Ipoh - Lenggong Ride: Part 3

Food for thought: Large dumplings...

The high road to Lenggong..

I had a couple of hours of good sleep.
At 05:00am, the alarm rang.
Half an hour later, my panniers were packed and the bike was ready to roll.
We made plans to meet at the Inn's entrance and roll out from there. 
The fear was this: we won't be able to find food.
But this was unfounded as there was a coffee shop down the road towards the Grik junction, which is roughly about 3km away.
We found the place and had a simple meal there. 
After a good fill, we rolled out towards an intersection with the signboard "Grik" written on it.
That was our destination.
The cool morning made it perfect for us to slowly ascent up the road towards Tasik Raban.
This is where we staged the ride to have more food!

Riding out to the coffee shop

Into the clouds: The road to Grik

Prior to the ride, we were told about the awful climb towards Lenggong.
But I guess after riding for two hours, the claims were not true.
We were looking at gradients between 2 - 5% throughout the route.
The 'real' horror lies ahead after Grik.
It was just wonderful to ride above the clouds and we did pretty well by reaching a rest area in Tasik Raban before 10:00am.
There, we stopped for a drink and a plate of nasi lemak..

Roger, rolling down a slope

Taking on a gradual climb

Tasik Raban

The Mongol and his steel Mule..

I had the smallest bike in the team.
My combined weight with the luggage is way above 100kgs.
Even with the full load, I was able to clear the hills.
This is an average climb of 120meters with 1,039 in elevation gain.
The Dahon Speed P8 held up very well.
I don't know about what lies ahead after Grik, because I haven't been there, but as far as Ipoh - Kuala Kangsar and as far as Lenggong is concerned, the Speed P8 did its job.
Its like a Mule and although I averaged at 13km/h throughout the ride, I got to where I intended to.

I am very happy with my faithful 2009 Dahon Speed P8

Meeting the Perak Man

After a break at Tasik Raban, we rode to Lata Kekabu, a recreational waterfall nearby.
The junction to the Lenggong archaeological museum was in the distance.
It didn't take long for us to reach the site which is 2km away from the junction.
We were surprised to see such a big complex in the middle of nowhere.
Entrance to this facility is free and there were scores of tourists there.
What was displayed, was a replica of the cave where the Perak man was excavated.
Its as good as it get and I must say that a  lot of effort was put to display the findings.
The Perak man was found in a cave buried with some game meat, seashells and ancient artifacts.

At the museum

A replica of the Perak man's burial site

Forward to Lenggong

We spent some time at the museum to appreciate Perak's heritage.
After we were done, we rolled out towards Lenggong.
It wasn't far as we slowly ascended the sloped road towards this town.
I don't know much about Lenggong, just stories shared by travelers.
But one thing I can say is this: Its a hilly town! 

There at last!: A the town's marker

Checking-in at the rest house

We have a night to spend in Lenggong before pushing straight to Ipoh to board the ETS back to KL Sentral.
Since we arrived early, Roger had time to change the rooming arrangements.
Individual rooms costs RM20 more than the published rates on the internet.
One of the staff at the Lenggong rest house said the charges were not updated.
We settled for a large room with three beds at RM120. Split three-ways, its RM40 a night, which was ideal for our budget.
Before we settled-in, we went down to town in search of some good makan...

Ipoh - Lenggong Ride: Part 2

The weather can be your friend or your worst enemy...

We began to move out from Ipoh after lunch.
I saw a cloud formation over the horizon and wasn't really pleased with the fact that the low-pressure was building up.
While on the road, we focused on reaching Sungai Siput, which was the next town to Kuala Kangsar.
To get there, we rode through Tambun, Tanjung Rambutan and Chemor.
As the heat started to sink in, we endured the winding road and started working on crunching our gears to progress on the gradual climb.
The journey from Ipoh to Tambun was a walk in the park. But as we gradually progressed towards from Chemor to Tanjung Rambutan, to road began to show its ugly face..

A cave temple in Tambun

We are absolutely nuts about this place..

The Mongol and his iron Mule..

At Chemor, we took a break at a coffee shop and discussed about the route to Sungai Siput.
This is the town where a dual-carriageway was built linking Ipoh to Sungai Siput via Jelapang.
The traffic was heavy as its also a popular trucking route.
We were careful not to stray too far into the busy lane and the road shoulder was wide enough for a car to squeeze through.
We began to feel the undulating terrain in the area.
Just beyond the horizon, Sungai Siput was in sight.
For the record, I have never been to this town. I've heard so much about it, but our mission was just to pass through.

Dark clouds looms ahead..

