Kuala Klawang Chinese New Year Ride
29 Jan 2009
Why are we on motorcycles? Hey, it is the
adventure. A quick visit to advrider.com would spill out how fun it
is to be on two wheels in search of the motorcycling holy grail. Most got
the wrong idea that it is only fun on some big dualie-ish bike on some dirt
trail with a big 4-man tent strapped to the gigantic aluminum panniers
boxes. Well, in Malaysia, it turns out we do not need to ship our bikes to
central China or Africa to enjoy adventure riding. Sure, it would be plenty
fun and excitement to ride on a foreign road with strangers either giving
you a funny look or give that ego-building thumbs up. We got plenty of
fun motorcycling roads around here literally 30 minutes away. We find miles
of twisty roads to scrap our knee pads or to get to kill a fair few bugs
with our face shields.
David was back for the Chinese New Year holiday. Naturally, I sum the opportunity to gather the boys for a morning flog with him. After all, most of us had a good week to goof off. I picked the Ulu Langat – Kuala Klawang route to avoid any holiday traffic. Saved for Phang, the ones celebrating CNY were able to join the ride. Ben surprised everyone with his presence. I myself was a little restless after countless house visits. A little time with my Zed would do me good, at least mentally.
The holiday weather been good. Good for a motorcycle ride. It did rained the night before and the rain probably did a splendid job of washing the dirt off the road we would be taking.
I
could see David missed the riding with the boys very much. It been 2 long
years he last rode with boys. Riding in Vietnam was not exactly the same.
Ironically, we have more traffic-free back roads than Vietnam. David always
taking about how bad ridding in traffic clogged roads in Vietnam. So, riding
in any Vietnamese roads is so much different compared to riding in Malaysia.
Rashid was the last to arrive at the meet up point and we wasted no time to
hit the road.
The yearly CNY holiday balik-kampung exodus left the roads very clear of traffic. We were soon darting happily along the Ulu Langat slip road to Semenyih Dam followed by a beautiful 40 odd km of twisty road to Kuala Klawang. I never rode on the famous Devil Gap, but hey .. Ulu Langat-KK could rival the famous cousin anytime, rain or shine.
Typical of David, he loved to detour to off beat places for short rest stops. Hence, he led the boys to Jeram Gading which was a lovely creek some 12 km before Kuala Klawang town. We rode through a durain orchard and I could not help lusting after the mouth-watering durians on the trees waiting to abide Newton’s law of gravity. Soon, we were munching on excellent local durians. With Ivan, Chin and Rashid riding bikes with that famous propeller logo, the orchard owners thought we were rich towkays carrying stash of cash in the panniers. As expected, we ended paying a fair bit more for the durains. The four durians we consumed were good but not good enough to part 70 bucks for them.
We had our breakfast at the usual Restoran Fatimah in downtown Kuala Klawang. Food served got bad. How could they suggest we have nasi lemak when they ran out of sambal? I supposed we could use a better breakfast joint in future. Again, the bill did not reflect the food we ate.
We rode back to KL via the same road again instead of heading to Broga and exit out to Semenyih town. Ben on his Vulcan tried his outermost best to keep up with the rest. I could hear his bike's foot pegs scrapping the tarmac numerous times while chasing the guys along the twisty KK-Ulu Langat road. We made another quick stop at Sungai Gabai some 4 km before Pekan Batu 18 in Ulu Langat. Contrary to the name, it is actually a fantastic waterfalls with good picnic facilities. The upper part the waterfalls was dam up for light swimming.
We stopped for the last time at Ulu Langat look-out spot to enjoy a panoramic view of Kuala Lumpur. The place was already upgraded with cosy cafés. A word of caution, it cost a fair bit to add scenic view into food.
We soon bade each other farewell. I supposed David thoroughly enjoyed his 1st ride with Bagsters in more than 2 years. Now, I need to work on poisoning Andy’s mind into buying a holiday bike.
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