RA's Journal, Day08-10, Oct 15-17, 2011

Today’s Question:

Question (SMS question):

How are you feeling today? Extending your stay in KL?

Answer:

I am feeling good. I feel brand new after 2 solid days of rest. Thanks to Alison and family, David Lee, Safwan and June for making me feel this way. I am not extending my stay and I am now in Kuala Selangor after an easy 60km travelling on Route No.54, then heading in a West-North West direction back on to the coastal road, Route No.5.

Note:

It wasn’t on my Day 07 journal. I had a minor accident whilst having dinner at Souled Out in Mont Kiara. I was alright on Saturday and Sunday, but today, peddling the 60km up and down the hills of Selangor, my right leg felt strained at the spot where I fell and hit it hard. We shall see how it holds up tomorrow when I would be cycling 65km towards Sabak Bernam. If the pain is going to slow me down I might modify my plan.

On Days 08 and 09 (Saturday and Sunday) I had a rest at the home of Alison Murugesu-Ghani, and I thought I would share a little about it.

Day 07, Friday, Oct 14, 2011, night at KL:

Upon arriving at Mont Kiara, I proceeded to clean my bike, chatted with Alison, Adrian (Alison’s son) and her mum, and took some time out on at the balcony chilling with happy juice and reflected on my day’s ride. It had been one tough ride so far, and coming into KL during peak hour traffic is crazeeeeee …. I won’t be doing that again.

At Alison’s place I met Norman, a musician from KL, we chatted a little before I made my way downstairs to meet Safwan and June for dinner at Souled Out, which was nearby. A very cool and interesting place and I highly recommend people to check out the place should they be visiting Mont Kiara.

L-R: David, Norman, RA

I had a bad fall after dinner. It happened when I wanted to stand up, my legs felt numb, my right leg caught one of the dining table legs and I fell over, my fall was broken by my right knee. I felt alright that night but after my up hill rides today, I felt the pain.

Day 08, Saturday, Oct 15, 2011, KL rest day:

I woke up at 0500hrs (5am Malaysian time). I didn’t sleep well last night. My mind kept thinking about my route out of Mont Kiara. I needed to find at least one old road to take me out from Mont Kiara, then I could find my way West or North West back onto the coastal road.

I couldn’t fall back to sleep. I just laid there on Adrian’s bed staring at the ceiling. I got out of bed at 0700hrs (7am Malaysian time), washed up, made myself a cup of coffee and just enjoyed the view from the 22nd floor.

The view from the 22nd floor

At 0800hrs (8am Malaysian time), I received a call from Safwan informing me that he would be there to get me at 0830hrs (8.30am Malaysian time). We were headed to Nottingham University for an all girls Ultimate Frisbee tournament. I am a very lucky guy.

Me: Where is Nottingham University located, Safwan?

Safwan: Semenyih

This I had to see. I brought along my route map to see how long it would take to reach Semenyih from Mont Kiara by car. Can anyone guess?

We stayed at Nottingham for about 2 hours before heading out to see Broga Hill nearby in Broga district, Selangor. In the afternoon, David brought me out to eat INDIAN ROJAK (the KL people had some other fancy name for it). Oh, My God. It’s so delicious! Delish!!! If you’re in KL, head to Petaling Jaya (PJ) and if you’re looking for the INDIAN ROJAK, good luck – like I said earlier, people in KL have some fancy name for it - Baksambur. I think there is a song for it too.

Editor’s note:

RA the Indian roajak is also called pasembor. The name is from Penang. KL people don’t call it that, only KLites from the North will refer to it as that. It’s available in other parts of the Klang Valley too, not just PJ. The one we went to in Section 17 of PJ happens to be one of the better ones in the Klang Valley. BTW, I have never heard of the Baksambur song. U should sing it to us when we next meet…. Hahaha :D

Enjoying the "Delish" pasembor/indian rojak

After the Indian rojak, we roamed around PJ, got my rear pannier fixed (I’ll write more on it later), went for “teh tarik” (Indian Pulled Tea) and drove around some more. We went to Taman Tun, One Utama, The Curve and more. These are places that I have never been before or has changed since the last time I visited PJ and KL. Heading back to Mont Kiara, David drove onto a network of the ‘spaghetti” flyovers’ which got me completely confused. When we got back to Alison’s place, I continue with my route planning to find a way out of Mont Kiara.

