Distance 42.12 km
Max speed 30.1 km/h
Average while moving: 17.9 km/h
I got in to Sabak Bernam still on a bit of a high, found the Sabak Bernam Rest House and decided to stay there. The running around had tired me out and I had no wish to look around more. It seemed a promising enough place, but when I opened the room door and found the room had not been cleaned, I knew the promise was not to be delivered.
Dumping my bags in the replacement room, I immediately headed for a meal in the coffee house within the compound. The food was tasty enough, but the waitress/supervisor was as sullen as could be. Ah, the curse of Selangor. And in this, the last town before I cross the 4th state border.
The whole place reeked of poor management and I do not wish to dwell on this. Instead, have a look at the pictures...
Selangor is a mess!
There are some towns you kinda want to linger in. I had no wish to do so here, mainly because of the rest house and the grounds immediately behind it. Sabak Bernam's saving grace came after I checked out. Needing the rest, I had slept in and checked out at noon. I had decided to hang around town so rode out to look for a place to do just that. I came a cross a Mamak stall under a tree, at a junction and decided to stop there.
How glad I was that I had done that.
The place was run by an old man, Mohd Shukor and his sons, one of whom, Ridzwan, was there too. They had a woman helping them too. The stall was a simple affair, a collection of wooden counters and work tables shaded by a semi-permanent metal structure beneath a large tree. A collection of tables and chairs sat under the shelter and out in the open. I sat in the shade and stayed a few hours.
In between chatting with Ridzwan and Mohd Shukor, I enjoyed some of the best roti chanai in town. Now, common wisdom would have it that good roti is served hot. I'm thinking perhaps not... The stall opens from 6 am to 6 pm and only serves fresh rotis in the morning and after 3pm. When I was there in the early afternoon, I had a lunch of rice and some chicken and vege - very good indeed. Still not entirely satiated, I asked for a roti. Ridzwan had been clearing the lunch curries and heating up the roti curries - the two being quite different.
Mohd Shukor took a morning roti from a large plastic thermo container, beat it about a bit with a cleaver, then chopped it up and placed it on a plate. On this he poured a mix of two curries and they were among the best roti curries I've ever had! I'm no food critic so let me do my humble and limited best to paint this picture. The curries were not overly fragrant - the flavour was never overpowering. Instead, it was a blend of this and that that tickled your taste buds, exciting without overpowering them. In the curries I saw prawns, mango (young mango, for the tanginess, Ridzwan explained), something that looked like eggplant or brinjal and more.
The roti became the carrier of these flavours, a platform that delivered the pleasure to your mouth...
Ridzwan, in between attending to other customers, sat down and chatted with me too. He was a young chap in his very early twenties and had returned a year previously after playing football with the PKNS club. He liked club football and reckoned the money he earned then was pretty decent, especially considering that he was given housing too.
He played with them for four years - two contracts of two years each. He stopped when he hurt his ankle badly and now only plays social football. He also once tried out with a state football club but left in disgust after a few months when he realised some team players were there because their father had some influence and money.
Returning to Sabak Bernam (which they call simply 'Sabak') he tried out one or two jobs then his father suggested he help out at the stall they'd owned for many years. So he joined. He doesn't do the cooking - his mother does - although he does cook some of the rotis if they're ordered before his cousin, the real roti cook, arrives.
Mohd Shukor is from Penang and both he and his wife have Indian-Malay parentage. They still own a stall in KL, although that is operated by someone else. Now their energies are devoted to the one in Sabak. The lunch crowd wasn't that large when I was there, but almost spot on at 3, the tables quickly filled up and the place got lively and busy. Must be the rotis...
Ridzwan and I talked about football, about the people in big towns, about life in KL. At one point, two Chinese ladies drew up on a scooter, one an older lady with a louder voice and the other a slimmer, younger one with a warm smile. The older lady saw my helmet on the table as she walked past me and asked if I was on a motorbike - she'd never seen that sort of helmet before. When I pointed to my bicycle she was taken aback and then even more so when Ridzwan and Mohd Shukor told her I'd come from Johor. The older lady could only speak Hokkien or Mandarin - neither of which I am able to converse in - but the younger one could speak Cantonese so she acted as interpreter to a conversation which basically went:
Older lady: Wah, you're mad lah.
Me: Yah, my wife thinks so.
OL: (turning to Shukor and Ridzwan) This fella very daring ah? Ride so far. Mad, ah?
A few more references to her diagnosis of mental incompetence on my part (all very good naturedly though) and we were all laughing. The older lady was apparently a 'Towkay' and owned estate land and property around Sabak. The younger lady was actually from Kelang. They's come to pick up some roti chanais and did wish me well as they went off.
I left about 3:30 or 4 and endured the road widening Rdizwan and Mohd Shukor had warned me about. It was certainly very narrow and rough and at times lorries had to slow almost to a stop behind me as they waited for traffic on the other side to ease so they could squeeze past.
The lorry drivers have always been very patient and careful and more than one have tooted their horn or waved at me in encouragement.
I didn't even notice I'd left Selangor, and didn't really care. Except for a few very nice people, my home state had left me cold.
