Photo Walk : Taman Pertanian Malaysia a.ka. Bukit Cahaya a.k.a Bukit Cherakah....which wan is which la....

** Pictures are available at www.flickr.com/jeisern **

I went to the Taman Pertanian Malaysia in Shah Alam on Wednesday morning to exercise, with a bicycle trek and also to hone my DSLR skills.

I went with a senior colleague of mine who share the same DSLR interests. We have been planning for sometime to do a "Photo-walk" on a park of some sorts, but could not decide on the day, date and time as we work on shifts.

On Tuesday my significant other went for a business trip so i quickly made plans for this short excursion. At first we set our eyes on FRIM, but given the time and preparation, we decided on Taman Pertanian Malaysia.

Well we started out at 9 am and entered the main entrance, RM 3.00 for adult and RM 1.00 for kids. We then started up the track on the left towards the fruits orchard, cactus farm and a few jungle tracks. We saw a bicycle rental service, we decided to rent bikes, but much to our chargrins, a few young kids were there earlier and were taking the best of the bunch (Later much to our dismay we found out that there was a nother competing shop next door which opened later and had better choices of bicycles....i was scowling by then).

This was kind of like my first photowalk, so i did the most naive of things, carry everything for my DSLR via the knapsack. BIG MISTAKE ! I feel like a mini trooper running with full load. The bike i chose was noisy as hell, creaking here and there....sigh, what can you do with a locally assembled bike with not much of a QC. It held together surprisingly, which was bad for my arse as it was rigid as hell......the seat was designed weirdly. By the end of my the ride i had a sore arse and killer aches on my calves and back.

I guess we were quite ambitious, no prior stamina training and off we went. At the first corner we were already winded. Stopped to rest for awhile as we had to go uphill, i just realize that i ain't as lithe as i was when i was a teenager...hahaha took me that long to figure that out eh ? With the full load on my back, including a tripod mind you, i could hardly move the bike up the hill. Even with a rolling start, there's only so much i can pedal uphill. So we had to push the bikes up hill and ride them down....ONLY TO REALIZE that is one way in and the same way OUT.

We spend 2 1/2 hours in the left part of the park and could not take it already. The noon sun was up high and we were practically roasting. The cactus farm was the last toll, with the bright scorching sun out, the place practically made us feel like we were in a desert, save for the dribbling stream.

Some horsing around taking shots here and there and then we headed back to the car park. IT WAS PURE TORTURE TO GO BACK, since we were down on stamina and low on hydration....had to stop a few times in between to pace our selves.

But we made it out, we did not even get to visit the 4 Season Room as we were practically worn out. The administrator at the place said it was spring anyway, i'd give anything if we could flip the switch to winter man that day it self.

All in all it was a good exercise, my wife now wants to go there instead,maybe this time i will go to other end instead as the left lane was a killer, i found out later in some of the pictures taken the trail was approximately 8 km, if i am not mistaken.

Along the way....we met the kids who were choosing the bikes earlier and man, as my senior said, zero fats on them. You can see them frolicking on the bikes and basically full of zest.

Made me feel DAMN FRICKING OLD ! hahahaha....

p/s : Thanks Jessie, lets go to FRIM for the next round. Bawak more water and less "KAR CHANG" for the DSLR....