When we rode 3,5 years ago from Kuala Selangor in the same direction as we do now, we didn't know very well how to avoid the dreadful N5. We found a way then, but it was by luck. Now, using Google Maps and maps.me, we have found our ways to select nice alternative roads as much as possible. In fact, from Sekinchan, there are lots of options, through the paddy fields, close to the coast, and so on. We had some really great cycling. We had also found an alternative to the N5 towards Teluk Intan to avoid quite a stretch, by taking a small ferry across Sungai Bernam. That was a real gem!
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| Beautiful riding in the morning |
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| When you get out of the small country roads and need to cross the N5, to continue country roads on the other side... We had to find a U-turn about 1km further |
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| Scenery around Sekinchan, with the harvested rice paddies |
Although... to get there, we went via a quite remote rural plantation area, with some good roads in it. It made for beautiful cycling! When we had lunch in a small roadside restaurant, the people (who were extremely friendly) told us we might not be able to get through via the road we had chosen. There was a (coconut palm) plantation and it wasn't sure the guards would leave us through... Sure enough, that happened indeed! Despite trying to get their sympathy in many ways, the guards told us (friendly) that they could absolutely not allow us through. We had to accept - and that meant an additional 20km detour to get to the ferry! Still, it was no big problem, as it was easy and beautiful cycling anyway. We got to the ferry and there we went, from Selangor into Perak, by boat. I really love to use ferries like this when cycling, don't know why exactly; it's so... special?
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| More of the beautiful scenery |
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| Along one of the small canals |
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| No passing through this one! At least, not for us... |
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| The small ferry across Sungai Bernam towards Hutan Melintang - the ferry goes each 30'! |
The last minutes towards the ferry it started to rain, and once on the other side of the river the rain became heavier. That gave us the perfect excuse to take a break, and enjoy an ice coffee... From there, once the rain became a light drizzle, we cycled another 15km or so into Teluk Intan. This was unfortunately still a little bit on the N5, and while it was not too bad, it was indeed not the nicest stretch of cycling. Especially because in some parts there is not even a shoulder to ride on, and because of the rain there were big puddles on the side on the road which were hard to avoid. Anyway; all that is part of bike touring as well, and in no time we were in Teluk Intan.
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| Where's your parang when you need it - when you're hot and thirsty... |
Coming into town we bumped into a... durian stall! Woohoo, perfect timing, nothing better than a nice durian at the end of a cycling day. We thoroughly enjoyed the fruit, then made our way to the leaning tower of Teluk Intan - the Asian version of the tower of Pisa - to make the compulsory picture. From there we went to our hotel, which was a bit out of town, and arrived after... 97km of (happy) cycling. There was really nothing interesting in that area and we did not feel like going back into town (as there seemed to be little of interest there either), so we just chilled in our hotel room. And of course, we had a nice dinner, completed by a Liege waffle as dessert - which was very yummy.
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| Mmmmmmmm finger-licking good - literally |
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| The mandatory picture at the Teluk Intan leaning tower! |
Leaving Teluk Intan (after another roti for breakfast) was not so nice again for the first 10km, but then we first found a great little side road and afterwards the road became more pleasant. The weather this morning was a bit special, not too warm but very humid and sticky. In Kampung Gajah we switched to cycle on the other side of the Perak river (the left side on the map), and that was truly fantastic. It had small kampungs with beautiful traditional Malay wooden houses, small scale agriculture, and lots of tropical fruit trees (but most fruit is not in season currently unfortunately), including durian.
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| Morning scenery |
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| More morning scenery |
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| And more morning scenery |
The last 10km of the day were on the N5 again, towards Seri Iskandar. This is a totally uninteresting town, but we found no alternative to stay overnight within a reasonable distance today. We did 67km, mostly very nice riding. We again enjoyed relax time, walked around a little, had an afternoon tea, and a great dinner in a cool friendly Malay restaurant.
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| Swimming pool with shower. |
We just have to realise, again, that it's so nice to cycle in "our" country. A lot of nice places to ride through, beautiful nature, good (and cheap) food everywhere and most of all: people in these more remote areas are so extremely friendly! They're only disappointed in us not speaking bahasa after all these years and we have to admit: they're right... We're really enjoying this tour through Malaysia again, it absolutely is a top bike touring destination!