The virtue of patience...

We passed through Sungai Siput town and made a stop at a Chinese herbal drink stall.
While quenching our thirst, I told Roger that we might not be able to cheat pass the road ahead.
So far, we have been lucky in a sense that it rained before we arrived at the earlier towns.
This time, we were tested on our patience..

Refilling our water bottles in Sungai Siput

Seeking refuge at an abandoned driving test area

All we had, is time...

At this time of the year, its monsoon season.
Rain is predicted throughout the month and we were prepared to ride even if it pours.
While climbing a serious of hills away from Sungai Siput, it started to pour.
I gave chase to Pat who was ahead and managed to flag him down.
There was an abandoned shelter just 200 metres back from where he stopped.
Roger cycled slow and was way behind.
We back-tracked and linked up with Roger and told him follow us the shelter. 
At the entrance, there was a huge monitor lizard feasting on the carcass of a dog.
We ignored the reptile and sought refuge at the shelter while waiting for the rain to die down.
The goal was to reach Kuala Kangsar before nightfall.
While we were dry and away from being drenched. I took time to mount my Ay-Up lights on the Minoura Space Bar on my Dahon Speed P8's handlebar.

Soaked to the bone and soggy shoes..

After sitting it out for nearly two hours, I urged the team to push ahead. 
Kuala Kangsar is about 18km away.
With the rain cooling down our body, climbing the series of hills was not an issue.
Slowly, we progressed to the Kuala Sayong junction and saw the first bridge leading to Kuala Kangsar town.
From this point, we still had to ride a distance before reaching our hotel which was located at the fringe of town.
By 6:30pm, we arrived. 
Roger did the needful by checking us in and paying for the rooms. This accommodation facility called 'Ku-Inn' was not bad.
Its clean and has the basic amenities for travelers and was also bicycle-friendly.
After dumping our panniers in the room, we set out to town.
I had an emergency banking chore to attend and while we were cruising around, Pat asked about the makan places and was disappointed to find out that there were few Chinese restaurants in town.
So, we settled for a makan place at the end of Jalan Dato Sagor.
The fare was not bad.. 

Good food is important for the group's morale..

Steamed Giant Featherback's belly

Most of the Chinese restaurants in the area were closed.
We settled for one which was packed to the brim and ordered a set of simple dishes.
While we were at it, we discussed about the ride and braced ourselves for the daunting task of hauling our bikes and gear to the Kuala Kangsar - Grik road.
This is the most challenging ride as far as touring in Perak was concerned..

My little room in Kuala Kangsar

We set our departure time at 06:30am the next day.
This is so that we could take full advantage of the cool morning climate and tackle a series of long and gradual climb towards Tasik Raban where we have planned it as our first stop...

Sungkai Bikepacking Adventure - Part 2

Rise and shine!
I've had no trouble catching some sleep.
On a hard concrete floor, the Thermarest scout sleeping mat that I brought along had served me well.
The campsite, it seems, was on a valley and the entire night was quite windy. Lucky for us, it didn't rain.
As for me, the first order of the day, was to clean up and get organised. We needed to pack our panniers.
Well, we brought some food supply and fuel that was not used at all, so, there is no reduction in weight.
From the campsite, there is a series of hills and long climbs to go through before we hit Slim River.
I said goodbye to the Malaysia Knife Forums people and thanked them for their hospitality before riding off to a stall near Sungai Klah village for breakfast.

Morning at the campsite

 Murphy's Law Part 2
I tumbled onto the riverbank near the campsite the night before.
Part of the embankment collapsed when I stood too near to the side.
As a result, I sprained my left ankle.
Never had any luck with the left-side! 
The real challenge here - is to cycle another 70km to Tanjung Malim.
This is the only place where we could jump onto a train and head back to Kuala Lumpur.
So, there I was, in pain and limping. 
We rode off towards Sungkai without much hassle and the place that we had our sights set was Slim River. 
Roger had to go back to the train station to claim his tent..

Parting shot: Leaving the campsite for Sungkai

No pain, no gain..
We rode out to Sungkai without much issues.
Roger had a couple of chain-slips while I struggle to keep the injured ankle working.
There's much to cover from Sungkai to Slim River and towards Tanjung Malim.
If we were to follow the train schedule, we will never make it back to Kuala Lumpur before dark.
The plan is to catch either a KTM ETS or the hourly Komuter service to KL Sentral.
Slim River is roughly over an hour from our location, so, we kept our average speed at 15km/h.
With load, that's the best we could do.
Lucky for me, Roger is a good cycling buddy. He's never in a rush to do anything. Just went with the flow.

