Day Three (Port Dickson - Tanjong Malim 216km?)

Well, today was a really different experience from the first 2 days. No more single track, flat plains to cruise through. Instead, I met big town after big town, and truly the term Urban Jungle exists for a reason... Yeah simply put I spent more than 1 hour today feeling quite lost.

And due to some problem with my XD card reader, I now have no pictures to show.

The day started off on the wrong foot with me waking up 1 hour late. I think I was just tired or plain lazy, I'm not sure. Yesterday was supposed to be a rest day and I did actually reach the hotel quite early. But somehow I ended up sleeping at the same time as day one, at 2230. So today I woke at 0650 and departed from the Port Dickson hotel at 0755. Much later than I did on day one but expecting the same distance.

Anyways, when I checked out of the hotel in the morning the man managing the hotel told me he used to work at in Singapore ECP and Katong areas. Interesting as it goes to show how connected Singapore and Malaysia actually are. In fact, in Muar I could still watch channel 8 and channel 5. But the reception was kinda poor and it was giving me a bit of a headache so I stopped watching the last episode of the 9 o clock channel 8 serial.

Powercables ran from town to town via these towers.

The morning sea view of Port Dickson. So so....

Clearly, Esso and Mobil share some things in common.

Anyways. I finally made my way to Seremban after getting lost for the first time, because I was day dreaming and didn't see the road sign. But that was ok actually, as I only wasted about 10 mins to turn back etc. Much much more, worse experiences of lostness was to come... Seremban was reached at 0940.

Seremban was not a small town. It wasn't very flat either.

In view of the long distance to be covered and the already late situation, I decided to make fewer stops.

The problem with my planning was that I knew KL was such a prominent place that there would be so many signs leading to it that I simply put 'KL' as the next destination after Seremban. True enough, there were many many signs leading there..... BUT they were all leading to the expressway! So after much looking a round, a few u turns, and stops to check the map, I finally found my beloved route <1>.. Next stop was apparently some place called Mantin.

This road sign I spotted led me back on track!

Well, the route there for the first time was quite steep, and I struggled along sections at 13kmh and 11kmh. It was pretty brutal. But anyways, I suddenly found myself at the descent, and it was quite a surprise.... A down hill that snaked left and right, which saw me hit 72kmh! I would have gone faster had I not have to brake because I caught up with the vehicles ahead -_-''. It was a little too fast for comfort I must say. Reached Mantin at 1025, 55km.

Next stop was Kajang, and good old me went into auto pilot mood again and auto piloted into Nilai, which was quite off track. Think it took me about 30mins to get back on track T_T. Oh well... What's a little more adventure? ha ha. Shrugs. Anyways I figured that if I had a companion following me I would probably have felt a pinch of guilt. Kajang, 1225, 98.6km.

Kajang was not a small town either. But at least it was flatter.

Well, how hard was it to just continue following route <1> to KL? Well, there are these small distance markers every 1 or 2 km or so, and I had been faithfully following them. Then suddenly, I was at the expressway.............. I made a U-turn, back tracked, found the marker, but there was no alternative route....

So it was expressway cycling time. Yeah, I tried my best to keep away, but I had no choice this time. Later, it would actually dawn on me that yes, this was in fact the intended route! As seen from the map PK lent me, route number one actually disappears into the expressway... I had believed that it went under or something and ran parallel, but I would later realise that this was not the case.

I first noticed this when interestingly there was a bicycle sign on the side, and a no bicycle sign on the flyovers (whoops). So I finally concluded after traversing a lot of expressway that I'm supposed to be on the left side, go out of the filter lane, and then come back on the next expressway entrance. Sheesh. Anyways, the interesting thing was that with the exception of a few parts, I found no difference between expressway and the large roads I had been travelling.

This slip road ran in parallel with the expressway, and went around the toll station. Apparently motorbikes and scooters don't have to pay toll.

I got a little lost again when I approached KL and the words KL dissappeared. Anyways, I was forced to filter out due to heavy traffic and was at some unknown location where I had lunch... I could not find the name of the place on the map. Finally, I realised that the words Pusat Bandaraya probably meant 'city center' or something along those lines. I had seen those words before near Malacca. So after lunch, I hand carried my bike over the overhead bridge to get to the other side of the expressway to get to KL.... Finally I passed by Times Square and the Petronas twin towers at KLCC. It was 1445 and 132km. The traffic was ultra heavy and I was weaving in and out. It was a little weird passing familiar locations alone this time. It brought back some memories. Pictures were difficult to take due to the traffic.

