A few comments on the Caves of Kinta Valley article in IE212…
Thrangu Dharma Retreat Centre – this cave temple used to be known as Nam Loong Ngam and it has old wooden structures on the outside, see photo. These were all removed to construct the new centre. Now there is only one cave temple left in the Ipoh area that has similar wooden structures, Loong Tow Ngam at Gunung Lang.
Gua Tempurung chest-level river – it’s only chest-level when crawling in the river, not when standing in it!
Gua Kandu is located “half an hour from Gua Tempurung”. Half an hour by what, car or foot? The 2 caves are in adjacent hills.
There are actually more than 4 entrances – was on the team that surveyed the cave in 2001. Gua Kandu was definitely not formed 500 million years ago. The rock forming the hill is ‘only’ about 250 million years old and the cave is much younger, it would have been formed tens of millions of years later. In a previous issue of IE 210, the same reporters wrote Tempurung is 10,000 years old. Now they are saying Kandu is 500 million!
Sam Poh Tong is not a hill, it is a cave. The hill is Gua Rapat.
Liz Price
