Cycle Malaysia Day 2 - Sekinchan to Hutan Melintang

Good morning Sekinchan, this town has been very popular among the local tourists with many places to stay overnight and many places to eat & shop. We started the morning visiting this food court, Restoran Sin Ming Kee for some decent food like porridge and noodles.

For the benefit of our visiting friend from oversea we did a brief ride around in Sekinchan visiting the rice factory and mango farm before we continued with our journey.

The Guest House owner Mr. Wong accompanied us to the fringe of Sekinchan and bade farewell to us. Thank you Mr. Wong and we shall see you again next time.

From Pantai Redang of Sekinchan there is an earth bund access along the coastline which is rather lengthy and fun to ride along. There are many cows and cow dung found along it and one has to be careful not to roll over the dung.

One for the album at the earth bund.

We decided to turn from the laterite road and set into lovely kampong atmosphere. 

We were back to same Mee Udang stall at Sg. Nibong and I agreed with Joe that the quality of the prawn mee was better than the last time we came. Well done Mee Udang King Original we love your noodle and the fresh prawns!

The route on Day 2 was of mainly inner roads without much of a traffic nuisance, indeed a peaceful and enjoyable 62km ride.

A place to stop and rest is essential. Bus stop is one of the most common places to take a break and it is also a good shelter from the heat and rain.

The GPS device I am using is of Garmin Oregon powered by 2 nos. of rechargeable AA dry batteries. The routes for the entire round Peninsula are all loaded in it and I rely on it very much. For instance you can confidently cycle at long stretches of quiet road without fear and knowing exactly your position in relation to the destination you are heading. But at times you have to use it smartly.

After a long and scenic ride in the coconut plantation we found the jetty to take us across Bernam River and over to Hutan Melintang.

We could sense comfort coming its way ..... the food, the bed and a good rest. By the way we were at the verge of crossing to another state and welcome to Perak.

A short distance from the jetty we stopped by at this shop from some food and drinks.

The drizzle continued to bless us as we cycled into the main town hunting for a decent hotel. We checked into Legenda Hotel. The day ended with a dinner at Restoran Seafood Happiness before we called it a night.

Day 2 ride was easy and pleasant with a relatively flat terrain.

Lunch at Restoran Township Sekinchan after a Cycling Exploration

After a good cycling exploration in Sekinchan where we visited a couple of interesting places in this town famous for its fishing & paddy produce, obviously we were very hungry and were gamed for a good local meal. Here we were at this relatively new restaurant crowded but some of us managed to grab some tables while others had theirs at the other restaurant which was a few doors away.

It's a shrimp delicacy even though the prawns were small in size but the fried was awesome. I really like this dish.

Fried mantis prawns with dried chilli was also delicious.

A steam fish simple yet gorgeous. It was fresh and tender.

A leafy green veggie that was stir fried to a perfect liking.

More delicious veggie - slices of bitter gourd fried with eggs that was not oily and it was yummy.

A soup with thick Lala clams - another super duper nice sea food. Basically the food in Sekinchan is good and pricing is reasonable .

I love Sekinchan and would love to come back for another night stay in this lovely town for the sunset, paddy field, fruits and of course their sea foods. Till then we shall meet again.

Restoran Township

Jalan SD1

Kampong Sekinchan

Selangor

GPS : 3.504829, 101.099661

Cycling Around Sekinchan for a Golden Harvest

First of all I would like to thank Kimmiskie for inviting us for this lovely event and Fenn Siah for arranging the accommodation. Paddy Village Hotel is a good place to stay. It is clean and it costs us only RM68.00 per night, it is located at the main trunk road of Sekinchan and most importantly it's within the town itself.

We arrived at Sekinchan around five something in the evening, hoping to catch the sun set and yes we did it. It was on our ride to the fishing village that we managed to captured it.

There are many restaurants in Sekinchan and we were recommended to eat here. I guess the food is about the same everywhere in this small town and the pricing is reasonable. That is why it is attracting people from all over to visit Sekinchan for it seafood and also its many places of attraction. Well done !!! Sekinchan it's now a tourist spot.