At a political party's branch in Trolak

Relic: A petrol pump outside a sundry shop

A town lost in time..
Trolak. I've heard about this place, but have never been there.
Basically, its just a dot on the map.
This time round, we made a detour to Trolak and found out that its a dead town.
The North-South highway literally 'killed' this small place which is home to a couple of hundred of people
We took some photos to remind us of our visit and carried on..
Before noon, we reached the Slim River train station.
Roger was happy that his tent was returned back to him by the station master.
There, we met an elderly gentleman with a young boy.
He was just hanging out at the platform as Roger struck a conversation with him.
"Where are you guys from?," asked the curious stranger.
Since Roger is a friendly dude, he did most of the talking.
We learned from the man that Tanjung Malim is 20miles (33km) away from Slim River and many cyclists prefer to use the 'old road'.
I promised Roger a 'coffee break' and kind of pushed things a bit too far.
We rode past Slim Village, a small settler's area and did our water refill.
Just further down the road was the Slim Village town: a row of pre-war shops across a bridge.
That's where we decided to stop and have an ice-cold glass of coffee before pushing off to Tanjung Malim.
A couple of elderly men were having their late morning tea there.
One of them struck a conversation and told us about the natural attractions in the area.
After the refreshment, we cycled towards Ulu Behrang, which is about 10km away.

Chilling out at a coffee shop in Slim Village, Perak

 The Sun was out in its full glory.
We pushed as far as we could and the heat had really punished us.
After Slim Village, there was Ulu Behrang.
This is very near to the Proton City in Tanjung Malim and we were literally on a home-run.
The last eight kilometre was a real drag.
Tanjung Malim, as it seems, is just paved with an undulating terrain.
We were crunching our gears to reach the train station and before that, lunch was on my mind.
There are a few good makan places around Tanjung Malim, but the one place that I wanted to check out was a restaurant offering river fish and a couple of house dishes.

Our link to home: Tanjung Malim

A simple lunch

At the restaurant, we spent about 45-minutes eating while keeping watch on our bikes which was parked at the entrance of this makan place.
And as usual, some patrons would struck a conversation, asking about where we came from and where we were going.
Roger was nice enough to do the Public Relations while I took some rest and my much-needed lunch break.
We boarded the KTM Komuter to KL Sentral (I paid RM8 to get all the way to Subang Jaya) at 3:45pm and it would take another two hours to get there.
Roger and I switched train in Rawang and proceeded towards Kuala Lumpur..

The train station in Kuala Lumpur

We re-capped about the journey and was glad that no untowardly incident took place.
It was all smooth as we parted ways. 
Roger got off at KL Sentral while I switched to the Port Klang line at the old KL Railway station.
The ride was okay for me as the train was not packed like a can of sardines.
The moment I got off at Subang Jaya, I noticed that my airhorn had came off and it was stuck between the rear wheel.
Took me a while to figure it out on how to solve the problem before I got on my way back to USJ26.
I for one, am glad to be able to complete the ride and clocked-in a total distance of 129km.
This is by far, my most memorable outing with the Malaysia Knife Forums. And well, hopefully, I would be able to do the same the following year.

Sungkai Bikepacking Adventure - Part 1

A last-minute outing..
I had a weekend to burn.
And nearly half the day was used to send my wife's luggage to the airport.
She came back from India and had a flight to catch to Brunei.
Co-incidentally, there was two rides over the weekend and a camping trip in Sungkai, Perak, organized by the Malaysia Knife Forums.
I've attended their camp-outs and really loved the idea of cycling into the campsite.
As a matter of fact, at their first outing in 2010, I actually drove there with my bike.

At the Federal Highway motorcycle lane

The plan
I put up a post on the Malaysian Foldies forum as well as their Facebook page.
No takers.
The only reliable bikepacking buddy I had was Roger Teoh. 
This man can rough it out and is in no hurry to get anywhere, which makes him the perfect bikepacking partner.
My plan was to meet him at KL Sentral, board an intercity train or ETS to Sungkai in Perak and continue another 15km to the campsite. 
Sungai Klah, as it seems, is paved with hills from 2 - 9% in gradient. 
And when you are fully loaded, the challenge is to ride all the way without any breakdown.

