Taiping Heritage Ride 3.0 (20-21 January 2018), Day 2 : The Ride Proper

At Matang Mangrove Reserve

At Kakak, again!

At the multilevel market

First stop, Matang Mangrove Reserves

Second stop, inside the charcoal kiln

Third stop, eagle watching

Evening ride along the Lake Gardens

War Memorial

Burmese Pool

Foot of Maxwell Hill

In the Twilight saga by Stephanie Meyer, Edward Cullen justifies his thirst for blood by only consuming animal blood, to which he likens it to tofu. As for Papa Mike, his obsession for blood curdle can only be traced back to his Asian lineage for no one can imagine him flying away as a bat! Allowing the imagination to run wild, wouldn’t he have been a flightless bat as such???

So it was decided that while the Singapore group will fill their stomachs with another round of chicken noodle soup and blood curdles, the JB group will try the market fare instead! They had thin toasts, fried carrot cake, apam, wantan mee, nasi lemak and “mum delivered Tai Chien popiah plus curry chicken with yellow rice!”.

It was indeed a “fulfilling” morning for all. Many returned to Furama, making a beeline back to their rooms for further deposits to the throne!!! ‘‘Twas a complicated job, weighing on the "gold bars" that our departure for Kuala Sepetang was delayed by a whole half hour.

Finally on the roll at 9 am, everyone were all smiles, especially Mr Lim. He had joined Susanna, Maggie, Irene and Tan for a massage the night before, to which, coupled with an herbal concoction by Maggie, had slept so well he totally missed his wake up call! Even roomie, Uncle KC had assumed he was all ready to miss out the day’s ride!

We did fairly well, taking on Aulong’s flyover in good stride but were sorely disappointed the promised kaya puff was closed for vacation. This must have “deflated” the spirits of the group for not long later, Susanna’s bike committed a hara-kiri!!!

So while some got down dirty to help with the tube change department, the rest learned to look at the brighter side of things. For what can be brighter than the sun itself as they squinted and smiled for Francis’ drone.

Monitor lizards are amongst the wild animals found in the forest reserves besides crabs and monkeys

Watching the four tiny propeller spinning at top speed really spiced up the mood, for we took flight for Kuala Sepetang, reaching the tiny fishing hamlet in a little over an hour! As the tide was still low for a boat ride, we visited the Matang mangrove reserves before proceeding to Chuah’s Charcoal Factory for an organized tour.

Disappointingly, Taiping is no longer cheap. As we found out yesterday, the Perak Museum now comes with an entrance fee; so does the forest reserve! However, we talked our way out of paying as we had not been stopped at the gates earlier but only approached for payment as we were about to leave! No, we were not very convinced!!!

Kee Yong’s tour of the charcoal factory is as usual fascinating and informative. Our University Science Malaysia’s graduate is indeed putting his knowledge to good use as we found out he has developed an anti hair loss shampoo with wood vinegar! As voiced by many of us, we will really prefer an anti greying shampoo instead!!!

As the fee for the charcoal tour comes with a complimentary charcoal baked sweet potato, the tuber tide us through our eagle watch cruise. Even though they were magnificent birds of prey, we wonder if continuous feeding will make them loose their predator instincts. 

Nonetheless, we enjoyed the boat ride which took us to the river estuary that separates Kway Kang from the mainland. As the tide was still low, the boat had to turn back right before the mangrove swamp and omit altogether the malay village on the other side.

As we stepped back to shore, the cute otters on the opposite sandbank had long disappeared. However, the image of the old man swimming by the muddy river was still fresh in our mind. We were informed by our spunky tour guide that he had gone insane when his wife left him.

Back on solid ground, we went for a simple lunch at Restoran Tepi Sungai. As Papa Mike had pre-warned, their cooking had gone downhill ever since! We found the Sotong fritters to be too salty but thankfully, they were gracious to cook a fresh portion for us. All in all, the fried rice was nice and so was the service from the smiling waitresses.

As we were almost done with lunch, fishing boats started to come in one by one. We had a good view of the jetty activities from the upstairs verandah and nobody can complain on the cool winds that kept blowing in. 

The tailwind that followed, gave us a boost on the 5 km stretch, all the way to the historical railway line. In modern day, the tracks had long disappeared but what remains is an exceptionally straight road that went all the way to Taiping.

Our ride did not went as smoothly as we thought it would. Right after the North-South Highway's underpass, Francis had a fall. The unpainted speed hump had caught him unaware!

Our group split as we reached Aulong. While the JB team prefers a cooling cendol, the Singapore group were rushing back to meet Teik Jin, Papa’s school mate from Taiping. Surprisingly, all of us managed to meet up with him as well and were treated to an afternoon tea of assorted fritters and black coffee.

Some of us ventured further to the war memorial, Burmese Pool and foot of Maxwell Hills. As the rain soon caught up with us, we subdivided further. VT and Claudine were completely drenched upon reaching home while Lim and Tan accompanied Susanna around the Lake Gardens to clock part of her 100 Days Cycling targets. The latter team were luckier as the rain had teetered off soon enough!

That night, we were again split for dinner choices. While the Singapore team were hosted by Papa Mike’s schoolmate, the JB Lang still had one more goal to score. They returned to Golden Corner for chicken noodle soup and sat at the exact spot where VT and Claudine had their very first date!!!!


Photo Courtesy :
1. Susanna
2. Tan
3. Irene
4. KC
5. Francis 

Taiping to Kuala Sepetang