There were two items on the itinerary for Monday. A road trip to Melaka and Leonard’s 3-in-1 party.
The road trip started with a bak kut teh breakfast at Restoran Ah Hei Bak Kut Teh.
Photograph courtesy of TH Lim
Once on the road to Melaka, it became clear that the Jalan Alor food stalls and/or alcohol had claimed one victim. Luckily a nap and some non-alcoholic Malta drink rejuvenated Matthias.
Photograph courtesy of TH Lim
Pai and TH took the Germans sightseeing in Melaka.
Photograph courtesy of Hsing C PaiPhotograph courtesy of TH LimPhotograph courtesy of TH LimPhotograph courtesy of TH Lim
Lunch was at Restoran Seng Kee.
Photograph courtesy of TH LimPhotograph courtesy of TH Lim
I don’t think the Germans remember much about the drive back to Kuala Lumpur.
Photograph courtesy of TH Lim
Leonard’s 3-in-1 party was at the Grand Imperial restaurant in the Bangsar Shopping Centre. 3-in-1 because 1. the Germans were here, 2. because he recently scored a hole-in-one, and 3. it was his birthday later that week.
Photograph courtesy of Leonard YeePhotograph courtesy of Leonard YeePhotograph courtesy of Leonard Yee
I must say Ralf was resplendent in his lederhosen. Doing it “My Way!”
Photograph courtesy of Leonard Yee
But he sometimes runs out of steam.
Photograph courtesy of Leonard Yee
Leonard was a wonderful host. He does talk a lot though 💬💬💬.
Photograph courtesy of Leonard Yee
Day 5
The Day 5 ride was 115km from Tanjung Malim to Simpang Pulai.
Some bikes went into Amy’s truck. The other bicycles and people went into three other vehicles.
Photograph courtesy of TH Lim
It took about an hour to drive to Tanjung Malim. We parked beside a Shell station and got ready to roll. The entire ride would be on Federal Route 1.
Map courtesy of Ride With GPS
It was 31ºC when we got to Sungkai. We stopped for drinks and ice-cream.
Photograph courtesy of Lee Heng Keng
Zaryl had a more urgent reason to stop. Her saddle had come off her seat post. It was Patrik the mechanic to the rescue.
Photograph courtesy of Hsing C Pai
12km further up the road, we arrived at a fresh fruit stall. Iced mango tastes very good when it is 35ºC.
The heat didn’t bother Marc though.
Photograph courtesy of TH Lim
We made another drink stop at Tapah.
Photograph courtesy of TH Lim
We had lunch at Kampar. We were 85km into the ride.
Photograph courtesy of Lee Heng Keng
That is when Patrik discovered his souvenirs from the Hyatt House Hotel.
Photograph courtesy of Hsing C Pai
Pai dressed for the heat when we left Kampar.
Photograph courtesy of Dieter Fecher
At 2:30 pm we were in Gopeng. The air-conditioned KFC was closed for renovations. We had drinks in the open-air Alif Cafe instead.
I had a puncture 4km from our destination 🤬.
Photograph courtesy of Hsing C Pai
I must admit that one flat tire among twelve cyclists riding 115km each is good going.
Happy to be at the Mornington Hotel.
Photograph courtesy of Lee Heng KengPhotograph courtesy of Lee Heng Keng
After a shower some of the group went for a massage. Starting with the feet.
Photograph courtesy of Hsing C Pai
Then it was dinner time. The restaurant TH chose for us was hosting a wedding that night. I think the wedding party was a bit worried when our scruffy group walked in the door.
We were seated upstairs, though. Out of sight of the wedding guests.
The highlight of the meal was the steamed grouper head. Which was something out of the ordinary for our German guests.
Photograph courtesy of TH Lim
Day 6
Our Day 5 ride had been our longest. Our Day 6 ride would have the most elevation.
We checked out of the Mornington Hotel and rode a few kilometres to breakfast at Restoran Nasi Kandar Pulai.
