Trip Report: Ride to Tasek Bera, Malaysia

[Abg Acid]

Hi folks,

As bicycle touring is not a popular pastime in Malaysia yet, we hope with the pictures and reports made in this website, it will certainly spur some interest amongst fellow cyclists. We are no pros in this field, just merely amateurs with some interest and pea size knowledge on bicycle touring. We are not on fully loaded tour bicycles specially designed for hardcore travellers , but most of us are on converted MTBs and Hybrids. Its love for bicycles and travels that made us leave the comfort of our motorcycles and put ourselves in situation of hardwork pedalling.

Early on the 15th January 2011 we made our move out from Muar when it is still darik. Bicycles were transported on our cars and we made a short journey to Keratong 2, (Bandar Tun Abdul Razak) where the cars were parked and bicycles are taken down to mark the beginning of the journey. The estimated distacnce was only around 60 km to destination, a favourable distnace indeed and we expect to cycle an easy 5 hours on the road, plus food, drinks and ciggarette stops.

Just 10 kilometers after starting the jpourney, we made a brief stop on this bridge. It has a fascinating view of flowing water underneath. Vehicles are not plenty yet at this time in the morning, but be warned that these vehicle that do passes through this stretch certainly travel at very high speed.Sometimes it gets kida scarry when they passed zoom us. A rear view mirror installed on your bikes makes it more safe and you will be more aware on oncoming vehicles from the rear and thus wont take you off guard full of surprises. Pic above: from left Najib, Su and Cheng.

Cheng, at the Melati Junction. This road ahead will lead you to Temerloh as well. We took this secondary road, which link Muadzham and Keratong.

Picture above showing Najib trying hard to be on Cheng's tail but to no avail. Cheng is the King our group, sort of leave-no-prisoner rider when travels through hilly terrains.The kind who will show no mercy leaving you behind.

 

[Abg Acid]

Finally after 5 hours of good sweat we came to this signboard telling us that we are near to our destination. Good grief, at last. It was a hard ride towards the end of our journey as the terrain changes into a wild and hilly one. But there are literally no vehicles passing through this stretch, except for a handfull of trucks and fwds, and you can play with your bikes around the tarmac zig zagging your way with no worries of vehicles coming from behind.

Cheng and Najib posing *underenath the welcome sign of Tasek Bera. Happy *faces after a hardwork, the rewarding feeling of achievements. Satisfaction that money cannot buy.

But our hardwork is not done yet. We stiil need to cycle 4 kilometers into the forest from the main road. 4 kilometers would be a piece of cake was the intial thought. But it turned out to be a 4 kilometers of monstrous steep gradient climbs and whooping downhills. The road surface was a bit mouldy, and this make it more treacherous, slippery and pretty dangerous to sweep low around the bends on the downhills. This road leads right into a lush primary forest and as usuall Cheng and Najib were no longer visible. They were too fast to be seen, but instead Boy saw an enornous cobra passing across the road!

 

[Abg Acid]

At last, after approxiamtely 6 hours of cycling and rest stops we made it to Tasek Bera. If you had google Tasek bera, you will discover that it is quite remote, locate on the western part of Pahang, slightly on the south section. When we arrived there were few cars on the parking lot. but the resort looked very empty. I presume they are anglers that came with the cars, and they are looking for some good game fishing in the lake.

The resort. Quite nice looking and well built. The signs on the resort still display its old name "Persona Lake Resort" . We believe it has change managements since and now it is called as Tasek Bera Resort. Rooms were quite nice, and we took the lake-view room. It is built on tall concrete stilts and the views from our balcony is simply awsome.

The first thing we did when we arrived was to have our belly filled with food and drink. Its been quite a tough ride climbing hills and we were a bit hungry when we arrived. Picture above, is the restaurant. It was empty when we arrived and we had the whole place to ourselves. And the ladies at the restaurant kept us entertained. ahh yes, we certainly had a good time.

After an hour or so, more cyclist came. These are the guys who came from Kuala Lumpur. They are our motorcycles gang who are interested in bicycles too. They had parked their cars at Temerloh and cycle south to Tasek Bera. Soon enough we had a bigger crowd, the fill the rooms at the resort. Sort of bicycle congregation. Kl guys and Johor guys, coming to the same location for the weekend, but each taking a diferent route to the location. Picture above: from right: Mohdi, Kardon and Moto1

 

[Abg Acid]

Later in the evening, after much rest in our aircon rooms we decided to do some exploring on the lake. We had made bookings for a lake tour. It cost rm40 to a boat, and each boat can take 4 passengers. The duration of the lake tour is approximately half an hour. Picture above is the jetty. There were some anglers trying their luck here. The water looks dark and very still, really mirror-like scenery.

On coming to the jetty. the water looks inviting and I tried to do a stunt here. But once I hit the water, an uneasy feeling immediately grew inside me. This is strange water at a strange location. Its deep, and the water is dark and too still, almost mysteriuos like. Immediately pictures of giant anacondas and man eating alligators flash on my mind, I could sense as if they are coming from down below and will snap at my fragile legs any moment then. Hehe., I hurriedly alighted from the water.

Its better to be on the boat then in the water, safe and secured. Cheng and Najib taking the rear spot on the boat. It was a pleasant experience riding up on the boat.

 

[Abg Acid]

This is the sort of vegetation the lake beholds. Kind of interesting, the vegetations filters up the water and then it passed on to a nearby river. Its a flowing lake in reality, one of its kind in the world. In 1997 this lake was gazeted as a RAMSAR site, an International treaty RAMSAR Convention

 

[Abg Acid]

yup captain, we certainly did. Its such a change being on bicycle instead of our motorbikes. But travelling slower has a lot of interesting facts as well. Being slower, we tend to absorb more to nature. We can literally smell the forest. No noise from the engines or pipes, we can hear the forest, the geckos singing. love it.

Yeah, Ive read your travels in Malaysia too. You sort of a lone traveller, stop at will, go whenever pleases. Thats alright, a true case of "Less is more". Anyway, if you ever come visit Malaysia again, PM me and perhaps we cold just make arrangements for roads less travelled. I ve a few places that are off the radar net. I m located in Muar, the far south. State of Johor.

regards
AA

 

[DavidFL]

:thumbup: Thanks Abg Acid. Please post some more cycle trips if would like to.