[Trip Blog] West Malaysia Loop Ride 7-13 March 2010

[scubasimon]

Thought I'd start a thread here to share about the trip that we are going to embark on in March. This is a reproduction of my trip blog. Please visit there for latest updates. Here is some quick information for now. Watch for updates as they come

 

The Ride is ON!!!

 

So after six months of riding, I am itching to go on a really nice long riding trip. Well, there is no better time to start than now. So I am setting up this page to share my plans, thoughts, tips, photographs and everything else about this adventure.

 

Come join me on the ride online!

 

The dates

 

The top reason preventing many people from going on long rides is the failure to fix a departure date. This sounds ridiculous but it is true. After all, there are many things to plan for and many reasons why a departure date is difficult to set. So I have set the date for this trip. I will depart Singapore on 7 March 2010 (Sunday) and return on 13 March 2010 (Saturday)…or a day after that. This gives me enough time to complete each of the legs comfortably and affords time to rest and enjoy the stops.

 

The route

 

The route will loop the entire West Malaysian peninsular starting in Johor Bahru (Woodlands checkpoint) and ending at Kampung Ladang (Tuas checkpoint). More interestingly, this route avoids the use of major expressways. The route will make use of many of the older trunk roads including Routes 1, 3, 4 and 5.

 

The gang

 

Some people like to ride alone, some people like to ride in big groups. I enjoy both actually…but for a long ride like this, I think a small group of riders makes the most sense. Joining me on this ride are Tony, Dan and Alex (more on them here). I think four is the right number for a ride of this duration…it would make us more visible on the roads…and provide for a simply buddy system to take care of each other.

 

The bikes

 

It was clear at the onset that this would be a relaxing ride that would avoid the major expressways as much as possible. While going on such a long trip can be tough on the bikes of our choice, I believe this also shows what an adventurous spirit can achieve with seemingly ungainly tools. See the bikes we are bringing along and you will know what I mean.

 

The gear

 

Obviously such a trip that covers so many kilometers across some of the remote areas is very different from a ride around the Singapore island. Take a look at the gear that we will be bringing along and let us know if you feel we have missed something important.

[ahcaibiker]

bring more spares bro.

 

throttle cabble, clutch cable.-> you never know when these cables might snap...

 

spark plug cap, sometimes it's the cap and not the plug.

 

spare tire for the more kiasu ones, no joke, i know of a rider who put a tire over himself as he toured up north.

 

have fun!

[bikeyroo]

Wow, Simon going on a long trip liao! Better make sure the bikes are in tip-top condition. Breakdowns may mean costly towing charges. Ride safe and enjoy your trip.

[scubasimon]

@ahcaibiker: sure thing!

 

@bikeyroo: yeah, i remembered our conversation that time about the trips you made. so yup, all the bikes are being given the attention they need now

[scubasimon]

Completed day 1 of our loop ride. See details at the blog.

 

Here's a teaser...

 

I had trouble sleeping last night. I remember desperately trying to finish packing for the trip…and when I finished packing, grabbed a quick bite and then tried very hard to get enough rest as the ride today was a long one. However, I tossed and turned in bed for an hour before, thankfully, falling asleep.

 

I woke up with a start this morning at 4:30am. I don’t know why but I just did. It is a little irritating that my body refuses to let me rest when I wanted so much to do so. I suppose the excitement of going on the ride was impossible to ignore. I took my time to get ready…made coffee…and then took an impossibly long time to get into my gear (remember the new boots??). I eventually left at 5:50am to meet up with the rest of the gang.

[xXxRatedxXx]

http://photos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs413.snc3/24962_10150122642525113_874490112_11628467_1209744_n.jpg

[gunshead]

excellent

 

it seems trip blog better then trip report

move LIVE

I am now monitoring

http://westmalaysialoopride.wordpress.com/2010/03/07/day-1-singapore-kuala-terengganu/

till the trip ends

fun fun fun

[scubasimon]

Day 2 blog entry is up.

 

Here's a teaser. Complete version available at the .

 

I am a big fan of Top Gear…you know…that television program where Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May talks about everything relating to cars. They have these ridiculous challenges that are really fun to watch…and sometimes…inspiring! I remember the one where they drove around Europe looking for driving heaven…a stretch of road that has the magic combination of twisties, fast straights, fantastic scenery AND the seclusion. While the Top Gear folks are mostly in Europe, they did find a fantastic riding road in Vietnam (yes, on one of their challenges). Well…today I rode on Malaysia’s best riding road…the stretch of route 4 from Jeli to Gerik.

