These 10 reasons are why you Temerloh should be your next holiday destination.

1) Get super close to elephants at the Kuala Gandah Elephant Conservation Centre

Best. Thing. Ever. This elephant conservation centre houses trained elephants that they also use to help translocate other wild elephants who were in danger. More information of what they do can be found here.

At the entrance, you’ll be asked to pay a fee of any amount to help contribute to maintaining this conservation centre. Remember to ask for a receipt or else they will embezzle your funds and split it among themselves. Eugene’s parents, who stay here, knew that this was going to happen and hence asked for a receipt. Their reply was that they’ll issue us a receipt “after we are done visiting the centre” which was already kinda weird because receipts are normally issued on the spot?? Hence when we were leaving, we went back but the receipt wasn’t issued yet. His mum then asked for it again and they issued it to her in like less than 2 minutes. I was just shocked by this because who knows how much money have they already embezzled.

Once you walk in, you’ll see baby elephants which you can feed. We bought 2 bunches of sugarcane to feed them but before that, his parents also bought peanuts from outside to feed them. The baby elephants weren’t scared of humans at all (more like I was scared of their trunks) and their trunks were just stretching outwards, waiting for us to feed them. They were so friendly and let you touch their trunks while you feed them, IT WAS SO ADORABLE.

To be fair, we then moved on to see the more adult-looking elephants which were minding their own business on the grass. When they saw us, they too stretched out their trunks, anticipating some food.

Eugene’s cousins also went to bathe with the elephants! It looked so fun but you’ll have to pay for a guide for this activity.

Address: Kuala Gandah, Lanchang, Pahang, 28500, Lanchang, Pahang, Malaysia
Opening Hours: Monday to Sunday 8am-4.45pm

2)  Eat the Durians here – they are THE BEST

The durians here are well-known for its freshness and is of a super high quality. Expect melt-in-the-mouth flesh, fragrant aromas, and really affordable prices. The durian season changes every year but normally hovers around June to July. Expect them to be sold along the roadsides at 1kg for RM5 or RM6 depending on which stall you settle for. Choose from Mu Sang King, D24, Red Prawn and many others. These stalls also tend to sell other types of fruits like Mangosteen to balance the heatiness and even Jackfruit.

3) Eat Local Breakfast at Ban Hin Coffee Shop

Temerloh is known for serving pale-shell, Soft Boiled Eggs which crack open to reveal an orangey-coloured yolk. For all the Singaporeans reading this, they do not serve dark soya sauce with their eggs but only normal light soya sauce. Honestly, I prefer dark soya sauce but the light one was a better alternative compared to no alternative.

Also, you have to try the Kaya Toast here. They cut it into skinny slices which makes it really easy to hold and eat. The kaya spread in between the 2 slices of crunchy bread here is the brown Hainanese kaya and is so fragrant.

Other dishes you can try is their Fried Beehoon and Curry Soup Noodles. Despite it being a little dry, I really liked the bee hoon for its flavours and was really cheap. There is also a stall in Ban Hin selling Nasi Lemak in the mornings which was really good too.

Address: 40, Jalan Tengku Bakar, Taman Kenangan, 28000 Temerloh, Pahang, Malaysia

4) Eat Zi Char & Seafood at ABC Restaurant

I only ate here twice so here are only a few things you should and should not order, I will list down below:
✓ Grilled Fish (Ikan Bakar) – 5/5: Super flaky, literally the smoothest and best fish I’ve ever eaten in my life and the spices rubbed on the fish was so unique. It reminded me a little of like an Indian rub as it was a little spicy (Heat: 1/5) but bearable because it was so good.
✓ Grilled Cockles – 4/5: Be careful of that 1/2 rotten pieces among the rest, but either than that, it is best eaten with chilli.
✓ Hotplate Tofu (Tie Ban Tofu) – 5/5: Nothing can go wrong with this dish. Served piping hot on a hotplate, the tofu slices are thinly cut instead of the round ones we get in Singapore.
✓ Claypot Lao Shu Fen (老鼠粉) – 4/5: I’m not a fan of noodles but the thick gravy was really fragrant. Have this along with some of the main dishes instead of ordering rice.
✓ Fried Chicken – 4/5: Pretty good fried chicken, kinda reminded me of Ikea’s fried chicken.
✓ ABC Dessert – 5/5: A really good way to end of a meal. It comes in a huge metal bowl to keep it cool and the portion is really generous.

