West Malaysia loop ride

Spending the night in a luxurious hotel can make for a good rest. And while the Lee Guesthouse was not luxurious by a mile, I had one of the best rests in the entire trip last night. I chalk that to the easy, homely and comfortable feeling that I get with this quaint little guest house.

We have a long ride ahead of us today and everyone got up early in hope that we can avoid the rush hour. The sun was just peeking out as we began packing our bikes!

We were all in a good mood knowing that we are making our second major direction change…SOUTH! Do not get me wrong here. It is really nice to wake up every morning knowing that there is nothing to do except get on the bike and explore new places…but being on the road for a few days in a row can be rough…and I can fully understand why heading in the same direction of home can put a smile on the gang’s faces.

Our ride would take us back to Jeli, then it is time to head down Route 66 towards Dabong, followed by Route D29 to Gua Musang, and finally Route 8 (and 10) to Temerloh. That is the plan…

My very good friend Murphy visited us a few times already in this trip. He was with us on our first day when the gang got separated, he visited us again on the second day when Chris’ mirror fell off. He must like us a lot because he visited us yet again on our third day when Alex dropped his bike near Balik Pulau. I realized he was strangely absent yesterday…and perhaps that was his way of giving us a break because early this morning he showed up again just as we were about to set out.

For some unknown reason, my headlight did not come on this morning. I tried the high beam switch…nothing. I tried restarting Anker…nothing. So out came my tools so I could check the bulb…guess what…the bulb was fine. Tried re-seating the socket…nothing. Changed the bulb just in case my eyes were playing tricks on me…nothing. At this point, I decided to try the “Pass” switch (you know, the one you use when you want to flash your high beam at someone momentarily)…and it came on! Wow! At least one thing worked.

We were delayed by more than half an hour by this time and I decided that we should push off just so that we had a chance to get to Temerloh before night fall in the hope that I did not need my lights. So we put everything back in place and headed off. Strangely enough…my headlights worked for this stretch…hmmm…

We rode south for about 40km before turning into Machang to look for breakfast. I chanced upon this place just beside the road where many cars were parked…looked like a good spot for some local breakfast! As usual, we attracted a lot of attention getting our bikes parked right in front…and some folks eventually decided to take some pictures with the bikes!

I was bewildered by this place. There was a lady doing barbeques at the front, there were curry dishes, vegetable dishes, sweet cakes and loads of other delicious looking local goodies! I decided to have some Nasi Dagang for my breakfast…see how gorgeous it looked! What I liked best about it was the dessicated coconut! Woohoo!!!

The Nasi Dagang and Kopi-O-Kosong breakfast was way beyond expectations. I enjoyed it tremendously. Sadly though, we did not have time to stop and enjoy more of the delicious food on offer. So it was back to the bikes for the next leg.

The more astute reader will realize that we have not filled the bikes up with petrol this morning. So our next stop would be the petrol station just before Jeli to fill up our bikes before the big push south. Alex informed me that he was feeling a little tired from the long riding over the last few days. So I decided that we will have a longer stop at Dabong so he could get a power nap. This works well too as the others can go exploring.

The ride to Dabong along Route 66 was as expected…it was a road that goes through several villages and plantations. Simple curves and easy riding all the way…which can sometimes be the most dangerous riding especially when you are tired or sleepy. We got to the turn off for Route D29 and eventually got to the entry way towards Gunung Stong.

I had wanted to stop by Gunung Stong last year but we did not get to because we were running really late by the time we got to this point. It was great that we managed to get here this time round. The ride into Gunung Stong was a stunning one. There was a steep climb, then a descent…and then a gentle ride to the base of the mountain…and all that time we could see the magnificence of the Jelawang Waterfall. This is  highest waterfall in South East Asia standing at 305m high and has seven (7!!!) tiers altogether! WOW!!!

Just wait till the video is ready if you are struggling to see the magnificence of the waterfall as a panorama simply shrinks everything down.

We parked at the Gunung Stong National Park, I paid the entry fee of RM2 for everyone, and then got everyone sorted out…that meant Alex got a place for a nap, I got a place to just relax and play with the FIFA12 game on my iPhone, and the others got a chance to trek up to the waterfall and take some good pictures! PERFECT!!!

We stopped here for about an hour and started to get ready to leave. This was also the point where Nabil would be leaving the gang to head back home a day earlier in order to handle an urgent matter that came up just the day before. So he set off for his solo journey home. We arranged for him to call me at his rest point so we can continue to be in contact. Meanwhile, the rest of us would head south towards Gua Musang on Routes D29 and 8.

