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7-8 Mar 2009 2009

There are plenty of good reasons why we don't drive a car to Taiping. While it might sound cosy to have air-conditioning and comfort in a car, you can't just flip up car's wind-shield to get that full blast of wind to your face at speed or face the world zooming by with nothing surround you. As mentioned in a motorcycle website, there is no better way to experience acceleration, banking, sound, nature – as if everything were made just to create fascinating moments on a motorcycle.

We headed East to Karak for our day trek to Taiping. Taiping could be easily reached via the usual North-South Expressway in a couple of hours. Then again, what fun would it be to ride on ultra smooth pavement and reaching destination well before our bums start protesting. And miss that all stoppings for the the teh tariks slurping ? Every corner in every town has a great mamak-joint and there is no better way to reach those great local 'cafes' by riding there.. Our day route would take us to a long way round along the central Peninsular Malaysia. Our past rides indicated there were good routes to explore and ride on. The road from Bentong town to Raub was built along the edges of Titiwangsa mountain range and is relatively flat. As we have a tight ride schedule to follow, we decided to zoom pass Bentong town. Typically, we would stop at the famous Pow Po's ice-cream palour for refreshments. The air was still cool with the heavy clouds shielding the sun rays away. So, it was alright to press on to Raub. The traffic along the trunk road was fast building up and we had few close brushes over-zealous drivers driving as they were driving on Sepang track.

Our featured breakfast stopover was at Ratha Curry House along the main road in Raub. The story goes that Raub began in the 1880s as a gold-mining settlement. Raub is the Malay word meaning “scoop with one’s hands,” and at one time the ore was reputedly so abundant that this was a common method of working. The Australian Gold Mining Company began production in 1889 at nearby Koman Hill. Although that major mine closed in 1962, small-scale mining continues. The inhabitants of the surrounding area are now primarily engaged in plantation and vegetables farming. Raub is one of the few interior Malayan towns that has preserved buildings of the colonial era which is evident along the main street. With a hearty breakfast of variety kind of roti chanai, we continued our ride north to Gua Musang. The road was surprising engaging with fast sweepy bends along palm oil plantations. The principle business trading around these areas are rubber and oil palm commodities and are reflected in the very small towns and villages dotting around.

Most of us were riding at speed hovering around 110-130km/h The famous BKT gang would have sweep the road clean with double the speed. Myself, with Anne at the back as my pillion, was happy to trot along the open road casually. I got to be realistic about my riding ability to challenge the physics governing the road. Whatever, I was having a good time riding and spending time with my two loves,..my wife and my bike.

Under the cloud-filled skies, we headed to Gua Musang. Riding in tropical Malaysia can be very unpredictable. It could be extremely hot and humid in one spot and wet and miserable in other. We could be stopping a lot just to put on the rain jumpers and taking them off the next minute. One thing for sure, we had to stay hydrated with plenty of drinks to stay focus on riding.

We stopped by Gua Musang many times throughout the years. Incidentally, Gua Musang is very popular with rock climbers with its abundance of limestone hills. The remote town in central Kelantan is still very charming with old buildings and landscapes. Passing through the main town near the train station, it was easy to imagine we were transported by Hiro Nakamura back to the 60s.

Everything is slow-paced and relaxing. The mysterious-looking limestone caves dotting the area coupled with wild supernatural folktales gave the public one of its first horror movie. Pontianak Gua Musang, a low budget horror flick with unconvincing 'special effects' was shot here. Using good ole grandpa's tales charms that was devoured of technical trickery to fire its imagination, the movie captured the public's imagination and local box offices. It was the vividness of the stories themselves that make the films so memorable and remarkable. When I watched the movie as a young boy on the b&w TV1 in the 70s, I remembered I would not dare to go the toilet alone for days. Never mind the pontianak, whom was believed from the acronym of “Perempuan Mati Beranak” in the Bahasa Melayu, meaning the woman death by childbirth, was portrayed by a woman actress in white robe with face mostly painted with white make-up. Yup, she was 'scary' enough to chill the spines of most of us and me in particular. So, next time when you smell a nice floral fragrance of the ‘kemboja,’ watch out ... hehehe

We were mostly suited in mesh jackets and pants to beat the heat. It would be outright torturing in cordura-lined suits in our tropical weather. The Route 66 to Jeli was a typical trunk cutting through plantations and villages with a few handsome natural parks. Our riding speed were pretty decent on the well-maintained road. We stopped at Jeli to re-hydrate and refuel before resuming the 130 odd km ride to Grik. An interesting fact about Jeli is that the neighbouring national park is home to Malaysian wildlifes, particularly elephants. With the expansion of human settlements and agriculture plantations into wildlife areas has caused a surge in conflict incidences between local communities and wildlife over the last few years.

