Sungai Lembing

Sungai Lembing was a company town: the Pahang Consolidated Company worked underground tin here from the 1880s until 1986, and the workings went down over seven hundred metres with hundreds of kilometres of tunnel, which made it one of the deepest and largest underground tin mines anywhere. When the price collapsed the mine closed and the town emptied - from tens of thousands to a few thousand - and what is left is the shape of a British mining settlement in the Malaysian interior: wooden shophouses, the manager's bungalow on the hill, the hospital, the club, and the museum in the old administrative building with a walk-in section of tunnel. Visitors also come for the Rainbow Waterfall trek and for the sunrise viewpoint on Bukit Panorama above the town.

History

The Malay name means "spear river", from a legend of a ruler who saw a spear in the river or from a spear thrown by Orang Asli hunters. A flood in 1926 halted mining for three months, and after 2001 the town was revived as a heritage attraction with the opening of the Sungai Lembing Museum (Wikipedia, Sungai Lembing).

The main sights

• A company mining town - shophouses, bungalows and works buildings left standing.
• The mine museum - the old administration block with a walk-in tunnel section.
• Bukit Panorama - the pre-dawn climb for sunrise over the valley mist.
• A town that shrank - tens of thousands down to a few thousand after 1986.

When to go

All year; the mist at sunrise is best in the cooler, wetter months. A day or overnight.

Good to know

The museum is modest and the tunnel section is short. The town is quiet with limited food and accommodation. Bukit Panorama means starting at four in the morning, and mist is not guaranteed.

Nearby

The Rainbow Waterfall trek starts here; Kuantan and the coast are east.

Key facts