...Jack's Tour of Pain 2010...: Day 3: KKB – Fraser’s Hill

Rose up at 6.30am, got prepared; breakfast was 2 bananas and Choc milk. Since we plan to have this room for 2 nights, we can ascent Frasers without our bags (yay! But also mean with bags up Genting, boo!). We started off at 7.30am….right out of the edge of town we made a left turn to the road which goes straight up to Frasers. It was nice cooling morning and watching the sun rise over the KKB dam was marvelous. It was a short climb to the dam and the flat for while before we started the real ascent to The Gap. Very pleasant place to cycle, not too taxing…grade was about 3-4% for over 20kms.

I kinda enjoyed this portion very much, very green with growth, fresh air…..this is THE life. And almost no cars!! I think we saw like 1 or 2 on the way up to the gap? We stopped once or twice on the way to the gap.

Reached the gap at around 9.30am…a bummer as the next opening to go up to Fraser’s was scheduled at 11am. So we had yet another nasi lemak at the gap stall. Milo-ais, Horlicks-ais and The-ais is a usual feature for us this trip. Couple of cars were already lining up for the next road opening to go up at 11am. At 11 am we went straight up after the cars….this stretch to the top is about 8km long and is steeper at 5-8% (typically, though there was a hairpin that went up to 11%). It quite a bit of effort but once in I’ve found my pace and ‘groove’ going up was not a problem. Its not a good idea to climb at other’s pace, you gotta go at your own.

It was the first time I went up. Nice touristy town at the top, quite well built up complete with a police station and clinic. We just sat around for like 20mins or so and down we went. I found the twisty stretch quite nice so I passed Ben and told him that ‘I’m going ahead’….so off I went, negotiating bends, less cautiously than I should have been I guess and the result, I spilled going into a right hairpin with off-camber and wet conditions….created 2 holes in my favourite BnB jersey (thank goodness I have 2!), bruises on my knee and elbow and a hard blow to my right rib. I got up quickly and settled…then Ben arrived. I spent the rest of the journey following his pace down to KKB.

Wonderful lunch at an Indian restaurant at KKB followed by some shut-eye. We wanted to eat the Nasi Lemak Kukus again but the there was a Pasar Malam going on so we bought a lot street food and ate them at a mamak stall, enjoying Maggi goreng as well!