Malacca : Peranakan Bike-Packers Day 3

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Malacca : Peranakan Bike-Packers Day 3

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Malacca : Peranakan Bike-Packers

13th-15th November 2012 >Day 3 - The Trip Back; from Malacca to Kuala Lumpur

At Klebang Beach

Small Group Ride (This blog covers Day 3 of 3)

Bike Ride : Malacca>Sungei Gadut

Train Ride : Sungei Gadut>Sentral Kuala Lumpur
Cycling Distance Day 3 : 83.37 km. (per MapMyRide App)
Ride Start Time : 8:00 am
Time Taken : 7 hrs. (including stops - eats, refreshment & photo shoots)

PRELUDE

We had had a good ride down from Kuala Lumpur to Malacca Town on Day 1 (see Peranakaan Bike-Packers Day 1), with a commuter train ride and then a bike ride covering about 90km.

On Day 2 (see Peranakaan Bike-Packers Day 2), we explored Malacca Town both during the day and night, and it is a nice to ride around.

And today, it's the trip back. Having rode a total of 140 km the past two days, we were not as fresh as the first day but still looked forward to the trip back - bikers sometimes can be crazy about cycling!
Rita have other plans so won't be riding back with us. But more of Rita's plans later.

Waking up at around 7:00 am. we took our turns using the bathroom, it's not that bad - there were two bathrooms for the four of us. We will be setting off at 8:00 am.

THE RIDE
This ride blog will be in three parts :
Day 1. Trip Down from Bandar Tasik Selatan, Kuala Lumpur to Laksamana, Melaka
Day 2. Biking Around Malacca
Day 3. Trip Back from Laksamana, Melaka to Sentral, Kuala Lumpur

DAY 3 : 15th November 2012 - THE TRIP BACK

Peranakaan Bike-packers : Day 3 Ride Route Map Malacca Town>Sg. Gadut>KL Sentral
-it's Day 1 Map just read it in reverse & we finished at KL Sentral. Stop points are also diiferent. (click for Map Link)

The route back will more or less be the same as the trip down, except that for the train ride me & Kookkeong will be disembarking at the Sentral Kuala Lumpur transportation hub. The TBS (Terminal Bersepadu Selatan) at Bandar Tasik Selatan is just to inconvenient for lugging bikes.
So I won't bore you with too much details ... hopefully heh! heh!

8:00 am - We rode off, along the way I looked around the Kota Laksamana area, taking in the view and locking in a memory of the place that had taken good care of us these past two days.

Tengkera Police Station

Riding down Tengkera, we looked out for a better place for breakfast than the Tengkera food court.
We did not call Rita, not wanting to disturb her, letting her rest and have a beauty sleep.

8:20 am - After riding a fair distance, seeing this corner coffee shop with quite a number of stalls, we stopped for makan. This should be a good place for eats. And it was! Definitely better than the Tengkera food court.

We had fried kueh kak, it was good but was lacking in bean sprouts.

Kueh Kak is diced rice cake fried on a large flat base wok together with soy sauces and salted preserved radish.

And also a fish-ball & Tau Kuah (Soy Bean Curd) dish.

This is a Malaccan favorite. One gets to choose the ingredients such as fish ball, tau kuah, fish cake, prawn fritters, etc.

The stall was manned (or should it be wo-manned) by this friendly Nyonya lady. She spoke Malay with me.
Such are the Malaccan Nyonya, they use Malay in their daily conversations, speaking in their own distinct accent. Some Nyonyas, who have ancestors dating back hundreds of years from Admiral Cheng Ho's era can hardly speak Chinese anymore.

9:05 am - A last shot before we leave this breakfast place - we were looking like promoters for Carlsberg beer with their huge advert in the background. But the jokes on them, we had been drinking Tiger Beer the previous nights..... Growllllll.....

Done with the eats we rode, passing this interesting temple, it's entrance archway was unique. Instead of dragons on top, there were mouse-deer. This is odd as the mouse-deer can only be found in the tropics and not in China. So this is an interesting blend of culture.

At Klebang, we made a slight detour to ride down closer to the sea and took a good group photo.
Now there are FOUR of us. We will miss Rita and her witty remarks.

9:30 am - Finished with all the formalities of food and photos, we started off on the REAL ride back, heading out of the Klebang Besar beach area back to the trunk road.

Saw this interesting mosque minaret - it had that pagoda tiered architecture.

