Templer's Park revisited

Two and a-half decades later...
The guys from Malaysia Knife Forums had organised a day hike to Templer's Park in Hulu Kanching, Selangor.
I snapped this opportunity to visit one of my favourite haunts back in the days.
Two and a-half decades ago, my Scout troop used to organize competition and training camps in the Park.
We actually hiked about 2km into the trail to set up camp and stayed there for nearly a week.

HW Wong hiking along the trail..

The MKF gang, mid-way through the hike

The middle ages..
Now, fast-forward to the present - the only contact I had was the Scouts training camp at the outskirts of Templer's Park.
Today, there is a paved trail to the park's gate.
The path has been widened with plenty of public amenities built for the convenience of the park's visitors.
Back in the day, there is a caretaker that charges RM1 per entry.
They are not there anymore as the park is managed by the state.
Trip leader Ah Keong and a few other guys from the Malaysia Knife Forum including its President Mr HW Wong was punctual.
Only one guy who signed up didn't check-in because he ended up in Banting.. (Don't ask me why..).
We began to hike up the trail and moved slowly towards the waterfall area.
Along the way, I found plenty of thrash that was left behind by some irresponsible people..

Wild mushrooms

At an old spot: the waterfall

With the MKF gang

Hi, ho, hi, ho, hi, ho...
We reached a rest area near the waterfall.
Now this is the place where I had plenty of fond memories.
Its still good for photography.
Some of the guys stayed behind while Ah Keong, Walther, Wong and I went out to check the second-tier of the falls.
We hiked up for about 20 minutes and reached a pool area.
The path was blocked by fallen branches.
Wong decided not to push on because he didn't want to get his shoes wet.
We were the only guys who had our full gear strapped to our back.
For me, it was an opportunity to hike in the jungle and use my trusty Kifaru Scout pack.
Later, we headed down to the campsite and while the guys ate their packed lunch, I decided to work on my slow-shutter shots on my G1X compact digital camera.


Good memories!
Templer's Park still has what it takes for a day hike and macro outing.
But for camping, I think its in dire need of a clean-up.
Re-visiting the campgrounds gave me plenty of good memories about the park.
We hung around the area till noon and hiked out.
Ah Keong, Walther and Marcus, the guy who ended up in Banting had followed me to a makan place near Rawang where we had some real good food.
Way I see it, the MKF guys had done a great job in organizing the outing.
Ah Keong, a part-time wilderness guide, kayakist and outfitter has plenty of potential in leading the forum members in activities as such. I hope he will keep up the good work!

Journey to Port Klang - Part 2

Joe slow..

I was hauling some 20kgs of gear on my left and right panniers.

This made things really slow.

Average speed was 11.4km/h as I was staggering due to weeks of inactivity, the rest began to pull away.

So, fast-forward to the South Port, we arrived at the rally point after nearly two hours.

For the record, we did good time and had arrived safely.

But the shocker was to see just half of the 30-odd cyclists at the Pulau Ketam jetty area...

Priorities

My job at Port Klang was to clear as many Photo Malaysia members as possible.

I spotted two guys who were waiting there and showed them the way to the ferry terminal.

A middle-aged guy who came without a bicycle was asking around. 

Roger, Chew and Wilson was okay with waiting as I directed the rest of the flock towards the jetty.

Later, I went down to the pontoon to clear with SK Yeong, the ride organizer.

Just as I was about to leave the platform, one of the cyclists shouted out: "Oi! Samuel, help load the lady's bike onto the boat!".

My knee-jerk reaction was: "What the fuck?"

One of the lady who overshot to the North Port was alighting onto the boat.

I didn't want to create a scene and helped her to load her bike, then - one-by-one, the lady riders started to board.

They were the first batch who overshot towards the North port terminal.

Team Char Koay Teow reprised: Samo, Chew & Roger

Loading the bikes onto the ferry..

I was really annoyed at the ape on a bike who was showing off his prowess to the ladies by shouting orders. Rather than exploding into a fit of rage, I kept my composure. 

But my concerned wasn't the cyclists at all, it was more focused on the Photo Malaysia members as few of them had showed up.

Yeong too was concerned as a couple of people had showed up late.

The last person I cleared at the jetty was a young man. He was rather blur and after prompting a response, I quickly showed him to the jetty where the crowd was already waiting. He was the last Photo Malaysia participant who boarded the ferry. All was well.

An unforseen situation...

Wilson and I rode towards Port Klang town. 

Our next mission, was to score an early lunch at a Char Koay Teow stall.
Then, Roger blared his air horn.

It was a distress call...

 Roger showing off a 3mm piece of wire pulled out from his bike's rear tire

We circled back and found out that Roger's Tern Joe D24 had experienced a puncture on its rear tire.

Cycling along the debris-strewn route had taken its toll on one of our team mates.

Chew, who is one of the more experienced cyclist, went to work on removing the skewer on the wheel. 

I removed my saddle bag to get my tire levers and started working on the Schwalbe Big Apple.

We found a wire measuring about 3mm embedded on the tire wall. This was the cause of the damage.

After an inner tube change, the bike was back in action.

From Port Klang, we rode towards a hawker centre, about 1km away.

There, I treated the team to the town's Char Koay Teow.

We chat a bit before hitting the road.

Our destination was the Federal Highway motorcycle lane near Taman Berkeley.

Fixing the problem...

Near the outskirts of Klang town

Chatting with an old-timer in Klang...

The journey back

We needed to get to the Federal Highway motorcycle lane near Sungai Rasau.

The heat from the mid-day sun was getting to us.

As we slowly progressed, I did a mental map of Shah Alam.
The undulating terrain was something that I didn't expect. But, this was similar to a section in the KESAS highway.

Slowly, we crunched our gears, working it out to clear at least 21km from Klang towards the Subang Jaya exit on the motorcycle lane.

While we were cycling on a long climb, the hot weather was slowly taking a toll on my strength.

We took a break at a Petronas station before pushing off to the Shah Alam toll near Batu Tiga, which was situated on a plateau on a series of hilly rolls.

The final push: Shah Alam toll

Tea break at SS13 A&W restaurant

We did good time by clearing the Federal Highway and rode towards Subang Jaya.

At SS14, the traffic jam was building up.

Cars were hogging the road as we slowly manouvered our bicycles towards Persiaran Kewajipan and after clearing the roundabout, we made our way to A&W restaurant and Wilson had treated us to a round of Root Beer!

We continued conversing and decided to call it a day after completing the ride.

As far as my obligation is concerned, I delivered what was promised to the Photo Malaysia guys.

We decided to offer our space to the cyclists as stated earlier and I was glad that Roger, Chew and Wilson were there to provide the awesome company.

Hopefully, we will set out on a ride again. 

Journey to Port Klang - Part 1

An obligation..
A month ago, I committed myself to coordinating a ride between the Photo Malaysia Forums people and the Lima Bintang Cycling group's Leisure riders.
The event was a ride from Jalan PJS9 in Bandar Sunway to Port Klang - Pulau Ketam.
Response was good over at the photographic forum, but as the time nears, the numbers began to dwindle.
So, having seen that, I kept the participants informed about the programme and constantly reminded them to prepare themselves for the journey and not to be late on the day the chartered vessel departs from the jetty...


An early day
I serviced my Dahon Speed P9 a couple of days earlier to ensure that it was in shape for the ride.
Since I was also preparing to train up for a bikecamping trip, I cycled to Bandar Sunway on a full load.
When I reached the rendezvous point, I was greeted by Jimmy Chow, a regular cycling kaki whom I met back in the PIPR events two years earlier.
By 7am, the cyclists began to trickle in and the numbers swelled to 30 people an hour later..

The twin Sigmas working its magic

Jimmy (right) with event organizer Yeong (left, standing)

As the group started to form, I was amazed by the sheer number of people who turned up.
Along with me was Roger and Chew from the Malaysian Foldies Forum.
I made a last-minute announcement about providing escort from Bandar Sunway to Port Klang and these guys: the A-team, answered the call.
New to the gang was Wilson, who just purchased a Raleigh Ugo folding bike three weeks ago.
The only person from Photo Malaysia other than Wilson who turned up was Mr Oon, an elderly gentleman who rode in with his Surly Long Haul Trucker. Other than that, no one had showed up.
While the crowd was waiting for a briefing, an old Malay guy came walking by and started to show his displeasure.
The cyclists had ignored this taxi driver and went on with their business.
We left Bandar Sunway half an hour late and the route was something I did not agree with - KESAS Highway to the South port.

The ride begins

Break near the Bandar Botanic exit

The team
We had Johnny Ng from My Bicycle shop riding with us.
By far, he is one of the most experienced long distance rider in the lot.
Roger was a novice, while Chew, who is new on a foldie, is quite an experienced mountain biker. Wilson, the youngest of the lot was cycling in the middle-distance trip for the first time.
Our journey took us from Bandar Sunway to the KESAS Highway motorcycle lane.
When we got there, another group from GW Cycles in Kota Kemuning had waved at us. 
Then, it began to pour.
As we continue with the journey, another group were resting near the Hicom layby.
There I met an old kaki: Fernando who rode his 2009 Speed P8.
He was with a group of cyclists and as we were nearing the Kota Kemuning toll area, we parted ways.
By the time we reached the rally point at the Bandar Botanic exit, the group was already split up with our team as the tail-enders.
There were some confusion as we were told that another group had turned off to Bandar Botanic.
We stayed behind to alert the sweeper to inform him about this and carried on to Port Klang...

At a flyover near the South port..

Clear and present danger
The last section of the ride was a hairy situation.
We rode into merging traffic and as we were making our way to the Teluk Gong area, speeding trucks with their trailers really stirred up a scare.
I knew that for a fact, there were many road accidents in the area involving motorcyclist and told my team mates to be extra vigilant.
After crossing the 'Death Zone', we finally made it to the edge of Port Klang and clocked-in nearly two hours on the road..

Rolling into the South Port

The waiting cyclists..