12th NOV 2012: PORING - TELUPID - SANDAKAN (240KM, 3.40HRS)
I woke up in the morning with severe pain all over my tired muscles. Every move that I make was accompanied by ‘OUCHHH’ or ‘ADOiii’. Seriously, I never felt such terrible muscle soreness in my entire life involving in sports and outdoor activities. Perhaps I’m getting old….LOL…Anyway, one of the reason why I came to Poring was to soak in the natural hot spring here. It was said as good to relax muscle soreness. Since it was still early and the hot spring place was not open yet, I took the opportunity to check out the surroundings. Poring was a small cowboy town with only 1 row of shops by the road side. It had some lodges and guest houses, and when I walked until the end of the street, I found a newly built lodge by the river – Tropicana Lodge. I talked to the owner and checked out the rooms. This is definitely a better and cheaper place to stay compared to the one I stayed last night. It also has a nice view of the river.
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| For reservation: 013-5551975 - Rojina |
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| The small town of Poring |
Then I went to Poring Hot Spring. I don’t hv to pay for the entrance fee but I need to show my climbing tag (provided it must not exceed 3 days from the date written on the tag).
This place was beautiful and very green. Should I hv more time, I can explore the many hiking trails, gardens and waterfalls here. However, I don’t hv time for that and my muscles were aching with every move that I take. There were some open tubs and individual private tubs to choose. I took the individual tub and I hv to fill the tub with hot water by turning on the tap. It took a while for the water to reach about 1 feet level. I soaked my lower extremities in the hot water and just relaxed, enjoying the moment. After about 40mis (and I couldn’t bear the heat anymore), I get out from the tub and walked back to my guest house.
The ride from Poring to Sandakan was via Telupid, a small cowboy town. The distance between Poring and Telupid was only 105km, but I took 1hr 40mins to reach bcos the road condition was bad. There were lots of pot holes, uneven road, land slides and constructions (to prevent from further land slides) going on, and I have to stop many times to allow vehicles from the opposite lane to pass. Nevertheless, the view was beautiful, with greens everywhere. I could see tea plantations and vege plantations as far as the eyes could reach. While enjoying the view, I hv to bear the pain in my tummy, as I hv a heart burn problem. The burning sensation will start in my tummy up to my chest, meaning I must eat something ASAP. Upon reaching Telupid, I hv my lunch at the cowboy town, and as usual, the locals will stare at me questioningly. I hv a nice conversation with the restaurant owner who complimented me for being brave to ride solo.
Once my belly was full, I continued on to Sandakan, about 130kms in distance. I hv received a call from Farid, another member from the KPSES Elegan, Sandakan branch yesterday to set the meeting point. The road from Telupid to the check point to Sandakan improved a bit, but still challenging bcos it was uneven. I could see clearly how ‘drainy’ (berlongkang) the lane was, due to heavy lorries from the oil palm plantation that used the road every day which makes the road sunk in the sides, and elevated in the middle. There were few times that I almost loose control of my bike bcos of this situation, but the good thing was there werent much traffic on this road. However, I have to be careful with the oil palm lorries which came from the junction. They entered the main road as they liked.
I thought I can reach Sandakan earlier, but the moment I arrived the check point and entered the road to Sandakan, the road condition gets worse and the road was very heavy with traffic. I just dont understand why when there is a lorry leading the way, there will be at least 6 or 7 other vehicles behind it, and they all seemed sooo happy to trail behind the lorry. The lorry drivers or the car drivers also seemed very pleased driving ‘makan angin’, going as slow as snails. (I am not complaining but rather reporting on how their attitude were). The rain started to drizzle and limited my vision as my helmet visor has no anti fog function, so it became blurry when raining. It was a nightmare for me to overtake the vehicles one after another in this condition, and once I managed to overtake them all, I met with another long lines of vehicles again. To make matters worse, the road was narrow and hilly, and vehicles from the opposite lane were coming ever non stop. The moment the opposite lane was clear from vehicles, it was ascending or there were pot holes which disabled me from overtaking. Driver of the vehicles (especially lorries) that I am overtaking, did not want to cooperate at all. They didnt want to give way. At average, I am only moving at 40kmh and I felt soo exhausted and tensed riding liking this for about 50km (which took me 1 hour), and with blurry vision. Finally, after riding for 2 hrs from Telupid, the road broadened to dual lanes and I arrived at Petronas Batu 8, the meeting point.
The guys – Farid and Faizal came with their big scooters and escorted me to the city center. I hv decided to stay at Sandakan Backpackers, so they helped me to locate the hostel. As usual, I opted for an unoccupied dorm bed. I liked this hostel very much as it was centrally located, it has a nice lobby with a big screen TV, and also a nice kitchen where u can cook yr own meals if u want. After checking in, the guys took me for a drink at a restaurant behind the hostel, overlooking the sea. While chatting, I found out that they were both from Ipoh, and Faizal’s parents lived in Taman Meru, just a stone throw away from my home.
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| With Farid and Faizal |
At 8pm, they came again and took me to Sim-Sim Ikan Bakar and we had a nice seafood meal with other members of the club. The grilled fish was cheap here, so everyone has their individual fish to feast. The grilled squid was yummy as well.
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| Choose which fish u like... |
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| This one is for me |
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| Grilled squid....mmmm....yummyyyy... |
Then, we hang at at the seaside, which they called ‘tembok’ for a while. The guys were so nice, funny and friendly and I felt soo welcomed to be here. Thank you guys, especially Farid and Faizal for yr help in making my stay in Sandakan a pleasure. I might not recall all yr names but yr kindness will always be in my heart forever. Many thanks...
p/s: Do u know that I wrote this while in the flight heading from KUL to Chengdu, China? I was so bz with my trips and hv no time to update my blog. Plz bear with me :)
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