HABU LOOP aka Thompson Graveyard Trail

The happy riders before the hiking starts!

I was a the Boh Plantations a few weeks earlier in Habu, Cameron HIghlands and I rode up and I knew beyond there was more interesting places as I did a ride there many, many years ago but with just the two of us, I did not venture far from the tea house. So, I created an event to venture further beyond and invited many but only a few took up the offer to ride and those who did agree to ride was the few more adventurous riders.

Baru mau start!

The day arrived and I was surprised to see Chris and WK! This will make Alexander's day more interesting. We were a bit late and Alex was already there waiting at a coffee shop nearby. Quickly we set our bikes and moved out. Actually, one of the toughest climbs is the beginning as we have to ascend 500 meters in a span of 6 kilometers. To make it worse, it is the start of the start, no warming up! The greenery actually did make situation more calmer.

The fact that I like this ride is the tightly knitted group and who were in no hurry and regrouped often. Little did I know that this is a trait that will be much needed later ! We reached the tea house and made a 'pee-pee' stop and later ride up our bikes straight into the factory compound and had tea and cakes. We lounge a while before we started off again. 

Riding in the tea plantation was really nice!

Up and up!

We were just starting to descend into the valley and the scenery was mesmerizing. It really soothe all our tiredness we are feeling in our legs. Like the pages of a book, the beautiful scenery kept revealing by itself. We came to a small settlement of plantation workers and there was this big...... enormous bougainvillea plant. Actually "bougainvillea tree" is a much better description. And it was in full bloom too. There were a few of them there. Life is so unhurried and nobody bothers the tree for so many years and I think we human should treat a plant like that. After all, it's a life form too.

Taking shelter in a shack!

A few moments later, it started drizzling but we kept no heed of it until it became a heavy shower. We took refuge in a storage shack for a while and we even crawled into the shack via a small opening on the side. We even had a group photo inside....hahahaha!

The rain slowed down and we continued and then reached the edge of the tea plantation. Here the picturesque scenery is replaced by virgin jungles. The trail has become from tarmac to concrete laid path but it was still wide enough for a car or lorry. We kept riding and riding until we reached an 'orang asli' settlement called Pos Mensun. The place is called such because it lies beside the Mensun river. 

Wild boar as a pet, anyone?

We even spotted a wild boar here and suprisingly, the wild boar is domesticated and reared by the locals here. Lilian snapped her chain and I joined it back under an orang asli's home with the locals peering out at us from their windows.

Once done, we continued and it was pouring by now. We can hear the roar of the Mensun river beyond us. The trail has now dwindled into a single track now. It is shown in Google map because it used to be wide too but nature has took control on part of it with the locals here using only a small motorcycle most of the time.

Hiking or riding or both?

It was steep and slippery. Most of the time we have to come down and push the bike. So much pushing that most of us decided to push it all the way instead of mounting and dismounting. We were practically hiking now. We kept on to the trail and most of the concrete can't be seen already but the trail was obvious. We are hiking along the banks of Mensun river and even cross the river a few times, there was bridges , off course. When we reached the next 'orang asli' settlement, it was already 3.00pm. Little did we realized that, we have been pushing our bikes for almost 8 kilometers ! If it was not raining heavily, the trail can be ridden and only WK rode because he was using a mountain bike. I also noted that there was many markers on the trail and later I found out that this trail is known as " Thompson Graveyard Trail " to the mountain bikers.

Muscleman under the tree.

We spotted a small shack selling local cakes and immediately we headed there and ate as much as we wanted. We did not have any food since this morning's breakfast. It was still raining but after a while we decided to continue and the trail now is clean and wide but was very steep on both going up and down. Most of our brake pads were worn off already. 

We connected to the Sg.Koyan /Bertam highway finally and it was almost 4.00pm already. Alexander had to rush off since he needs to take advantage of the remaining daylight to ride back to Kampar. We wished our goodbyes and greetings and he headed off first leaving a few still hungry and tired riders behind. Before Alex rode off, WK had already shot off to the car with a mission in hand! He was to bring a car back and ferry the car drivers back to fetch our cars while the remaining riders will ride as far as we possibly can towards Ringlet. Most of us have swelling calf muscles after pushing our bikes for 8 kilometers in the jungle trail.

Tired, hungry but relieved!

While we were resting on the side, 2 caucasians bike tourers came to us and chatted. They rode from Kuala Lipis and were trying to find a place to spend the night before heading to Ringlet. They were tired and they seem to know that the remaining part of road to Ringlet is steep! So, they adamantly stayed put even when I coaxed them to finish the last 15 kilometers. 

The rest of us, 8 in all started off towards Bertam valley. Maybe we can find a food shop in Bertam to wait for WK to return. When we wanted rain, the sun came out and hit our backs! It was actually hard to pedal and the road from here onward is all uphill, in some instances a 9 percent climb. We stopped a few times to regroup because we broke into two packs of 4 each. We managed to do about 6 kilometers and was resting under a shade because Irene has started to get cramps already. Here WK showed up and then took me, Clement and Irene back to Habu to get the rest of the cars.

We retrieved our cars and headed back as fast as we could to the rest as it was already raining very heavily in Habu and the rain was fast approaching Bertam Valley. The rest was out in the open with no shelter for miles. When we reached them, they were smart enough to fold the bikes first and this was the factor that we all avoided the rain , just in the nick of time. Plan now was to get ourselves cleaned and I told them to head to Brinchang and take our baths first at the public toilet before we plan the rest.

After the bath, we wanted to eat but parking was scarce and we even had to take turns to shower. One to stay in the car while the other take their bath. When all are clean and refreshed, there was still no parking space. So, I suggested 'Jin2' for steam boat in Kea Farm. When we reached there, the situation there was the same and the jam heading towards Brinchang is still there. In fact the cars were jammed till Tringkap. I am sure we will not head back to Brinchang or Tanah Rata now with the jam.

All this makes the hardship worthy!

So, we headed to Kampar, maybe to invite Alex out for dinner. After regrouping in Pulai, we got no answer on Alex's phone so not to disturb Alex's sleep, we headed to the nearest and good food, IPOH!  We choose Wooley as the food there has more choices and parking was easier. We had a feast there and food never tasted so good before and this is because we had no food since 6.00am this morning.

We decided not to convoy and said goodbye to each other and headed straight back to KL!

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?