West Malaysia loop ride

Day five.

I fell asleep last night on the sofa while I was trying to take some notes on my iPad. I must have been more tired than I thought I was. Good thing too as this would be our last morning in Langkawi and we face a long ride to Kuala Lumpur.

Hahaha! (Photo by Chris)

I was up at six this morning. Some of the guys were already up and about, packing their stuff and getting ready. I had my shower and started to pack as well. Packing was getting easier now that I have done it a few times and I finished in a matter of minutes. With some time on my hands, I walked around outside the house looking to see if I could take a few pictures of the place. For the first time, and maybe the only time, I actually took out the tripod that I had brought along for the trip!

Hehehe… (Photo by Chris)

Still dark outside

Looks like Chris needed some repairs (Photo by Chris)

We also had an unexpected visitor (Photo by Chris)

Is it time for breakfast? (Photo by Chris)

Bala brought Fried Beehoon and Nasi Lemak for breakfast this morning. It was those cute small packs so everyone had one of each. We needed to leave the home stay a little earlier today as we anticipated a 20–30 minute ride to the ferry terminal and we needed to get there early so that we do not miss the boat. So we quickly finished up breakfast and headed off.

Gotta be good eh? (Photo by Chris)

Boohoon for breakfast this morning!

Nasi Lemak as well! OMG!!!

Gotta pack all the stuff up! (Photo by Chris)

All geared up and ready to go! (Photo by Randy)

We really enjoyed this place (Photo by Randy)

Especially this table and bench where we had a fantastic evening with the whiskey (Photo by Randy)

The ride to Dermaga Tanjung Lembung was a nice and easy one. The air was still cool and traffic was light on a Sunday. The landscape was magical this morning, almost like it was beckoning for us to stay a little longer. Tempting as that was we had to move on as we had plans for the next couple days.

The ferry has not yet arrived when we got to the terminal. We rode through customs and onto the waiting area like bosses…just to be told by one of the officers that we needed to get tickets and go through customs checks before getting onto the ferry. So we had to turn back and get with the process. Unfortunately, the office has not opened yet and there were already a few people waiting outside the doors.

Customs & ticket office not open yet

Might as well take some photos!

We got our tickets!

We did our thing while we waited for the office to open…chatting…taking pictures…having a bit of fun the way only guys know how. Eventually I saw people streaming into the office and requested for LPG & Chris to help get the tickets for the group. It took them awhile…perhaps because of the queue of people…or perhaps just because it was the well oiled machine of efficiency. Whatever the case, we were soon in possession of our tickets and headed for the customs inspection.

Customs inspection was an interesting affair. I had thought given the amount of scrutiny some of the cars ahead of us had that they would at least want to check some of the boxes we had on our bikes. However, when I walked up to the officer, he simply asked if we had anything to declare. When I said “No” after consulting with the others in an open manner, he waved us through. No fuss whatsoever!

Getting back onto the ferry felt familiar as we met some of the same folks who came over the other day. We also managed to secure the same room so we could put our things and some could have comfortable nap. It took awhile for all the vehicles to show up and load up but we eventually got underway and headed back towards the mainland.

We’re on the ferry! (Photo by Chris)

There were more vehicles on this trip

Everything is secure!

We have a full house this morning!

I like the bridge!

Waiting for them to raise the ramp!

The last vehicle to board!

Enjoying the upper deck

Interesting that this vessel was registered at Port Kelang!

They’re raising the ramp!!!

And off we go!

Bye bye Langkawi!

The ride back on the ferry went by quickly. As usual, heading back always seems faster than heading out. I wonder why that is?

We had a long way to go and so I decided we would take the highway. The ride from the ferry terminal to the NSHW was more than 40km out and it took us almost all the way to the Thai border! I was hoping as we were riding out that it would be worthwhile avoiding all those traffic lights and tight roads on the more southerly route. When we finally got to the highway, we had a quick petrol stop and proceeded on our way south towards Kuala Lumpur.

I don’t know what it is about highway riding that bores me. Perhaps it is the idea that it is a highway, or the lack of challenging and fun bends, or that people seem always in a rush on a highway. Whatever it is, I definitely do not enjoy riding on highways, even when I am rushing for time. Somehow, highways always seem to be hotter to me. Perhaps it is the sheer number of vehicles going quickly, or perhaps the lack of cover from foliage that always seemed abundant along the smaller roads. Whatever the case may be, I was feeling very hot and bothered by the heat and humidity that afternoon.

