Kuala Lumpur : Sg Pencala Recce Ride 2012/09/19

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Kuala Lumpur - Sg. Pencala Recce Ride 
Royal Selangor Club Bukit Kiara to Desa Parkcity, 19th September 2012

Trio-Ride from Royal Selangor Club, Bukit Kiara > Kuala Lumpur Golf & Country Club > Taman Tun Dr. Ismail > Kampong Sg Pencala > Desa Parkcity & back.

Distance covered : 20.7km.
Starting Time : 5:00pm
Time Taken : approx. 2 hrs. (excluding stops)


PRELUDE

Sg Pencala Exploratory Ride Map  (click for Map Link)

Sin, Nash & me had rode around the Kiara, Tmn Tun Dr. Ismail & Sg Pencala area a few times and found the route interesting. But we were wondering where can this route extend to? Is there any way it connects to Desa Parkcity? Well, what better way to find out than to explore further!

The Ride

We set off from the Royal Selangor Club Bukit Kiara Annexe, it is a relatively new branch of the original Club which is close to 100 years old. But the building's architecture replicates that of the old club building at Dataran Merdeka.

From there we headed in towards Jalan Bukit Kiara 1, the road that skirts the Kuala Lumpur Golf & Country Club. Riding by the golfing greens were soothing to our eyes.

Passing the entrance to the Golf Club building, we prepared ourselves for a short and relatively steep climb upwards towards Changkat Abang Haji Openg.

Going down Changkat Abang Haji Openg was easy, sloping all the way down. But reaching the bottom, I turned around to look back. This is what we will have to climb on the way back!

And we were into Taman Tun Dr. Ismail. Avoiding the busier main roads of this small township, we rode along the Haji Openg & Datuk Suleiman areas, only exiting to the main road as we approached Sg. Pencala.

To reach Sg. Pencala we had no choice but to cycle a short stretch of the TTDI main road Jalan Dato Suleiman. This road gets pretty heavy as many motorist use it a detour when the LDP-Jalan Damansara Highway gets choked up.

We are at the underpass of the SPRINT Highway. Above is the SPRINT-Pencala Link. This part of the highway forms a boundary point. At the side where we stopped is Taman Tun Dr. Ismail, a up-market township.

Cross over and the modern world changes into a kampong area, the Sungei Pencala Kampong.

Crossing over into the kampong, we found it fairly busy with many cars parked at the roadside - the reason being the weekly night market at the right. Looks interesting, we will visit it later, on our way back.

At the T-junction facing the mosque, we made a right turn to ride along Jalan Sungei Pencala. This road skirts the foot hills and we hoped that that will lead us somewhere near to Desa Parkcity.

We are now feeling like explorers of old. Forward!

The road was shady and cooling, with rolling hills of gentle slopes, making our ride more interesting.

We passed by kampong houses built onto the hill slopes, nicely nestled into the greenery.

And kampong houses in a valley.

Soon that road came to an end, with a narrower road sloping steeply upwards and another narrow path beside it. That slope looks daunting.

As we got nearer, we saw that the narrow road sloped downwards and there was a barricade at the end. But what was interesting was the other side of this barrier.

On this side the kampong foilage grew naturally wild. On the other side....

On the other side the landscape looks neatly planned and there was no sight of kampong houses.

Is this it?

The barricade seems pretty hard to pass, with a top railing too high and a bottom railing too low.

But it was not a solid single barrier. It was actually two parallel railings with a break in between.

Voila! Like magic we could go through!

Immediately after crossing over, on our left we say this guard-house with a prison-like tall fencing. The Nepalese Gurkha guard eyed us suspiciously, for this is the rear entrance to Country Heights Damansara - a really upmarket residential area consisting only of bungalows.

We must be on the right track as this place is suppose to be next to Desa Parkcity.

But how far away is our destination.

Well just move on.... ONWARDS EXPLORERS!

Ahead we saw this viaduct tall flyover, this must be the NKVE leading towards Jalan Duta.

We are below the viaduct of the NKVE-Duta Link, it's piers supporting the road 70-80 feet above. One this side is the Country Heights Damansara, crossing over should be Desa Parkcity (that's what we are hoping!)

UPDATE JANUARY 2021: This passage is not accessible anymore by bicycles, a long stretch of hoarding/fencing has blockade out the access. It is still possible to hike around the barrier via a narrow steep off-road trail to the right.