Photograph courtesy of TH Lim
The road is fairly flat until the PETRONAS station about 5km from the Mornington Hotel. Then it starts to rise. Gently for 7km, and then more sharply to the border between the states of Perak and Pahang.
Map courtesy of Ride With GPS
The road was relatively quiet, and it was cooler than it was the day before.
Photograph courtesy of TH Lim
It wasn’t long before we were spread out along the road.
Photograph courtesy of TH LimPhotograph courtesy of TH Lim
That sign reads “Heavy Vehicles Keep Left.”
Photograph courtesy of Hsing C PaiPhotograph courtesy of Chan Chee LeongPhotograph courtesy of Chan Chee LeongPhotograph courtesy of Chan Chee LeongPhotograph courtesy of Chan Chee LeongPhotograph courtesy of Chan Chee Leong
Thank goodness for our support vehicles. They created a buffer between us and what little traffic was on the road.
Photograph courtesy of TH Lim
And were on hand when there was a puncture and a floor pump was needed.
Photograph courtesy of Chan Chee Leong
The support vehicles waited at the 43km point in case any of us wanted water, or in the case of the Germans, beer.
Photograph courtesy of TH LimPhotograph courtesy of TH Lim
The Waterfall Café is 6km further up the road. We all stopped there for a rest, a drink, and some roasted peanuts.
The state border is 4km from the Waterfall Café.
Photograph courtesy of Hsing C Pai
It is another 30km and 800 metres of climbing from the border to Brinchang. There is some relief in the form of a 9km descent from Blue Valley to Kuala Terla.
Kampung Raja is roughly halfway down that descent. We stopped for lunch at Restoran Lai Ki in Kampung Raja. Lemon chicken, batter-fried squid, fish in oyster sauce and fried greens hit the spot.
The virgin jungle between Kampung Raja and Brinchang is gone. Vegetable farms, tea plantations, and hotels and restaurants have replaced the trees.
Map courtesy of Ride With GPS
There were no more tree-lined roads like this for the last 20km to Strawberry Park Resort.
Photograph courtesy of TH Lim
There are potholes and patches on the road from Kampung Raja to Brinchang. We had to be careful on the fast descents.
Everyone got to Strawberry Park Resort safely. TH’s suite was the hangout room of choice.
Photograph courtesy of TH Lim
Patrik lit a fire.
Photograph courtesy of TH Lim
Some serious rehydration happened in front of that fire.
Kelin drove up from Kuala Lumpur to join us for barbecued steaks, lamb and chicken accompanied by sweet potatoes, sweet corn, potato salad and green salad.
And pasta. TH demonstrated his chef chops by cooking two versions of spaghetti Frutti di Mare. With marinara sauce and with alfredo sauce.
TH also provided a soundtrack via his Bluetooth speaker. Hits from the 80’s and 90’s.
The evening ended with dessert and wine. A lot of wine.
Danial suggested the route for our latest credit card tour.
Day 1 • Cycle from home to the Kepong KTM station and ride the Komuter train to Tanjong Malim • Cycle from Tanjong Malim to Ipoh
Day 2 • Cycle from Ipoh to Brinchang
Day 3 • Cycle from Brinchang to the Tanjong Malim KTM station and ride the Komuter train to Kepong • Cycle from the Kepong KTM station to home
Choo Chian and Halim quickly said that they were up for it. I enjoy riding with the three of them and opted in as well. If I had thought more about the route I was committing to I might not have been so quick to agree to participate. 390km / 242mi and more than 3,000 metres / 9,800 feet of climbing over three days.
Day 1
I met Choo Chian and Halim at just past 6.00am on Day 1 and we rode together to the 7-Eleven on Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah where Danial was waiting.
We caught the first train from Kepong, the 7.30am departure, to Tanjong Malim. All smiles at this point.
It was 8.50am when we rolled our bikes out of the train in Tanjong Malim. We had 118km / 73mi to ride. But first, breakfast at our usual spot, Restoran OCU Amy, 1km from the station.