☓ Sweet and Sour Pork: 1/5: The meat was burnt and had no flavour to it. The sweet and sour sauce couldn’t even save it.

Menu:

Address: Jalan Tengku Ismail, Kampung Batu Satu, 28000 Temerloh, Pahang, Malaysia
Opening Hours: Tuesday to Sunday 6pm-12am, Closed on Mondays

5) Eat Southeast Asian food at Asiana Signature by Row Six

Though the prices here are a little on the higher side, the quality, presentation and ambience here was good compared to the other coffee shops here. It is an air-conditioned shop, serving 5 different Southeast Asian cuisines – Malaysian, Indonesian, Singaporean, Thailand and Vietnamese.

The Cold Rice Noodle with Chicken Fillet was a pretty interesting dish. From Vietnam, drizzle the oil and spicy sauce over the dry noodles and stir together to make it nice and smooth. The chicken fillet was really tender but came with a spicy rub on them.

A dish from Indonesia, the Nasi Ketuk with Fried Chicken was the best among the rest. The batter was so crisp and flavourful, while the chicken remained moist inside. Served with blue pea rice, pickled papaya & onions, keropok, fried egg and a spicy sambal, this dish was so satisfying.

I was already missing home so I got the Sweet and Sour Chicken with Fried Rice, aSingaporean cuisine. Surprisingly, this dish was really yummy as the fried rice was so fragrant. It was kinda weird having sweet and sour chicken instead of pork at first but zero regrets on ordering this dish!

Address: 1a, Jalan Dagang 2, Kampung Bukit Angin, 28000 Temerloh, Pahang, Malaysia
Opening Hours: Monday to Thursday 11am-11pm, Friday to Sunday 10am-12am

6) Miss western food? Dominos, KFC, McDonald’s, Marybrown and Pizza Hut can be found here.

Yup, there are fast food chain restaurants up here in this town and they are sooo much cheaper than in Singapore. We had Dominos and McDonald’s once each and they are of the same quality. Just that Macs doesn’t have the same sauces in SG (no curry sauce).

7) Eat Japanese food at Take Zen 

If you’re looking for some Japanese food, this shop probably serves the cleanest and best quality of Japanese food compared to the others like Sushi King. It isn’t the nicest sushi place you’ll ever go to, but is the closest.

8) Shop for literally anything at Super Cowboy

They sell the cheapest and widest variety of stuff here. You honestly can find anything here like catering trays, huge green dustbins you see along the roads, snacks, sauces, appliances, mattresses, birthday or wedding decoration, chefs outfits, bags, phones and so many other things.

Address: Jalan Mentakab – Temerloh, Kampung Paya Kecil, 28000 Temerloh, Pahang, Malaysia
Opening Hours: Monday to Sunday 9.30am-11pm

9) Take Insta-worthy pictures at the Mentakab Railway Station

A super cool place to go to, the train station is actually still a functioning place but was so empty. The bridge was built across a river and we walked across the bridge just for fun.

Address: Taman Bendera, 28400 Mentakab, Pahang, Malaysia

10) Eat Local Delights at Restoran Sin Liang Kee

Didn’t take pictures, but they are known for their local noodle dishes like Wan Tan Hor  and Sheng Mee and also their Yong Tau Foo soup.

Address: 45, Jalan Bunga Tanjung, Taman Bendera, 28400 Mentakab, Pahang, Malaysia
Opening Hours: Monday to Sunday 7am-2pm