A long stretch of the North-South highway , on the way home to my beautiful island of Penang, from KL,  is Perak. Perak is one of the 13 states of Malaysia, and being the fourth largest state in the country ,  ironically, not much is shouted out about this green span of lush.

Perak to me is “Royal County” there is an air of mystery and strong traditions. Maybe because there is just so much jungle, hills and caves to discover. There is so much of Perak.

We drove up from KL in an old car, cautiously stopping every 2 hours as not to stress her and going at 80 km per hour it gets rather boring. We thought it was a brilliant idea to stop for night in Tambun.

Tambun was made famous by Sunway’s “Lost City of Tambun”  , hordes of people with very loud energetic kids come here for the theme park. Surrounding the theme park all belongs to Sunway, the developer. They put alot of effort into lanscaping the area, using nature to enhance the environment. We wanted peace and quiet, and heard about XCamp through a friend.  Luckily when we called they had 1 villa left while there others were occupied for maintenance.

Directions over the phone was easy, Amir, the Manager , told us to head to Lost City of Tambun , continue on to round about , turn left into a gated community and drive on until you see the “X Camp” gates on your right.

XCamp’s gates

The Green Driveway

Already we were impressed with mother nature’s magic show driving through the gated community , but we were honestly in awe of the premise at Amir’s place. Sandwiched between cliffs and natural streams,  this peice of property was a godsend after hours of chugging along on the highway in an old beat up Kancil (it was my baby sister’s car at University)

The grounds at X Camp

Playground for Grownups

The lady caretaker greeted us on the drive way and showed us to the villa at the back of the camp. I loved all the honest space , with 2 queen sized beds, the big toilet, seperating the loo from the shower and ample space for all your suitcases and to hang your clothes. We get a towel each, a coffee/tea table, airconed and a flat screen tv with local channels mounted on the wall. I felt the tv wasnt going to be much use to us , as all we wanted to do was go back out and explore the grounds, especially when we had the whole camp to ourselves!

To find out more on X Camp Ipoh contact Amir the Manager  @ +6019 379 3961.  Drop him a WhatsApp, if you can’t get through it’s because he’s probably flying his motorbike off a huge rock, in some cave fighting off rabid bats, or climbing the Everest. He is really good at replying messages.