gerik to titiwangsa r&r

photo: lookout point at titiwangsa r&r

in the middle of the climb: f**k, there's no way i'm going to do this again.
reaching the titiwangsa rest stop: finally...
during the long, fast descent later: hell yeah, let's do this again!

photo: resting under the shade of a small tree.

the weather was nice most of the way, other than the haze this time of the year. it was foggy early in the morning, and stayed cloudy until a little past noon. but it was hot during the climb out from pulau banding back to gerik late noon later.

titiwangsa r&r/rest area is located at roughly the highest point on the east-west highway route, 1,050m above sea level, and 67km from perah r&r in gerik. temperature was cooler up here, and there was a constant breeze blowing by. the store here was open although there were very limited food selection due to the fasting month. i was worried that it'll be closed and hence carried over 4 liters of water, plus some food, to last the whole trip (don't want to risk having to drink the water off temenggor lake later...).

photo: please excuse the trash bin - it was there and i needed something to prop up the bike for photo...

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gerik (hentian perah) - pulau banding - titiwangsa r&r - return, via federal route 4 a.k.a. the east-west highway.
total distance cycled: 137km

elevation profile (from gps tracking):

gerik to pulau banding

photo: at banding island public jetty

was planning to cycle the stretch from kupang to pulau banding last sunday, but woke up late (stop snoozing the alarm, dammit!), and then in the rush of things, forgot to bring along the helmet and only realized it after setting up the bike at kupang. not feeling confident bombing the hilly descents on the route without anything between my head and the hard tarmac in case shit happens, and considering the sun was already up quite high, plan cancelled and i did only a short stretch up till a little past r&r bintang hijau on the baling-gerik route before turning back...

tuesday, labor day holiday. having cycled the baling-gerik road twice now, this is my first time driving through this road. sometimes i wonder why i choose to torture myself on the bike when i can easily drive around with the car instead? err.. anyway, today i chose to start from hentian perah r&r in gerik instead for a little variety...

it was around 12km from hentian perah before the start of the climb. and i saw another r&r area closer to the climb (don't remember the name), but it's smaller and seems like not much people are stopping there, so i guess the perah r&r is a safer place to leave the car due to the relatively higher traffic there.

photo: a small truck lost control on the downhill towards gerik

a short while later, a tow truck passed me, then a police car, followed by an ambulance and fire engine. further ahead, a small truck had apparently lost control and crashed into a tree at the roadside. not sure what happened to the driver, didn't linger around to find out. the truck was still there when i passed by again later on the return journey.

photo: the occassional many-wheelers truck plying the route.

generally the climbs up until banding are broken into short stretches with easy areas in-between, so no crazy long steep climbing here. in fact i think none of the stretches are really any steeper than 3% average? definitely easier than the baling-gerik route.

photo: on the bridge heading onto banding island.

finally arrived at banding island after around 37km into the ride. banding lakeside inn is perched on higher ground on the right side before the bridge onto banding island, while the entrance to belum rainforest resort lies on the other end of the bridge. the room rates for both are pretty expensive though for the average malaysians... so much for trying to encourage malaysians to visit local holiday destinations. for a cheaper option, there appear to be a floating chalet on the end of the second bridge leaving the island towards jeli - not sure what is the room rates and conditions though, didn't went down to check.

photo: signboard on the titiwangsa range side before the bridge heading onto banding island.

the public jetty is on the island side of the bridge heading towards jeli, where the police jetty is also located. there are toilet and a small eatery here, and you can buy bottled water from here as well.

banding island is actually a man-made island, created when the surrounding area was flooded after the construction of the temenggor dam there.

photo: at banding island public jetty

compared to the baling-gerik route, the road surface of the east-west highway stretch between gerik and banding feels much rougher, which makes for a lot of rough vibrations transmitted to the handlebar, making high-speed descents here less enjoyable comparatively. and at a bridge not far from hentian perah, the road condition is so bad with potholes everywhere. i realized that i got a bad ~1 inch cut on the rear tire when cleaning the bike later, which i strongly suspect happened at this bridge. the cut appeared to be past the fabric layer already, but suprisingly the inner tube didn't puncture. sigh... there goes more money for a new tire, when this one had barely done less than 2k mileage.

photo: a brief 'picnic' at the roadside to cool down from the afternoon heat.

actually, i had wanted to climb up until the titiwangsa r&r further ahead, but today, laziness triumphed... the hot weather is also another excuse to not go further - at just 10am, i can already feel the sun's heat burning on my skin. the next time i'm here, i'll be sure to make it up to there...

and btw, no other cyclists was seen along the way here today.

