Review: Tristan Park 2D1N Kong Kong Trail

A couple of friends and I recently spent a weekend with Tristan Park, they are a company that organizes dirt bike trail riding trips in Malaysia. If you have always wanted to do some dirt biking but don't own a dirt bike, you might want to give them a try. None of us had dirt biking experience, it was our first time at it.

Here's what we think.

Bikes

I would say the bikes are minimally maintained. The wear and tear parts were of inferior quality, and can break easily when you fall. Don't tell me you won't fall, because you most definitely would. 

Throttle cable housing broke, and he had to ride with this weird pull-to-accelerate contraption

In another crash, the clutch cable snapped, and was replaced with the front brake cable. Yeah, one of us was riding without the front brake. Our guide was very creative with field repairs, which I found very impressive.

Trail

We chose the Kong Kong 2 day 1 night trail route. Before the trip, I read some reviews from experienced trail riders saying that the trails Tristan Park offered were too easy. Not for our case, I personally found the Kong Kong trail challenging and fun.

The only downside was that we had to refuel twice on the second day because the trail was rather long. Funny that we didn't run out of fuel on the first day. Perhaps, we got better, and used the throttle more. According to our guide, our bikes could have been leaking fuel.

Guide

Our guide's name was Black. I'm pretty sure that wasn't his real name, because he told us he was from Kong Kong, Malaysia. All of us spoke well of him, he was very patient, and did his job well. Helping to lift up, and start our bikes, even when all of us were exhausted from the physically challenging trail.

At night, he even invited us to go fishing with one of his friends. It was an eye-opener to see the difference in the simple kampung lifestyle versus our fast paced city life in Singapore.

Food and Accomodation

Food was not provided. Black brought us to a seafood restaurant for dinner, near where we stayed for the night. The seafood was not bad, though I had expected the portion to be larger. It was only 50RM each for 4 of us, so no complaints.

The seafood restaurant

Crab, prawn, fish, vegetable, and tom yam soup

Accommodation was 50RM per room per night, which had 2 beds, a shower, and air conditioning. If you are used to nice hotels, then this place is not for you. It was rather run-down, heck, there were a lot of ants in the toilet.

A queen-sized bed, and a single bed

The shower room and toilet

The corridor

Price

The price depends on the bikes you choose, we chose the KTM which was SGD$150 per day. Add in the optional boots and goggles rental, and it amounted to SGD$360 per pax. The goggles were fine, but most of the boots were missing a few securing straps. I had hoped that the personal gear would be better maintained.

But still, given the price, it is still rather worth it, considering we had a lot of fun. I don't think you can do anything like this in Singapore.

Conclusion

The bikes, and personal gear could have been better maintained, that would give Tristan Park a higher RB rating. The plus points came mainly from our guide, and the trail. Personally, I would pay them to bring me on another more challenging trail, but that's just me.

If you have never done dirt biking before, I think you should at least give it a try. It would most probably improve your riding skills when it comes to handling rear wheel slides.

RB Rating: 6 / 10

Ride safe.