The plan was to ride to Ipoh at an easy pace so that we would have fresh legs for the 2,000 plus metres / 6,500 plus feet of climbing on Day 2.
Photograph courtesy of Danial Marzuki
So much for that plan. We spent almost three-quarters of our moving time riding at 30kph / 18.6mph or faster. “Fresh Legs” became our ironic catchphrase for the next three days. As in “My legs feel so fresh” or “Your legs look so fresh” when the opposite was the case.
We weren’t helped by the heat. We made regular stops to refill bottles. We bought iced fresh fruit at the Bidor stop. It was 37ºC / 99ºF when we got to Tapah at 1.00pm.
We spent the next two hours over a long lunch in the air conditioning at the KFC there. It was still a furnace outside when we got going again. At 3.45pm we had to stop (what a relief) because of a puncture. It was 38ºC / 100ºF.
Photograph courtesy of Halim Zin
Halim’s sister saw this photograph and commented that I looked like I was regretting coming on this ride. What I did look like was this . . .
We arrived at the Mornington Hotel in Ipoh without further incident. Choo Chian had done the research into accommodation and had booked the most promising looking places in Ipoh and Brinchang. The Mornington Hotel was excellent.
For RM45 / USD11 each we got two Standard Twin rooms with the amenities not usually provided at this price point. The fixings for coffee and tea, a couple of bottles of mineral water, toiletry sets including toothbrushes and toothpaste, a fridge, a safe, and wifi. Best of all, bicycles are allowed in the rooms, which are big enough to accommodate two bikes without them being in the way. The bonus is the Mornington has a lift so we didn’t have to carry our bikes up a flight or more of stairs.
Photograph courtesy of the Mornington Hotel
We took a Grab car into Ipoh for dinner. Danial suggested the Ipoh Hainan Chicken Rice restaurant on Anderson Road. Sadly the quality of the food there has declined since he last ate there. The food was alright but not worth another visit.
By 9.00pm it was lights out. Our legs weren’t feeling particularly fresh, which was a bad sign.
Day 2
At 6.40am we rolled away from the Mornington Hotel to the Restoran Nasi Kandar Pulai 3km / 2mi away for breakfast. The restaurant must have only just opened because there were only a couple of staff members there to take orders and make hot drinks and prepare food. Service was slow, to say the least.
While we were there a group of four cyclists came in looking for breakfast as well. One of them asked us for directions to the road to Cameron Highlands. Like us, they were from Kuala Lumpur. Unlike us, they hadn’t ridden to Ipoh the day before. I’m sure their legs were fresher than ours. We wished them well on their maiden ride to Cameron Highlands and headed to the 7-Eleven a couple of shop lots away to stock up on drinks.
Our paths would unexpectedly cross, in a manner of speaking, later in the day.
I had ridden from Simpang Pulai as far as the Meiko Strawberry Centre a couple of times, but never with a 5kg / 11lb saddle pack. This time there would be a further 23km / 14mi to ride, and another hill to climb to get to Brinchang. It promised to be a long and hard day.
Graph courtesy of Garmin Connect
13km / 8mi from the hotel we got to the start of the climb to Cameron Highlands. The first 2.5km / 1.5mi are particularly steep, rising 280 metres / 918 feet.
Photograph courtesy of Danial Marzuki
Mindful of the amount of climbing we had to do, we made regular stops to stretch our not-fresh legs.
Photograph courtesy of Danial Marzuki
Despite the sunshine, the temperature stayed at or below 25ºC / 77ºF for the first 40km / 25mi.
Photograph courtesy of Danial Marzuki
Photograph courtesy of Danial Marzuki
Photograph courtesy of Danial Marzuki
We made another of our frequent stops after 45km / 28mi. The temperature had risen to 30ºC / 86ºF in the space of 5km / 3mi. Admittedly it had taken us forty minutes to climb that 5km, but still.