And it was right, another 1km. further could be seen bungalows perching on top of cliffs.

And we were soon riding down the well planned landscaped roads of this township.

EUREKA!

We reached the Waterfront of Desa Parkcity, our destination.

After resting a while and basking in our achievement, we made our way back; following more or less the route we came from.

Remember the night market we passed by earlier, well we dropped by one of the stalls and bought bandannas for ourselves. Cheap too. At RM4-00 each!

Riding does work up one's appetite, the Sambal Hijau Restaurant in Kampung Sg. Pencala looks like a good place to eat.

So we went in, the interior looks nice and clean. Satisfied with the place, we made our orders.

We had Mee Kong Fu. It's not one of those martial arts food, but Cantonese Fried Mee.

And also Mee Hailam or Hainaniese Mee... Hey! Wait a minute, isn't this a Malay Restaurant in a Malay Kampong? Well, it's Malaysia - multicultural so this mix is not surprising.

And lastly - Sambal Hijau Nasi Goreng Special, one of the house specialty.

Well time to go as we will be attending another ride, the Damansara Heights Ride organized by Folding Bike Malaysia.

Heading back towards the Royal Selangor Club via Taman Tun Dr. Ismail (TTDI), we felt satisfied that our exploratory ride was fruitful

So what's next?

Stay tuned to AhPek Biker's blogs and be sure we will cook something up!

Postscript :

We did a couple more of these recce rides and later we organized a group ride.

Delicious Gado-gado at Subak

During one of these later recce rides, we stopped by at Subak @ Sg. Pencala to have a good meal and a tete-a-tete.

You are at - Jotaro's Blog / AhPek Biker / Cycling Malaysia / Kuala Lumpur / Sg Pencala Recce Ride 19th September  2012
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Selangor : Gangnam Style Ride 2012/09/29

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                          AhPek Biker - Riding Adventures                       

Selangor - Gangnam Style Ride

Subang Jaya to Jenjarom : 29th September 2012

Medium-sized Group Ride from USJ > Kota Kemuning > USJ (for myself)

                                         { from USJ > Kota Kemuning > Jenjarom > Jugra > USJ ;for the rest of the group}

Distance covered : 34.26km. {105km.}
Starting Time : 7:45am
Time Taken : approx. 3:13:43hrs. (for myself)

For full list of riders see GANGNAM STYLE RIDE / USJ-JENJAROM

NOTE:
To get into the mood, click PSY-GANGNAM STYLE for video/music to play to accompany this blog. It will open in another window, click on relevant tab to get back here.

PRELUDE


With the present Gangnam Craze, a ride with Gangnam as its theme was bound to happen. And who else to organize it but our jovial senior Yong Sin Ng. And more than 30 riders registered for this ride, crazy huh?
Well, we love to ride and have fun at the same time!

In the weeks leading to this, there were a lot of chat on how to learn this dance. Many searched the net for videos showing how to dance including this - "How to Gangnam Style Dance Tutorial". 

Our co-rider Dr Yangman went even further and did a caricature of Gangnaming with a bicycle. That would be something if somebody can really do that!

Yong Sin had planned the ride to start from USJ with the destination as Jenjarom. I had some other appointment for lunch, and concerned that I could not make it back for the lunch do, I planned to ride with the group just up till the far end of Kota Kemuning and then turn back.

It would have been great if I had continued on with them, for they went even further than Jenjarom and extended the ride to Jugra! That would have been an interesting ride. But then duty calls.

We met at USJ1/1a, an area of shophouses with ample car parking. Unloading our bikes we prepared ourselves. Some came earlier and had breakfast at nearby coffee shops.

The Ride

Yong Sin did a quick briefing. He will be leading the ride and his better half, Lim Hui Min, will be the sweeper. They had walkie-talkies to communicate with each other and whistles to guide the riders.

With a blow of his whistle, Yong Sin kicked off the ride.

Just rounding a corner and we were riding past the Mydin USJ Hypermarket. Even at the early hour, the traffic was already building up. This is a busy area indeed.

Not wanting to ride on the busy Jalan Kewajipan, we went onto the parallel residential road Jalan USJ2/2. However, slightly ahead we had to push our bike across a dirt path to access to the ramp leading down to the KESAS Highway. Well better to be safe than sorry.

