West Malaysia loop ride

Coffee, tea and the butterflies. They all have one thing in common…a sleepless night. Last night was one of those. I found it hard to sleep because of the butterflies. Despite a relatively difficult rough night, I woke up this morning even before my alarm rang. So butterflies or not, the trip was upon me.

I do not know why but Murphy always shows up when I had the best of plans laid out. Perhaps my plans were not that great? The day started with me struggling with the two heavy side boxes I had packed for the ride. It took me an enormously long time just getting them mounted on the bike. I guess I should start working out! Soon though, I was heading out the door to the meet up point at the Caltex station along Woodlands Road.

Riding to the rising sun can be spectacular. This morning was no different. My ride was refreshing and invigorating. The air was crisp, the traffic was light, and Anker was responsive. It was as if he was more eager to get started than I was!

As usual, I was the first to arrive. By this time, the sun was already up.

The others started to arrive shortly. LPG, followed by SA, then Karl, and finally, Alex. After some final adjustments, and a quick briefing, we headed off…and the trip officially began!

The ride to the Woodlands Checkpoint was uneventful. I did have a small mishap at the checkpoint though. You see, my boxes were so wide that I hit the cash card box at the immigration lane! How embarrassing! Thankfully, I did not hit anything else for the rest of the day! Hahaha!!! We cleared the checkpoints, and proceeded to top off our fuel at the Shell station that was just outside.

The route today would total about 460km, taking us across two states: Johor and Pahang. It would be quite a ride!!!

Riding out of Johor Bahru usually involves a lot of traffic. Especially on Route 3. However, we rode out on Route 1 today and it was a completely different experience. There was traffic, of course, but nothing like what you would get on Route 3. I was really glad I picked this route for today!

We headed up north towards the town of Kluang, a town that sits almost at the very center of Johor. The idea was to start off riding a little more slowly to adjust to each other…picking up the pace as we went along.

The ride was relatively uneventful…until one rider shot way pass a traffic light that was red! It sure scared the living daylights out of me at that time! I bet the rider had a terrible scare too given the kind of traffic we saw at that particular stretch of road. Thankfully, nobody was harmed. I suppose it was all part of touring on a motorcycle with friends. Things are bound to happen outside of the plan. The most important thing was that everyone was alive and well.

The way up to Kluang was fun but a little slow given that we were riding through many towns: Senai, Kulai, Layang Layang and so on. One small town – Renggam – stood out in my mind as it had a stretch of beautiful tree-lined road that provided both beauty and shade. We arrived at Kluang shortly after that and headed straight for the railway station. Of course, I turned into the wrong road (one road before the correct turning actually) and we had to make a U-turn. It was quite fun as Anker got his first taste of sand!

There was an old coffee shop at the railway station that supposedly sold really nice coffee and toast. Unfortunately, it was closed.

It was a really nice and old style railway station too!

So we headed to a little food store right next to the station for our breakfast instead.

This place was rather interesting. There was a bunch of bananas and a plate filled with boiled eggs on each table!

After ordering our food, some of us could not resist having an egg! I ordered a Lontong dish which turned out to be a little different from what we find in Singapore…and it was yummy!!!

The other folks had Mee Kari (which turned out to be similar to Mee Rebus) and Roti John (which was HUGE!!!)…and all were extremely satisfied with breakfast!

Alex and I purchased one of those Bluetooth helmet headsets and we tried to get them synchronized over breakfast. Unfortunately, neither of us really knew how to get that done. Thankfully, Grace was able to text the instructions to us and we got them paired up in a jiffy! We were both eager to try out the intercom system at proper riding speeds!

We headed off soon after breakfast for our next destination: Kuala Rompin. This leg of the ride was both scenic and serene. We rode through plantation roads that were long and undulating, flanked on both sides by lazy palm trees,scenic and serene. We rode through plantation roads that were long and undulating, flanked on both sides by lazy palm trees and kissed by the warm sunshine and a wide blue sky. It was MAGNIFICENT!!!

