3 months and a half, that’s as long as we have been back from our “epic” 200-day ride from Malaysia to Japan, and it also means there has not been a blog post since about 3 months. Yes, there have been some updates, the layout has changed a little, and I’ve added a few pages with
practical stuff - but no posts as such. So we decided it was time for another bike trip, so that at least I could continue blogging. Erh - not so sure if that is the real reason... anyway, we left today for a 1-week trip through Malaysia. The plan is (yes, for 1 week, you need some kind of plan indeed): from KL to Bentong via the route 68, also called the old bentong road, crossing the Titiwangsa mountain range. From there we’ll play around a few days in Pahang, probably cycling through Mentakab and Temerloh, over to Jerantut, then towards Raub maybe via Kuala Lipis. Then we’ll go into the mountains again, and climb all the way up to Fraser’s Hill. Finally, after enjoying the cool weather and beautiful nature at Fraser’s Hill, we ride back home.
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| Google Maps had even found us a crossing over the busy expressway, with a (motor)bike ramp! Oh yes: spot the Petronas tower(s) |
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| Still within the KL metropolitan area, things started to look like a kampung soon |
Leaving KL today we found a very good itinerary, with very little traffic and almost no big roads. If you ever need it, let us know; it would be too boring to explain here. Roughly, it went from Damansara Perdana, via Desa Park City, Kepong, to Gombak, joining route 68 there (both Google Maps walking directions and maps.me went the same way). We knew that road up, have done it a few times by car but also even ran it up once (for the route 68 ultra) - we knew it is a very beautiful scenic road, passing through some of the finest jungle in the KL surroundings. It’s gently winding it’s way up, never steep, with hardly any traffic (while you hear the busy traffic on the Karak highway in the area). The weather has been very hot lately, once you are riding through the shady jungle it becomes much cooler and much more pleasant however.
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| Route 68, magnificent jungle, no traffic, gentle slope; perfect for cycling |
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| Yes, the coffee break is an essential part of the day! We travel light this time, no camping nor cooking gear, little and light clothing only - but the coffee maker and our Helinox chairs couldn’t stay behind! |
As soon as we had left, within a few km, I spotted my daily friend from our last tour: the kingfisher! We also saw loads of monkeys, one was even trying to steal some of our stuff while we took our coffee break (of course we still do that!). Funny, these monkeys: you meet them all the time in Malaysia, but nowhere else in the region it seems. Have they all been eaten elsewhere??? We also saw a gang of wild boar (not the hasher, but the animals) on the road, but it was still too early for lunch.
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| Bicycles still outside the hotel, us inside in the cool air conditioned lobby... |
The ride downhill was perfect, many kms of gentle downhill, hardly any need to actually push those pedals while going down at a very comfortable pace. Luckily it was this way, because it had become again very hot meanwhile, and it would have been unpleasant to work hard in those circumstances. The last kms into Bentong were slightly less pleasant, the road was much busier and we were in the plain hot sun, in the middle of the afternoon. No problem however, before 3pm we arrived at our hotel, and enjoyed the air-con and the fantastic shower. After that, a heavenly ice tea, some snacks (curry puffs, yummy!), and another cold drink. Life is good again!