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gerik (hentian perah) - pulau banding - gerik, via federal route 4 a.k.a. the east-west highway.
total distance cycled: 80km

elevation profile (from gps tracking):

kupang to gerik and pengkalan hulu

photo: foggy scene along the hilly road to gerik

didn't feel like doing another century ride this weekend, so opted to drive over with the bike to kupang town in the nearby baling district and start from there instead, and hence avoiding the ~100km return trip on the long, straight, boring stretch of route 67 between baling and kulim.

the k173/a173 route (a.k.a baling - gerik road) linking kupang in kedah to gerik in perak state has 2-lanes in the direction with long climbs and sometimes both directions in certain sections, but otherwise are single lanes mostly. there wasn't much traffic early in the morning, and the slight foggy condition provided for a cool relaxing ride.

detoured into the junction towards gerik town, and stopped at a random shop for a light breakfast of noodle and coffee before continuing towards pengkalan hulu (a.k.a kroh) on route 76 (baling - kuala kangsar road). had initially planned to stop for lunch at pengkalan hulu town, but wasn't feeling hungry then and decided to just pass thru.

photo: along the descent into klian intan

somehow the town planner in pengkalan hulu decided that it'd be good to put plenty of small, raised reflectors on the sides of the main road to help motorists see the road sides, but have they stopped to think that it is really a hazard to cyclists? i had to ride further out on the road than usual to avoid these roadside reflectors, or risks getting thrown off-balance by those pesky little things. i don't even understand why they're needed at all - it's mostly level grounds beside the main road, not some plunging slopes...

i've done the downhill from pengkalan hulu into baling town before, and i have to say that i really dislike this route. the road condition is pretty rough, and the chatters and shakes induced by the bad road surface at high speed really, really hurt the hands. and towards the end of a long descend, you're presented with a stretch of those painted yellow strips across the road that acts like mini bumps, and no way to avoid these by taking the side of the road, because... yes, those pesky raised reflectors mentioned earlier made themselves comfortable on this short stretch as well...

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kupang - gerik (k173/a173) - pengkalan hulu (76) - baling (76) - kupang (67)

total distance cycled: 122km

elevation profile (from gps tracking):

sitiawan (overnight bike trip)

photo: at the temple at pasir panjang

the main purpose of this short overnight trip is actually to test out the recently acquired rear rack and pannier bags setup for feasibilities and also identify and iron out any potential problems/weaknesses prior to any future longer trips. my primary concern was that the bike wasn't designed for rack/pannier setup in the first place, being a lightweight racing geometry bike. well, i can report that the set-up sort of works ok for a light touring setup that i had in mind, although the handling isn't as nice as usual due to the extra weights at the back. but there are some issues i had with the rack's design that i may review in a separate post later. was actually thinking of heading to ipoh, but then decided that a smaller town would probably be more interesting on a bike rather than a big city...

after having switched to clipless pedals more than a month ago, i finally had my first clipless pedal "malfunction" today... starting from a standstill, i had my right foot already clipped in, but then i probably over-compensated for the unbalanced pannier on one side, and started to tilt to the right side. in my mind, "oh shit..." and by the time i managed to disengage my right foot, it's too late to stop the inevitable fall. anyway, apart from a scraped knee, slightly torn handlebar tape (now i have an excuse to change the easy-to-dirty original white bar tape to other colors), the chain came off, minor scratches on the rear rack, and more importantly a bruised ego, everything else appeared to be fine. happened right in front of yut sun restaurant in taiping as i was leaving after an early lunch. an uncle came out to help hold the bike while i reattach the chain, and at the same time gave me a series of "you young people"-type of lectures when i do certain things my way instead of what he suggested... anyway i'm grateful for the assistance :)

from taiping, i headed towards air kuning/changkat jering (follow the signboard to "ipoh - tolled" route when you come to a traffic light junction with tolled and non-tolled options, but continue straight past instead of turning into the north-south highway interchange) and onwards to terong. when mentioning charcoal factory, kuala sepetang is more well-known in perak, but there is also another charcoal factory at kuala trong for those that may be interested for a visit.

note that when approaching pantai remis town on route 60 (from the north), the road shoulder soon practically dissappeared all the way until the junction to damai laut, leaving one to jostle for space with other engine-powered counterparts. and there's a lot of large, heavy vehicles (think trucks, lorries, container trailers etc.) passing through this road. and the road quality isn't very good either, where you have to constantly dodge cracks, sandy patches, rocks etc.. all these while being repeatedly passed closely by the aforementioned huge vehicles at high speed... frankly, unless you need to go somewhere accessible only from this route (e.g. the segari turtle conservation center), do yourself a favor and avoid cycling this stretch where possible.

photo: with the largest turtle at segari... or maybe not.

segari turtle conservation center is a 7km detour (one way) from the main road. there are adequate signboards pointing at the junctions to take. you'll first reach an observation tower with the signboard "baitul hilal" - it is apparently used for new moon sightings to determine the starts of islamic month of fasting/ramadhan and also raya. go around this building and the segari center is at the end of the road. other than the segari center, there is another one on the west coast side located at pantai kerachut in penang.

there are 3 large bridges to be crossed before entering into sitiawan town, with the first of these being the majestic raja permaisuri bainun bridge, currently the second longest river bridge in malaysia. the views from atop the bridge of the surroundings were pretty nice, with the lumut port/shipyards on one side, and mostly green undeveloped area on another side. i arrived in sitiawan quite a bit later than planned, and missed out on some of the online food recommendations - the pau (bun) at yee si restaurant was already sold out, and manjung rojak was closed. managed to try james cendol (with the trademark red bow tie) and manjung coconut jelly though, with the latter also available in penang at jalan dato keramat.