The Jeli to Grik road or commonly known as East-West Highway, was clean and beautifully engineered for motorcycling. Saved for some sections, it was well marked and offered good road traction to bikers wishing to flog their bikes to the maximum. The road cut through one of the oldest rain-forest in the world. The landscape got more exciting as we rode out of Jeli. As Murphy's law detates, rain poured on good roads. We broke into two group with Ezamshah leading the first convoy to Grik while myself, Chin, Mohan, Ivan-Mohan and Phang rode together in the second group. We stopped at the rest-stop at the look-out point along the Jeli-Grik highway just before a tropical thunderstorm. Riding through the vast remote area with unbelievable views was highlight of the day.

To truly enjoy the ride, I preferred to ride casually to soak in the scenic mountain views and secretly hopefully an elephant would cross my path given our noisy bikes did not chase them back into the jungle in the first place.

Back on the journey, the highway lead us through a beautiful lake. Temenggor Lake is part of the Belum National Park, host to wild elephants, hornbills, colugos, gibbons and giant rafflesia flowers. The forest was partly flooded to form largest man-made lake in Perak. Banding Resort, located nearby, offers nature lovers a haven to explore the lake and surrounding forest. Exotic fresh water fish are abundance to catch and the closest town, Grik, has numerous restaurants that offer fantastic fresh water fish dishes from the lake.

Azmi had a little tip-over and the bike suffered a broken brake level and a bent peg mounting. We stopped in Grik to get the bike fixed. Coincidentally, the bike shop was just a few doors away from Restaurant Soon Lee. We had excellent dinner at this place in 2006. Naturally, we took the opportunity to order some steam fish with ginger, steam bullfrogs with brand essence of chicken as seasoning, fried venetian with onions and stir fried paku (vege) with chili belacan.

Route 76 from Grik southbound is a pleasant road to ride. Unfortunately, we had to battle rain with failing day-light. We been riding almost 600 km along on trunk roads and we were starting to get a little anxious to get to our hotel. We finally reached Taiping after riding under constant nagging rain. Phang and Ivan arranged our accommodation at Hotel Furama, a cheap clean hotel located near the famous Taiping Lake Garden. Frankly, after a long day ride, we were happy to get into the room for a nice warm shower. we had our supper at the town's food-court which was just a couple of minutes walk away.

Dang over-zealous rooster. It started the morning call with its irritating morning crowing. As I walked to our bikes parked at the hotel's main entrance, some bikes were already washed .. guess I was not the only person awaken by the unscheduled morning call.

Taiping is probably the best town-city not effected by any recession. A plate of char-koay-teow still cost only RM2.20 and a glass of iced Ipoh white coffee only RM1.50. The famous chee-cheong-fun, also RM2.20 a plateful, is a must have for breakfast. 

One of the most beautiful lake garden in Malaysia, Taiping Lake Garden has all the tranquility, beautiful lake view with equally fantastic backdrop mountain scenery. Riding through the oldest lake garden in the country with our bikes in tow with the ancient angsana trees' giant drooping branches lending shades was an unforgettable moment.

We resumed our day two journey on Route 60 to Pantai Remis. We rode through small towns and villages. Coconuts trees dotting the landscape and the salty air smell indicated we reached the coastal area. The weather was a complete opposite to the day before. We could have fried kuay-teow using our bike's seat as wok. We continued our ride to Sri Manjung. The river's scenery over the Raja Permaisuri Bainun Bridge was an awesome sight from a biker's viewpoint. We pushed on to Lumut for our late lunch. Lumut has changed a lot from its old days with newer complexes sprouting up along the main jetty town. After all, it is the gateway to Pangkor Island. The Malaysian naval base added a bit of commercial bite to the once sleepy fishing village.

We had lunch at the main town area near the jetty. As we sit down to take a break from the late afternoon heat, we had been together for a great 800 km of riding along the trunk roads. We rode through Titiwangsa mountain range and along the coastal area battling sweltering heat and thunder-showers.

As it was getting late, we decided to cut short our ride by hopping into the expressway at Bidor exit. Perhaps it was a bad decision as the highway was literally chocked with standstill traffic for miles and miles. I had a hard time maneuvering my bike through the traffic especially with my bike's panniers threatening to break the cars' side mirrors. Apparently, a super-trailer carrying construction bridge beams had broken down resulting in the 3 lane carriageway completely cut off to traffic. We finally broke free and regrouped for the last time at Ulu Bernam R&R. My arms and hands were tired. It was nice to munch on Tanjung Malim's famous Yik Mun's steam pau before waving good bye to each other. 

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