Monday, February 21, 2011

Fraser Loop Revisited

Raub...pretty small town.
Hotel seri raub...and I believe it's fully booked for Interstate 2011
Tras village...
Gap..as usual
Faris & Anas...
Dam at KKB...
This is the start of a long continuous climb up Gohtong. It's probably 5-6km with no flats in between. So be well prepared...

I had wanted to do a route which exceeds 200km, and frasers provide an easy answer. This time the difference was adding Raub into the equation, and climbing up Gohtong Jaya.

I've just signed up for interstate 2011, hence popping into Raub. Starting from HOA gombak to Raub is 84km. It's a pretty small town. But bigger than Klawang imho. I was eyeing which hotel would be suitable for booking. There's Hotel Seri Raub smacked right in the middle of the town. But there's numerous other smaller hotels which isn't far from the center. The most you would be out, is around2-3km.

After Raub, it was heading to Tranum via a 10km long road which passes Tras, a small village just 2-3km before Tranum. Then it was a boring 20km climb up to the Gap. I've never liked this route, with it's monotonous view and turns, there's not much difference even if you've cycled a few miles. At Gap, had nasi lemak & burger for lunch. Then my friend Anas, who was at the top of Frasers messaged, that he's coming down. I've seen him in a few years, so I waited for them to descend. They had started from KKB, and it was a leisure ride for them back.

After some chat, I had to speed off cause of the batang kali-gohtong climb. Had to stopped at batang kali to refill bottles with water & icy cold coconut drink, before embarking on one of the hardest climb. Yes, it's hard no matter how experienced you are. In my books, if you can sit patiently for more than one hour climbing a steepness as of bukit hantu for more than 10km, you are considered a true road cyclist. It was pretty hot as well, which made the climb a suffer fest.

Reached Gohtong, had some food, and then it was all the way back to HOA. Total distance is 210.5 km


2 comments:

Kevin Siah said...

Epic ride! But I think you have just done one even more epic-er! Raub is small but can be pretty lively especially during Chinese New Year. There are other hotels too, which we normally stay when we visit my dad's hometown. I can find out for you, if you are interested.

yipwt said...

hey kev,

No problem. We've already booked one nearby. Yea..it's pretty small, but quite lively..:)