AhPek Biker - Old Dog Rides Again: Kuala Lumpur : Lost Riders

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Kuala Lumpur - Lost Riders Lost In The City

WE ARE LOST!!!

Kuala Lumpur : 18th February 2013

Quad Ride : TTDI>Tropicana Ctiy Mall>SS2 Mall>Sect.17 PJ>Sect.16>University Malaya>Federal Highway>Thean Hou Temple>Old Istana Negara>Brickfields>Federal Highway>Sect.14 PJ>Sect.19>Tropicana Ctiy Mall>TTDI

Distance covered : approx. 50 km.
Time : 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
Time Taken : 9:00 hrs. (including stops for visit & photos at Thean Hou Temple, Old Istana Negara & waiting out the rain)

PRELUDE

Rivern the leader of our group "My Cyclist Friends" was eager to ride even after having a good ride to the Serendah Waterfalls the previous Saturday. After all, due to work commitments, he won't have the opportunity to ride until April!
So Sin organized a ride for Rivern and called it "Lost In The City On A Monday".
The ride was on a Monday, the 9th Day of Chinese New Year. Only a few of us were off for that day and could join in.

I was quite reluctant to join as I had just come back from a holiday trip to India (see Jotaro's Footsteps - Intoxicating India 2013) and was hoping to recuperate from the trip abroad - a sort of a holiday from the holiday!
But early on that Monday morning I got a call from Sin to join them. Thinking that it would be a short ride that would be over by noon, I relented.
How wrong I was, the ride lasted NINE HOURS!
But it was a worthwhile and enjoyable nine hours.....

Alas! On the morning of the ride disaster struck Rivern!
His car could not start and had to be loaded up onto a tow truck.
He was so, so looking forward to the ride and was surely disappointed.
Though this ride was for him, we had to carry on without him. Poor fellow.

And I will be riding my new Brompton, the first real ride on it. This will be a test for me and the Brompton.

Yeeeehah!

"Lost In The City" Ride Map (click for Map Link)
(Blue is ride out, red ride back. Tree icon is location of Taman Dusun Bellamy)

Sin called this the "Lost In The City" ride as we did not have any clear routes that we will be taking and only had some destination in mind, i.e. Thean Hou Temple & the Istana Negara. How we got there will be the adventure!

THE RIDE

Pushing bicycles over the TTDI Market Bridge

My friends were having breakfast at a coffeeshop at the Zaaba area of Taman Tun Dr. Ismail (TTDI). They had rode over from the Royal Selangor Club, Bukit Kiara Annexe.
Running late, I quickly rode over to joined them, and had a bowl of noodles for breakfast while they patiently waited - these are true friends!
From there we rode over to the TTDI Market and took the pedestrian bridge over to Damansara Kim.

This pedestrian bridge spans over the SPRINT Highway, and is a safe way for cyclist to cross over that busy highway. There are even ramps to cycle up to the bridge - how much more cycle-friendliness can we wish for!

From there we took the overhead bridge to the Tropicana Ctiy Mall and rode down the carpark ramps to Level B2 to connect over to SS2 area of Petaling Jaya. Over that bridge and we crossed over from Kuala Lumpur to Petaling Jaya!
Seems like this ride is going to be a criss-crossing and up & down one, we are trying to avoid the highways and main roads so that we could ride safer. Anyway highways are boring places to ride on.

Riding along SS2/72 we entered yet another shopping mall, the SS2 Mall, rode down the car-park ramps two levels down and exited at Section 17! Down two ramps and we are in another part of PJ.... interesting!

The four of us who rode (L-R: me, Kookkeong, Sin & Jason)

Zig-zagging across Section 17 and then Section 16, we entered University Malaya through the side gate at Jalan 16/4.

Riding pass Dewan Tun Chancellor, University Malaya.

Riding in the university ground was good as the traffic was light and the area was well landscaped.

Or so I thought! Until I saw this steep slope.

Yes, we will be riding up there. On my Dahon Dash it wouldn't be hard, but with the Brompton?

We did manage after all - and without having come down to push!
At the top is a nice little park, which some refers to as the Lovers' Park.
Hmmmm.... must come here again some other time with some other love than my bike.

We rode around the varsity ground a bit and the left at the Jalan University exit.
The archway at the exit seems to bid us "Farewell!".

And we are into the Federal Highway, riding on the motor-cycle lane.
Cyclist please take note, though this is a biking lane, do take care when cycling there as the motor-cycles do zoom by very fast.

Crossing over at the Seputeh Interchange to the other side of the Federal Highway, we rode up the steep slope up to the Thean Hou Temple.

The weather was getting hot, and what else can be better but some refreshing coconut water at the top of that steep slope! Cheers mate!

Right at the TOP -

THE THEAN HOU TEMPLE

a magnificent piece of architecture.

Further along we turned into Lorong Syed Putra Kiri and rode pass the Siu Siu Restaurant. This place serves very good sea-food including Ceylonese crabs, but be ready to fork out more as the pricing here can be higher.
Oops... I am getting distracted by the thought of food.
Hey! Isn't this a dead-end road? But my compatriots seems to know better and I just followed.

Hah! It was not a dead-end road but did lead to some dead surroundings - a Chinese Cemetery!

Riding through the cemetery was not so eerie during the day time and the shady trees gave us some comfort from the sun.
But I am not sure whether I will do this at night!

Sin, ever the adventurous one, wanted to snap some photos of us within the cemetery. So we drag our bikes between the graves, said some prayers to the denizens to ask for their permission, took the photos; and quickly scooted off.

Further down was a monolith memorial to the victims of the Japanese Occupation of Malaya during World War 2.

And then a memorial to Lim Lian Geok, a pioneer of Chinese education in Malaysia.

And next the Alice Smith School, a private elite school.
What an interesting ride this has turned out to be; riding from a temple, through a cemetery, some memorials and then an elite school - all within a short distance.

And we were in for another surprise.
Riding along Jalan Bellamy after exiting the cemetery area, we looked down and saw a nice undulating park!
Hah! We were "Lost In The City" but discovered a "lost" park that few knew about.

This is the Taman Dusun, Jalan Bellamy. We rode round the park a bit, here under a shady trellis covered walkway.

Did some stunts there...

... and so did our bikes!

The Key Plan of Taman Dusun Jalan Bellamy

At the exit from the park is a hawker center - the one with the renown "Ikan Bakar" (barbecued fish).

Continuing on, we headed for our next destination - the Old Istana Negara. The easiest way from Jalan Bellamy would be to enter from the rear entrance. We rode in happily but were told by the guards that entry for the public is only from the front.

Biker Guard

So we rode round to the front, paid for our tickets (Hah! Need to pay! No wonder they didn't allow us in from the back.)

The guards there let us park our bikes just opposite the guard house.

The Old Istana Negara is the former palace of the DYMM Agung (the monarch of Malaysia). A new palace has been built for the king and this one has been opened to the public for viewing. Please note that no photography is allowed inside the palace building.

There is an annex (the former function hall) that has been turned into a museum displaying paraphernalia of the King & Queen. Here one can take photos to one's content.

We took a group photo in front of the mock-up throne dais, trying to look as serious as possible - after all this is a solemn place.

Feeling hungry now after the long ride, we went over to Brickfields to savor Peter's Pork Noodle at one of the coffee-shops there. This stall below the Peking Hotel was highly recommended in the Samsaurus Chronicles by our Malaysian Foldies chief, Sam Cheong.