Cycling at Taman Botani Negara aka Taman Pertanian Bukit Cahaya Seri Alam

One of the best places to experience easy, fun cycling in KL would be this place: Taman Botani Negara or formerly known as Taman Pertanian Bukit Cahaya Seri Alam or also formerly Bukit Cerakah which is located at Shah Alam. My first visit to this place was way back when I was very young somewhere in the early 90's. I remembered it was a long journey outside of KL and the road was still new. I think most people still know this place as Bukit Cerakah instead of that botani name or the lengthy taman pertanian name.

Back to the cycling part.

This place is really massive and I kid you not when I say that. You can spend a good 3 hours or more simply cycling around every corner of this area. To really explain what is this place : it's a park with many trees of course and I think it's a forest reserve. A really green, protected environment and no doubt a good place to go for nature lovers alike. Entry fees to the park is RM3 for adults and for the bicycle rental will be RM 5/hour for the new bike (with gears and some have that suspension thingy under the seat) while RM3 (I think so) for the old bike, mostly the ones with a front basket.

There are two main routes to start off your cycling journey around this park. Starting point will be at the bicycle garage itself, where you pick and register for your bicycles. From this point, make a choice between a left or right turning. I would say, there are more places you can visit if you head for right.

Riding around the park is pretty easy because all roads are fully tarred or asphalted. I suppose, the park is not designed for the off road kind of cycling. Despite that, it can be pretty challenging to cycle around because it tends to get pretty hilly and steep at some places. You can consider yourself very fit if you don't step down from your bicycle to push it uphill. Haha. I figured that pushing your bike with a little jog is less tiring and faster than wasting those energy cycling up the hill on lower gear. It pays off to make your battle up the steep road because the return ride will be a fast, thrilling ride downhill. At some point, I really went very fast down the hill because I've gained momentum earlier on and the road kept getting downhill and the best part sometimes, you really get to do a steep cornering. Imagine going downhill very fast on a bike. It was very THRILLING! Oh, you can have this experience by taking the left route from the bike garage. This route is where you get to do crazy downhill maneuvers.

[caption id="attachment_457" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Kg. Style "Plestik sangkut kat beskal""][/caption]

If you are planning to visit this Taman Botani, it's best to go there in the  morning. It's more cooling and the air is very fresh with all the lush forest trees surrounding the whole park. My last bike ride here was during a slightly drizzly morning and we were wet nonetheless worth the fun! It's still fine to go cycling around noon because the park is fully covered by trees so it's pretty shady. To fully enjoy the bike rides, pack yourself with a large bottle of water, some snacks, a cap in case it rains or get a little too hot and a camera of course. I can guarantee you a great and fun workout with lots of perspiration going on.

To learn more about this park, click here.

To learn more about how to play with your bike gears, click here.

P.S: If you want to feel like a kid again, go cycling at this park. It's a way of re-living your childhood cycling days (if you have one with bicycles, hehe) like how I had during my younger days with bike summersaults, losing control of the bike while going downhill and went straight into the 'semak' and cycling right over the drain and into the bush because of  a broken brakes  and etc. Hehe.

[caption id="attachment_458" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Amateur biker, fell in style! Way to go!"][/caption]