Discover Padang Rengas By Bike

Padang Rengas is a sub-district of Kuala Kangsar in Perak. Located in between Kuala Kangsar town and Grik to the north, it is a laid-back kampung (village) with the majority of the dwellers being rubber tappers and plantation owners. I personally observed something very interesting about this kampong – durian trees are almost everywhere!

I was recently invited by Tourism Malaysia Perak (Thank you Farhana) for this CC1M Bike Ride @ Padang Rengas. By the way, CC1M stands for Cuti-cuti 1 Malaysia or 1 Malaysia Holidays. Bicycle ride has been widely promoted by Tourism Malaysia as one of the tourism packages, being part of their clean and green initiatives. There were some 20 of us from various local media and travel agencies.

We checked in at Syamille Agro Farm & Resort, near Padang Rengas a day before the event. The unassuming resort has 17 chalets, all beautifully tucked in this hillside orchard. With crystal clear water flowing in from Lata Perahu, the resort is also home to thousands of freshwater fish, more than a dozen deer, pheasants and also love birds, it’s like a mini zoo here. The main attraction is, however, the Lebah Kelulut (stingless bee). The small honey bees, widely found in tropical countries, are farmed at Syamille in a small but commercial scale. They are kept in their original log hives and the honey produced is bottled and sold at the resort.

Chalet number 13 where I was staying was facing the clear stream and surrounded by fruit trees. As this was the fruit season, we had a field day eating fresh durians that fell from the trees. There’s nothing more fulfilling than eating fresh and deliciously creamy durians in the orchard.

At 6.30 the next morning we were already at the Padang Rengas Parliamentary Service Centre, the location of the start/finish of the bike ride. The flagging off was done by YB Dato’ Nolee Ashilin, the state exco for Tourism, Arts and Culture accompanied by Datuk Musa Yusuf, the Director of Domestic Tourism, Tourism Malaysia and YB Zainun Mohd Noor, the state assemblyman for Chenderoh in Padang Rengas. The 18km ride was also joined by the sporting Haji Ibrahim Seddiqi, the Director of Tourism Malaysia Perak.