At the traffic lights just before Kampong Tangga Batu. My biker buddies all looking like masked riders. Hi! Ho! Silver! Away!

10:05 am - We are at Sungei Udang, passing the police station

This time round, riding through the Sungei Udang forest reserve was much more cooling as it was still morning.
There a series of small dragon-backs here, so the cooling air did help.

10:30 am : We are at the outskirts of Masjid Tanah, as indicated by this fire station.

10:50 am - Andrew was enthusiastic and really into the riding mood.
"Hoi!" the three of us shouted at him. "Time out! Take Five!"
We had been riding close to two hours without really stopping for a good rest. So we stopped at this petrol station for refreshment and toilet duties.
The weather had started to get hot as can bee seen by Andrew's red face.

Leaving, we passed the Ramuan China Besar forest reserve meeting some small dragon-backs. But this time the weather is hot and taking its toll on us.

11:35 am - The hot weather really got to us and we stopped for a short rest at this bus stop.
But Hey! Where are we? Those are only our bikes.

Heh! Heh! We were over at the other side of the road where there was another shed. The other one had lots of mosquitoes. Let them bite our bikes!

11:50 Reached Ramuan China Kechil.

Passed by a nice kampong house.

Slightly ahead we stopped for...
what else but coconut water to quench our thirst.
The coconut water was really refreshing on this hot day as can be seen by Hui Min's expression, "Mmm, Mmmmm. Exhilarating!"

Me? I had other ideas of what to do with those coconuts, especially when they come in pairs.

These road side stalls are helpful for cyclist like us and other travelers too.
They sell an assortment of fruits (bananas, coconuts, watermelons, etc) and also bottles of honey, biscuits, belacan, cincaluk...
Ok. Ok. Have to stop rambling.
Time to MOVE ON.

12:10 pm - Reached Lubok China

Riding by the Lubok China round-a-bout AGAIN after 3 days, but now heading the other direction.

12:15 - Finally we reached the Malacca-Negeri Sembilan border. We are half-way to Sungei Gadut.

An interesting road-side stall selling rattan baskets and what-nots.

Our next destination Linggi, just 6 km. ahead!

I took this photo for the sake of my friend Rivern who sells paint.
"Hey Rivern! There's Kansai Paint here!"

12:40 - We reached Linggi.

Here we took a short break.
Andrew here looking real tired.
"Naaw..." He's just play-acting.

Taking a right turn, we headed for Rantau.
No worries here, I won't be boring you with the same tale of how we conquered those dragon-backs between Linggi and Rantau again.

Slightly out of Linggi town, we saw this Chinese temple - this time topped by the regular dragons.

1:10 pm - Rantau is just 10 km. away, but this is the start of those steep dragon-backs.
Oops! Sorry, I promised not to mentioned them, just couldn't help it.

2:00 pm - Woohoooo! At Rantau AND Lunch.
We decided to give the Rantau Food Court bland food a skip and ate at Hing Hwa Restaurant just opposite and next to the 7-11 store.
We had noodles there, they were ok and better than the Food Court's but still nothing to shout about.

But this place did have something to SHOUT ABOUT!
It's their Chinese steamed dumplings. These were fantastic with the steamed dough very nicely done and munchy. This is one thing that I liked about the shop.

The other thing I liked were those huge fans standing at strategic corners of the shop - very good for cooling off after a hot, tough ride along the dragon-backs. (Oops! I mentioned them again, sorry...)

Having had a filling meal and those nice dumplings, we rode on heading towards Sungei Gadut's commuter train station.
We are almost nearing the end of our cycling journey, it is only 9 km. away.

3:10 pm - Hurrah! Here's Sungei Gadut Station - we are at the end of our cycle ride.

WE DID IT!!

And now there are TWO...
Andrew and Hui Min packed their bikes and drove off, while me and Kookkeong went up to wait for the train to Kuala Lumpur Sentral.

The train came and we were soon zooming back.
It is a nice, cooling and comfortable ride, BUT not as fun a riding a bike!

My Dahon Dash P18 inside the Dahon Carry-on Bag

5:10 pm - I am back at the Kuala Lumpur Sentral Station waiting for my son to pick me up.
It had been a good first overnight bike-packing experience for me taking on those slopes & enjoying riding around Malacca Town.
The AhPek Biker is not so AhPek after all.

RITA'S STORY
At the beginning, I did mention "more of Rita's plans later", so here it is (Note: These are some of her photos; text in quotation marks are Rita's own words) -