It was a funny leg for me too as one of the riders missed a turning…and later tried to overtake a truck quite a number of times before completing the maneuver. It was fun to ride out on such a nice day and be rewarded with little incidents like this to keep the atmosphere light-hearted. I was enjoying myself thoroughly!

I wanted to head to Kuala Rompin as I read about some of the places you can have a meal by the beach. We eventually found one and parked our bikes next to it. After that little encounter with the sand in Kluang, I was eager to have Anker experience more of this terrific terrain…so I ended up parking Anker in the sand next to the store…and everyone else followed suit! Woohoo!!!

The beach looked good from this distance…but even better up close!

And it was quite a stretch of beach too!

Another interesting thing about this place was that they did not serve soft drinks. So the gang had quite a bit of trouble ordering drinks. Coke ada? Takda. 100 plus ada? Takda. Eventually, I ordered Air Limau (lime juice) and quite a number of them followed suit. Hahaha!!!

And for lunch, I had Maggi Goreng. Karl ordered Mee Hailam…and the rest followed him. Hahaha! It was interesting no???

We headed towards the town of Muadzam Shah after lunch and then towards Tasik Bera. This stretch of road was filled with potholes which made the riding that much more interesting. The route was scenic though…but I was filled with the dilemma…should I look up at the beautiful scenery…or down to avoid the potholes!!???

I could not resist stopping for a picture at this milestone!

Don’t you agree that this place is rather magnificent?

Tasik Bera is a natural lake that is part of the RAMSAR convention. This also helped ensure the natural ecosystem of this freshwater wetland is preserved well, resulting in a completely rustic and picturesque. The place where we parked our bikes were filled with a sense of peace…with cicadas chirping away in the trees serenading us as we rested our tired butts. It was a huge contrast to my last visit here where the place was filled with holiday makers. Certainly a welcome relief after a long ride on pothole riddled roads!

Tasik Bera has a unique, rustic charm.

Love the sampans!

It is such a serene place.

We headed off towards our final destination after a good rest at Tasik Bera. This road would be a little easier to ride than the earlier stretch. Unfortunately, it started to rain…and rain really heavily too!!! So we put on our rain gear and bravely continued on. It was dark and cold and wet when we arrived at the Green Park hotel at the town of Temerloh. Too bad that it rained so heavily as the ride would have afforded us a fantastic view of Sungai Pahang! Well…I guess that will have to wait till the next time!

Temerloh is the second largest town in the state of Pahang and it is famous for the Silver Patin fish. This fresh water fish is found in abundance in Sungai Pahang and is THE thing to try for visitors. We had dinner along the river that night, in one of the shops that lined the shore…and naturally…we had Patin. We also had a lot of other items on the table. Unfortunately, I seem to have lost all my pictures for that dinner…so here is one from SA’s camera of the Patin dish, Tempoyak style!

Don’ t be misled by the simple look of this Patin dish. The flesh turned out to be firm and succulent…and that Tempoyak gravy was extremely flavourful! In case you were wondering, Tempoyak is really a very unique concoction. Read a little about it here.

EDIT: I found two pictures on my iPhone…so here is the gang at the dinner table with all that great food!

And a closer look at what the dishes were…Ikan Patin Tempoyak, Rendang, Chicken Livers, Chicken Curry, Spicy Tempoyak and Sambal Balacan with Ulam!

The Green Park hotel is a budget hotel with a difference. The difference was the size of our rooms…which were HUGE!!!

In fact, this turned out to be the biggest room for the trip! I met a group of TV3 folks at the hotel lobby after checking in. They happened to be there for some convention that week. It was nice chatting with them in a mixture of English and Malay. Hahaha!!!

I spent the rest of the evening (whatever was left of it) washing my clothes, showering, charging my gadgets, downloading pictures…and sleeping. Nothing very exciting. Oh yes! I got to watch an episode of CSI and 24 each…twice! They aired it one after another! Talk about repetition!