Some New Routes , Sungai Lembing !

Sungai Lembing Ride

Sungai Lembing entrance arch.

The last time I have visited Sg.Lembing was like 35 years ago, give and take a few years. I was there in Kuantan visiting a friend unannounced and he was actually joining a group of friends who were visiting Sungai Lembing for an early hike up the Panorama Hill to view the sunrise. Those days, it was not named as such! That was also the first time I walked up Gua Charas when there was no Indian temple within the same cave.

Fast forward after so many rides, I was gamed on visiting Sungai Lembing again. What better way than to ride there, we see more, we do more and we spend more time riding. Before we really invite friends for the ride, I must be sure of the routes, the accommodation etc.

One fine day after planning with Chris Ng, we finally did it. We started the day with meeting Chris in Bukit Bintang market for my daily dose of opiate! " Ah Weng Khoh Hainan Tea ". After breakfast there, I carried my bike and bags over to Chris's car. Chris will be driving, so nice! Thank you Chris!

We hit the Karak highway and on towards the east and by the time we reached the Kuantan exit near Bukit Goh, it was almost 9.00am. We choose a spot beside the toll office and set up our bikes and this will be my first trial riding with a carrier and bag at the rear. I choose the Hyper Gear waterproof bag as it seems more practical as I don't have to worry about rain!

My home made pannier and rack, waterproof too!

We started off! The sun was shining bright already and we rode slowly to warm up. Then we speed up a bit, riding at an average of 18km to 23km an hour. There was a few small undulating slopes but it poses no problem. We reached Pancing town in a short while and saw the police station on the right. We have to turn right here towards the huge limestone formation jutting right in the middle of a flat vast expanse of land. The road was plastered with fresh biological land mines laid by the herd of cows. Cow herding must be the main job around here!

Chris with the limestone formation at the back.

We don't have to go off road here as there is a good tarmac road leading straight to the temple in Gua Charas but it sort of go in a big arc around the limestone formation. We saw a small shortcut and rode through the plantation. We then found ourselves at the foothills of the limestone hill or formation. The staircase was new but the staircase that I used to ascend to the mouth of the cave somewhere above on the cliff of the formation was still there. There was a caretaker there now but those days I met a Buddhist monk inside the cave.

The staircase leading to the cave mouth on the cliff.

Chris took the first hike up while I waited at the foothills. After 30 minutes, Chris was still up there.......somewhere ! I decided that I will climb on the real actual event and will skip it for this trip. Chris showed up and he was quite ecstatic and said it was kind of mystical and erieeeee...... I said, " Let's go ". Chris asked me to walk up and I said I am not going up. Chris then explained that he promised that he will be paying for the donation when I climb up because he did not carry any money! Chris passed me some notes and I climbed the stairs. Up and up and then after slotting in the donation and entrance, including my own, I started up higher again. The metal staircase was vibrating under my weight! It was not this hard the last time I visited. Then again at that time, I was like 21 years old!

The mystical ray of sunlight from the ceiling of the cave. 

Like Chris described, it was musty, damp and dark. I keep going deeper and deeper and finally reached the 'Sleeping Buddha'. The ray of light that I saw on my last visit was more magical those days, then it was pitch dark in there and we need torch light to venture inside. Now there are some artificial light within. I was waiting for the ray of light to shine onto the 'Sleeping Buddha' but the light crept so slowly, I just make do with a few photos and left. It took me almost a full hour to join Chris at the foothills and I was panting by that time.

I rested a while and then we set off again. I am now looking for the bridge was was so visible in Google map. Found it easily and we cross the bridge and the river view here was beautiful. We trudge slowly along the loosely laid gravel trail and it was hard. At some point we need to push our bikes. As I followed the trail I have mapped out with a software, the directions and locations were different! Generally, we were heading in the right direction though.

The bridge that lead us to our ordeal!

As we rode 'bumpily' along, we decided to get back onto tarmac road as soon as possible. I have mapped out 2 routes, one shorter and one longer on the Garmin and these are mapped based on the bridges I saw on the Google map. We can only get back after we cross back to the opposite side! So, I re-routed my Garmin to the shorter route and we were suppose to look for a river and the bridge. I directed the GPS 'to go' to the bridge and it was only 1.2km away but there were no trails and we hit the river edge without bridge. While Chris waited, I even walked on foot and trespassed into an orchard. I opened up the fence to check for a bridge. We failed after many attempts and I was really tired and the heat was unbearable!

We back tracked to the main bigger trail and I looked for a shade to rest while chomping on some bread I bought earlier in Pancing town.The bread tasted terrible and it was now 1.00pm and I was hungry and my guess is, "so was Chris". Chris was chomping on some cereal bars. We refilled our water bottles as I was lucky to buy another bottle earlier.

We rode on along the bigger trail and although away from the bridge, it was in the direction of our intended destination, Sungai Lembing. After another  hour or so, riding in the heat on uneven bumpy trails, the path merged with my intended mapped route! Except that this is the longer route. So, we are saved but we need to put more effort to reach the second bridge which was much further. At about 2.40pm along the trail we met a lorry carrying palm fruits and we stopped him and asked for directions. He told us that we were just reaching the edge of his kampong and the bridge is further down. We were overjoyed and rode on with a sigh of relief!

