Sungai Congkak

We love rivers...especially those small ones with clear running water, those that you can see fish swimming by .... even better when there's a waterfall.... cool breeze, the sound of water, the kids laughter to the enjoyment.... sometimes, it's so sad to see our rivers polluted.... as if people don't really care, as if the river can treat itself, as if the river is gonna be there forever ... we have seen that rivers can disappear and never to return!!

River is very sentimental to me....I grew up enjoying what rivers could offer, I grew up watching how rivers deteriorated and disappeared.... so easy to destroy it and so hard to protect it. Who's responsibility is it to protect a river? Is it worth protecting anyway? Dead or polluted river means less clean water and less clean water means more trouble...

But where can you find river in Klang valley? Not the artificial ones (like Sunway Lagoon, Wet World or Desa Waterpark) ... I mean the original river. One of our favourites is Sungai Congkak in Hulu Langat.... there's a few rivers on that part of the world...but Sg Congkak to me is the best, not so big, reasonably clean water, combination of rocks, sand and roots, nice surroundings, long flat river basin..perfect for a short (or even over night) family outing.

Normally, we would take the route uphill from Ampang to Bt 14 Hulu Langat, then onwards to Sg Congkak...towards Pangsun. You'll pass by Malay kampungs...nice sweet corn and lots of fruit trees. You'll also pass by a small hot spring which flows into a river. Many KL people do cycling on weekends in this area.

We would normally go with a few families...the more the merrier, bring some food and a small stove...kids love it when cooking is done by the riverside, choose the best spot...shady area, not too dangerous in terms of the terrain..then let the picinic begins!!!

It is our practise not to leave rubbish at our picnic spot... and we even clean up areas around our spot, say 10m around us.... you'd normally find plastics, polystyrene, paper packaging material, cans... but the worst is plastic, non biodegradable and they look ugly..sometimes in red, sometimes in yellow...

There is no doubt that rivers are very important to us human being... Allah always mention of rivers in heaven in the Al-Quran. So it is our responsibility to protect rivers..for us and for our future generations.