West Malaysia loop ride

This is now my 11th WMLR and still I struggle with sleep the night before. Perhaps it is the prospect of going on a long ride after five years away, or maybe it is that I will be riding the GS on a WMLR for the very first time, or maybe it is the prospect of not know where we will end up at the end of the day. Whatever it is, I know I am feeling butterflies in the stomach, a sense of excitement and adventure, and that is a sure-fire way to ensure a restless night.

I did get some sleep and was waking up several times in the night thinking if it was time to get up. I finally decided to get up anyway at 4:30am and just start getting ready. I had plenty of time as we were only meeting up at 6am downstairs. I had packed quite a fair bit of things into my bag and decided I probably over-packed so I decided to remove a few things and trim it down. I am glad I did because now I can fit the bag easily inside the left pannier of the bike.

Due to a small mishap, we eventually ended up meeting at 7am instead. This change meant that we would probably have to contend with a little more traffic at the checkpoint in Tuas but I was excited nevertheless. Tony was riding his trusty Honda NC700 and I was riding my BMW R1200GS. We spend a little bit of time admiring the bikes, as usual, and then decided we better get going.

The weather was perfect. It was a cool morning with cloud cover so the sun was held in check. We rode out and eventually got onto the East Coast Parkway heading towards Tuas. Riding at a nice and relaxed pace, traffic was present but largely cleared up after Jurong. Eventually, we arrived at the Tuas Checkpoint and were greeted by a long line of motorcycles eager to get back home after the night shift. It was a rather long line. The riders were very orderly though and nobody was cutting queue. Tony decided it was easier for him to get down and push his bike rather than sit on it and slowly inch the bike forward under engine power. At some point I thought I would give that idea a try and I realised very quickly that it was a bad idea for me.

So I put the side stand on, got back onto the bike, turned the key and started it up, kicked it into gear and the bike died. Oh dear. So I kicked the bike back to neutral and re-started the bike. All seemed well and then I kicked it into gear and it died again. I did this a few times and started to wonder if there was something wrong with my bike. I think some bikers behind us got impatient waiting half a minute and decided to overtake us. I soon realised the problem, my side stand was still down!!! Silly me. I had forgotten that the bike would kill the engine if I engaged first gear with the side stand down as a safety measure! Having realised that, I fired up the bike again and we went forward again. All was well.

I did have a bit of trouble at the checkpoint with my passport clearance and had to report to the office. In a way, I was glad to report to the office for some air conditioning after that long queue. Everything got cleared swiftly and soon I was on my way crossing over the bridge and headed to the Malaysia side of the checkpoint. There, I made the mistake of going to the wrong lane. Oh well…again…it was too long since my last ride and things have changed somewhat. In any case, the friendly officer helped me out there quickly as well and I was eventually through and in Malaysia! Woohoo!!!

Our first order of business was to fill up the tanks, and while my tank was already 75% full, I decided to fill him up to the brim anyway. This was where my next little mishap happened. Yes, full of mishaps on the very first day and in the very first few hours. I accidentally sprayed petrol all over the tank and seat. Sigh. Thankfully, the credit card worked well and there was plenty of water around for me to wash down the bike at that point. In a way, I am glad these mishaps happened at the very beginning of the trip. I felt a lot more confident on the bike after that.

Riding on Malaysia roads feel different somehow. There is a sense of openness, of possibilities, of adventure. We decided to head towards Kulai for some breakfast and stopped eventually at a place called Restrain TKR. It was quite empty as it was the season of Ramadan so it was easy for us to find a nice seat. Breakfast was Roti Canai and Limau Ais. Roti Canai is the Malaysian version of what we call Roti Prata in Singapore and Limau Ais is basically Iced Lime Juice. The meal was strangely satisfying and soon we got back onto the bikes and started heading north.

At this time, all we knew was that we would head up north. We did not make any plans for this ride in terms of the route but we wanted to get ourselves as far up north as we could get to within the first day. We decided the best thing to do to give ourselves the opportunity to get further up north was to make up some of the time that we lost due to the later start and so we went onto the North-South Highway. We made really good time and rode for two hours until we arrived at the rest stop at Pagoh. It was 11am by then and it was getting hot so some hydration was in order.

We got back underway soon after continuing up the North-South Highway. We knew that we were headed up north past Kuala Lumpur and wanted to avoid getting into the traffic of the capital so we took a detour when we got to the Seremban exit. The idea was to head towards Port Dickson and make a turn up north again towards Sepang and Klang, bypassing Kuala Lumpur altogether. Although it was a slight detour we felt it was best as getting stuck in KL traffic can sometimes reduce your will to live.

We continued on our route to bypass KL and turned up north. I have been riding all this while with my phone safety tucked away in my handlebar bag because I had changed phones and the case that could attach to the mount on the bike was originally stuck onto the case for my old phone. I did not stick it onto my current phone case because I wanted to retain the ability to use the MagSafe charger so I was on the lookout for a phone case that I could use while I was on the bike. We spotted a GadgetX shop when we got to town just before Klang called Telok Panglima Garang (what a name!) and decided to make it our water stop since we had ridden for another two hours from our petrol stop at Mambau.