 

We had wanted to set off early today so we could maximize the daylight and decided to meet for breakfast at 6:30am. Interestingly, I was the only person in the breakfast room at that time. I guess riding such a long distance on our very first day did take a toll. The rest of the gang showed up not long after and we had a simple breakfast which included the usual toast, scrambled eggs, beans, mee goreng, nasi goreng…you get the picture. One of the gang (guess who?) spilled the entire serving tray of mee goreng…can you believe that? I didn’t know if it was bad to laugh…but I did. Hahaha!

[xXxRatedxXx]

Day 2 blog entry is up.

 

Here's a teaser. Complete version available at the .

 

I am a big fan of Top Gear…you know…that television program where Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May talks about everything relating to cars. They have these ridiculous challenges that are really fun to watch…and sometimes…inspiring! I remember the one where they drove around Europe looking for driving heaven…a stretch of road that has the magic combination of twisties, fast straights, fantastic scenery AND the seclusion. While the Top Gear folks are mostly in Europe, they did find a fantastic riding road in Vietnam (yes, on one of their challenges). Well…today I rode on Malaysia’s best riding road…the stretch of route 4 from Jeli to Gerik.

 

We had wanted to set off early today so we could maximize the daylight and decided to meet for breakfast at 6:30am. Interestingly, I was the only person in the breakfast room at that time. I guess riding such a long distance on our very first day did take a toll. The rest of the gang showed up not long after and we had a simple breakfast which included the usual toast, scrambled eggs, beans, mee goreng, nasi goreng…you get the picture. One of the gang (guess who?) spilled the entire serving tray of mee goreng…can you believe that? I didn’t know if it was bad to laugh…but I did. Hahaha!

 

Once again, another engaging read from the WMLR blog.

 

If you have the bandwith i'm sure we wouldn't mind seeing pictures.

[scubasimon]

hahahaha! i do have the bandwidth for uploading pictures but not the software to make edits nor convert nicely to JPGs for posting. sorry man!

[scubasimon]

We had great fun on day 3 of the WMLR (thanks Chris for this acronym!). Read all about it in the blog!

 

Here's a teaser...

 

The Penang island is a mere 295 square kilometers in size…slightly less than half the size of Singapore, the Pearl of the Orient is everything that it is fabled to be. It seems Penang is the ONLY state in Malaysia that has a majority of Chinese (all other Malaysian states has a Malay majority). This explains, I suppose, the variety of Chinese dishes that is so popular with visitors.

 

I was the first to wake up this morning…as usual…and got ready for the ride. I had planned a relaxing ride all around the island so the gang can experience Penang in a way that most people would not have. I was eager to set off early because I remembered how long the trip took when my dad used to drive us around back in the 1970s!

 

Alex and Tony came out not long after I got myself ready. We (just three of us this morning as Dan wanted to have a little more rest) decided to take a short walk out for breakfast. We had some Penang prawn noodles for breakfast at a place just down the street....

[scubasimon]

We had a super long and incident filled ride from Penang to Klang Valley on day 4 of the loop ride. Read all about it in the two part blog.

 

Part 1

Part 2

 

Here is a teaser...

 

Part 1

The third leg of the West Malaysia loop ride turned out to be the most eventful and trying time for the gang. One objective of the loop ride was to give the gang a taste of the diversity that can be found in the peninsular. We have already seen how different things are in Johor Bahru, Mersing, Kuantan and Kuala Terengganu along the east coast on the first day. We experienced the exhilaration of riding the magnificent route 4 that links Jeli to Gerik on the second day, and the beauty and thrill of riding around the Penang island on day three.

 

As usual, I wanted to start out early to maximize daylight. Here’s a tip: it is always a good idea to start off as early as possible so the journey can be covered under light. The best way to do this is to start as soon as the sun rises. This way you can see better on the roads since there is light and, hopefully, arrive at the destination before the sun sets. Nothing feels better (well, actually some things do feel better but you get what I am trying to say) than rounding up the day’s riding with a good dinner at the destination…but I digress…

 

Part 2

I’m back from lunch…and a nice ride…its time to do part 2 of yesterday’s ride. You can read about today’s ride later when I blog about it.

