After many delays due to health and work reasons, I finally could go for my first overnight backpacking trip with sleep and cooking kit. Since this is my first go at it, I decided to go for safe option where it was a short ride to the campsite at Bernam Nature Hut, the campsite had amenities and alternative accommodation and it was short ride to town. I've been slowly researching and building up my kit in bits and pieces, for budget reasons, but also because through research many items that I think were best for me, were not available locally and it took some time to have opportunity to buy them.

The goal was to be as light as possible, without sacrificing comfort. These trips are supposed to be fun and relaxing, not a Bear Grylls survival adventure.

Bike setup

One benefit of touring by bickpacking vs traditional backpacking, is that you don't have to go ultralight for weight and space. Lighter weight and carrying less is always best, but you don't need to compromise comfort for reduction in weight as much. 

• Ortlieb Quick Rack to add ability to carry tent and panniers on my road bike.
• Ortlieb Gravel-Pack panniers
• Apidura Top Tube and Expedition Downtube Bag
• Chrome Doubletrack Sling Handlebar Bag

(Decathlon sells their own version of bikepacking and pannier bags, so check them out as for affordable but quality alternatives)

Rack and Panniers

Choice of Ortlieb Quick Rack is the ability to take on and take off the rack quickly. Most of the time I don't need a rack on my road bike. If you don't have rear eyelets, there is also a thru-axle kit for Ortlieb Quick-Rack for road bikes without rear eyelets. Either way it's way more affordable and provides a more standard rack setup than Tailfin.

If you don't mind a bit of faffing around, there are plenty of options for traditional screw on racks.  

For panniers, I opted for the Ortlieb Gravel Pack. I liked the look and size of it. At 14.5L volume each, and pretty narrow, it makes the bicycle less unwieldy to ride and to get through various obstacles. The volume also stops me from packing everything and carrying too heavy a load. I want to keep bike camping kit under 10kg in total. Keeping it light is also quite practical for when there are broken elevators and you need to lug your bicycle with everything up a bunch of stairs.

Chrome Doubletrack Sling Handlebar Bag

Spacious 5L handlebar bag that converts to a sling bag, and easy to take on and off. Useful to keep stuff like your wallet and keys and take it with you when you need to stop at a shop or place to eat. The side pockets are useful for things like sunscreen or small towel. I had to give up quick access to the main contents when on the bike, because of my out front phone and light mount. It can also fit my mirrorless camera should it be a photo trip. (See my article on photography and cycling).

Top tube and downtube bags

For downtube mount, I have a small bag for repairs. It has electronic bike pump, spare tube, tubeless repair kit, multitool and small first aid kit for cuts and grazes. It's not easily accessible, and hopefully don't need to be accessed to often.

I have the Apidura magnetic latch top tube bag, that I put in a small towel, some small hex keys for adjusting seat and seat post, and USB battery to recharge phone or GoPro if needed.

Camping Kit

Sleeping Kit

• Forclaz MT900 2 Person Dome Treking Tent (Now under the Simone brand instead of Forclaz)
• Naturehike CW400 down sleeping bag
• Sea to Summit Ultralight Air Large Sleeping Mat
• Decathlon Inflatable Trekking Pillow

Surprisingly the two person MT900 dome tent is not sold in Malaysia by Decathlon. I had to grab mine overseas. This tent worked out as researched. It was affordable, but still not too heavy, and had plenty of space and height for one person, and really easy to setup and take down. It has pockets near your head, and overhead net to stash more stuff, like my glasses and two hooks for lamps. Another feature I liked is that on both sides, there is floor covering with side wall protected by the flysheet outside of the main area. So you can keep your panniers, bags and shoes here protected from wet ground and rain. There was light rain and it handled it just fine, and I'm quite confident it can handle heavier downpours also.

There are a few local brands also, so have a look at Deer Creek and Tahan for options not just for tent, but also other sleeping kit gear. Their prices are much more affordable then some of the kit I use.