It was almost noon by the time we left Gunung Stong. So while we did not have a long way to go to Gua Musang, the extreme heat made the ride almost unbearable at times. I was very glad when we found a place for lunch at a bus station in Gua Musang. I remember just plonking myself down on the chair and stoning out just because it was so bloody hot! I lost all interest in photography…opting instead to just sit in a daze while my brain cooled down.

Lunch was nothing spectacular. After all, this was a bus station…and we know how the food can be at bus stations. Still, I was glad to have had two ice cold drinks to set me up for the next leg towards Temerloh. We set off eventually and decided to fuel up near Kuala Lipis which was another 90km or so away. This part of the journey saw some very interesting detours…it looked like the roads were under major work…I hope they were not trying to straighten them out!

This leg was also one where I wanted to make up for lost time as it was getting late and I wanted to get to Temerloh before nightfall! So I rode a little faster up front for minutes at a time and then slowed down to wait for the rest to catch up. The traffic was heavy too for some reason and that contributed to a slower than usual ride as well. We did eventually get to a petrol station just 10km out from Kuala Lipis though. As usual, I chose to stop purely because I felt so dehydrated from the heat I simply had to get some liquids into my system. I remember there was a pick up truck at the petrol station with a completely collapsed front left wheel! Geez!

It was great getting time to rest and get hydrated. Amazing how a little water goes such a long way! Teng asked the lady at the counter how far away she thought Temerloh was and she said 25-30km. He was buoyed by her answer…until he mentioned it to me because I told him it was at least another 150km away. I guess the lady was thinking about Kuala Lipis!

In any case, we soon set off towards Kuala Lipis in search of Route 1506. However, the road I took us on eventually led to a police post with a barrier. It looked like the entry point to a plantation! I stopped short of it to consult with my trusty location advisor (Google Maps) and found that we were indeed on Route 1506. The police told me that this route would lead towards Gua Musang and not Temerloh though…so we had to back track to Route 8 and head south towards Bentong instead. So…another Google Maps blunder there!

We got to a point along Route 8 where we had to turn into Route 64 towards Temerloh. This route looked really nice on the map with curves aplenty and so I was very happy to turn into it. However, the situation was rather unfortunate as many of the first few kilometers were under repair. There was absolutely no asphalt left on some stretches of the road with many potholes and bumps to boot! The transitions from tarmac to dirt were not too bad…but the transitions back from dirt to tarmac were terrible because the tarmac would be a few inches higher! That made for a painful bump for the bike…and for the butt! I found myself riding off to the grassy patch whenever I had to do those transitions just to avoid the bump. Good thing this only lasted the first few kilometers.

The next stretch was really nice actually. The road had the requisite bends and curves…and the serenity of the villages along the way just made it that much more of a joy to ride here. The gang has developed a familiar pattern of riding long and curvy roads where I would go forward at a brisk pace and slow down further up front. This made for some joyous riding! Thinking back…this could rank as one of the nicer roads around for a relaxing ride!

All good things come to an end…so they say. This turned out to be true as there was another stretch that was really bad near Damak. I rode through it as quickly as I could in the hope of finding better tarmac ahead. I heard LPG calling me on my intercom a little after that informing me that he has not seen Chris for quite awhile. We decided that he would head back a few kilometers to check while I found a safe place for the rest to wait. That check took quite awhile…and not only that…I could not get a network signal on my phone!

It felt like an eternity before LPG called me back even though it was only about five minutes. Time sure passes slowly when you are worrying about something. We found out that Chris was caught out by a huge pothole which damaged his front wheel. They eventually caught up to where we were waiting and that was when we realized his front tire was badly punctured as well. From the looks of it, the wheel took quite a beating with the pothole and probably ripped out the tire wall. It was a good thing we had the necessary tools for a repair…and it sure was a miracle that Chris managed to repair it sufficiently to continue the ride.

It was dusk by the time we continued off. I was double worried as now we have a rider without headlights (me) and one with a risky tire (Chris). We rode slowly until we got to a petrol station so we could fill up his tire to a good pressure before continuing towards Temerloh. Thankfully, his tire held up well…and my headlights decided to work from there on! Woohoo!!!

We were all rather tired by the time we got to the hotel. So we decided to get checked in quickly and then head out for dinner by the river. We went out on fewer bikes for dinner just to give Chris’ tires a rest.

Dinner was a fantastic spread of Patin Fish (what Temerloh is famous for) and other fun stuff like Tempoyak (a durian based condiment). It was a fantastic way to end a long day!