West Malaysia loop ride

The faint sound of my alarm cut my pleasant dream short this morning. As usual, I could not remember what the dream was about except for the fact that it was a pleasant one. Oh well…it is time to wake up and get ready for breakfast downstairs. As is the usual case, the meeting time is much later today because all we were doing is a day trip. So I got ready at a leisurely pace and headed to meet the others in the hotel restaurant.

Since this was going to be a day riding around the area, we had a super leisurely breakfast. It was the usual hotel breakfast buffet. There was Nasi Lemak, Mee Goreng, Taiwanese Porridge, Dim Sum and breads. I got myself some of the Dim Sum and Mee Goreng.

 

We also decided to have some of the pomelo from Ipoh. While it was a little weird having pomelo with the other stuff…but I have to say the pomelo was really sweet! I enjoyed it very much. We had a good time just chatting in the restaurant. Eventually, the gang started heading out to the bikes…warming them up…and getting geared up for the day ride.

I neglected to report in the last post that Chris lost his right side rear mirror glass yesterday because of all the bumps on the road. It seems the glass simply fell out as he went through one of the bumps and he has been riding without it ever since. So the first mission this morning was to fill up the bikes…and to find Chris a replacement mirror!

I wanted to have the gang experience the famous Penang Bridge since we came in on the ferry yesterday. So we found a petrol station along the way just after the ferry terminal to fill up the bikes. Coincidentally, there was a small bike shop across the road and Chris managed to find his replacement mirror! Now the interesting thing is that these were mirrors for the Honda Wave Cub…and they cost him less than RM20! He decided to switch both mirrors just so his bike would look more symmetrical.

All was not going well though as some of the riders did not carry much cash…and the credit card verification system in many of the petrol stations were offline over the last few days (today included)! The good news is that we were not dry on cash yet! Here’s a WMLR top tip: “Cash is king!”

I happened to be looking around after helping Chris out a little and saw LPG fiddling around with his bike…what was he doing???

I also saw Eric watering his bike…he told me that there were some petrol splashing going on when he filled up his bike.

The gang headed out as soon as Chris completed swapping out his mirrors. Everyone was looking forward to a day of relaxed riding…plus the weather was very pleasant at this time of the day. So we headed over the Penang Bridge and turned northwards once we were on the other side. The plan was to explore the coast today and maybe look for a beach as Nabil was talking about how much he liked beaches.

The roads were easy today as traffic was very sparse given that it was a Saturday. The light breeze coming from the coast made the riding very comfortable indeed! At some point, I spotted a sign that said “Pusat Rekreasi Pantai XYZ”. I could not remember exactly what XYZ was except that it was some Chinese name. In any case, I decided to check it out since it was obviously a beach recreation centre! Strangely enough, we ended up at a river bank…under a bridge which was part of the NSHW! We decided to stop here for a break just because it was so different!

This was definitely an unscheduled stop in a day without schedules! It turned out to be a nice and cooling stop. There was also a short but fun dirt trail here that I simply had to explore…even if it was just for a few minutes. Woohoo!!!

I continued to head north as we rode out of this strange place. I saw a sign that said “Pantai Merdeka” (Independence Beach) and decided to turn in. The next 20km or so was a very scenic road that meandered like a river. There were padi fields in various shades of green, the sky was a bright blue with fluffy white clouds, and the road was a good combination of straights…and yes…bends! FANTASTIC!!!

We came to the end of the road and found a beach that was obviously THE PLACE to be. It was lined with food stalls selling all sorts of stuff on sticks, as well as crisps made from fish, shrimp and squid. I could never resist street food and decided that this was the place for our lunch! We bought some Keropok Lekor and some other stuff on sticks…and drinks of different colours. It was simple yet delicious!

I was full just from having the street food here but the rest wanted something more substantial. So they had food from the food centre nearby while I looked after the bikes and enjoyed the sea breeze. This spot was really beautiful and cooling. If only I had a hammock!!!

We left the place after lunch around 3pm and retraced our steps back to Penang. Since I did not manage to grab a video of the ferry yesterday (as I ran out of battery), we were going to head over on the ferry again today. So I ensured that I had the GoPro mounted in the right place and switched it on as we headed out from Pantai Merdeka. The ride back was exactly the same as the ride heading out here…beautiful!

We eventually got to the ferry terminal, paid the RM2 fee and proceeded to wait for boarding. I checked my GoPro and found that it was recording nicely. As we had just missed a ferry, we were in for a slightly longer wait so I turned it off to preserve battery. When it was time for us to board, I set the camera to start recording…and rode masterfully (in my eyes anyway) onto the ferry. I was so happy that I finally got the shot. So I stopped my bike, switched off the engine, got off the bike, squatted down to switch the camera off…BUT…the camera was already switched off!!! DANG!!! It seems the battery died of just at the very last moment!

Feeling slightly miffed, I decided to walk around and just cool off in the breeze. I climbed up the stairs and found a nice vantage point for a picture of the main deck.

We decided that we would head back to the hotel and rest for an hour before going out again in the evening to Batu Feringgi for an evening ride and a seafood dinner.