Naturehike CW400 was the cheapest rectangular down sleeping mat at the time of purchase. The price has gone up a bit since then. It's super soft and comfortable, and for hot tropical weather, you can unzip it fully to act like a blanket

Sea Summit UL Air Large also works as expected and was comfortable for me to sleep on. On hindsight I'd go for larger and thicker rectangular Etherpad.

The Decathlon inflatable pillow was OK, but for bikepacking where space/weight isn't a premium, I would opt for a larger memory foam pillow for better sleep.

Cooking Kit

• Decathlon MT 500 5L Isothermal Lunchbox
• Firemaple Polaris Cooking System
• Metal chopsticks, camping/travel tongs and small foldable metal spoon/fork (can find at Decathlon and online)

Decathlon MT 500 5L lunch box is strongly recommended. It's perfect for hiking and bikepacking because it's compressible. It can squeeze into backpacks and panniers. I put it at the bottom of one of the panniers. With ice pack, it can keep food cool for several hours with ice packs, which means you can pack some meat items to grill or cook like burgers or skewers. It also comes with a handy mat, and zip compartments to keep your utensils and other bits and pieces.

Firemaple Polaris works well. It can boil 1.2l of water in minutes. However I found it a bit too large for solo bikepacking. In future I might look to get a combination of Soto Thermostack set and Soto Windmaster combination if I go on more trips. It is a bit pricey. For now the Polaris is more than good enough. 

Some other accessories

• Powerbank
• Small USB camping lantern
• Headlight - Nitecore NU24 UL
• Pocket knife with scissors

Having a headlight is essential for doing stuff in the dark and having your hands free. A small one is good enough. Lantern isn't essential, but it's nice to have to hang inside the roof of your tent, makes it easy to see too, if you need to get back to your tent in the dark.

Swiss army knife with scissors is always a good thing to have. Have a look at Felix Immler's videos for tips and tricks. I keep it in my EDC when not flying, because it's so handy to have. 

Overall experience

The campsites near Tanjung Malim are easy to reach by KTM Komuter and bicycle, making it perfect for inexperienced folks like me. Should anything go wrong, you can just cycle into town and stay in a hotel, or grab food from 24/7 convenience stores. Thankfully it wasn't needed for my first overnight trip.

The KL Sentral to Klang KTM line is still out of commission, making this trip much harder than it has to be. I had to cycle 17km from Subang to get to KL Sentral and again on way home. The way back also because of broken cycleway from Mid Valley, meant carrying my bike at Alia hotel to get to the pedestrian bridge to Bangsar, like 6 flights of stairs, and then some heavy climbs. The distance is nothing, but it's frustrating when public infrastructure like trains and cycle ways are broken. On the positive side, all the workouts for past few years to get healthy meant the climbs were not that hard and 20kg of bicycle + gear isn't that heavy to lift up stairs. So when I go on longer tours with long climbs, I know I'm good for it.

One thing I did find, is that if you're not in the highlands, camping is a bit too hot in Malaysia with a flysheet for an early night. It's best that you're in a cool area next to a mountain stream. Temperatures don't get comfortable cool until near dawn around 4am. So you need to figure out a way to chill until late evening before it's cool enough to get into tent and sleep.

You could do without a flysheet, but I'm not confident right now to put it up quickly at night and it suddenly starts pouring.

Some things I would improve on next time:

• Don't forget to bring mug, and maybe a small bowl. Drinking and eating out of 1.2l pot is a bit awkward. Also bring nicer food to cook and enjoy meal.
• Bring a microfibre cleaning towel to use as cleaning rag.
• Bring a pack of large body wipes, to clean and freshen up in between showers.
• Research and find cooler camping sites in highlands or cooler areas. And bring swimmers to take dips in mountain streams and rivers to feel cooler and refreshed.
• Find a larger and nicer memory foam camping / travel pillow to use
• Test GoPro battery and card first. Lots of interesting parts not captured on video.