over at pasir panjang nearby is a chinese temple with various huge (granite?) statues facing the sea. from sitiawan town (the crossroad with kfc at the corner), head towards kampung koh, and then take the junction to pasir panjang on the right side. then go straight past a crossroad with traffic lights until ending at a T-junction. from here, the only signboards pointing there is in chinese characters (in yellow background - just follow these). of the various huge statues, there is one of 'guan yin' holding a jar on one hand, from where water is flowing down and collected in a big jar underneath for people to scoop up and take away.

photo: at the temple at pasir panjang

accommodation for the night was at lee garden hotel near the local tesco (technically it is in seri manjung area rather than sitiawan town proper), RM55 for a room with double bed (aircond/hot shower). they're ok with me taking the bike into the room, although they also have space at the back on ground floor (staff area) for storing the bike.

by the way, i noticed lots of ugly swiftlet nesting structures built everywhere along this trip, and even converted from unused shophouses, with annoying recorded chirping sounds playing back on endless loops to attract the birds in. some are even right in front of people's homes! wonder how they cope with it.

the next morning, i made a detour to kampung koh's morning/public market for breakfast at the noodle stall before continuing the journey back to kulim. this would be my only solid food for the rest of the journey today, and multiple cans of red bull energy drinks fueled the rest of the return journey.

from kampung koh, i headed towards ayer tawar, and onwards on the dual-lane ipoh-lumut trunk road before turning towards beruas. the presence of large groups of people at the chinese cemeteries along the way, burning paper offerings, was a reminder that 'qing ming' is around. from beruas to batu hampar/terong, the road has many twists and turns, good for keeping one from falling asleep due to the monotony of a long straight road (especially when passing through wide swaths of oil palm plantations). from terong to changkat jering was the same stretch of road that i passed yesterday. from changkat jering, i took the federal trunk road no.1 for a long stretch until around sungai bakap in penang, bypassing taiping town. mainly i just wanted to use a different route that doesn't pass through selama as i've been around that area many times already.

turning into the junction towards tasek, the sky in front was veiled in deep dark shades of blue... rain clouds. the drizzle started soon after and became progressively heavier until the junction in front of kulim police district headquarter. and then the sky cleared with the sun out again after i reached the house in kulim. damn...

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• kulim to sitiawan (day 1) via sungai tengas (136/K907) - selama (K7) - kubu gajah/pondok tanjong/kamunting (A7) - taiping (A2) - air kuning/changkat jering (A109) - terong (60/A103) - pantai remis (A101/60) - segari (60) - sitiawan (60/A177)
• sitiawan to kulim (day 2) via kampung koh (5) - ayer tawar (A125/5) - beruas (71) - batu hampar (73/60) - terong/changkat jering (60) - simpang/bagan serai/parit buntar/nibong tebal/jawi/sg. bakap (1) - tasek/junjong (P145) - kulim (K145/K12/136)

total distance cycled (including detours):

• day 1: 209 km
• day 2: 183 km

amounts of isotonic and red bull drinks consumed: enough to get isotonic drink poisoning, if there is such a thing... (note to self: mix a bit more plain water in next time!). and i just realized that the oversized downtube design on the bike actually functions well as a makeshift front fender in case of rain...

taiping, and the first century ride

Photo: at taiping lake garden

kulim to taiping via sungai tengas (K907) - selama (K7) - kubu gajah (A6) - bukit merah (A111) - semanggol (A4) - kamunting (A7) - taiping (A2), and return via kamunting (A2) - pondok tanjong (A7) - kubu gajah (A7) - selama (K7) - sungai tengas (K907) - kulim (136)

total distance: 184 km (including wrong turns, duh!)

apparently i picked a wrong time to go to taiping lake, as there appeared to be some sort of fishing event going on, with crowds all around. what was meant to be a rest break turned into a stop, snap a photo, bye-bye kind of visit instead... anyway, finally did my first century ride (100 miles) after last week's pengkalan hulu trip fell short of a few kms to make it.

 
Photos: new and old train crossings over bukit merah lake; and hainanese-style chicken chop at wan li restaurant, taiping

Kek Lok Tong, Ipoh

Kek Lok Tong (Cave of Great Happiness?) is another limestone cave temple attraction in Ipoh, Perak. it is located on the same hill range as Sam Poh Tong - but unlike the more popular Sam Poh Tong which is accesible from the main road, one have to go through the Gunung Rapat housing area to reach Kek Lok Tong.

the limestone cave opens up to a beautiful lake garden at the other end. There's a quarry at the other end of the garden, which is partially hidden by some large trees (please excuse the poor quality of the photos - i always do poorly in landscape photography. sigh...).

playground under a large electricity pylon.

there's a lotus pond here, full of lotus plants and many pink flowers.

and also, a blue bird perched on sam-pah tong.

Malayan sun bear