Even the lost should stop and catch some lunch...

Entry into the Pusat Bandaraya of KL looked like this.

Something that looked familiar was in the horizon!

Something you don't find in towns and villages!

Times square!

Traffic was very heavy in downtown KL.

This traffic light junction took me more than 5 minutes to clear!

Can't really see where this is from this angle but someone got lost here last December...

KLCC!

Petronas twin towers! Yes, my poser shot of the day!

Which way leads out? No idea but I'll take another photo first...

I still had a long long way to go, and now I faced the biggest problem: How do I get out of KL?! There were like no road signs leading out. Ok, there was one directing me to the zoo but it was not on track.... The map from PK had a city map luckily, which showed me where I was. The only problem was that it did not encompass the outskirts, or the ultimate destinations of the roads. So, well, in the end I used intuition. I knew the <1> would finally hit Ipoh, so I followed signs showing Ipoh. Some were expressway signs. Some were <1>. This time, it was undeniable that the expressway and <1> were one and the same, because following either brought me to the other. The dumb thing was, at that moment in time, I had not realised that fact. So I was 'lost' whenever I saw this, and did some back tracking. In the end I just used the army method of direct bashing. I knew it was past mid day, saw the Sun in the west, and simply just went for any road that headed North... In the end I was on the expressway, along with <1>. hur hur. And so I headed for Rawang.

I was already thinking in my mind if I should abandon and stay at Rawang. In fact, I was quite tempted to stay at KL, but I guessed it was expensive, I had only cycled 132km (so much for 200km?) and I would definitely have to extend stay by one more day if I did so. The decision to stay at Rawang became even stronger when I encountered my second, real upslope. It was weird because the road did not, at first, look very steep. I used to think on the upslopes if the brakes were stuck, but this time I was thinking: Either the road is deceptively sloping upwards, or there is a monkey sitting on my rack. I didn't see any monkey.

Some weird geographical structure. LIke a gigantic piece of rock sitting in the middle of nowhere.

On the descent, I was expecting something real fast, but no, it was only 57kmh, and I had this weird oscillating movement behind me which made me a little more cautious. Must be the rack I thought. Well, I was wrong again. On the flat, I looked down and saw my tires squished out behind me. Great, so much for my zero flat record. Anyways, I was lazy to stop and change, only when I saw a descent in front of me did I stop by the road. I inspected the tire and knew it was a slow leak. So I simply pumped up the tires and rode on, thinking that Rawang was only a short distance away and I could fix it in the hotel. Well, I did eventually reach Rawang at 1655, 166km. But sigh, there was nothing that looked like a hotel. I decided to push on, and I got lost again, cycling around some ultra sloppy estate of bungalows -_-''. Had to pull some stunt to avoid crashing at one point. Dunno how that happened as I was actually trying to look out for the road signs.

A small church amongst the bungalow estate I accidentally wondered in.

When I finally escaped fron the maze, I took 2 gatorades from the 7-eleven and was ready for my final charge to the nearest hotel downstream. Well....I ended up paddling 50km to Tanjong Malim. The locations between were small and drab, devoid of any hotel. After the first town (can't remember the name) failed me, I knew that subsequent town might as well be a disappointment. So I did a quick change of tube at a bustop. Took about 10 mins. It was lucky that I had the techinical know-how as I was able to immediately locate the cause of the puncture: A metal splinter protruding on the inside of the tire. Think I changed the tube extra fast as the bus-stop people were watching. Hur hur. And it was getting dark... And so I continued.

It was not a good feeling, and I was in the zone: Me, my bike, the road, and the setting sun on my left. It was like a race before the sun vanished.

Well, hope I'm well rested enough after today. It was quite bad actually. Knees getting a little loose. And my face was totally covered with soot when I got to the hotel. Imagine when you're bathing, you use your hands to wipe your face, and your hands turn half black..........

Ok, enough blogging. Have to cover 20+km extra tomorrow. Supposed to be a shorter day tomorrow anyways.