www.motobiking.com    Lake Kenyir - Taman Negara Nature Ride

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5 - 7 July  2007

Day 1

As we expected to run out of day light again as before, we decided to meet up and hit the road early. Like a kid anticipating a trip to Toy R Us, we were all a little worked up to sleep anyway. Moreover, an early morning ride along the Karak Highway is always a little out of the world. Heavy mist boosted by the on-going Indonesian haze practically devoured the road rendering road visibility very poor. We enjoyed the cool morning air as we rode by at idiotic speed. We were secretly hoping the heavy mist would mask us from the eyes of patrolmen.

We stopped at Maran R&R for Rashid to refuel his Peggie as his Peg has been very thirsty lately. By then, the sun heat was slowly heating up the air causing the mist to fast loosing its glory. We now needed to keep a watchful eye on incoming traffic. At times, in-coming drivers are polite enough to flash their high-beams to signal pending speed traps ahead. The stretch from Karak to Kuantan is long and monotonous . Maybe that contributed to numerous accidents when it was first opend to traffic causing the authority to carry out some major road reconditioning in bid to reduce unfortunate traffic statistics.

The best place in Kuantan for a good hearty nasi lemak meal is at Restoran Zaman located along the old trunk road to Kuantan. Incidentally, it the also the favourite place for our local MiG 29 top guns to hang out as the RMAF base is located nearby. The piping hot nasi lemak served in banana leave is simply mouthwatering. For the chilli fan out there, the sambal ikan-bilis is literally free flow. I over-shot the Gambang turn-off causing the pack to make a long time consuming detour from Kuantan exit to Zaman’s. Thankfully, the nasi lemak packs lived up to the boys’ expectation and I was spared of their wrath. Afterall, we have ridden about 250 km without any breakfast. I tend to go overboard each time and I gladly helped myself with one and a half of these packs this round. They serve good roti chanai too.

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