Cycling Trip Sabah

Cycling trip sabah


This is the 2nd night of my 10 days cycling trip. We started fro kota kinabalu at around 1 pm and after hours of lunch, looking for my medicine which i forgot and looking for bicycle shops, we actually kick off aroud 3 30 pm.
By the time we reched the foothill of crocker range there was a heavy rain. But the biew along the road was beautiful covered by green rainforest. The road was winding but well mantained and the gradient was steep. It was lucky thay zaini offered to drive us up the mountain. Should we be cycling by ourselves that would almost like an inpossible task.
After climbing for about an hour we at last starting to go downhill. We stopped at gumug albab rest area which to me appear to be in the middle of nowbere. As the rain never stop and it was getting darker i decided to spend a night at gunung alab. The next morning i woke up fresh and ready to start cycling again.
From gunung alab the road was downhill all the way to sensuron and soon i reached tambunan. Tambunan has grown into quite a town. After a short break at tambunan we continued to keningau.
The road to keningau was hilly with hill after hill to go through. I can hardly ride so i have to push the bicycle. It was a tough job. I must have done hill number 3 when a lorry stopped by to take us as he saod there were a few more hills ahead. I agreed and pit my bicycle on the lorry. Somewhere 6 or 7 km after the driver dropped us to continue or journey to keningau. We stopped by at a frnds houst and rezumed after lunchnto keningu. We stayed in keningau for 2 nights because we have frieds to see there.
My next destination was tenomm  we cycled there for 4 hours and reached tenom in time for Friday prayer. There is nothing much in tenom and as it was raining, we stayed in door.
Tenom is connected to beaufort by an old train. I loaded my bicycle into the passemger cargo where there is no chairs and the passegers have to sit on the floor . The train stopped at assigned stations and whenever ot was flagged down by passengers. It runs parallel to pedas river , a beautiful river with strong rapid that cut through steep forested slope. The journey lasted about 4 hours and when i reached Beaufort i was already too tired that i checked into the hotel.
The next leg of the ride is covering the west coast staring from Beaufort to Kota Kinabalu. On the ay to papar we went to a small town named Kimanis and joined the villagers at a coffee shop talking about the current political issues. We couldnt spend more tie with them because we have a schdule to follow. We reached papar before noon and cycled around looking for a hotel. The town of papar s still recogisable due to the railway stataion in its centre. But there is no hotel. We searched in the new town and found one where we spent the night. Later rosli Joined us for tea tarik in the nearby mamak joint.
The next day we started off early to KK as we promised rosli we would drop in to his house. Rosli’s house has been expanded and the house is being prepared for his daughter wedding reception. Despite his medical condition rosli is full of life to do the best for his houze and to follow up on his tinkering hobby. We spent about 2 hours with rosli before continuing tp KK
The road to kk was quite challenging due to heavy traffic and small lane road. It was also blazing hot. At kepayan i received a call from rosli asking us to put up in his vacant house in kk rather than renting a hotel. As we made no booking that day we agreed to his invitation. Rosli came down to kk and that night we slept in rosli ‘s house.
From rosli’s house in Tanjung aru, we proceeded to our hotel at api-api which is only  a short distance away. We cycled along to the waterfrot visiting the market and some touristy spots. This mark the end of our cycling tour of sabah interior and west coast
In conclusion i would say that this cycling trip is a good thing for me. This excersise Improves my overall health because of the physical preparation and the actual cycling that make my muscle and my heart to work harder. I also strengtened my friendship with some old friends and made friends with new people. Also i saw that sabah has made big progress in physical development since the time I was here in late 60s both in term of physical infrastucture and the wealth of the people from the cars they drive, their houses and the restaurant they patronise.