Chris looking tired!

But his description of further down took us another hour before we rode onto tarmac..........and finally, the BRIDGE!  We saw a small kampong cafe but it was not open. The friendly lady cook was there and I asked for 100 plus and ice. Although not open, she obliged and we sat there relieved from the heat and tiredness. Chris had 3 while I had 2 and a little breeze was blowing and this made us lazy! We sat there longer and by this time the 'cafe' was opened. We ate chicken chop as that's what was available at that time. 

We left that spot at 4.30pm and started off for the main road. The main road was quite near and then I discovered that we were just a mere 4km away from Sungai Lembing! I was shocked and at the same time happy. Imagining that we have ridden so far on the off road trails in the God forsaken plantation. After a while, we rode into town and without much discussion, we rode straight to the hotel. We wanted the best there and I decided Riverview Hotel was the best in Sungai Lembing. I have already researched and mapped the location in my head and I found it easily. It was actually quite far from the main town center passing a huge graveyard. 

An old iconic tree of Sg Lembing.

We reached the hotel and ...........it was FULL! The lady was nice though. She called up a few other accommodations and even rode on her moped and took us to the place. It was another 10 minutes away actually. It was here that while hopping onto my bike, I stretched a wee little bit and a painful cramp hit me on the left calf. I nearly fell over and the resisting of the fall has stretched my muscle even more. It left a painful feeling on my calf muscle but I still had to catch up with the lady and Chris. My calf is still hard when I was writing this blog!

This is the first time, in my years of riding that I had a cramp. That's because I don't race against time nor do I want to catch up with others. This time I think was 'my state of mind' during the ride was to get onto the right path and fast! I did not notice that my muscles was tense. We got to the home stay and Chris checked out the room. It was basic but 'super clean', no exaggeration here! We agreed immediately and just like that! No registration , no payments! We carried our bikes into the room and rested as we can't take our bath just yet! We were so heaty and hot, the thermal shock might break us into pieces!

I then ate some dried fruits that I brought and then after our baths, we rested and took a nap. It was late evening when we woke up and we rode our bikes out to hunt for some food. As good as many has described Sg. Lembing food, there's nothing much to eat in Sg. Lembing at night. Unless you want to ride all the way to Kuantan for food which was highly unlikely. We found the place which bakes Kg.Java coconut biscuit and each of us bought 3 packets. Then we just went to one restaurant and to be fast, we just repeat the earlier order of the next table, to make our meal fast!

It rained very heavily when we were having dinner and we laze our time till the rain stops and we quickly rode back to the homestay. It was dark now and we were without lights and we have to pass the graveyard. Maybe we can do a 'Halloween Ride' here...............woooweeeeeeeeeeee! We even overshot our destination and have to back tracked and we got chased a few dogs!

The moment we opened the gates to the homestay, it started pouring again. The heavens gave us a small window to get back and I am thankful for that. We chatted for a while and I took a shower and went to sleep.

The scenic river in the morning.

It was 6.30am and Chris was slumbering away. I cleaned up and switch on the lights.......hehehe. The polite way of saying, " Wake up, wake up!" We got ready and a man came over and we paid him and left. What's for breakfast? Off course the 'san sui towfoo'. We had that and it was actually really silky and nice. As for the other 'yong tow foo', it's normal lah but the silky towfoo is miles apart from the regular we had in KL. After breakfast and some coconut biscuit purchase, we rode to the bus station.

Yummy! "san sui towfoo"

Yong tow foo noodle.

I and Chris decided that we don't want to ride anymore after yesterday's ordeal. So, we planned to take Rapid Kuantan back to the toll station. But alas, the driver wouldn't allow us to board which incidently is allowed as mentioned by a lady there at the bus station.  @%###**)(@!  driver!

We decided to wait for another bus, then finally we decided to ride back out. Chris was like the "Flying Brommy", riding at an average of 23 km/h and me with a slight pain in my calf had a hard time catching up. The road was not that bad with slight and gradual 'dragonbacks'. But there is one killer slope though but only one. After an hour, we were already in Pancing, near where we detoured to Gua Charas. We stopped for a 100 plus at a chinese coffee shoppe and then continued on. In another hour we were already at the toll station where we parked the car.

We can actually take a bath here and change into fresh clothes but we opted to just clean up and changed. Off we went and we are planning to have our lunch in Yik Kee Restaurant in Karak. That we did and it was not a dissapointment.

Yummy and fair priced at Yik Kee Restaurant.

So, the post mortem after the ride. I failed to locate the bridge was because I did not set a GPS coordinate for the bridges and also the waterway we saw was not a river! It was just a small and long pond! Unless you want to mountain bike, we agreed that it is not suitable for folding bikes. So, the event will be all main road and maybe a small detour into the 'kampong' and not into the plantation. Our ride will ride straight into Sungai Lembing and with that, riders can actually still go for the 4WD ride to 'Rainbow waterfall' and then next morning they eat the 'san sui towfoo' breakfast. On the ride back, we will detour into Gua Charas and this is the perfect time to view the ray of light on the Sleeping Buddha. So, this is a recce not wasted!

Until the next riding event!