Sekinchan Fun Ride ( 18 December 2016 )

Sekinchan team

Wish upon a tree!

You don't need a drone to do this!!!

Kuala Selangor Fort

Waiting for York Fuan's tyre to be fixed

Brompton with child carrier

You can fall but not my bike!

Leaving Mango King

Riding along the canal

Altingsburg Lighthouse

The people behind the ride

The people behind the ride

Kuala Selangor

Kuala Selangor

Kuala Selangor

Kuala Selangor

Burning the rice fields for next harvest

Tourists

No drone required

Watergates

Watergates

Serenpidity

Sunset at Pasir Penampang

Ah Pek's lethal mix

Driving into Kuala Selangor town in the wee hours of the morning, one is guided by the blinking light of the Lighthouse! It stood atop Bukit Melawati like a lone sentry. Built in 1907, to navigate ships plying the Straits of Malacca, its strategic location at the mouth of the river now serves a secondary purpose of guiding the local fishermen home.

Beautiful Auntie!

Our meeting place for today's ride was Auntie's Kopitiam. She serves authentic nasi lemak bungkus, wrapped in banana leaf! Even the kaya in the toast had the smooth caramel flavour unlike some lumpy eggy ones served at many coffee shops these days.

While most of the riders are KL or Selangor based, the other handful had travelled from as far as Johor and Singapore to attend this friendship ride. York Fuan's journey was the most commendable, having taken the night bus all the way from Singapore!!!

Today's ride was particularly exciting for Claudine as it is the first time she meets Jotaro, the famous Ah Pek Biker! She had been following his blog for the longest time, using it as a guide on some of her travels.

Before rolling out, we were given a briefing by Herbert. He touched on safety issues, road conditions, highlights of the ride....Here and there, he cheekily dropped hints of beer stops, where to get cheaper beers, etc!

Rolling out, the sun was a giant microwave heating us up! Within minutes, we crossed the busy bridge that traversed the Selangor River. The huge LKIM complex, a fishery department, dwarfed all other buildings by the riverbank.

We travelled on the main trunk road of Jalan Kuala Selangor - Teluk Intan. This proves a dull road, filled with cars and nothing much to see. What caught our eye though were the endless placards on tantalizing food....mee udang banjir, cendol durian, etc.

The ride to Sekinchan was riddled with Brompton problems....

Peter had a seatpost that kept sliding down. He was assisted by Jotaro.

Much later, Claudine's water bottle jumped off the moving vehicle in a desperate attempt to end its life! It ended up in a recycling center, a few days later!

Thereafter, York Fuan had a tyre puncture!!! Bernie, Jim and a few DFCG guys got their hands dirty while she played damsel in distress, smiling and cheering them on!

Arriving at the town itself, we were all surprised with a strange impromptu stop by some rows of shophouses. It turned out DFCG had arranged for shutterbugs to take photos of the Sekinchan signboard!

Leaving the metal signboard, we turned off the main road and headed for the fishing village. Here, we cruised along a canal of sorts. Running alongside the canal was a sheltered structure of hooks, ropes and pulleys for the fishermen to bring their catch in. This will be a facility for the small sampans but we see none today.

We left the main street to cruise on a narrower street flanked by village homes. The red drapes by the doorway, Chinese silk lanterns and even Taoist altars, worshipping the Heavenly God reveals the predominantly Chinese ethnicity.

Stopping at Dong Xin Fishball factory, we were charmed by the trays of stuffed Yong Tau Foo in myriad colours of red, green and brown. Inside, a group of foreign ladies probably of Vietnamese descent deftly stuffed the fishpastes into chillies, ladies fingers, bitter gourds and bean curds while chatting away in their homeland's dialect.

A river strategically runs behind the factory. Filled with bobbing fishing boats docked to private jetties, the factory should have no problem securing its daily supply of fresh fish!

Opposite the factory, a shop dole out cooked Yong Tau Foo in small packets to consumers. They also sell all sorts of nick knacks, mostly products from the cottage industries around the area.

