Amoi rides in the kampungs: The Call of the Wild (Dec 27 2021 - Jan 1 2022), Day 2

Selangor Dam's newly refurbished park

Breakfast at KKB's food court

First bridge

First bridge @ 8 am

View of Selangor River from the first bridge

SPLASH's spillway @ 8.10 am

Respecting the "off limits" call, we left SPLASH as quickly as we had arrived

Different views from the roadside

Second bridge across the dam @ 8.50 am

Second bridge across the dam

9.27 am

...5 minutes later!

10 am

Zoe's rack failed for the second time! Instead of using the screws and bolt bought from KKB, trusty cable ties came to the rescue

Air Terjun Sungai Semangkuk @ 10.20 am

10.50 am

11.15 am

Approaching The Gap @ 11.20 am

Regrouping

Lunch at The Gap

Lunch at the Gap. Note the stripped hillslope next to the gazebo's pillar

Lunch at The Gap. We were sitting ducks waiting for a second disaster to happen!

Fraser's Hill Landmark, at the intersection between Route 55 and Route 148 @ 12 pm

12.15 pm

Mindy's front fenders came undone @ 12.20 pm

Tras' truss bridge across Sungai Teranum @ 1 pm

Shortcut connecting Tras' Water Treatment Plant and Taman Seroja to Route 55

Kampung Tras Guang Yin Temple @ 1.30 pm

Tras Road Guang Yin Temple @ 2 pm

Coconut drink stop because we could not afford RM70 per kilo durian @ 1.20 pm

Evening sightseeing

As early as 5 am this morning, the long queue for the toilet and bathroom has begun! Such are the limitations of homestays!! You live together as a community and you literally "smell" each other!!!

The Home @ KKB is but a renovated pre war shop lot. As such, the floorings below the carpets and laminates are but wooden planks supported by timbre beams. The first person who plod through the house literally wakes the whole household up!

While everyone tactfully waited for the next to finish their morning business, those who were brushing their teeth by the common bathroom sinks had to wait for intervals of water, sputtering out from the taps. Yes, there is serious water pressure issue despite the pump working its lungs out to send water to all opened taps!

Keys returned to Yogi House

While we struggled to carry our bikes up yesterday, this morning was the same struggle, down the narrow and steep staircase. We were on the streets even before the first ray of sunshine hit the town. Strategically located at the foothills of Fraser's Hill with the Titiwangsa Range as a natural fort to the east, the sun does takes longer to get to KKB.

The compulsory Christmas lights set by Claudine was good as it helps to illuminate our bikes when we rode out for breakfast. As most eateries were still not opened at 7 am, we had to content ourselves to the same food court by Jalan Abdul Hamid.

The start of the climb on Route 55 after passing by Kg Assam Kumbang

JKR's notice on closure of Route 148

JKR's notice on scheduled ascent and descent of Route 56. Unfortunately, they did not update with an extension notice. Resulting from this, 2 groups were turned away when they arrived at The Gap. Cyclists were totally barred from Route 56 as they may be caught by the counter traffic flow

We finally set off for Raub at 7.40 am. The glide out of town was short and the climb on Route 55 was almost immediate. Relatively gradual, we got to the the first bridge in 10 minutes. Sungai Selangor was just as majestic but the river takes a darker hue from here.

At this point, we had witnessed our first landslide, just 3 km into the ride. Unless she had counted wrongly, Claudine tabulated 26 fresh landslides from KKB to The Gap and 31 of the same from The Gap to Raub.

The tropical depression which hit Peninsula Malaysia beginning 16 November 2021 bringing heavy rainfall and massive floodings to 8 states had not spared Fraser's Hill as well. Route 148, which is usually used for the descent from Fraser's Hill Clocktower to The Gap was completely closed to traffic. Only Route 56 remained open to vehicles but on scheduled intervals for ascents and descents. Cyclists were all turned away.

Dec 2021

Dec 2016, half eaten donut !!!

Resulting from the recent heavy rainfall, water was being released from the spillway at Selangor Dam. This was a beautiful sight but we were not allowed to stay. An off duty personnel on his way out told us the place was off limits. Even the walking path and gazebos by SPLASH's administrative office had been cordoned off with tape.

Compensating us is a newly refurbished park slightly more than 1 km away. This place comes with ample car park, picnic tables, a lookout tower and walking paths.

Greeting us at the park was Raja Muzaffar, the Orang Besar of this area. Earlier, he had overtook us at the first bridge with a friendly wave before riding ahead.

According to Raja, he had commissioned the removal of the shrubs by the dam, allowing greater views. This was just completed a week ago. Even the flowers by the signpost were newly planted !

Bidding Raja and his 7.5kg carbon MTB farewell, we continued our journey, enjoying 2-3 downhill glides to the next bridge. This bridge spanned the dam and connects KKB to Kg Pertak, Fraser's Hill, Raub and beyond.

The next 23 km to The Gap was painfully slow. We made many stops.

Old metal truss bridge, Dec 2016

Old metal truss bridge, Dec 2021

The old and The new

This river is labelled as Sungai Sangloi on google maps but fondly referred to as Sungai Chilling.

Near Sungai Chilling's picnic spot where Sungai Kul meets Sungai Sangloi, the old metal truss bridge stood abandoned, next to the new concrete bridge. Once, the only lifeline across, it is now overgrown with vegetations, its glory overtaken by new developments!

Air Terjun Sungai Semangkuk offered a good excuse to lower our heartbeats and steady our breathing. Some even refuelled!

But we were making more stops than already documented. VT will lead the way, pressed on by Thomas. The duo will determine the stops.

Claudine who was initially riding ahead of Kelvin and Jasmine soon found herself riding behind! It was embarrassing to have 16 inched wheelers, 8 speed foldies overtake a 650c wheeled, 27 speed full sized bike but one will just have to swallow one's pride!

Iconic footbridge, now abandoned

We reached The Gap close to 11.30 am. Many cars were parked by the roadside waiting for the ascent. Lunch or snacks were whisked out as planned, taken by the gazebos with the cold winds constantly billowing.

At one point, the winds were so strong the trees up on the hill where the landslide had just occurred, sounded as if they were cracking! Our picnic spot was right where a second disaster was waiting to strike!! Even though a JKR truck had just arrived, we knew better than to stay longer!!!

We left!!!!!!!!

Temperatures at The Gap during mid afternoon was 23C. Couple this with wind chill during descent and we went Ssssshivers!

The descent was gorgeous. We were riding through a tropical rainforest with waterfalls cascading by the hillsides.

Teras @ 1 pm

Temperatures starts to soar when we got downhill to Tranum. At Tras, we made a stop for our second lunch before making our way to Raub.

Kampung Tras Guang Yin Temple

Tras Road Guang Yin Temple

Durian seeds sprouting

We arrived in Raub about 2.30 pm after making a brief stop at 2 temples and a coconut drink stop. No we were not in a hurry!

4.30 pm meet to Restoran New Tea House & KF Biscuits

Unfortunately, they only have takeaways and all other coffee shops were closed by 5 pm...

...so we ended up having dinner at Ratha Fish Head Curry @ 5 pm

Peace be with you, dinner at 5 pm!!!

In the evening, we met again for a sightseeing tour. What turned out to be a tea break before dinner, ended up as an early dinner of fish head curry at Ratha's, just after 5 pm. The fish head floored all of us. We ended the day at 7 pm, returning to our rooms.and never venturing out again!

Photo credits :

Mindy

Kelvin

Chooi

Henry

Thomas

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Raub Sightseeing