It was very humid. We were sweating profusely and despite carrying extra bottles of fluid we were running out.
There are very few places selling drinks along Federal Route 185. We knew that there was a café somewhere near the border between the states of Perak and Pahang, but weren’t sure where exactly it was or whether it would even be open. I was starting to worry that we would run out of water before we found a place to restock.
That’s when a father and son in an SUV pulled over and asked if we wanted water or 100 Plus. We gratefully accepted his generous offer. It turned out that the man’s wife was one of the four cyclists we met over breakfast at the Restoran Nasi Kandar Pulai. Quite a coincidence. We never did see those four cyclists again though.
It was a relief to have more water in our bottles. Though as it turned out we were only 2km / 1mi (and ten corners) from the Waterfall Café. Which was open.
It was 12.45pm and we had no idea where the next place selling food was. So we had lunch. In my case a bowl of Maggi mee with two poached eggs and keropok udang (prawn cracker) croutons. Very delicious.
We spent a very pleasant fifty-five minutes over lunch chatting and watching the koi in the pond that fronts the café.
1km up the road, I had a surprise. The last time I rode here was in the Cameron Highlands KOM event in December 2018. At that time there was nothing but a construction site.
Photograph courtesy of Google Maps
Today that construction site is the Kafe Banjaran. Which is clearly very popular with big bikers. The motorized kind. There is even a shop selling Route 185 merchandise.
Photograph courtesy of picgra.com
3km / 2mi later we were at the border between Perak and Pahang. Just 31km / 20mi to go . . . .
Photograph courtesy of Danial Marzuki
The road continues upward, albeit with some short descents along the way, until the right turn onto Federal Route 59. From there it is a 7km / 4mi descent to the Cameron Valley Tea House. We stopped for some cardamom tea and scones with cream and strawberry jam.
We needed the calories. The road kicks upward from the Cameron Valley Tea House for 9km / 5.5mi and more than 400 metres / 1,300 feet of climbing to Brinchang. The payoff was chocolate-coated strawberries at the Kea Farm street market. I have to admit that I didn’t expect the strawberries to be so good. What a treat that was. We should have bought more.
Photograph courtesy of Lacasa Biru Jr
We had just 6km / 4mi to go to Barrington Square and our apartment for the night. We checked into our fifth-floor G Residence apartment just as the clouds rolled in and it started to rain.
Choo Chian had picked another winner for accommodation. This time a comfortable and spacious two-bedroom apartment. Again bicycles are allowed inside the property and there is a lift. Barrington Square consists of three blocks of apartments, shops and restaurants. We didn’t have far to walk to dinner.
Paradise Reyan serves Middle Eastern and Western food. We had a combination: hummus as the starter and lamb pizza as the main course. Both were good.
Photograph courtesy of Paradise Reyan
It was lights out for me at 8.00pm. Fresh legs? Only in my dreams.
Day 3
We were out of the apartment at 6.30am. Brinchang is at an altitude of 1,540 metres / 5,050 feet. It was 14ºC / 57ºF. We had a mostly downhill and very chilly 3.5km / 2mi ride to Tanah Rata where we had breakfast at Restoran Nasi Kandar Mamu Ismail. The hot drinks and roti canai warmed us up before the still nippy 50km / 31mi descent to Tapah.
Photograph courtesy of Danial Marzuki
About 4km / 2.5mi from Tanah Rata is the Cameron Valley tea plantation, owned by the Bharat Group. Bharat is Malaysia’s second largest tea producer.
It was very quiet as we dropped more than 1,000 metres / 3,300 feet through rain forest over the next fifty minutes. There was very little traffic on the road with us. However, the quality of the road surface was inconsistent. Sometimes smooth and then suddenly rutted and patched. So we had to keep our eyes on the road rather than on the scenery around us, especially when descending at more than 45kph / 28mph. The occasional pack of dogs on the road added to the hazards to be alert for.
I took off my windbreaker about two-thirds of the way down the mountain. Stowed on my saddle pack it made my butt look like a baboon’s.