Max speed 30.1 km/h
Average while moving: 17.9 km/h
I got in to Sabak Bernam still on a bit of a high, found the Sabak Bernam Rest House and decided to stay there. The running around had tired me out and I had no wish to look around more. It seemed a promising enough place, but when I opened the room door and found the room had not been cleaned, I knew the promise was not to be delivered.
Dumping my bags in the replacement room, I immediately headed for a meal in the coffee house within the compound. The food was tasty enough, but the waitress/supervisor was as sullen as could be. Ah, the curse of Selangor. And in this, the last town before I cross the 4th state border.
The whole place reeked of poor management and I do not wish to dwell on this. Instead, have a look at the pictures...
There are some towns you kinda want to linger in. I had no wish to do so here, mainly because of the rest house and the grounds immediately behind it. Sabak Bernam's saving grace came after I checked out. Needing the rest, I had slept in and checked out at noon. I had decided to hang around town so rode out to look for a place to do just that. I came a cross a Mamak stall under a tree, at a junction and decided to stop there.
How glad I was that I had done that.
The place was run by an old man, Mohd Shukor and his sons, one of whom, Ridzwan, was there too. They had a woman helping them too. The stall was a simple affair, a collection of wooden counters and work tables shaded by a semi-permanent metal structure beneath a large tree. A collection of tables and chairs sat under the shelter and out in the open. I sat in the shade and stayed a few hours.
In between chatting with Ridzwan and Mohd Shukor, I enjoyed some of the best roti chanai in town. Now, common wisdom would have it that good roti is served hot. I'm thinking perhaps not... The stall opens from 6 am to 6 pm and only serves fresh rotis in the morning and after 3pm. When I was there in the early afternoon, I had a lunch of rice and some chicken and vege - very good indeed. Still not entirely satiated, I asked for a roti. Ridzwan had been clearing the lunch curries and heating up the roti curries - the two being quite different.
Mohd Shukor took a morning roti from a large plastic thermo container, beat it about a bit with a cleaver, then chopped it up and placed it on a plate. On this he poured a mix of two curries and they were among the best roti curries I've ever had! I'm no food critic so let me do my humble and limited best to paint this picture. The curries were not overly fragrant - the flavour was never overpowering. Instead, it was a blend of this and that that tickled your taste buds, exciting without overpowering them. In the curries I saw prawns, mango (young mango, for the tanginess, Ridzwan explained), something that looked like eggplant or brinjal and more.
The roti became the carrier of these flavours, a platform that delivered the pleasure to your mouth...
Ridzwan, in between attending to other customers, sat down and chatted with me too. He was a young chap in his very early twenties and had returned a year previously after playing football with the PKNS club. He liked club football and reckoned the money he earned then was pretty decent, especially considering that he was given housing too.
He played with them for four years - two contracts of two years each. He stopped when he hurt his ankle badly and now only plays social football. He also once tried out with a state football club but left in disgust after a few months when he realised some team players were there because their father had some influence and money.
Returning to Sabak Bernam (which they call simply 'Sabak') he tried out one or two jobs then his father suggested he help out at the stall they'd owned for many years. So he joined. He doesn't do the cooking - his mother does - although he does cook some of the rotis if they're ordered before his cousin, the real roti cook, arrives.
Mohd Shukor is from Penang and both he and his wife have Indian-Malay parentage. They still own a stall in KL, although that is operated by someone else. Now their energies are devoted to the one in Sabak. The lunch crowd wasn't that large when I was there, but almost spot on at 3, the tables quickly filled up and the place got lively and busy. Must be the rotis...
Ridzwan and I talked about football, about the people in big towns, about life in KL. At one point, two Chinese ladies drew up on a scooter, one an older lady with a louder voice and the other a slimmer, younger one with a warm smile. The older lady saw my helmet on the table as she walked past me and asked if I was on a motorbike - she'd never seen that sort of helmet before. When I pointed to my bicycle she was taken aback and then even more so when Ridzwan and Mohd Shukor told her I'd come from Johor. The older lady could only speak Hokkien or Mandarin - neither of which I am able to converse in - but the younger one could speak Cantonese so she acted as interpreter to a conversation which basically went:
Older lady: Wah, you're mad lah.
Me: Yah, my wife thinks so.
OL: (turning to Shukor and Ridzwan) This fella very daring ah? Ride so far. Mad, ah?
A few more references to her diagnosis of mental incompetence on my part (all very good naturedly though) and we were all laughing. The older lady was apparently a 'Towkay' and owned estate land and property around Sabak. The younger lady was actually from Kelang. They's come to pick up some roti chanais and did wish me well as they went off.
I left about 3:30 or 4 and endured the road widening Rdizwan and Mohd Shukor had warned me about. It was certainly very narrow and rough and at times lorries had to slow almost to a stop behind me as they waited for traffic on the other side to ease so they could squeeze past.
The lorry drivers have always been very patient and careful and more than one have tooted their horn or waved at me in encouragement.
I didn't even notice I'd left Selangor, and didn't really care. Except for a few very nice people, my home state had left me cold.
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