In the last few WMLR rides I have been wearing a cooling vest under my jacket. This is one of those evaporative vests that uses water to absorb heat from your body. I had it on for this trip as well and it has been working well. We also have been making really good time riding at a comfortable, relaxing and reasonably good pace. Skirting around KL had clearly been a good idea! What we had not anticipated was that it would take us an hour to cover the next 20 kilometres through the city of Klang! This was due to the many traffic lights in the city along Route 5 and by the time we got to Sungai Nibong I was feeling totally exhausted and dehydrated. I think my cooling vest became a barrier for any air flow through my jacket and it was just not working. I had to signal for Tony to make a stop so I could recover.

We took the opportunity while I rested to think about where we would want to finish our ride for the day and quickly agreed that we would stop in Taiping. We have been to Taiping before and really liked what the place offered. Also, Taiping will always be a bit of a special place because that was also where Chris proposed to Li Xian. Tony also been up to Taiping with his family and knows a place we can put up for the night that was both affordable and close to some food places. So Taiping it would be and we agree the first thing we would do was to get ourselves a nice dinner when we arrive.

Now that we have skirted around KL and been through that very slow stretch of Klang, we decided once again that the best thing to do was to make our way back to the North-South Highway to get to Taiping before dark as it was already 3:30pm. Thankfully, the route back to the highway was a pleasant one as traffic was not too heavy and the weather got cooler. I could not tell you how grateful I was that we were now riding on a highway with no traffic light stops to contend with. Just being on the move made it a lot more pleasant. One of the reasons why I decided I would get a Goretex jacket and pants for the WMLR was because we always get some rain during our rides and indeed it did rain during this stretch. It rained on and off, sometimes lightly and sometimes a bit heavily, we rode through them all until it was time for our next petrol stop at Tapah.

The rain was getting super heavy when we got to the Tapah rest stop so at that point Tony had to put on his rain gear. We continued riding after that further up north and it continued raining on and off. This made the ride a lot more comfortable from a temperature perspective. It was really nice too to know that my jacket and pants were working well and I felt completely dry inside. The rain finally stopped after about an hour and it was time for Tony to remove his rain gear when we got to the Sungai Perak rest stop.

After that quick stop, we soldiered on towards Taiping. We were getting much closer now and our spirits were definitely lifted. This last stretch of riding went by relatively quickly and we eventually entered the town of Taiping. As usual, traffic got heavier in the towns and cities. The good news is that Taiping was not a very big city so traffic was still very reasonable. Eventually, we arrived at a familiar place.

This place is also known as the Fireworks Char Kway Teow. Sometimes you can see sparks flying out from the charcoal that he uses to fry the noodles, hence the name. It has been one of our most talked about dishes and we return when we can. This meal was definitely worth waiting for and I was very glad we skipped lunch so we could enjoy this much better!

Now that dinner was sorted, it was time to take the short ride to the hotel that Tony has booked. This was a place he stayed at previously on his family vacation.

This hotel was a bit of a surprise for me. It was clearly a budget hotel but it had a nice vibe to it. Not to mention the best parking spots for our motorcycles right out front! We were able to book a family room because all the other rooms were fully booked so it was also a rather popular hotel.

This family room was super spacious and had 5 beds inside that could easily accommodate a group of 8 to 12 people. I also really like the large windows with a view of the street downstairs. In fact, we could see our bikes from here! We had a simple arrangement, I would take those two beds on the right and Tony would take all the beds on the left side. The first order of business was to get out of our riding gear, shower, wash our clothes, and then set off to explore what we can of this part of town.

It was rather late by the time we were ready to head out and a good number of shops were already closed so we went looking for coffee at the Taiping Mall. For some reason we decided that our best option there was the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf store. The good news is that we got a free dessert when we order two drinks! Not bad at all.

My double espresso and a cake that the staff recommended as his favourite

We went for a walk after enjoying our coffee and dessert. Tony remembered a food court type area just across the road and we found it quickly. The place is called Pusat Penjaja Taiping. It was an open air food court type of place surrounded by food stalls. In that evening most of the malay stalls were closed probably because it was the Ramadan period. We found a stall that offered western food and ordered some supper for ourselves.

I opted for the Orange Chicken Cutlet and Tony chose the Black Pepper Chicken Cutlet. They were able to prepare the dishes relatively quickly. The chicken cutlets were well fried and the sauces were simple and sweet. We enjoyed these dishes as they were nostalgic for the both of us. After supper it was time to get back to the hotel and get ready for bed.

And with that, day one of the WMLR2024 was complete. We covered a lot of ground going from Singapore to Taiping, we rode through rain and sun, we enjoyed some of the food that Taiping had to offer. On reflection, it was a good idea to take the highway for our first day as the next few days will be easier rides. See you all tomorrow!