 

As a recap, we had lunch at a corner store just outside the town of Taiping along route 1. I noticed this store mainly because there was a Carlsberg sign hanging outside. Lunch was excellent and we had a good rest there. During lunch, one of the gang requested for me to give a two minute notice before I start off…its a good idea…though I think I am really bad with these things.

 

Anyway, we set off after lunch on route 1 heading south for Ipoh. Along the way, we passed by several other towns and places. One notable place was a hill that I used to call 狮子山 (Lion Hill) because the shape resembled a lion’s head. My brother and I used to be really fond of this landmark because it stands about halfway between Penang and Kuala Lumpur. You see, we used to travel this route very frequently with our parents because we lived in Penang and have relatives in KL. So we always looked out for it. I still like this place a lot!

[xXxRatedxXx]

Get well soon dan!!! http://photos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs413.snc3/24962_10150122590485113_874490112_11628289_1954368_n.jpg

[ProFatSir]

we are back!!!!!touch down sg 0300hrs.

[xXxRatedxXx]

Roger your location... welcome home!

[scubasimon]

The blog for Day 5 is now available. Please have a look. Here's a teaser...

 

I usually wake up early when I am away from home. I don’t know why. Maybe it is because I am sleeping in a different bed…or maybe its because I don’t want to waste any time sleeping when I can be out exploring…but today I had wanted to go out for a walk and see if I could capture the sunrise. However, all was not to be as I snoozed my alarm one too many times and woke up with just enough time to get to breakfast on time!

 

It was great waking up in the morning after a good rest from a long ride. Today was no exception. I met up with Alex and Tony at the breakfast room and we had a nice and easy breakfast. Dan elected to have a little more rest. I think the long ride late into the night took a toll on him. I had some nasi lemak which was pretty good! I have never been a big fan of hotel breakfasts in Malaysia. After all, why “waste” stomach space by filling it with a hotel breakfast when a local breakfast not far away can be so much better? Still, hotel breakfasts had their benefits…especially since it did not require putting on all my gear just to ride five minutes out for some hot Wan Ton Mee...

[gunshead]

waaa

 

addicted with ur blog

where is the final days blogs

 

missing

quickly put up

 

need to see all the pictures too

[scubasimon]

thank you for reading...the final day's blog is still being worked on...unfortunately i could not finish it last night. no worries, will get it up by today. photos will be present in the last day's post...and will be added to the previous days' posts over the next day or so. you can visit my smugmug gallery to see all of them at one go if you prefer...though you may not have context of where the pictures were taken.

 

again...thanks for reading...and enjoy!

[scubasimon]

Day 6 post is now up on the blog...have a read...this time with pictures too!

 

Here's a teaser...

 

By now you would already know that I woke up early in the morning all excited about the ride ahead. After all, this was going to be a nice and easy ride to the historic town of Melaka and the route included a visit to the Sepang Formula One Circuit, go-karting in a specially constructed kart track, a refresher at the seaside town of Port Dickson, culminating with a delicious dinner in Melaka…and some well-earned beer! Yes…I was definitely looking forward to this ride!

 

Breakfast was the usual fare at the hotel because we wanted to…yup…maximize daylight! So for me it was my usual noodles or fried rice dish.I really dislike having breakfast in a hotel in Malaysia…not because of the food was bad…but because I felt there was much better food to be found outside. Well…you know that already. So anyway, I was wondering if Dan was feeling better…and eventually…I saw him in the dining room…yeah!!! However, he was there only to let me know that he had decided to head straight back to Singapore because of his food poisoning episode.

 

I can understand how he must have felt. It is no fun to be sick in a foreign place...

[scubasimon]

Just to let you all know that all pictures are now loaded onto the blog. Have a look and leave your comments!

 

Also let me know if you have questions and I will try to answer them!

[Intrepid]

Scubasimon: thanks for organizing and leading the pack

Tonychan: thanks and you are a very patient sweeper

Dancingbiker: thanks and I enjoyed your company

[ProFatSir]

Scubasimon: thanks for organizing and leading the pack

Tonychan: thanks and you are a very patient sweeper

Dancingbiker: thanks and I enjoyed your company

 

thanks and hope to see you on a HD soon!

[gunshead]

what is HD

[ProFatSir]

what is HD

 

harley-davidson

[scubasimon]

@Intrepid: My pleasure! Wait for the video