Pannier repair

I crashed out at my usual bedtime of 9.30-10.00pm, while David and Alison was still chatting in the living room. * Sorry guys, I am lousy at staying up late :p

Alison & David

Day 09, Sunday, Oct 16, 2011, KL rest day:

I slept like a log last night, and the first thing that was on my mind when I woke up was, ‘I need to find a way out of here.’ I really don’t want to be on the semi highway again – the way I came in. I thought it was just too risky. Breakfast this morning was a simple nasi lemak from the Mont Kiara street stall. Sedap! (Malay for delicious). While Alison, Adrian and her mom was out for Sunday family bonding, I got on with trying to map my route again. I headed downstairs and walked around Mont Kiara to find the best place to start peddling out from Mont Kiara. Every turn lead me to the ‘spaghetti flyover’ and every small corner was blocked by developers working on a new residential project. Oh well, I walked back to Alison’s and will just find a way out of Mont Kiara tomorrow, no point letting it spoil my Sunday.

I didn’t go anywhere today, just rested up and prepped myself for the next day’s ride. Serviced my bike, packed and re-packed my gear after the rear right pannier gave way on Day 05. We had a big late lunch and really a great Sunday afternoon tea of IKEA curry puffs. Thanks, David! We chatted as we had tea on topics such as off-roading, rainforest and adventure, and I when raised the topic of ‘cooking knives’, too my surprise, my Kuala Lumpur buddies got out their arsenal and they had more knives than any gangsta I know!

I also brought the 2 kids (Sean and Adrian) down to kick some ball and go for a swim. Later on, Alison asked if I want to see the ‘old road’ out of Mont Kiara? I sure did. She drove me around and showed me the route. Heck, the old road was just next door to Mont Kiara. Ok to be fair, it passed through Kampung Segambut Dalam. I smiled again after we drove through it. Alison then brought me to the other parts of Mont Kiara as well. Oh man, Mont Kiara and The Curve has got so many places that I need to explore when I return here. Thank you, Alison! On the way home, we stop along the way to buy the best makan available in Mont Kiara for dinner!

The wonderful and sumptuous meal

After the sumptuous meal, I did a quick once over my gear and bike, and went to bed by 2200hrs (10pm Malaysian time).

Day 10, Monday, Oct 17, 2011, KL to Kuala Selangor (60km):

Accumulated distance travelled: 620km

Its was so difficult to wake up today, knowing I am will be leaving all my buddies shortly. I got up at 0700hrs (7am Malaysian time), washed up, made coffee, and hangout on the balcony for a good look at Mont Kiara again.

At 0900hrs (9am Malaysian time), Alison brought me to Bangsar (another suburb in KL) for medicine resupply. I must say Bangsar was really a beautiful suburb. Clean and manicured. Everything was in place and proper. Even the trees were all lined-up symmetrically. I actually thought it looked a little like the suburbs in Melbourne, Australia.

When we got back to Alison’s place (an hour later), it was one last check of my bike, had a cup of coffee and it was time to hit the road again. At 1100hrs (11am Malaysian time) did some last minute tightening of the bike’s gears and re-checked the repaired rear right pannier to make sure all was well, did some obligatory photo snapping, then rode out the main gates of Alison’s place. I headed of slowly down the route which Alison showed me last night.

Leaving Mont Kiara, KL

(photo by Alison Murugesu-Ghani)

I rode heading West and North-West, getting onto the coastal road on Route No. 5. I wasn’t very familiar with the route that I was taking so I rode slowly. My muscles also needed some adjustment from the 2 days of rest. Riding at about 10kmh, with the aim of covering a distance somewhere between 50-60km today. The target was to hit Kuala Selangor around 6pm and quickly locate a place to rest.

