West Malaysia loop ride

Day six. The last day of the WMLR2013 came much quicker than I liked. We decided to start the day a little later as we had a late night. However, everyone was up earlier than the originally planned time of 9am. This would be our first opportunity to look at Muar in daylight since we arrived after dark. The home stay looked a little different in the day time too!

We decided to walk into town and explore the place a little before we headed out. I did have a little difficulty getting that gate properly locked!

I looked up several possible breakfast options and decided on a shop that specialised in Hainanese Chicken Rice balls. I had always thought you could only find Chicken Rice balls in Melaka so was pleasantly surprised to read about this shop in Muar. So we started off on our two kilometre morning walk towards our breakfast destination.

The walk into town was an easy one and it certainly helped that the roads were arranged in a strange pattern…but a pattern nonetheless. We walked along a residential area and came across a school. This was a Sunday but there were people in the school for some reason. Perhaps they were getting ready for some kind of camp? I just found this collection of school bags very appealing.

Paul is really into flora and is really good at spotting all sorts of little flowers and plants. I must have caught the bug…NOT…but I really did like the way this plant is clinging on to the fence.

This Hindu Temple also caught my eye. I really liked the vibrant colours!

Just look at the intricate patterns on this heavy wooden door!

I could not resist taking a peek inside…these temples have always been very fascinating for me. This one looks quite “Chinese” I thought.

I was also very interested to know the history of this abandoned house…I wonder why it was abandoned.

It was even more interesting that this house was so close by…just look at the contrast! The photo bomb was well timed too…hahaha!

One of the things that always caught my eye in Malaysia was the street signs. I never did find out what this one meant. Does anyone know? I am referring to the polka-dot shaped one of course.

We walked pass this big white house that had a lot of purple highlights. It looked like some kind of store front.

As it turned out, it was a tea store…looked like a bubble tea store to me!

Of course, how could I resist taking pictures of these traffic policemen on their motorcycles?

 

There were many grand old buildings in Muar. This one, for example, was called the “Sultan Abu Bakar Building”. I wonder what it is used for…

…then there is this building which houses the Courts of Muar…

…even the Police Station was a grand old building!

We eventually arrived at our destination just to find that it was closed! Oh well…at least there was a colourful which made for a pretty backdrop for a group picture.

We continued walking on in the hope of finding another spot for breakfast and passed this building along the way. This one was built way back in 1909!

We were getting hungry by now and was almost desperate for some food. Thankfully, we found this place on an adjacent street with a street vendor right outside preparing Fish Ball Noodles!

So we went in and found ourselves a table and ordered our food. I cannot remember who ordered the Fish Ball Noodles…but they did look pretty good!

Somebody else ordered Wanton Noodles which looked pretty yummy too.

Me? I had Chicken Curry Noodles which was absolutely fabulous!

After all that fantastic food, we decided to walk back to the home stay so we could get ready and push off before it got too hot. On the way back, I was captivated by the features of this part of Muar town.

I do like looking into back-alleys…

And for some reason, some parts of a run down shop house looked rather appealing to my eye.

  

There was another Hindu Temple across the street with carvings like this on many of the columns. Looks like fish pattern, no?

We turned a corner and all of a sudden saw this street vendor and I simply HAD to stop, order and take some pictures.

This vendor was making Dorayaki with red beans AND the big Apam Balik that I really liked! I had time to take lots of photos as there was a bit of a queue.

  

  

  

  

  

Just in case anyone was wondering, these shots were not taken from a travel brochure…i went in real close…close enough for the guy to look at me with a careful glance! Hahaha!!!

It took quite awhile for our order to be ready…and Eric, obviously, found a suitable distraction for himself!

We used to see this kind of “Mamak” shops everywhere but they have almost all disappeared. So it was really nice to still be able to see one in Muar!

We walked pass these chevrons on the way to this part of town and tried to take a photo but it did not turn out right. So we had to have another try. I think it worked out quite well.

Along the way back, we saw another grand old house. This time with a very lush garden too!

We got back to the home stay soon after this and started to get prepared for the final leg back. It was also very nice to get a shower after that long walk! We were all packed and ready to go slightly after noon. Not too bad at all!

Our route for today would be a relaxing 260 kilometres taking us towards the east first, and then towards to south. We would be going through places like Yong Peng, Paloh, Kluang, Renggam, Layang Layang, Pekan Nanas, and eventually, the rest stop at Gelang Patah. Here is a map of our route for the day.

We took this last leg nice and easy, going at a relaxing steady pace towards Yong Peng. There, we headed onto the J16 route which has some fantastic bends coupled with elevation changes…perfect for motorcycles! We had spoken at length the night before and compared notes on how we can negotiate the corners more smoothly and this was the perfect practice ground. We stopped slightly after the town of Paloh for a water break.

It was not much of a water break for me as the cap of my water bottle came loose in my rear box and I lost almost three quarters of the water. To top if off, the water completely soaked through the paper that the Appam Balik was wrapped in! Fortunately, I was able to save a few small pieces so it did not all go to waste!

We headed south towards the town of Kluang after this and decided it was a good time to stop for some coffee and snacks. So we went to the popular Kluang Rail Coffee place for our break.

I had wanted to come to this place every since our first ride in 2010. In fact, I did come here two years in a row but they were always closed…now I know why.

Yup…we kept coming here on Thursday mornings as we used to start our adventures on Thursdays! I wonder why I never saw this sign? Whatever the case, I was glad we managed to get here even though it was really crowded. My favourites, as usual, are eggs and toast!

 

It was really a very simple operation…

The very best thing, of course, is that we could park our bikes right next to where we were sitting!

We stayed here for quite awhile before pushing off. This would be the very last stretch for the WMLR2013 and we took it at a good pace. There were still some fantastic roads before we get to our final destination. Along the way, there were the beautiful tree covered stretch of road at Renggam, the plantations at Layang Layang, the old familiar favourite Jalan Sawah, and that final route of J4 that would take us to the rest stop at Gelang Patah right before the immigration checkpoint.

We would be remiss not to have a final drink at the completion of our journey together…and I thought it would be nice to document our drinks (for some strange reason)…

What is obvious here is that we were not all that young. I remember thinking that only older people drink hot beverages. There I was ordering my usual “Kopi-O-Kosong” (Black Coffee with no Sugar). I guess I must be one of the “older” people that day. Heck…I was the oldest of the bunch in this adventure!

We gathered our bikes after drinks to take our traditional group picture. I put my mini-tripod to good use (finally) and managed to get a nice shot of the gang…albeit after many failed attempts! So there you go…the gang…after six days and 2178 kilometres together…adventure complete!