The Great Outdoors

Sekinchan Beach Ride.

A nice beach shot.

Weekend is here! We have been planning this ride 6 weeks ago and the person who really wanted the ride did not participate due to the fact that we can't get seaview rooms. I too, did not expect the resort to be that popular. Ah well! The ride still has to go on, else what are we going to do with the day?

I decided to turn the ride into a day ride which was similar to the ride I did before. I got every rider to meet at the Sekinchan Fire Station at 8.00am. The day started early for me and I was at PLUS Damamsara toll plaza waiting for William. He arrived shortly and we shot off. We travelled via the new LATAR highway which made the drive easier instead of driving the narrow and windy Sungai Buloh way. It rained most of the way and we were actually expecting a wet ride!

We arrived in Sekinchan before daybreak, way to early. So, we drove into the small town looking for a place to have breakfast first. We found one, they sell chicken rice at 7.00am!!! No, we did not eat that. I had a fish ball noodle, off course! It's a fishing village after all. We drove to the meeting venue a short while later.

It was drizzling when we unloaded our folding bikes and unfolded them. There were faces of gloom just like the sky. Since some riders are not here yet, I decided to ride to the beach first, so we won't be hunting for the right road later. I found it easily and went back to the parking area and I saw SC Chin looking for the place. A little pointing got him to the right place.

Still drizzling!

They were all huddled under a bus stop and finally after everyone is ready, we rode off, although there was a slight drizzle. The air was refreshing though. I took them to the beach easily, following the route I have checked earlier. We wanted to try the off road trail till Pasir Panjang actually and that we did too but our bikes were not actually built for the condition, at least not for today! Mud was brim packed onto the frames and tyres. Worse still, it was all over our drive trains. We finally decide to ride tarmac today. Darn! I will have to come back again to do the seaside excursion. It was fun and the sea view was breathtaking. Never thought after 14 years staying on an island, I still love to see the sea!  

Admiring the sea!

Time to go!

I use my water bottle to spray water onto my brake pads, at least it won't grind sand and mud onto the rims when I brake. I can hear grinding when I pedalled. This won't do! But still we have to ride on. I was actually looking for a tap during the ride. The pace was slow and easy and it seems that we forgotten about the rain and actually it rain stopped and we didn't notice. We were too engrossed with the view, the air and the laughing and banter to actually care about the rain.

Fun, Fun and Fun!

There was a place, an 'ikan bakar' place, like a food court nearby. I remembered because we stopped there when I repaired my chain on my last ride. I leaded them back there and I rode straight to the toilet at the back. Luck must be with us! There was a tap and even a hose too! I turned on the tap and started hosing down the bike and everyone was puzzled and suprised that I found a hose. Everyone took their turn to wash their bikes and it actually took an hour and SC Chin even took his into the toilet to wash, a complete bike spa!

Foldies Spa

We took a drink here and the mood today was like, " No hurry" , "take it slow". The Tern P9 trio was talking about their bikes. Actually the three bikes are less than 2 weeks old with one bought just two days ago. After that we rode on and it seems this kind of day made us relax as well. We were riding at a slow 15km/h average. We were not looking at the road but were observing each other, waiting for each other, chatting while riding away, totally unlike most rides. We stopped at every nice view, every scenery seems to be more vivid on slow rides like this. Even the fastest riders, Clement and Penny was at the rear instead of the front.

We don't get to see this in the city!

We passed by familiar places to me, the same bridge, the same restaurant, the same mango tree, the peculiar tree and I was even looking for Earl Ku's inner tube. Hahaaha! I hung it onto a tree when he punctured it on our last ride here. We rode into palm oil plantations, quiet and peaceful villages with canals beside the road. The combination of cloudy skies, no traffic, cooling atmosphere made all of us ride slow, not tired but just plain riding it slow.

I saw a familiar signboard that says, " Marine Park" and I detoured into the road. This was where we were actually planning to stay the night, at least that was the original plan. I thought I just go in to have a look at the place. Although the resort is full, it seems devoid of tourist. I saw a fishing village with it's fisherman folks loitering around the jetty with the resort at the back. So, this is how 'Dorani Resort' looks like. Errr......... it's not what it looked like in their webpage. We loitered around the fishing jetty for a while, taking pictures, looking at mudskippers hopping in the mud. Yes, it was low tide. The fisherman folks seems oblivious to our presence. They were going on their jobs as usual and we were bantering and laughing loudly as usual.

Dorani Resort in the background.

We rode on, still very very slowly and finally I was near the big restaurant nestled in isolation just outside of Sungai Besar town. I now know we are almost there already. From here, I took lead and rode on until I reached the town and headed straight for the main point of the town. The fishing vessels moored in the river. The fishing boats were colourful with their blue, reds, black and many other contrasting colours!

We are here in Sungai Besar!

After a group photo, we rode back to the same restaurant that we went on the other trip. Ordering the food was a little daunting for me as I can't speak mandarin. A little bit of sign and body language and summoning Penny over helped a lot. We ordered a braised snapper dish, steamed pomfret, 2 plates of eggs with brinjal (this is really good, we had it the other day and that's why we ordered 2!) , an onion omelette, fried cabbage, another plain stir fried cabbage. This all amounts to RM125 with a few 100plus and tea thrown in. This is for 10 really hungry diners. Cheap huh! Wish I staying in this town.

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Great food!

We were complaining of over stuffing and how it's going to be hard to ride back bla...bla...bla. We rode into the fishing jetty area beside the river and the road brought us back to the arch of the 'bagan' , a word to describe fishing village in Malaysia. We rode back to the road leading us back to Sekinchan and the moment we hit the outskirts where the road is more quiet, we hit 23km/h average. In a short while, we were already at the bridge, a regrouping spot. Then another short ride, faster this time, we were sitting at the riverbank sipping sugar cane juice. We also had 'cempedak' fritters. The 'makcik' was at her jovial self and she could recognize us from the last ride. A round of bantering was held with laughter that be heard from Sekinchan itself.

Having the best sugar cane juice.

Finally we have to say goodbye and rode on back. The pace ws even faster and Mary who was not a regular rider couldn't catch up. No matter though, me the 'sweeping' specialist is always behind her. This time Clement was with me, chatting all the way. He was in no hurry today. Sekinchan's construction tower came into view and I pointed out to Mary, " See the tower, it's near already". We were only less than 5 minutes after them.

We loaded up our bikes, chatted for a moment and still the Tern P9 trio was still talking about their bikes. SC Chin was as usual taking photos and joking around. We wished each other 'goodbyes' and went on our ways. Till the next ride. Still have no idea yet where! I won't mind doing it again , here.  The ride here was slow, relaxing , fun and also filling ( with fresh seafood). Where else can we do that?