Slow & Easy

On the morning of the 28th Feb 09, I met up with Poh at the NKVE Shell at 8.30am. We headed towards the old Gombak road 68 via the Duta toll and Jln Kuching. But before we started our journey, we had to meet up with Woo at the Shell stn near to the Gombak toll. After meeting up, we started on our journey.

3 bikes, with no agenda but to enjoy the ride, real slow and easy. Nice.

Road 68 is a really very quite route with a lorry or car every now & then. Apart from that, we had the road to ourselves, almost. On the way, we saw quite a number of cyclists coming from the opposite direction. They must be the early birds who "took to the hills" much earlier than us. The route is very scenic with lots of green to look at. The morning sun shining on the trees is a real treat for tired eyes. It really shows the glory of nature in it's full splendour. There were even monkeys (real ones) on the road, just to underscore how quite the place is. The pix on the right gives the perpective on how vast the "jungle" is compared to a bike (red circle on lower right of picture).

This was the road that I used to take some 30+ yrs ago when I was working in
Kuantan. Then, the buses, lorries, taxis, etc. would take this road between KL and Kuantan. It was narrow then, and still is now. Once in a while, you will see vehicles "squeezing" past each other. Imagine a lorry balak and bus in the situation in the pix. It was real scary then when I had to travel by bus. For a bike, no problem lah.

Following the road, it took us to the Orang Asli Musuem but we did not stop there. Rather we went a little further up to the Bkt Tinggi area where there's a coniferous forest reserve. Stopped for a while just to admire the place. Thereafter, we headed towards Janda Baik and stopped by a river. Again, it was a joyful experience to be close to nature, nearly unspoilt. Further down the same river, we met some bikers enjoying themselves in the water. Looks like this is a favourite place for city folks to get away.

After the brief stop at Janda Baik, we headed towards Bentong and had ABC and pulut nasi lemak in the town. This is our friend's favourite food, so he tells me. Then, the Ktn-KL bus would stop here for a short makan break before continuing it's journey. If I can recall correctly, it would take about 7 hours for the jouney, which explaines the makan break. Everyone and everything changes with time and the town has changed from when I last saw it about 30 yrs ago and I could hardly recognise it.

Leaving Bentong and a short ride toward Raub, we left the main road and headed towards Chamang Waterfall. You won't get lost here as the road ends at the waterfall! Being a Saturday, there were quite a number of people there but the place was big enough to take in all of us without having to feel "cramp in". We spent some time at the waterfall just lazing around and admiring the view.

The amount of water that gushes down the slopes is so much that just a minute's worth of that flow will probably meet my whole month's worth of water usage, or more. The white water looks real dangerous and I wouldn't want to be in it. There's even notices put up by the authorities warning people to stay away from these areas.

Lower down the fall is the pool area, and this is where one should be swimming.

Noticed that there were some butterflies at the edge of the pool where the people were swimming. Wish I could have joined them. The water looked so cool and refreshing that I just wished that we have came better prepared. Sigh!The next time we go on a trip like this, I am going to bring everything, except the kitchen sink!!! We ended the day taking the Karak Highway back to KL and I reached home at about 4.30pm. Overvall it was a great way to spend a Saturday. I loved it. Do it again? Definitely!

Over and out. - IHVR