

wanna go again, boys? do i really need to ask?