We had an early regroup at the bus-stop here before riding onto the biking lanes of the KESAS Highway. They were around 25 of us, another ten riders would be joining us at Kota Kemuning.

It was a good thing too that we will be on the biking lanes, the traffic was fast as can be seen in the above photo of the ramp we were on. The moment the traffic light turned green, cars & motorcycles would be zooming past.

AND we were on the biking lanes! But the hedges growing close to the lane did not help as it pushed us to cycle almost at the center of the lane.

Slightly ahead, construction were ongoing and part of the bike lane was closed. A narrowly temporary barricaded lane was formed onto the highway itself. It was too narrow and motorcyclists were impatiently riding behind us.

For most of the stretch, the biking lane was relatively flat... and unshaded! It was a good thing that we were doing this in the early morning as we would be riding the lane for close to 10km.

We did pass under some fly-over, the clearance seems rather low - the minimum required by law?

As we approached closer to Kota Kemuning, the lanes did get shadier.

And we are into Kota Kemuning! Off from the biking lane and the highway.

We reached the meeting point for the other bikers (the Kemuning group), i.e. opposite the Columbia Asia private hospital.

But where are they? We waited patiently and looked around. Nowhere to be seen!

There was a bit of confusion, they were at the hospital compound while we were waiting at the bus-stop on the road opposite the hospital.

But no despair, a couple of calls and they soon joined us, and we took a group photo.

Now for the dancing! Some of us did the Gangnam dance, while most of the others looked on. A shy lot we bikers are!

Anyway, those that danced had a ready audience who cheered us on.

With the full group we were ready to bike on.

We rode along the shady roads of Kota Kemuning, heading for the far end of the housing estate, where it joins Kampong Batu 7 - another 3km. inwards.

Here at where Kota Kemuning ends and Kampong Batu 7 starts, I had to turn back - to ride back alone. I waved goodbye to by biker friends, both new and old - wishing them a pleasant and safe ride.

They went on to visit the Dong Zen Fo Guang Shan Buddhist Temple in Jenjarom.....

..... and a beautiful mosque in Jugra.

After seeing the last of them riding off, and with a feeling of melancholy, I rode back alone. Soon I was back at the biking lanes heading back for USJ.

To offset my loneliness, I took photos of interesting spots along the way. Like these intersecting flyovers.

 & the Giant Hypermarket at Kemuning Utama that I built a few years back.

..... at an overpass looking downwards at busy traffic.

The Proton Building at Hicom.

A silhouette photo of the AhPek Biker.

And I continued on keeping to the safety adage of riding a far left as possible, as the motorcyclists were really zooming by fast.

DISASTER!

Riding up the ramp from KESAS leading to the Summit USJ Complex, the traffic queue was long. There were motorcyclist behind me; impatient and wanting to overtake.

So the first chance I had, seeing a splay in the road ahead, I swung left to let them past.

Not good..... 

..... distracted by the motorcyclists behind I did not notice a manhole with its cover in the wrong direction.

The wheel of my bike went in and I was sent flying, landing flat-faced onto the road. Luckily, other than abrasions on my face, I was not seriously injured.

I used my on-board first-aid kit to to attend to my wound - cursing at the stupid manhole and cursing at myself for my lapse in alertness (for details of this accident see SAFETY CONSIDERATIONS #3 : The Accident).

Fortunately, my bicycle was not badly damaged. I must thank my lucky stars!

I was able to cycle the last 3km to the Start/End point.

After packing my bike into my car, I went over to the coffee shop opposite to have a drink to calm myself down from the shock of the accident.

Looking at myself in the mirror, I saw my bloodied face.

A lesson learnt.

Via my mobile, I sent photos of the offending manhole to warn my fellow bikers of the to avoid it on their return journey.

I drove off for further treatment; and later at home I lit a candle and said some prayers for the protection that God has given me.

Many thanks to :-

Ride Leader -  Yong Sin Ng

Ride Sweeper - Lim Hui Min

Photo credits : Some of the photos in this blog are by Kookkeong Fong & Yee Patric. Thanks!

You are at - Jotaro's Blog / AhPek Biker / Cycling Malaysia / Selangor / Gangnam Style Ride
If you like this, view my other blogs at Jotaro's Blog
(comments most welcomed below. if you like this pls share via facebook or twitter)