Chamang Waterfall

Chamang is on the Sungai Perting outside Bentong, an hour or so from Kuala Lumpur once the Karak highway is behind you, and unlike the delicate tiered falls elsewhere in the peninsula this one is a broad sheet of fast water dropping over a rock shelf into a deep pool - loud, heavy and genuinely strong. The site is developed with a car park, changing rooms, stalls and picnic huts, and it is popular with families and with groups from the capital at weekends. The volume is what people come for and also what makes it dangerous: the pool below the main drop has strong recirculation, there are undercut rocks, and the fall has a long record of drownings, with warning signs and periodic bans on entering the water at the base. The upstream sections are calmer.

What you actually see

• A wide sheet of fast water - the main drop over a rock shelf, loud and heavy.
• A deep plunge pool - the danger point, with strong recirculation.
• A developed picnic site - car park, stalls, huts and changing rooms.
• Calmer upstream reaches - shallower water above the main fall.

When to go

All year; avoid rain upstream. Weekdays for space. Half a day.

Honest expectations

People have drowned here - the pool below the main drop is dangerous and swimming there is restricted at times. Obey the signs. Weekends are crowded and litter is a problem.

Nearby

Bentong town is close; Genting Highlands is west.