Photograph courtesy of Heng Choo Chian
The gravity assist came to an end 10km / 6mi before we got to Tapah. From Tapah it is 70km / 43.5mi to ride to get to Tanjong Malim. With legs which were most definitely not fresh.
We had a long stop at Tapah, and an even longer one at Sungkai. Then a ten-minute break at Slim River before getting to Tanjong Malim at about 1.15pm. Where we had time to sit in the air conditioning at the PETRONAS station before riding to the station to catch the 1.55pm train to Kepong.
The only comments to make about the ride from Tapah is that there seemed to be a headwind for most of the time and the temperature went up from 28ºC / 82ºF to 36ºC / 97ºC.
The train was a welcome respite from the heat. Still all smiles as we waited for the train to depart.
The exertions of the trip caught up with us not long after we were seated.
Photograph courtesy of Danial Marzuki
Photograph courtesy of Halim Zin
We were all at home by about 4.00pm. It had been a tough trip. I won’t be doing the same route again in a hurry. But it was definitely a lot of fun riding with Choo Chian, Danial and Halim. There were plenty of laughs throughout the weekend.
Now if only there really were a cream to turn tired legs into Fresh Legs.
We were a bit slow to get going in the morning. There was some not-necessarily joking about taking the bus or train all the way back to Kuala Lumpur or getting a ride with someone.
We did make the walk to Hollywood at 7.30am. Plates of prawn chee cheong fun, char kway teow, and lor bak, washed down with glasses of leng chee kang (lotus seed drink) perked everyone up.
Photograph courtesy of Danial Marzuki
Photograph courtesy of Danial Marzuki
At 9.0am we were packed and ready to roll. Danial’s friend Eric rode with us to Gopeng before turning around and heading back home.
Photograph courtesy of Eric
We made a quick stop at the 7-Eleven in the same row of shophouses as the Ampang Cycle House. Our first proper stop was at a Petron station in Gopeng. The breakfast drinks had made their way through our bodily systems by then.
The day had started out cooler than it had been the previous day. Everyone was pleased about that.
Photograph courtesy of Danial Marzuki
37km / 23mi into our ride we were in Kampar. A Petron station was a convenient place to stop for ten minutes.
At 12.30pm were in Tapah. The KFC there was a lot less appealing as a lunch venue than it had been the day before. After some scouting around, we ended up at . . .
Photograph courtesy of Ozairi Othman
Pizza Hut! That was an underwhelming experience. The pizzas were smaller than we had expected, there was no ice for our drinks, and the air conditioning wasn’t working very well. Nevertheless, between us, we polished off three regular pizzas and four 1.5 litre bottles of Pepsi Cola.
The cool of the early morning had given way to full-on heat. It was 35° C / 95° F outside. The plan had been to spend an hour in Pizza Hut. The ineffective air conditioning while we were eating made that seem unlikely. By the time we were finished eating the air conditioning had upped its game and we finally began to cool off. And so we stayed there for seventy minutes.
We then spent fifteen minutes at the Petronas station 200 metres down the road eating ice cream for dessert.
Thirty-five minutes later we were in Bidor. The iced mango and other fresh fruit at the Sakinah stall, where we had stopped on the way to Ipoh, were calling our names. That was another fifteen-minute break.
Photograph courtesy of Ozairi Othman
It was past 2.30pm. The temperature would stay in the mid to low 30s° C / low 90s° F for the next three hours. We would be stopping a lot. So no change from the MO of the day before.
Photograph courtesy of Danial Marzuki
One of the benefits of riding on what used to be the main trunk road linking Kuala Lumpur and Ipoh is that you pass through lots of small towns. Towns which have at least one petrol station with an air-conditioned convenience store where we could stop and rest.
Sungkai was the next of these towns. We spent twenty minutes in the BHP station there. We were not in a rush. The first non-peak train leaves Tanjung Malim at 7.00pm on weekends. We had about 45km / 28mi to go, and more than four hours to cover that distance.
