Lake 2 Lake – May 2008

17 – 19 May 2008
by Tony

We all may find out – there are certain things that stick with you for life. Fun of riding is something sticks to me.

Since very young I already started! Not riding a motorbike but riding a bicycle. I remember it’s during my kindergarden time, after a Sunday family lunch at my grandma’s home. I silently pushed out my auntie’s bicycle with my itchy hands and tried hard to ride on it. The bike is even taller than me, but surprisingly I managed to balance myself and moved around.I found it was super exciting! And the interest started rolling and rolling from there.

Kruzer’s Lake 2 Lake trip is really fulfilling the interest thoroughly because it has a lot of riding. As the 2 wheels keep spinning through the 3 days’ journey, I was enriched with many riding experiences, enjoyed nice scenery and places. Of course the fun of riding together as a group will never get you bored, no matter you on the road or at rest.

like bandits entering a cowboy town in a western movie!

The Trip started midnight as usual and we had a smooth journey on NSH for the first stretch. Not much traffic except for few buses and trunks. The night were still young and fresh for us. There were 2 other sg riders tagged along with us to enjoy the companion of the pack in the night.

The front group traveled quite fast and reached exit 214 first. We stopped here to wait for everyone to catch up, just in case someone miss the turn and shoot up straight to KL. It happened once indeed that some rider overshoot here… and go roundings in KL.

We reached NKVE Petronas for breakfast and take some rest to top up our stamina. And we found this MEGA Big Mac that make you say “WAhh~”.

MEGA Mac for you !

Actually, it cures your hunger for sure but it doesn’t work to keep you awake. On the contrary, the after-meal-symptom and your bio-clock can simply give you a sweet dream easily.

Sleep Not ?

No worries, if you feel bad and miss the bed, take a Berocca and it will get you ready for anything afterward. Believe me or laugh, it was said that it can help to release energy from the MEGA Big Mac in my tummy 😀 Anyway, the best thing in the world to keep you awake is getting enough sleep!!! I sure had my mins of sweet dreams also.

Recharging … Zzzz zz…

After a long break, it’s time to get up and continue our journey on the highway. The next stop will be Tapah and finally Simpang Pulai Exit where we will embark on a different type of road – with corners and latitude changes.

Simpang Pulai to Gua Musang

After 9 hrs in total, we left at 12 midnight and now was 9am, soggy numbness crept into your butt and toes. We made our first stopover at this place with a great view.

Some huddled on the bike, some lay on ground, and some posed for the camera and some stretched out to climb up high and take some good photos.

Men of pride

Happiest lady

Climbing up

Spider in flower

Nice Road from Simpang Pulai to Gua Musang

Despite I am riding a heavy chopper, the lure of adventure can’t be resisted. After some easy swinging left and right on the corners, I started to find the rhythm of the road. Lead bikes were controlling the safety speed and warn you any hazard in advance but I can feel the speed was slowly picking up. Yah man! The ‘little devil’ came out and told you that the corners have a lot of fun and it’s thrilling. It’s ok to unleash your steel horse and let it run wildly.

Now, I could felt the relief of the Heart-Pounding feeling when I do the corners. The feeling that you might have endured also when you go up and down Fraser’s hill for the first time… All thanks to Kruzer‘s organized trips which provided me so many opportunities to learn from those experienced riders and practice in a protected way.I can feel the progress through all the accumulated riding experiences that I’ve done with kruzers.

I do had some “leap of faith” incident happened, but after that it taught me some taboo lessons in my heart. Today, my ride and I are still intact and alive, but we all better don’t pray on our luck every time. It’s good to take the thrilling pleasure with managed risk.

Now I started to know when I should not speed up, how fast and how low I can go on a bend and when it’s ready to widely open your throttle… *Grin*

IT’s time to enjoy it, and what can I say? “Shoik !”

hydroponic-farms-on-cameron-highlands

The twisties leaded us through Cameron highland, it’s near lunch time and here we had our second stopover – Green View Garden. Things you could do here like taking a seat to enjoy the cool air, ordering some food and drinks. Walking around the green house to see how strawberry grows.

Fresh Stewberry cake

Green house

Growth of strewberry

This break given us an energy boost, to complete the last stretch of the day one route, one of the best part.

Road to kenyir

Long bend

Nice scenary road

Here we are! We arrived at Lake Kenyir resort around 3pm plus. Awaiting us were nice chalet rooms, and an infinite swimming pool overviewing the lake.

tired-but-happy-rosli

 Max and I headed to our room and I took a hot shower first. While Max is showering, I simply went flat on the huge bed; It just a blink, and I fall asleep so quickly. Forget the swimming pool we didn’t, after a short rest and shared a bottle of beer in the room, we headed to the pooool!