Waiting to board the ETS at KL Sentral

Murphy's Law
Some things don't necessarily work out the way you plan it.
In this case, I rode out all the way to the Asia Jaya LRT station. Time spent on the road was nearly an hour.
Riding with another 20kgs of load in the rear means more drag and a 'back heavy' feeling. The ride took about an hour and as mentioned earlier, I made the rendezvous with Roger at the McDonalds at 12:45pm.
On a Saturday, the KL Sentral looks like a Zoo.
There were no more train tickets to Sungkai. What was left was a ride to Slim River, one stop away from our intended destination. 
Ticket for this ride costs RM26 one-way.
On the ETS, I don't have to worry about luggage space (always get the seat right in front, which is also the nearest to the door).
We took the 2pm train which is scheduled to arrive in Slim River at 4pm. 
From there, we have two more hours to cover the distance from the train station to Sungkai and make a turn towards Sungai Klah.

Arrival at Slim River

My ride, with the Ortlieb Backroller and Trunkbag

 A station too far..
There is no reason for me to go to Slim River.
Except when we had to get out of the train and begin our ride from this town.
In a nutshell, this is a dying town. 
There's not much activity here except for people getting in and out of the train and making a trip down to the Klang Valley using the town's bus service.
From Slim River, the next town is Trolak.
Sungkai is roughly about 25km away via the KL-Ipoh trunk road.
With a gloomy sky that loomed ahead, we tried to move as fast as we can.
Roger and I had a meal at a hawker stall before proceeding towards Trolak.
From there, there is a series of undulating terrain (between 3 - 7% grade) to cover before the Sungai Klah junction.
We slowly rode out towards our destination and took about one and a-half hours to reach the turning towards the Felda Sg Klah resort.

Slim River train station

The KL-Ipoh trunk road

Sungai Klah junction

Not for beginners..
The KL-Ipoh trunk road is a normal route for touring bicyclists to access Cameron Highlands and other cities up North.
You either suck it all up and ride, or whine all the way.
My choice is door number one, endure and take it as it is.
I know that some cyclists would complain about the dangers of cycling on a busy road. But hey, you always have a choice: cycle or stay at home and whine.
As for me, the route was really smooth. We had no issues cycling all the way from Slim River to Sungkai.
As a matter of fact, I get to see many things I won't when I am driving.
While maintaining a average speed of 15km/h, we observed the traffic which is constantly busy.
Even on a trunk road, people drive fast.
The road was wide enough for bicycles to move without taking too much space on the motorists' path.

The ride towards campsite

From the junction, there's another 15km to cover.
We took the undulating terrain with ease and slowly covered the distance.
For on the horizon was the Sungai Klah homestay.
This hilly village is the last checkpoint before reaching campsite.
We continued towards the Felda Sg Klah residence which is about 1km away from campsite.

Arrival at campsite

MKF hospitality: One of the old hands offering me a cold can of beer

Calling it a day..
We reached campsite before dark.
With the bikes parked, I introduced Roger to the Malaysia Knife Forums members and their organizing committee.
Dinner was served, we had a few beers, exchanged in conversation and called it a night before the long ride to Tanjung Malim to catch our train.

Basic Folding Bicycle Touring Workshop

Leading the newcomers
After concluding the basic bicycle recovery workshop a couple of months ago, I floated the idea of conducting a basic folding bicycle touring workshop for beginners to Ed Foo of atmosphere outfitters.
He jumped at the opportunity and I got to work right away.
The first thing I did, was to inform Ruey Chan of Le Run Industries. 
Chan represents Dahon Bikes for Malaysia and had agreed to support the workshop by bringing some Dahon schwag and two sample bikes.
Ed, on the other hand, supplied drinks and light snacks.
He also convinced the building maintenance people from Subang Avenue to provide tables and chairs for the event.

Networking with the foldies
We had the Malaysian Foldie Forums which serves as an important domain for inputting a knowledge base on folding bikes.
Sadly, none of the dealers and distributors were interested in using it.
Its free anyway.
I can see the same people who are active on the forums as well as Malaysian Foldies' Facebook page participating in the programme.
The aim is to educate newcomers on the aspect of bicycle touring.
I had to make it very simple so that even those without any background on bicycle knowledge would understand the brief presentation.
 

Setting up the venue for the workshop

My regular cycling kaki Toh and television host Chris Ng

 Keeping things simple
I don't really know the level of expectation among the attendees for the workshop, so, with the assumption that most of them are new to long distance rides and being a cycling tourist, I have designed the presentation with a series of simple to understand point-form slides on the Microsoft Powerpoint software.
It took me about an hour to complete the presentation which is kept to its bare minimal. No jargons, fancy-schmancy technicalities. Just plain English and I have about 30-minutes to execute the job.