It became almost unbearable and eventually I decided it was time to turn off and look for some lunch so we could all cool off. It was good timing too as I was definitely feeling hungry by this time. The turn off coming up was for Gurun and Jeniang. Two towns that I have never heard of before. Perfect! Turn off we did and I decided we would head towards Gurun. We rode for about 5km before we saw possible places to eat. Unfortunately most were closed…strange for such an hour but perhaps this was not a town where people usually eat out. Eventually I decided to explore a little estate that we had passed about 2km back and we found a place that was open.

What a hot day! Good thing we found a place for lunch! (Photo by Chris)

Khairi Cafe was quite the place. Located in Taman Ria Mesra 2, it was probably the only shop open for lunch. It was an unpretentious shop operated by a very friendly man who makes the roti and goreng goreng while his wife makes the lauk pauk. Goreng goreng refers to all the fried carb dishes that you can find around Malaysia like Nasi Goreng (fried rice), Mee Goreng (fried noodles) and Beehoon Goreng (fried vermicelli). Lauk pauk refers to the traditional Malay dishes that accompanies rice like Fried Chicken, Chicken Curry and Sambal Eggs. So this was a good place for lunch indeed!

My lunch today…yummy!

We had a longer lunch purely because it was so hot outside. I had to use the toilet quite urgently too…which probably added to the length of our visit. The toilet was very interesting (according to Chris). That sounded a little nice…and a little worrying. I found out for myself what that really meant when I got in. Here goes…

The main door was made of zinc and had one of those latches to lock from the inside. Unfortunately the latch was not working. There was a urinal by the wall next to the door that led to the toilet seat. There was a small basket inside the urinal where they placed a few pieces of hand soap. Perhaps to keep the place smelling good. Nice touch! The door to the toilet seat could not be closed because a hinge was bent out of shape which left the door large uncloseable. To use that seat, one had to somehow lock the main toilet door. By now I was in a bit of a hurry…and definitely more than bothered. Thank goodness I found they had a nail fixed to the door frame and a scrunchie attached to the door. This allowed for the door to be “secured” from the inside. A very thoughtful safety feature as one could easily open the door from the outside should there be a fire emergency, for example.

With the door secured, I proceeded to remove my riding boots, then socks, then riding pants, then inner pants, then put the sock back on so I could put my foot back into my boots so I could finally stand on two feet again. Now I could finally get to what I was trying to get to from the start!

Interestingly, there was no toilet paper to be found. There was no bucket of water lying around either. No tap with a hose within reach inside this second door. The only hose was behind the wall where the urinal was. You can imagine what one would have to do to access that. Still…I was very thankful there was a toilet when I needed one! Adventure is a double edged sword!

We still had quite a bit of distance to cover so we had to get going if we wanted to get to Kuala Lumpur before dark. This is also a long highway stretch so I decided to let the various riders go at their own pace and arranged to meet at the Tapah rest stop. So off everyone went!

I was riding at a nice relaxing pace when Eric first overtook me, followed by LPG. Traffic was a little heavier than expected but smooth flowing. It was more pleasant now that we were travelling at a good pace. At some point I started to feel like something is not quite right because the number of vehicles on the road increased dramatically. Average speeds started dropping and I eventually overtook both LPG and Eric. At some parts, traffic was almost at a standstill. It reminded me of the time when I rode up to Kuala Lumpur from Singapore the day before the eve of the Chinese New Year!

I eventually had to make a fuel stop. I spotted Chris as I was exiting and he told me on intercom that LPG just turned in to fuel up. He had not seen any of the others. So I headed on. Impossible as it mad seemed, traffic actually got heavier the further I went! I eventually spotted and overtook both Anthony and Randy. They must have gone pass me while I was fueling up. It was good to spot them as now I know everyone is around the same stretch of road.

This stretch going towards Tapah was quite challenging in that it was the most crowded stretch for the day. There was a never ending stream of cars, trucks, bikes…and even an ambulance! I remember that it bothered my quite a bit as I could not figure out why traffic was so heavy…there were no holidays or festivals that weekend…strange! I was glad that I eventually arrived at the Tapah stop. I decided I should have enough fuel so skipped the station and waited at near the exit for the rest. It was around 4:30pm by this time.