It is 22km / 14mi from Sungkai to Slim River. Just a bit too far to do all in one go, given the temperature and the rolling terrain. There isn’t much between Sungkai and Slim River, so we stopped in some shade beside the road at the junction to Trolak.
We spent forty minutes at the Petronas station in Slim River. More ice cream and cold drinks. That was the good news.
The bad news was that I dropped my mobile phone and broke the screen.
25km / 16mi to Tanjung Malim. It was 5.30pm when we left Slim River. The temperature had dropped to 29° C / 84° F. Enough of the cutting edge had been taken off the heat that we were able to cover those last kilometres to Tanjung Malim in one go. We stopped at a Petronas station a couple of kilometres from the Komuter station to regroup and get a drink.
Photograph courtesy of Halim Zin
We then rode to the KTM station to get tickets for the 8.00pm train to Kepong. We planned to have dinner during the hour or so before that train departed. We got to the KTM station at 6.50pm and were told that we could board the 7.00pm train with our bikes. The train was already at the station. We quickly hauled our bikes up and across the overpass to the platform on the other side of the tracks and hopped onto the train.
Photograph courtesy of Danial Martzuki
Once again we had the entire carriage to ourselves.
It was dark when we pulled into the KTM Kepong station. There had been talk about getting dinner before riding home, but by the time we wheeled our bikes off the train at 8.30pm the gloss had worn off that idea. It had been a long and hot weekend, and everyone just wanted to get home. Which we all accomplished safely.
This was my first ride to Ipoh. It was a lot of fun (double pinch flats and broken phone screen aside). I would do it again. Any town with its own Hollywood-style sign is worth another visit.
Vegas and Hollywood were two of the highlights of our weekend trip to Ipoh. More on that later.
Canning Garden in Ipoh, where we spent the night, is just over 200km / 124mi from Kuala Lumpur. Which is just a bit further than we wanted to cycle.
So we went by train for part of the way. Tanjung Malim is as far as you can go northwards on the KTM Komuter train. The KTM Electric Train Service (ETS) goes beyond Tanjung Malim to Ipoh and onwards to the Thai border, but full-sized bicycles are not allowed on board the ETS trains.
Early on Saturday morning six of us met up at various points along the way to the Kepong Komuter station. We would normally have boarded the train in Kuala Lumpur. Track upgrading work means that there is temporarily no service between Kuala Lumpur and Kepong.
Photograph courtesy of Danial Marzuki
Danial, Halim, Choo Chian, Safwan, Ozzy and I caught the 7.10am train ride from Kepong to Tanjung Malim. That was the last weekend non-peak hours train until 8.00pm. Bicycles are allowed on Komuter trains during non-peak hours only. The train ride took about 75 minutes. We had the last carriage almost entirely to ourselves. At 9.00am we were scouting the area around the Tanjung Malim station for a place to have breakfast.
The stop at Restoran Hijas was the first of many.
By 9.45am we were on the road northwards to Ipoh. We cycled along Federal Route 1, which as the name implies is the first and oldest federal road in Malaysia. Federal Route 1 was the backbone of the road system in the western states of Peninsular Malaysia before being supplanted by the North–South Expressway (E1 and E2).
Photograph courtesy of Ozairi Othman
Our next stop was at the Shell station in Slim River. So named for a Captain Slim, who in the nineteenth century sailed up the river, mistaking it for the larger Perak River, which was the main waterway at that time.
We were trundling along at a relatively relaxed pace. We were all carrying clothes, toiletries etc. in our saddle packs. Some of us had handlebar bags as well. Danial was on a Marin touring bike. We weren’t set up for speed.
So it was two and a half hours before we got to Restoran Shakir in Sungkai, where we had drinks and topped up our bottles with ice.
A word about the state of the road is appropriate here. The entire length of the ride was about 125km / 78mi. There were some badly rutted and patched sections, but in the main, the road surface was reasonable to good. However, there was enough debris on the road that you had to keep your eyes glued to the road ahead.