After a good dinner at Restoran Wan Lau, we went roaming the small town searching for action. We heard some traditional Chinese opera music around a corner.

Yes, it was an opera show in a temple. We were told that these performers were from China. It is sad to know that this performing trade has died off locally, I used to cycle during my teens' days in Padang Serai to watch Teochew Opera shows in a temple just like this one.. It was then like a fun fair kind of atmosphere and one of the limited entertainments available where I could be thrilled.

Shortly after at the temple, there came an exciting street procession, there were mediums in trance and it was quite a show. After spending some time at the temple, we rode back to the hotel for a good night sleep preparing ourselves for the Cikgu Cikgu's event.

It was raining early in morning but that did not deter us at all. In fact we came with a full force and had a good breakfast at this mamak restaurant. A total of 55 participants took the trouble to wake up early for this event, many drove from Kuala Lumpur and finally we were ready for Cikgu SC Chin and Cikgu Liliana Lee for a tour of Sekinchan and they are the best.

The paddy fields is sited next to the town and it is really a huge field with an acreage of 4,300 acres. We came at the time, it was harvesting season with plain of beautiful golden horizon such a lovely sight in deed. Sekinchan is one of the major rice producing areas in Malaysia.

This is outside a rice factory where we went out to the huge rice harvesters for some photo shooting. The rice factory has been commercialised for tourists with shows and exhibits all for a fee of RM4.00 each. You will also get a free souvenir pack of rice from the ticket. 

The visit to the rice factory was truly educational and interesting, the weather was getting better as we headed to our next destination. 

Mango King is a place to buy big mango and many more local produce like corns, vegetables, big pineapple, etc etc...

Passing by a lady fingers' farm....

I was taking a short ride into a corn farm, the plants seems to be still young with no yield yet.

Another visit to a fruit farm where some went into the farm for more photography while others enjoyed them at the sale counter.

Sekinchan is yielding very well in term of rice producing with a double planting per year.

Unfortunately Malaysia has not achieve self sufficiency in rice but maybe soon with example like Sekinchan.

The afternoon sun was starting to scorch ....

Roaming in the vast land of padi fields away from the city, a life that is simple and relaxing.

By the way the word Sekinchan, which literally means “village suitable for plantation” in Chinese, lives up to its name as the town is the rice bowl of Selangor. Large plots of land are cultivated to produce the staple rice supply of Malaysians. This area is well-known for its high yield of rice and mechanised farming method.

Luck was with us, we were able to witness how the rice being transported from the harvesters to a truck. SC Chin told us the it was rare to see two harvesters connecting together in the loading of the rice.

After we crossed the trunk road (Route 5) into the kampong before reaching a red bund along the coastline. The rocks filled bund is a protection against erosion to the coastline. The change of scenery was breathtaking as we see a different set of scene, we see sea and could feel the breeze as we cruise along the seaside. 

A stop to regroup the 55 cyclists for a rest while some were busy shooting with their cameras.

The ride along the coastline was a short one and we reached a beach called Redang for some drinks. This beach is getting popular these days where visitors would enjoy themselves with picnics under the trees and kite flying is another interesting activity seen at the beach.

By this time everyone was hungry a seafood lunch was just perfect. The seafood at Restoran Township was awesome and the price was very reasonable which cost us less RM17.00 per head.

This is a visit to a fish cracker factory.

The last visit was a shop where we bought the local dry produce such as dried shrimps, archovies, fish balls, yong tau foo and many more. How could we leave the place empty handed...so it's shopping time.

I was glad that Jo was coupling well with the ride, she managed to shield herself from the hot afternoon sun.

From the fishing village we rode back to the town, the only concern was we need to cross the busy trunk road which we were assisted by the traffic lights so it was good for a safety crossing.

The last place was for a good dessert ABC (Ais Kacang Campur) before we go back to Kuala Lumpur. Do check this place out, it is opposite Hong Leong Bank.

Besides the awesome Ice kacang, cycling around Sekinchan to see all the amazing things in the fishing village and paddy fields is an absolute brilliant idea. So get your bicycle there and start enjoying a discovery of Sekinchan. There are bikes for rent too which can be obtained from Paddy Village Hotel. Cheers & have fun.