Even though the day ride was a leisurely one, the short break still did everyone a lot of good. We met up at the lobby refreshed and ready for the next ride…to Batu Feringgi…and the fantastic part of route 6 from Batu Feringgi to Balik Pulau!

We thought that heading out at 5pm was a good idea as it was a Saturday night and most people will head out for dinner around 6pm…and we were right! The ride to Batu Feringgi was generally easy, with traffic building up only at the stretch along Jalan Batu Feringgi itself. We rode all the way until we got to the Telok Bahang Dam where we stopped to enjoy the view. I could tell that some were itching to get on to the next part of the ride…route 6 towards Balik Pulau!

As this next stretch was a really technical route with extremely tight corners and several steep inclines and declines, I held a safety briefing just to ensure everyone understood the risks involved and what they had to look out for during the ride. I also reordered the riders and had the street bikes go first, with the cruisers riding behind as they would have more trouble negotiating the tight turns. The plan was to meet at the bottom just before Balik Pulau…and off we went!

The ride towards Balik Pulau was exhilarating! Uphill…downhill…tight turns that got tighter as we went…long sweeping bends…even tighter turns…hairpins and switchbacks! My goodness, it was FANTASTIC! Probably one of the most technical rides I have ever had! Along the way, a local rider on a cub (and he was quite chubby too) overtook me and showed me how to take the corners. Man, he rode like a pro…though he did not have any gear on…not even a helmet! Geez!!! I certainly admire his riding…but not his choice of riding gear!

We met up at the bottom of the hill near Balik Pulau as planned and parked our bikes. As there was a lack of space, Alex had to make a U-turn to park his bike. Unfortunately, he dropped his bike right in the middle of the road as he made his U-turn. We ran to help him pick his bike up before any other vehicles came down the hill. Thank goodness no vehicle showed up until well after he was parked!

The idea of stopping here was a technical one. The ride up and down hill caused our brakes to heat up so we needed to cool them down before heading back towards the dam. Alex was sharing how he was scraping his foot pegs with all those tight turns. Obviously, his Harley Davidson Softail Deluxe was not built for technical roads. Eric had some of the best comments here as well! He said he had never ridden around switchbacks where he could see the bike after him at his side…and some of the turns were just so sharp he wanted to scream but no sound came out…why? Well, you gotta ask him personally to have him explain why! Trust me…it would be worth your while to ask him.

It was soon time to head back up towards the dam. This journey was even more fun than the earlier one because now we were a little more familiar with the turns. I was a little over-zealous going into one of the corners and scraped not only my foot peg…but also my toes! Thank goodness I had race boots on or my toes would have been toast! The gang eventually made it back to the dam and we sat around waiting for the sun to set. There was a lot of talk around which bikes would be better for the two older gentlemen on Harley Davidsons…eventually, Teng sat on the Fazer and the Hornet…and even took the Hornet for a spin. He concluded he really liked the Hornet…but not the Fazer. Hahaha!!!

As the sun set, it was time for us to head for dinner at the place that Teng called “The End of the World”. To everyone who does not know, this was what they called the Jalan Telok Awak area as there is a restaurant there called exactly that! I was quite happy when I saw that the place was practically empty thinking that we got there early enough…until Teng honked me from behind and signalled to move further into the road towards another place called “Fish Village Seafood”…which was PACKED!!! I suppose it should really be packed if the restaurant was any good!

We ordered A LOT of food! We had shrimp, we had chicken, we had fish, we had vegetables, we had fresh oysters, we had an omelette, we had fried rice…the list was almost endless!!!

  

Alex decided to pay for dinner in celebration of Nabil’s birthday so we all thanked him. It was truly a dinner to remember!

We headed back to the hotel after dinner. The weather was nice and cool but the traffic along Jalan Batu Feringgi was heavy by now. It took us a good 30 minutes to clear this stretch of road…just to encounter an even bigger traffic jam at Jalan Tanjong Tokong just before Jalan Kelawei which would lead us back to the hotel. We decided to take a detour to Gurney Drive hoping that it would be clearer. This turned out to be a major miscalculation as it took us 30 minutes to clear Gurney Drive! We had to squeeze through every available crack in traffic including the centre of the road! We got to the hotel eventually though…hot and bothered and rather drained from the traffic!

I was feeling so hot by the time I was back in the hotel I requested for the guys to help get me an ice cream stick since they were headed for the 7-eleven store nearby. It was THE VERY BEST ice cream stick I have ever had! Eric and Chris were still in the lobby when I decided to head back to my room. I started downloading the videos and photographs onto my notebook. When I started laying out my gear to air out, I realized I had left my helmet outside! I called Chris to check and he told me he had LPG’s helmet. Then I called LPG and he told me he had his own helmet. At that time, I decided to walk over the Chris’ room and eventually found that he did have my helmet! Thank goodness!

I was so tired by then I simply showered, washed my stuff and got into bed. I had a great day but the late night traffic jam just sucked the life out of me….ZZZZzzzzz….

Oh yes…here was the route we ended up taking today.