Giving introduction to the crowd at the beginning of the workshop

Making my presentation

Crowd reaction
Right from the beginning, I told Ed that I had expected no more than 30 people at the event.
And true to my anticipation, there were more than 20 people who came to listen to my talk.
I paced myself to 1 minute per slide and maintained eye-contact with the crowd.
Most of them were paying close attention to what I had to say and I managed to maintain their attention span throughout.
There was brief question and answer session at the end of the talk and I am glad that the attendees were quite cooperative.
Ed Foo took the floor after my presentation and Ruey Chan had his shot by introducing the crowd to Dahon's products.

Ed Foo explaining his products to the crowd

Posing for BaikBike.com

Summary
Both Ed and I were pleased with the crowd turnout at the workshop.
This was Malaysian Foldies' second outing and we hope to conduct more of such events in the future.
I think what's in store is a practical touring workshop for advanced cyclist and I just know where to plan the route and conduct the event.
After wrapping-up, I rode back to USJ26 with my Dahon Speed P8 and took a lunch break in USJ7 with my fellow folding bike cyclists.

Late lunch with the gang...

 

Ko Samui - Part 4

Scaled-down ride
It's our last day in Ko Samui, so, we've decided to take things a little bit easy.
The plan was to ride out for a shopping trip to Tesco Lotus on the outskirts of Chaweng.
This, I recalled, was a short distance ride and since we had cycled for more than 100km, the plan was to do it easy before we pack up our bikes.

An oversight
I made two major mistakes on this trip.
First, was that I had underestimated the weight of the bikes. We paid for the excess baggage.
Second thing was that I had booked the hotel only for three nights instead of four.
This, was sorted out after a visit to the reception counter. I paid for one more night in Ko Samui. 
Lucky for us, they still have the room. 
At the same time, I booked for our ride back to the airport. It costs 350baht (RM34.50) for two passengers.

Chiangmai curry noodles breakfast

Locking up the bikes at Tesco Lotus in Chaweng

We found this signboard amusing.. 

The greater Chaweng

I scouted for some Thai instant gravy for cooking. 
Nothing great at Tesco Lotus. As a matter of fact, its pricier than what I found at Saver-Mart in Chaweng street. 
I was looking for the Mae Pranom brand gravy for the Masaman Curry. These are sold at 13baht (RM1.28) a packet.
Later, we rode down to a shop selling Chiangmai styled Curry noodles. 
The fare was excellent and our late breakfast came up up 110baht.
Following that, we rode out to Ban Luck Fun which is situated at the Chaweng lake. 
This is a slightly bumpier route because its laterite road.
From there, we rode towards the First Bungalow at the edge of Chaweng beach and called it a day..

Ban Luck Fun

Fishermen's boat near First Bungalow

The awesome curry noodles

At the end of Chaweng beach

It's a wrap!
We did a 10km loop around Chaweng and saw some really interesting part of the beach area.
The best place to chill out was at a fisherman's wharf near First Bungalow.
Later, I dropped by at a restaurant near our hotel for a taste of Masaman Curry. It was interesting enough to convince me to get some instant gravy.
We packed our bikes after the ride and took a break before heading out for dinner.
That same night, we tried a grill and barbeque house in Chaweng.
But before that, we walked towards the edge of the beach near a cove.
There, we found an Adidas outlet and bought two sets of dry-fit Tee-shirts at discounted prices.
This was a good deal and we were very happy with the find.
After doing a little bit of shopping, we walked up to a restaurant and had our dinner there.
They had roast pig and other grill stuff.
I found this to be a con-job especially when it comes to 'eat all you can'. 
Customers are not allowed to share, but it was not made clear.
We had a round of beer, then sat through three sets of the main course and left the place. 
Dinner came up to 2,100baht (RM207). Right at this point, I have blown nearly three-quarters of my expenses.
Despite the crappy service and attitude, the holiday was worth my time.

Packing up the Dahon Speed TR in the Airporter

Masaman curry meal with steamed rice

Our dinner and last night in Ko Samui

Ordinary fare: the grilled set

 Homeward bound
After four nights in Ko Samui, its time to head back to Subang.
We felt a great sense of accomplishment having ridden round-island and tackling some scenic places on our two little wheels.
On the whole, the adventure was worth all the planning. There were some glitches, but that was easily sorted out. We didn't end up chewing each other's heads off as we worked very well as a bikepacking couple.
Michelle took care of the logistics like air travel while I settled mainly the accommodation and food.
We checked-in at the Ko Samui international airport and waited to board the Firefly flight back.
In just two hours, we touched down in Subang airport and our holiday was over. The next day, we drove up to Kampar in Perak for an offroad ride with our bikepacking kakis...

One for the road!

Checking-in at the departure area

Back in Subang and looking forward to the next adventure...