3km after leaving Restoran Shakir I got distracted by a motorcyclist pulling off the road to my left and clanged straight over a substantial lump of stone. The noise that made was loud enough to make me think that I had damaged a rim. Not the case as it turned out, but I had pinch-flatted both my tires.
Thank goodness for riding with friends whom I could borrow an inner tube from.
Photograph courtesy of Ozairi Othman
Danial and Ozzy rode on while my three assistants and I fixed two flat tires. We caught up with them about 10km / 6mi later at a row of fresh fruit stalls in Bidor. It was 1.00pm and 33° C / 91° F by then. Iced mango slices hit the spot.
We got to Tapah about thirty minutes later. A good time to stop for lunch.
Photograph courtesy of Safwan Siddiq
The KFC in Tapah was packed but we went in any way. The air conditioning was the main attraction.
My lunch was pretty good too.
70km / 43mi done. 55km / 31mi to go.
After forty-five minutes in the cool of the KFC, we headed out into the sun again. Not for long though. It was 35° C / 95° F. Twenty minutes later we stopped at the Shell station in Temoh for ice cream and drinks.
Thirty minutes after that we were inside a Petron station at Kampar. I told you we stopped a lot.
The next ice cream and drinks stop was at a Shell station in Gopeng. It was 4.30pm, and we had 18km / 11mi to go. But we had two more stops to make before w got to Canning Garden.
All the Way from Tanjung Malim we had ridden past a multitude of roadside stalls, some quite makeshift, selling durians. Durians are regarded by many in Southeast Asia as the “king of fruits.”
Photograph courtesy of The Star Online
Durians are a seasonal fruit, and prices have soared in recent years as more and more of the local crop is exported to places like China. But this year, a combination of unusually hot weather and heavy rainfall resulted in a long durian season. This has produced an oversupply that has pushed down prices.
Danial could not resist the temptation. We stopped in Simpang Pulai for a mini durian feast. While the others were delving into durians, I noticed, set back from the road, the ruins of this mansion.
In its heyday in the 1920s and 1930s, Ipoh was the epicentre of a tin mining boom. Newly minted millionaires built mansions like this one. Following the depletion of its tin deposits and the collapse of tin prices in the 1970s, Ipoh suffered decades of decline and neglect. Epitomised by these remains of what was once a stately home.
Our last stop was at the Ampang Cycle House, where I bought inner tubes and CO2 cartridges to replace what I had borrowed.
4km / 2.5mi away from the bike shop is this terraced house which was our home for the night. Choo Chian booked it online for us. Very comfortable and well-equipped it was too.
So why Vegas and Hollywood? They are the names of famous eating places in Canning Garden. Both are coffee shops housing a collection of food stalls, so there is a variety of dishes on offer.
It was 6.30pm when we arrived at Canning Garden. After storing our bikes in the house, we walked, in our cycling kits, to dinner at Vegas. Vegas is open at night but not in the morning. Hollywood, 100 metres away in the next block of shophouses, is closed at night and open in the morning. We would be at Hollywood for breakfast.
There are no dinner food photographs to show, but I assure you the food was good.
Photograph courtesy of Danial Marzuki
After dinner, we washed ourselves and our cycling kits, and lounged in the sitting room for a while. Some of the guys went back out at about 10.00pm for a teh tarik. It was lights out time for Halim and I.
CNN.com ran a feature about the Cameron Highlands a few days ago. The Cameron Highlands, along with Fraser’s Hill and Kuantan, was a favorite family holiday destination in the late sixties and seventies. We would head to a rented bungalow in the highlands to escape the heat and bustle of Kuala Lumpur. I have fond memories of the Cameron Highlands.
So it was with some anticipation that I signed up for King of the Mountains #4. The fourth ride in Dave Ern’s Nine Kings of Mountains 2013 series.
