Seeing Jan's photos of the dam at Lubuk Timah in Perak, I realised I hadn't posted the photos I took on a visit in February 2007.
My visit was to the hot springs, with some pupils and staff from the Penang International School. The springs are near Simpang Pulai, south of Ipoh, in Perak.
The springs are on the Sungai Anak Ayer China. The water is hot, and it is nice just to sit with ones feet in the specially constructed area.
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| peaceful river |
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| looking upriver |
Following the river upstream leads to a dam across the river. I thought this was Lubuk China from the name of the river, but Jan calls it Lubuk Timah. That makes sense from the history of the place.
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| more people go in |
I was interested in learning the history of this dam. I read that "in 1924, a dam for retaining tailings was erected on the Sungei Senju above Pulai, featuring 'a masonry arch sloping forward and 40 feet high'. This was claimed as the first dam of its kind in the country". This is obviously this dam, as the river is marked on the topo map as flowing through the Sinju reserve. And apparently the nearby quarry workers used the dam for recreation.
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| looking downriver |
On our visit, we all enjoyed a swim in the pools at the bottom of the dam and reservoir. However there is now a warning sign in place, shown in Jan's album.
No reproduction without permission
Thanks for the info. Would you consider this old dam as heritage material? Was told that it was one of the dams which supplied water supply to Ipoh. Do you know about it? Is that true? Was it used exclusively for tin mining?
ReplyDeleteI would consider it as heritage. However I don't know the dam's history apart from what I wrote above. I would guess the river is too small for the dam to be used to supply water to Ipoh, in my view it was more likely to have been used to retain tailings.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you can find out more........ as you may have more access to Ipoh area history.