DFCG had thought of everything for the riders. Buy your YTF, packed them with ice and keep them in the 2 support cars that were following the entourage. But the hungry lot of us just buy and ate them straight away.....well most of us anyway!!!

Leaving the factory, we proceeded to Pantai Redang. The iconic tree filled with charms tied to red ribbons were more mesmerizing in real life than on photos and media. Next to it was a Chinese temple.

We were briefed on our lunch stop by the beachfront, a popular palate of fried oysters, shellfish and seafood. While the bigger DFCG group found themselves a place under a pergola by the beach, VT and Claudine chose to join Bernie and Suzie under the lush shades of 2 huge trees.

Meanwhile, Jo, the Sekinchan expert had a secret rendezvous with Peter. They steered away from the tourist traps, rode to the village center for char kueh tiau and even had time to check out a keropok factory. Not only do they make prawn and fish crackers! These days, they have extended to squid, clams and even lobsters!!! Whatever happened to original and traditional food??? Consumers' incessant demands are pressuring the food industry to go on overdrives!!! 

The botched attempt at mannequin challenge!

Regrouped again after lunch, Jo suggested a short detour to Pasir Panjang. This requires an off road ride along the bund which was most exciting!!! The tide was low and we saw the locals harvesting clams from the seabed. A swamp with sea palm fronds and grazing cows ran alongside the bund. 

We did not travel far before Jo realized he had underestimated the distance to Pasir Panjang. We did sight the coconut trees at the far end of our aborted destination before making a turn back. That was after a flawed attempt of the mannequin challenge!

We were actually quite relieved on leaving Pantai Redang as the place was getting overcrowded with tourists. Thinking we will shed them off, the buses continue to shadow us to our next stop, Ah Ma House, a newly built house fashioned after the old traditional homes with rattan wares, tiffin carriers and traditional food for sale. We ogled at the lady making love letters over charcoal fire, cool down on iced popsicles and tried out some rice crackers.

A little further down the road was PLS Marketing (M) SDN BHD, a rice factory surrounded by acres of paddy fields. Not many of us purchased the tickets required for a museum tour but preferred a hands on experience to the high pile of rice grains in the factory behind. This was sadly out of bounds! Instead we bought drinks and snacks and even made several attempts to join the long queue of tourists on toilet breaks. 

Enroute to the rice factory, some of us made a short stop at our first sight of unharvested paddy. We were delighted to see the paddy stalks filled with the rice grains. Bernie who made several attempts to enter the paddy field finally called defeat when his shoe was soaked through in mud!

We started on a humid morning with a real threat of rain. Even though we escaped rain, the weather was unbearably hot by noon. Too hot to handle, Frankie's family left us for the hotel's pool. Even one support car had gone home by then.

Finishing our last attempt on the mannequin challenge, we rode the short distance to Mango King to cool down on ice blended mango with assam. Done with mangoes, guava and etc which saw Bernie and Suzie nodding away, we rode home via the irrigation canal and watergates. Here, traffic is low and we could finally enjoy the serenity of the whole place.

Sweet Calvin walking his injured friend to support car

The straight and never ending road could have attributed to a fellow DFCG's fall. Riding in a peloton, he locked wheels with the front bike and fell over. Face, arm and leg bruised, we were very thankful our support car was still with us. He was quickly whisked away.

Continuing our ride in solemn, we soon cheered again at the sight of storcks on a paddy field. When the tractor pulling the plough runs over the land, disturbed insects flew out and were quickly feasted on by the white birds!

Finishing our ride at the lighthouse, we proceeded to a planned seafood dinner at Kedai Makanan Laut Hai Ung at Pasir Penampang. The food was really good and the price reasonable considering we had a flow of beer, Guinness Stout and a weird concoction of toddy and stout, a secret mix by our dear Ah Pek Biker!!!

Photo Credits :

Suzie Juliet

Jotaro Zen 
Calvin Ooi