Beautiful sunset at Tasik Kenyir

The night started, there was buffet dinner provided and we munched in enough food for sure. Live music came from the band upstairs, a lady was singing with a decent and charming voice, I seated in the chair and imaging I had the ‘kruzified’ belly, I think I am still far away from the standard though I eat like a dog sometime.

Calling it a day after dinner? Not yet for those beer lovers! There is saying says “Live today like there is not tomorrow”, it’s only few hours more, we would fully lived today 24 hrs! So let’s do it! We decided to complete the day at the “Bar”, where my room 147 was. After half of the drinking session, Max went to bed and gone in 60 seconds. Though we were talking and laughing beside, he could soundly sleep with snore. Pretty fast, our 24-hr mission completed and all the beers cleared out. We all headed back to bed for a sweet dream.

Day 2. A clear day.

elephant on the lake

I believe our bikes also had a good night of rest. I went to the carpark to check out our bikes after breakfast.

Taking a walk in the resort trails on the way to the carpark, you could have some wild life encounters. When I was passing near Peter’s chalet, a squirrel bumped into my eye. I took out my camera quietly and grabbed some photos.

Looking up in the tree branches, there were few black and white color birds flying and singing around, I moved closer slowly and stayed still hoping they won’t bother about my appearance. Interestingly, I found one having a cricket in the mouth.

Walking though a path totally covered up by trees, something with red and blue wings flied from behind and stopped on a tree trunk. It was a really strange kind of insect with a weird shape. I stopped, camera in hand, moved forward, the insect inched away and hided at another side of the trunk. Then, I squat down trying to avoid moving into its direct sight, hehe, it works, the insect stay there. Closer and closer, I am able to take a clear photo of it. Looking at the photo, the red top is not the head, nose maybe, the 2 eyes is at the middle part. Until today, I still don’t know its name.

Wondering here and there too long in the resort trails, 10 minutes left to a boat ride at 11:30am, I rushed back to the chalet to pack up my stuff and checkout the room.

 getting-on-board

Lake Kenyir is a man-made lake where the natural water way is blocked and a large area of tropical rain forest was submerged underwater. The tour guide Mr. showed us around some lakeside places where the resort was built on. And the most interesting thing sight will be the dead tree area.

Our chalet

Dead tree area

Day 2’s riding was much relaxing, 300km+ only. From Lake Kenyir, we shot up north and reached Pantai Penarik,a quiet, orderly little fishing village where a long line of untouched golden beach stretched out on the east coast of tennegaru. we had a short rest to enjoy the gentle sea breeze and open ocean views.

Photos at beach

Moved on, we rode to highway 4 leading to Gerik. Highway 4 is parallel to thai boarder, and some huge limestone boudlers reminds me the thai road.

Photos at Tunnel

Passing through Gerik Highway, we reached Lake Temenggor, the second lake on our trip. Bikes lined up on the long bridge, we shared the open view of the lake, you can also feel how the bridge bonuced up and down when heavy vehicles passing by; We made a longer stop just beside the lake and take a rest before sunset. Not a clear sky before the night, so we didn’t have a nice sunset view over the lake but taking a seat beside the water, refill something into you body and chit chat, is some kinda of pleasure to enjoy the large amount of water beside which gives you a peaceful and easy feeling.

The night arrived with a little dizzling, it’s getting dark, if I remember correctly we passed through a newly paved twisty road, where the road surface is dark and the surroundings is dark! The darkness was absorbing my highlight. I turned on my foglight and kept a further distiance with the front rider, it felt better. I could see Julius in front of me also on the high beam when going over a bend. Slowly we reached the town area and and there are some street light showing the way, after a while we arrived at our resting place. Sorry that i forgot the places name:), what interested me was some beer and dinner followed by a nice and sound sleep.

Day 3 – We embaked on the way back to singapore.

Stopped at a waterfall along the way for a chill up but there are military execrises around the waterfull area, so we couldn’t go in deep. Isaac and Kenny were chilling up in the water and planning for the route, Joycelyne was telling storys to Rosli’s to drive away his bored-ness.

After some twisties, we jumped onto the highway, the steel horses started to roar, there were a little jam at some part, we cleared the highway part pretty easily.

Awaiting for us was a dinner place call Herbal Restaurant, they serve quite different main courses with very nice hebal soups. a lot of hebal products to buy also.

It’s the last stretch to home after dinner at herbal restaurant … soon we reached GP esso, 1,800 km in total. Some kind of iron-butt challenge. well I like it very much, cos beside the gathering and activities during the trip, the desire of riding was very well satisfied… 🙂