The Beautiful Semenyih Dam

At the beginning of last semester just a couple of days after I arrived back in Malaysia, me and my friend took a drive down to the Semenyih Dam. It’s only about 15-20 minutes drive away from Semenyih town but strangely not many of my friends at UNMC seems to have been there. It’s a shame since the dam and the surrounding lake and hills are absolutely beautiful.

 

[gmap address=”Semenyih Dam”]

 

Semenyih Dam is one of the main sources of drinking water for the Klang Valley area. The dam contains a large lake surrounded by beautiful forested hills. It’s accessed by a winding, lightly trafficked, hilly road. Back in early 2014 there was a major drought in Malaysia which caused the water levels in the dams to drop and a prolonged water shortage for the affected area.

 

 

Yesterday I got this brilliant idea to go to the dam at night to capture the night sky. So me and 6 other friends headed out in a packed rented car shortly after dusk. Since it was a moonless night with relatively low cloud cover and because of the remote location of the dam, we were offered a fantastic view of the stars.

 

 

The light pollution wasn’t as low as I had hoped but still it was way better than what it’s like near Semenyih town. The Milkyway wasn’t visible either, probably since it wasn’t the right time of the year. Two of my friends had accidents with their phones too; one dropping his in the lake and the other dropping his on the ground and cracking the screen. At one point we even got caught in some thorny vines by the side of the road. Despite all this it was a fun experience and I got a couple of nice shots out of it.

 

 

Check out the photos from this trip and more on my Flickr