Port Dickson - Malacca Ride July 10, 2011 Part 3

Leaving Pengkalan Balak...

Celebrating with a chilled glass of beer after the ride.. 

Hill of pain: Sungai Udang Forest park

You don't need a bike with a wide-range of gears to go touring, an eight-speed ride would do..

So, there we were, struggling to get out of Tanjung Bidara. 
We rode past at least 10 resorts before finding ourselves at the far end of Kem Terendak.
I made a judgement call and wound up at the gate of Tanjung Bidara beach. 
It was a dead end.
Then I asked a soldier on how to get to Malacca town. 
He said we had to detour towards Masjid Tanah to get back on track.
So, this fishing sight-seeing thing had just added the mileage.
It was there that we learned about Malacca's terrain.
Much of inland area including parts of its coastal forest are hilly.
And this was a true test for the cyclist on how they tackle the terrain - fully loaded.
Its easy to climb with a road bike. Bigger wheels, lighter frame, if the rider is experienced, won't even break sweat.
But here, we have a small bike with at least 25kgs of load.
Lucky for us, the conditioning in Hulu Langat really helped.
An old timer said: "A bike is as good as its rider.. ". He's dead center with that. I don't see any reason why some people who hardly rides would give so much emphasis on having a bicycle with 30-speeds when all they do is cycle on a training roller at home.. Hahahah!
 We climbed hill after hill before reaching Sungai Udang.
When I thought all was lost, Michelle had spotted a stall. 
In the distance, I can see that it sells fruits and decided to pull over.
"Eh, abang ni ikut group besar tadi ke?" (are you with the big group?) asked the guy who mans the stall..
He thought we were part of a bigger group, but I told him we were not.. 
Michelle spotted some coconuts and asked if they were for sale. 
When the guy said they go for RM1 each, we had two and its the tastiest kelapa pandan drink we've had so far.
After a break, we worked our way towards Malacca town. 
With more hills to climb, we finally reached Tangga Batu and Klebang by mid-day.
We spotted a roadside stall selling Cendol and some local dishes and pulled over to help ourselves with a late lunch.
Malacca town, at this point, wasn't too far away.
All that is left, is a 10-km ride towards Jalan Laksamana Cheng Ho.
We've booked a night's stay at Hotel Seven, a budget accommodation choice which co-incidentally, is next to the Tangkak beef noodles shop.
For RM88 per night with free Wi-Fi, this hotel is clean and cosy. The only grouse we had was some retard who turned on the TV volume full blast all-night long.
Once in Malacca, we treated ourselves to some fruit juices from a shop near the hotel.
Then, we walked towards Jonker Street which is 15-minutes away and treated ourselves to a glass of chilled beer.
Since we need the night to recover from the ride, we slept early for the return ride back to Port Dickson, which looms over a few hours away..