It turned out that I had quite a bit of a wait so I decided to blog while I waited. Many other bikers rode by, tooting their horns and waving as the rode pass. Such is the bike culture here…very fraternal…and I quite like it. The folks started showing up one by one eventually. When everyone finally showed up, we decided to have a minute of silence as it was also the day of LKY’s funeral. I felt quite affected by this event for some reason.

Just after our minute of silence…

We decided to stay in convoy as we left the Tapah rest stop as we were approaching Kuala Lumpur and it was probably going to get dark by the time we got there. Good thing we were heading for Subang and not the city centre! Everything was going according to plan for awhile. I did lose sight of a few riders now and then but they always showed again soon after. This is what happens when you have a convoy of this size in heavy traffic situations.

I received a call on my phone at some point so I picked it up on my intercom. My heart skipped a beat when I heard Randy’s voice on the other end of the line. It was usually bad news when one of my riders called me on the phone rather than used the intercom. The last time this happened LPG called me and we ended up delayed for close to an hour with a serious technical problem.

Randy uttered a word that I never want to hear while out on a ride. Any ride. I was informed that there was an accident involving a car and Chris. My first reaction was to check if he was OK, then if his bike was OK. The good news was that both were OK. So I pulled the group into the next rest area at Rawang to wait for their arrival. I was very relieved when they rode into the rest stop. Long rides can tak a toll on anyone. Long rides in heavy traffic is even more strenuous. So we took a bit of time for everyone to get refreshed before pushing on. We were not far from our destination anyway and could afford a bit of time.

The accident… (Photo by Randy)

How did the impact end up there? (Photo by Randy)

It was past six in the evening when we pushed off for the final leg to Subang. It was definitely getting dark. I was also very aware that LPG had problems with his headlights and getting a little worried about his ability to see if it got too dark. So I took the E35 highway because it had a bike lane which I hoped would make his ride a little easier and we did not have to contend with cars. It soon started to rain too. The GPS strangely knew that we were in the bike lane and kept asking us to get onto the main expressway…that was a bit of a bother because this expressway did not allow for bikes at the many toll booths. So we stayed in until the very end and eventually turned into the Federal Highway and onto the exit for Subang Jaya.

It was 8:30pm when we pulled up along the house that would be our home for the next two nights. Three hours later than I had originally planned, much wetter, hungrier and more tired. We were all comforted by the fact that Racquel was there to greet us, followed by FK, the owner.

Parking the bikes in tight places can be a challenge but we were seasoned “park the bikes in tight places” bikers by now. So in went Anthony, Eric, LPG, Chris, Randy, and finally, myself. It always amazes me how we can fit so many big bikes in such a tight space!

Parking in tight spaces takes a bit more effort (Photo by Chris)

The house was wonderful. Not the largest by any stretch of the imagination, but certainly the cleanest and most comfortable. The entire place was air conditioned…almost…and every one worked well. FK told us that the roads were probably packed because many people went back to their home town to do the grave cleaning ceremony in advanced of the actual festival of Ching Ming. Finally I felt better knowing a probable reason for that heavy traffic!

We unpacked, showered and got ready to head out for dinner at a place just a few minutes walk away called Ah Lye. This place opened till 10pm so we were in good spirits walking out at 9:10pm. Unfortunately the shop decided to close just as they saw us walking there at 9:20pm. That is terrible if you ask me. Completely unprofessional.

In any case, we decided to take a walk to another part of Subang Jaya about 2km away to a place called Restoran Hock Him. They were open and served some simple local Chinese food which hit the right spot!

Our dinner spot…Hock Hin (Photo by Chris)

Hokkien mee…this is a KL speciality!

Fried lard…gotta have these to go with the noodles!

Another KL speciality…cantonese style “smooth egg” hor fun

Amazingly delicious and succulent spare ribs

Japanese tofu with omelette on a hot plate

Simple stir fried vegetables with salted fish

One thing is for sure. Nothing like a good hot delicious dinner after a long riding day…and boy…did we have a very long day! Not only did we travel an amazing distance…we also had heat, traffic, rain and an accident to handle. I was glad we got to Subang Jaya safe and sound. Time to call it a night!

Day 1: 511km
Day 2: 568km
Day 3: 161km
Day 4: less than 100km
Day 5: 620km