Pengkalan Hulu Ride

We flagged off at 8am from Ah Hong’s shop in the middle of Pengkalan Hulu town, escorted by a fleet of scrambler bikes. We rode through cooling & misty tarred road with breathtaking view of the surrounding mountains.

 

Scaling the misty Gunung Paku.

Not far after passing Klian Intan, we turned into tin mine beside the main road. From there a small village road snakes through the jungle and soon we reach ‘Africa’. Yes, the orang asli we met have some similar look to African, although it is genetically proven that they are African. They are the original inhabitants of Malaysia and have chosen to keep staying in the jungle. They are the Na'vi (Avatar) of Malaysia and we were happily shown with their traditional sumpit used for hunting.

Distributing sweets to the kids

sumpit

The poison is able to kill a bear in 20 minutes

 

Group photo with the village chief

 

From ‘Africa’, we continue the winding road across jungle until we reach a remote thai village. Some villagers asked us where we were heading to. Upon hearing that we were heading to Tasik, they shook their head and said ‘susah’.

Indeed the road starting from the Thai village is susah. It is real off road trail through thick tropical rain forest. Elephants’ dumping and leopard’s footprint are found along the way. Oops, we were not suppose to say the name of animals directly, as per local pantang-larang. We would call them as big brother or Maybank instead. We climbed some hills and cross river for an hour before reaching a logging camp.

The best river crossing of the day!

Big brother’s dumping

Taking the opportunity to take a handsome photo!

We spent some time refueling ourselves at the camp as the real up hill climb would start from there. The trail was not very steep but was the distance pretty long. Eventually, after an hour of ride, with a broken chain and some bruises due to falling down, we reached Tasik. It was a small new village near to Pengkalan Hulu. We had our buffet lunch at a local temple and most of us took the opportunity to clean our bikes.

uphill all the way from the logging camp

Delicious mineral water

Even though the bike gives up, we the riders won’t

The Tasik

Delicious lunch

At 2 pm, having refuel ourselves with the delicious lunch, captain Hong lead the pack and charged towards Pengkalan Hulu, our starting and ending point. It was a ‘fun’ ride that resembled more of a full jamboree and had brought us to close encounter with the aborigines, the jungles and the big brother. All of us enjoyed the ride.

Hero of the day – captain Hong. Thanks to him for showing us the trail.