There are three roads up to the Cameron Highlands. The Tapah road provides better access to food and drink enroute than the other two roads. We were a baker’s dozen at the start.
Photo courtesy of Ann Daim
Which was at the Lata Iskandar waterfall, about 22 km / 13.6 mi from Tapah.
It is all uphill from the waterfall to Ringlet, 21 km / 13 mi away.
The road is shrouded in jungle as it winds its way around the contours of the mountain.
This section is dotted with roadside stalls run by orang asli, the indigenous people of Peninsular Malaysia. Most were selling jungle produce like petai or stink bean, wild honey and fresh bamboo shoot. A few stalls had other things, like this one that had angklung and bird’s nests.
My naturalist friend Irshad Mobarak tells me that the nests were made by the male Baya Weaver. After weaving the nest the male bird dances and sings to invite a female to inspect it. If she approves of it she will mate with him. If she does not like it she will unravel the nest and the male has to build a new one for her. The Baya Weaver makes many such nests in a tree, and likewise he also has many mates too.
Ringlet (I wish I knew the etymology of the name) is just over the border between Perak and Pahang. It is the first town along the road from Tapah to the Cameron Highlands. The highlands are the only place in Malaysia where strawberries are cultivated on a commercial scale. Hence this welcome at the start of the 1 km descent into Ringlet.
We stopped in Ringlet to regroup.. I took the opportunity to test out my new temperature regulation strategy. (See Hyperthermia. Avoid It!)
It worked so well that I stopped in Ringlet on the way down the mountain for one of these.
The next town was Tanah Rata. A further 12 km / 7.5 mi up the road. There was a photo opportunity along the way at the Cameron Valley Tea House. Incidentally the site of the first traffic jam I encountered as cars and buses jostled for parking at the side of the road.
The Cameron Highlands is the largest tea growing area in Malaysia. Boh, founded in 1929, is the largest plantation owner. My biker chick especially likes the Boh Seri Songket teas. The other major tea producer is Bharat, which started operations in 1933. Bharat sells under the Cameron Valley brand.
The valleys around Tanah Rata and Brinchang are carpeted with bright green tea bushes and dotted with buildings for tea processing.
Tanah Rata is what I remember being the ‘centre’ of the Cameron Highlands. The holiday bungalows were all in the area. Like the Shell bungalow at Bukit Ruil.
Photo courtesy of KumarKT
That is where the golf course is as well. The golf club has expanded since I last hacked divots from their fairways.
I don’t remember the inn being so close to a major road. The Cameron Highlands was a much quieter place when I was a schoolboy.
Just north of the golf course I saw just how much busier the place has become. There was a one-way traffic system around and through a commercial hub that houses at least fifteen budget hotels and holiday apartment blocks, and the restaurants that cater to them. Despite the one-way system and a number of traffic policemen working the flow, things were at a crawl. It was faster by bike, despite the 6% incline.
There was a line of vehicles for the next 3 km to Brinchang and the Equatorial Cameron Highlands. The resort is 1,628 meters / 5,341 feet above sea level. The highest accessible point in the highlands. From the resort grounds you can see how the tourist trade now lives cheek-by-jowl with the vegetable farms that the Cameron Highlands has long been known for.
Much of this market gardening happens under protective roofs and plastic sheets that extend in terraces up from the valleys.
The farms have themselves become tourist attractions.
Butterflies have long been a feature of the highlands. Sadly I saw just one butterfly during my ride. Not counting these ones.
I turned around not far past the butterfly garden. It was time to claim my reward for all that climbing. Chasing and overtaking cars, lorries and buses on the switchback road back to the Lata Iskandar waterfall. One bus driver in particular was astonished to see that a bicycle can carve through turns faster than most four-wheeled vehicles can.
I enjoyed my ride to Brinchang. I was less enthused with the changes I saw along the way. The area is suffering from its popularity with visitors. The Cameron Highlands may well be a cycling destination again for me in the future, but it won’t be a holiday destination anymore.
Old Roots, New Routes 