Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Selangor : Serendah Waterfalls Ride - What A Rush!

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Serendah Waterfalls Ride - What A Rush! 
WHEEEEE..... WHAT A RUSH!
Rawang to Serendah : 17th March 2013
Distance covered : approx. 35.98 km.
Time : 7:55 am - 2:00 pm
Time Taken : 6:05 hrs. (including stops for breakfast, waterfalls swimming, dessert stop at Serendah Tomyam, Tilapia lunch at Rawang)
Route Recommendations : Nice ride, some good slopes (this can be avoided if using the same route as the return trip), should not miss the Serendah Waterfalls at Serendah and the EATS places.


PRE-RIDE
Lower Serendah Waterfall (photo courtesy of Kimmiskie Lim)
Our cycling buddies SC Chin & Lilliana Lee had organized a cycling trip to the Serendah Waterfalls sometime in February. Unfortunately for me, I was away overseas having a holiday in India (see Jotaro's Footsteps - Intoxicating India).



But they knew about my inability to attend so they organized another "Repeat" trip to the waterfalls. And I am most thankful to the two of them as we all had a real fantastic time.



Group Photo opposite Tesco Rawang (photo courtesy of Kwan Mun Fah)
The turn out for the event surprised the organizing pair and most of us too.
Per the FB event page on My Cyclist Friends, 48 had registered but in the end 57 riders took part in the event.

The two co-organizers are teachers, and treated this event as they would a school trip, taking proper preparations to ensure that all are safe and none are lost. They even went to the extend of spraying red directional arrows on the road at crucial junctions to guide the cyclists and posted advisories at the FaceBook event page accordingly.

Seeing the size of the group, some of us volunteered to help out as ride marshals and sweeper.

Kookkeong a last minute entry to the ride, was also roped in as a Marshal.

This will also be the first time that I will be meeting Larry Chelvan, a FB friend, face2face. He & a fellow biker are real hard core cyclists and  true friends, driving down 250 km. from Penang in the wee hours of the morning to join all of us.


THE RIDE


"What A Rush!" Rawang-Serendah Waterfall Ride Map  (click for Map Link)
The ride will start from Tesco Rawang with a pit-stop at the Serendah Bhp petrol station for refreshment. Then we will continue on to the waterfall. There was an unscheduled stop for  breakfast at Serendah town. From there we went on to the upper Serendah waterfalls and had a fantastic time.
On the return trip, we stopped by at the Serendah Tomyam for desserts (some could not resist the tomyam here, and went for it too!) and later at Rawang town for a Tilapia Fish Lunch.


We took a group photo in front of the Mamak shop opposite Tesco, looking like an army getting ready for action.
The owner of the shop was very happy, as many had breakfast in his shop. Perhaps, he can sponsor the next ride here, I am sure there will be even more participants!


And we are off!


The co-organizers had planned well, our ride will take us along residential roads, back-lanes, foot-paths and even onto a footbridge; all of these in order to avoid the highways and main trunk roads as much as possible.
Hey! They have even painted a directional arrow onto this bridge too!


Cycling along one of the back-lanes. The residents seems to know the teachers well, waving greetings to them.


Soon we hit the slopes of Bukit Rawang Putra, for some it was a breeze.


For others, it was a tough struggle against gravity. Fortunately the shady roads help eased their struggle.


Irene Cho was most glad went we hit the down slope, happily coasting downhill.


Unavoidably, we had to cycle along part of the un-shaded main trunk road, and were quick to take refuge under the shadow of a fly-over when we had the chance.


We stopped at the scheduled pit-stop at the Bhp Petrol Station in Serendah. Here we topped up water, bought some refreshments and some bread/buns. It's a a station with a fairly large shop.
The faster cyclists has gone on ahead. We were the last batch.


Getting off the trunk road into Serendah town, we met up with the faster group. They had taken the opportunity to have a quick breakfast while waiting for us.


The slower riders quickly ordered, quickly ate to catch up with the rest. What could be a better morning meal than two half-boiled eggs with kaya (coconut jam) toasts.


Stomachs warmed up by the light meal, riding along the shady rural roads; we were ready for the cool waterfalls ahead.


In a short while we reached the lower waterfalls. Chin had advised that we will not stop here. There has been several drowning cases here, undercurrents suck in unsuspecting swimmers into an underwater cavity behind the falls. The red rope seen above, is to caution swimmers not to go beyond that point lest they be sucked downwards.


Riding on, now onto a gravel road, we headed for the upper waterfalls.


Upper Serendah Waterfalls (photo courtesy of Jimmy Chow)
What a sight beheld us!
White water bubbly rushing down the brown rocks. Our faster friends were already frolicking in the water.


Without hesitation, I just took off my jersey and jumped into the water to join my friends.
Brrrrrrr...... it was cold - a real wake-up after a hot ride!


The onrushing water was very strong, but it gave a very good massage. Being in the water there, one cannot help but feel like part of nature.


Although loud, the waterfall had a calming, meditative ambiance - very therapeutic.


It was a family day of sort - John Kang and his son...


... a mother with her daughter (photo courtesy of Jimmy Chow).


Upper Serendah Waterfalls (photo courtesy of Jimmy Chow)
... friends having a good round of Chinese tea.


All good things will have to come to an end, and we had to reluctantly pull ourselves away from the waterfall and start riding back.


Saying goodbye to the place, we headed for our next destination - 
FOOD!


Invasion of bicycles at Serendah Tomyam
Hungry, we were happy to reached our eats destination - Restaurant Tomyam, Serendah. The owners must be happy too, on seeing so many of us; they were probably singing "HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE!"


They serve very good Tomyam here. This one is the Seafood Tomyam Beehoon, with loads of cuttlefish, prawns, etc.


... and refreshing Leng Chee Kang.


... and very good fried chicken.
See, I was not bluffing; the owner was really happy to see us - grinning from tooth to tooth! 


They also sell take away chillied dried prawns imported from Burma (... Read More).

Okay, enough food - and this place was only a short stop for tea, a teaser for more food to come!
Some of us bought the chillied dried prawns stuff. We quickly started riding back to Rawang as the skies were getting dark with grumbling thunder too.


We reached Rawang and luckily the rain was still holding.
Passed by the Sun Cinema which shows Indian movies... my favorites heh! heh!


It started drizzling and we donned our raincoats (those who had them anyway). LYee Chang here looking like Supergirl with her yellow raincoat fluttering behind her.


Fortunately it was only a drizzle which stopped by the time we reached our lunch destination - the Rawang Tilapia shop (Restoran R Cheng Fei Zhou Yu Wan Tan Mee). It was another invasion of bicycles.... and another happy businessman!


Their Steamed Tilapia fished served with some wantan noodles are not bad.


Don't like steamed fish; there's always deep fried tilapia with chopped galic.


OR totally not into fish? - there is this delicious, aromatic Stewed Claypot Duck. (... Read More).


With all the good food available, we were soon feasting away.
YummY!


Happily we rode back to Tesco Rawang. It had been a good and interesting ride.


THANKS! CIKGU SC CHIN & LILIANA LEE


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3 comments:

  1. I enjoy very much reading your blog, Joe :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Kwan, your comment is encouraging.
      I blog so that in future we can go back and read on how much fun we had.

      Delete
  2. I too enjoy reading your blog bcs it's very informative and helpful (and written in perfect English! You must be a retired teacher too like Miss Lee and Mr Chin Sin Chuan). In fact,you make biking look so fun I might want to join your group.

    ReplyDelete