The old road took me out of Mont Kiara for about 10km until I saw the ‘Sungei Buloh and Kuala Selangor’ sign. I followed it and it brought me back to the semi highway I was on earlier with Alison when coming back from Bangsar. I had no choice but to enter it cautiously. Everyone was nice enough to give this dude way and some even gave me a friendly honk and the thumbs up! One stopped ahead of me and offered me a can of coke. *smile*

Finally, back on the old road again (around noon), I could afford to relax a bit now. It’s really tiring to be riding with fast moving vehicles next to you. I was now about 15km out of Mont Kiara and heading North-West towards Kuala Selangor. At around 1300hrs (1pm Malaysian time), I stopped at a famous Indian makan stop name City (my god, I forgotten the name) some 20km out of Mont Kiara along the Kuala Selangor road. The place was recommended by the dude who gave me the can of coke earlier on. Before leaving, I check my GPS and route map and based on what I saw, there would be about 15km of climbing, switchbacks and small tight roads. I didn’t like what I was getting into.

I shoved off from the lunch stop at around 1330hrs (1.30pm Malaysian time) and made my way steadily towards my next check point, a small town named Ijok. Like the Port Dickson to Seremban road, I again felt it was really hard for me to pedal, on even what looks like a flat road. I was only going 8-10kmh on average here. A check on the GPS showed that I was doing a gradual climb. I dropped my gearing until there wasn’t any more to drop. The road getting tighter, the switchback showed up and the climbing started. The headwinds made everything seemed even more difficult for me to move forward. All of last weeks training was tested here. The heat was directly on my face and with lorries/trucks passing right beside me, I was busy controlling my heavy bike from swerving out right. It was a hard 15km of work.

Small shrine/temple at Ijok

After peddling for about half an hour, I thought that there wasn’t any point to beat the climb on a tight road with a lot of blind spots, so I stopped to take a picture of the road and sat for while. It was then that I remembered reading an article on a road cycling safety and on how I could make my ride safe and myself visible. Communicating with other motorists using hand signals. There were just two signals (I will post the pictures when I get the chance to do so later). I got on my bike and continued climbing for a little bit more before the road started to descend. I loved this moment, I was hitting speeds of 50kmh and wished it wouldn’t end. With a little bit more pedaling, I reached Ijok town and got the riding space I wanted – at least 1 – 1.5 meters and on a tight road, this is something.

One of the many tight corners

A time check at 1500hrs (3pm Malaysian time), Kuala Selangor was another 20km ahead of me. The winds were getting stronger from the front and the road felt like a frying pan. I made a stop underneath a brand new highway (E25) for a little while and chatted with the contractors there. Interestingly, this particular highway (LATAR) wasn’t in my GPS and my route map. So, I plotted it in with the curious contractors crowding around me to check out what I was doing.

At around 1600hrs (4pm Malaysian time), the weather was starting to take a turn for the worst. The clouds got darker and as luck would have it my right knee couldn’t bend (I suspect it was the result of the fall on Saturday night). I packed up my stuff, got on the bike and try to hit the last 20km in double quick time to avoid the storm. Boy I was scared shitless here. The lightning struck very close to me at one point and I thought the next one would be even closer. I was riding on a very tight road, no road shoulder, no motorbike lane, like the ones in Johor and Malacca. Adding to this there were also cows on the road. Another lighting and thunder, and the cows were all over the place and I was smack in the middle of it! One of the cows got hit by a slowing down lorry/truck. All I could do was just stand still and looked which way the cows were going to run. I was actually quite lost at that moment. The cows were now gathering in the middle of the road, I couldn’t just stop and waited for them to move aside, so I inched slowly towards them. After passing the herd of confused cows, I headed on at full speed doing 25kmh to get into Kuala Selangor before the storm. I stopped at the first sign of shelter. A nice receptionist at a budget hotel took me in from the rain and gave the Wi-Fi password. I was wet and thought, why not just stay the night here at YH Hotel along Jalan Taman Rhu and Jalan Rhu Satu. Nice room, friendly staff and good food next door. Dry and fed, my right knee was good for now, so we shall see how much beating it can take tomorrow. There will be a bit of climbing to take place up Bukit Melawati to Sabak Bernam, some 60-70km away from Kuala Selangor.

Overall Ride: hard, strong head winds, painful right knee, hot and wet.

The 3 things that made me smile today:

1. Using the old road to get out of Mont Kiara.

2. Went to Bangsar.

3. Arriving my destination safely.