It was time for my visa renewal. The previous months I had been to China, without the bicycle: Jim. Jim was not too amused with it as I had not taken him with me. In fact I was not too happy to travel without my old friend. We had been through so many things together.
Jim and I left in the early morning. I had a nasi lemak breakfast in the Home Curry House where the owner asked me where I was going to. I told him. "Eew.. that is very far", he said. In fact, 120 km is not too far but if you haven't been cycling for a while any distance is far. And I had not been cycling a lot in the previous week due to a foot injury.

On the way to Bruas
The problem was that I had been stung by probably a hornet. The poison of the insect had made my foot doubled in size. The worst was the pain in the first days. Later I had been able to clean it but the wound was quite sizable: half by half centimeter and a centimeter deep. I was a bit afraid of infection so I had not been doing much until the last few days before I was supposed to go. But the wound was kind of closed now, in fact it did look like a lunar crater.
The first two days training were horrible. I was down and out after 15 (first) and 35 km (second) day. But I left anyway, with the knowledge I should be able to do the job anyway. After almost 100.000 km I do know what is possible.
So I left in the morning, took the road to Ayer Tawar, nowadays a 4 lane road and usually quite busy. Although I don't like this road, I also know that just after Ayer Tawar, I can use the road to Bruas. This is always a quiet and scenic road. On the road you can see in the distance the hills that separate the southern areas of Perak from the northern areas.
In the west you can pass the hills through Trong to Changat Jering, and reach Taiping, one of my more favorite cities in Malaysia because it has such a mellow feeling and the Lake Gardens are always beautiful.

The rustic road that leads to Kuala Kangsar
The eastern pass way leads through Manong to Kuala Kangsar. Both Manong and Kuala Kangsar are not very attractive, despite the palace of the Sultan of Perak and, admittingly, a very beautiful Mosque in KK. But apart of these, there's little to keep you here. In the past years I had explored the area and had found very little that inspired me to stay longer then absolute necessary.
Therefore, this time, I had decided to skip Kuala Kangsar and cycle immediately to Lenggong. Not that Lenggong is such an attractive town although it does have a very interesting little museum), and it is closer to Betong. The problem had always been that the only "hotel" in Lenggong had been a dump. For no real reason, I had never explored the possibility to stay in one of the resorts in the lake area, just south of Lenggong.

Kuala Kangsar Clock Tower at night
This time I cycled without any problem to Bruas, 37km from Sitiawan. I usually have an icecoffee in a little coffee shop. Not that the coffee is so wonderful here, but I know the place, and the cakes coming with the (ice)coffee are usually fresh.
After Bruas, the road is slightly hilly, nothing serious, but if you're not in good shape, these short climbs, never more then 100 meter, can hurt. This time they started hurting after Manong, around 24km from Kuala Kangsar. In fact, it was so difficult, I doubted I could continue after Kuala Kangsar.
In KK I had a few more ice coffee's and an ice lemon tea plus a char kow chow soup but I was too tired to eat. However within an hour I felt much better. In fact, I felt so much better, I wanted to continue to Lenggong.
There are two ways. You can take follow the direction to Taiping for about 10 km and then take road #76, a few years old 4 lane road to Gerik. The alternative is much nicer. I usually take the road north out Kuala Kangsar, the road to Ipoh. After about 8 km, there's a junction to Kati and Gerik. This road is much more quiet and local. You pass small kampongs and the scenery is nice, nothing spectacular, but a nice road to cycle.
In Kati, you can follow the trunk road for a few more kilometers before you come back on road #76. Interestingly, this 4 lane road that connects Kuala Kangsar with Gerik and Pengkanan Hulu and lead further to Baling and Penang is usually very quiet.
After a few kilometers I left the new road to follow the old road, a road I had cycled years ago when the new KK-Gerik road didn't existed.

Tasek Raban Resort seen from the bridge
To my surprise I was really flying. I was easy, very easy. Within an hour and a half, I was at the Tasek Raban Resort, 12 km north of Lenggong. It went so easy, it was tempting to continue to Gerik, 65 km further north. However, just as I was passing the bride over the lake, the rain started and I felt it was wiser to have a good night sleep in Tasek Raban Resort.
Tasek Raban Resort Tasek Raban Resort is a small resort at the lake side. During the weekend, locals come here to fish. I was here on a Monday night. I checked in and found I was the only visitor in the resort that has about 25 chalets. The location is great, and I guess if you like fishing, it's even better. However, I came here to stay a night.
The lady at the check-in counter wanted to see my passport and I wanted to know how much I had to pay. On the phone, I was told chalets were RM 100 but the lady told: 800. Then everyone was laughing about the error. Her English was limited. The price was RM 80. Phew... I saw myself already climbing on the bicycle to search for another hotel, but that was not necessary.

View from the balcony of my room in Tasek Raban Resort
The chalet was very nice, with a limited view on the lake and a balcony. It was clean and comfortable, nothing special (and certainly not worth the RM 800!). But RM 80 was fine. The problem was the restaurant. It was at the other side of the lake. Either you could take a ferry, or get your own transport. Depite the rain, I decided to cycle to the "restaurant". It turned out to be a couple of small food stalls and, lucky me, it was also pasar malam, night market.
I had a laksa and bought some food at the pasar malam, had some fun, despite the rain and went back to my chalet to listen to Lucero when writing this.

View from the resort jetti to the restaurant and pasar malam, it was pissing rain.
More about the road from Betong to Sitiawan (and Pangkor) at the following pages:
Cycling to PangkorHat Yai Thailand to Malaysia.htmlCycling to Pangkor using alternative roadsand more about
cycling in Malaysia in general: