My Year 2009 Trips

It's been some time since I last blog. Happen to meet up a friend for coffee chit and start to talk about blogging......so here I start my blog again.

This is a video compilation of my year 2009 trips.

My New Camera

I've just bought a new below average 8.1mp camera to replace my 2nd hand old 4mp camera as the latter photo quality was not good especially night scene.

Somehow, I've developed an interest in photography during my tour rides and I still have a long way to learn to take nice photos as compared with my peers.

Every photos taken tell a story or a memory of what, where and when I've been. [the 3-Y analytical tool which I'd used in my work sometimes]

Bought my camera along when meeting Eugene for the photos transferred last Saturday and I've taken 2 photos 'secretly' to test out the quality...

What I can say is I'm pleased with my camera though is not of a high range.

I'm now waiting for my next trip to put my camera into real test...
:)

Eugene lubricating his bike's chain

3 DAYS EAST COAST TRIP

Day 3 – GENTING & PORT DICKSON [19 Apr 2009]

Completion of 3 days trip

Finally I got the photos & some videos of the trip from Eugene. Nice photoshots, it was well taken and I've still got some photography lessons to learn from Eugene.

Thanks Eugene for sharing the photos & videos!

The weather was cool and road was clear usually in the morning in Malaysia which we’ve encountered these 3 days unlike in Singapore, kind of stuffy and warm. This kind of weather gives one’s a peaceful and comfortable, carefree feeling. Non-stress and is good for riding too…

We left Rawang and rode to Batang Kali which was the route to Genting from behind, less traffic. It suited us well.

Greenery was everywhere on both sides of the road and we’ve a good, pretty clear view of the mountains including Genting in the background while travelling.

Halfway thru Batang Kali, the road was straight with occasionally some bends here and there. We could see rows of plant on both sides and couldn’t resist taking some pictures along the way when nature at its best…..

Batang Kali Route; To Genting; The bends

Out of nowhere and naive we’re, gradually the minor bends becomes uphill of steep bends here and there. We’re kind of 'forced' to cornering at our best [felt like Valentino Rossi again as encountered in Gerik, but speed is much slower, hahaa]

After having getting used and fun of the uphill steep bends, we reached the 3-quarters mark at an altitude of 1265m and paused a while, appreciating the nature.

Rest to appreciate Genting; Eugene's GPS showed we're at an altitude of 1265m

Further up Eugene and I made another stop for photo-takes, at the same time waiting for Daniel. It was a wonderful feeling and a wonderful sight to be with the passing cloud…

Waited for sometimes when we still did not see Daniel, Eugene decided to look for Daniel while I stay put with the bikes. Daniel’s bike had a hard time riding up and his bike couldn’t started.

Eugene gave a lending hand to push started Daniel’s bike, it ended well with the 3 of us gathered for photo shot. Touring with no photo shot is tasteless like soupwithout ingredient. :D

Cool Eugene; A relax me; Daniel,Eugene & Me together

Our bikes

We continued our rides and reached the top of Genting at an altitude of 1647m. What a spectacular view it was.

View of the route & mountainous...

As we walked to take our breakfast at Mary Brown before going to the Casino, people would look at us 'strangely' because we’re in our riding gears, jackets, riding boots, totally different from those tourists in their holiday dressing or businessman in smart suit. We’re kind of out-of-place, but who’s cares. hahahahaa.

We're @ 1647m above sea level; Parked our bikes; Eugene's Vara125 battered rear tire

The infamous graffiti on staircase landing; Mary Brown's nasi lemak

It’s been years since I lasted visited Genting by coach and the rules are flexible. We could enter the Casino with our riding gears. In the past, it would have to be long sleeve [before that with tie] or batik shit.

Time has changed and so was the Casino. There were LCD monitors to show the betting set/scene. Along the column/wall, there were more LCD monitor showing repeated EPL, La Liga football channels.

I tried my luck on the one-arm bandit, probably this is out-of-phrase as jackpot are computerize now without the ‘arm’… I lost 10 bucks for the fun of it and we hanged around for 2~3 hours before we left Genting for North South Highway via KLIA as Daniel had to go back at 5pm.

I’m felt disappointed that we had to go off after we came all the way to Genting just for few hours, it was a kind of touch & go trip. I’ll come back to Genting again if the opportunity come and will not repeated this type of touch & go trip, at the very least I’ll stay a night.

Going down Genting is no joke and we left at a time where coaches began to left Genting. Traffic considered heavy and it was scary initially. After sometimes, I did manage a few cornering with ease but still a lot of improvement needed to make U-turn cornering

DOWNSLOPE smoothly!!!

KLIA traffic volume was high and in a way congested, we’ve to squeeze in-between the cars and stopped for petrol before entering North South Highway.

We parted way with Daniel at the petrol station at 2pm and since Eugene and I had some times, we decided to visit one more place – Port Dickson.

Eugene rode into Ayer Keroh petrol station as I followed him, I signalled to him that my bike’s fuel is enough to reach Pagoh. Asked him is his bike’s fuel enough, he replied ok.

We reached Pagoh exit and lucky at this point, Eugene’s Vara125 fuel emptied, it came to a stop and he had to push UPSLOPE for some distance to the petrol station. Can’t imagine if we’re to stuck mid-way North South Highway, probably I'd top-up fuel at the next petrol station in a bottle and U-turn back while Eugene stay put to look after his bike.

And indeed luck was on his side, after few meter, he ‘rocked’ his bike and able to start with some residue fuel. Guess he was an experience rider/tourer who knows how to react in situation.

After fuelling up our fuel tanks, we proceeded to Port Dickson

beach, clear blue sea with not many activities. After some photo taking, we went to Port Dickson’s town for lunch [too late] or

dinner [too early] or teabreak [heavy teabreak???]. It was hot and I rode with my jacket in my box.

Port Dickson beach

I had mee goreng [look more like cha kway teow] and share with Eugene a plate of rojak. Eugene ordered roti prata…we had ABC [not guiness stout] but ABC ice. It was nice and refreshing, I ordered 2 ABC to quench my thirst. To my liking, not too sweet, just nice.

ABC's stall; ABC ice; My mee goreng + rojak

Eugene roti prata

We had our filled and proceeded to GP Petronas. We met a familiar face at GP Petronas, Eugene has some hearted chat with him as he was well-liked by most bikers. : )

I had some friendly, buddy-like chat with Eugene before we called it a day.

These 3 days adventure were great ... glad I’m did this tour, though we were tired with average riding of 12 hours daily, we managed and experienced the misty weather, tough terrain, the unexpected Eugene bike’s footrest broken, the nasty cricket in my food [though to some is nothing, yeah probably I over-reacted]…blah blah blah, overall we were thrilled with the fun we’re having. :D

For these 3 days, we were lucky the weather was good...and total distance covered 1735km. We've made it round the East Coast of Malaysia...

Pictures and video courtesy from Eugene...

My Passion My Dream

Still pending for day3 photos because I'm busy these few weeks...will get it soon.

Well, here is a video compilation of the trips that I've been to.

For every new trip, the feeling is different...in terms of road condition, weather, kakis, be it few of us [2 0r 3 person] or in a convoy of 20~30 people.

Every of my trips, I really enjoy the rides, the company and the friendship that bonded...

Last but not least, I want to live my life fullest because we only lived once...

My Passion My Dream = My Life

3 DAYS EAST COAST TRIP

Day 3 – 19 Apr 2009

These are the 2 photos of Eugene and me by Daniel, on top of Gerik icon signage. As a young-at-heart and at times playful, I climbed further up with Eugene and waving the flag heartily....hahahaha.

At times I wondered do I look, feel like I'm in my 40. More of a 14 years old lad to me :)

Eugene and me on top of GERIK sign

Me waving the flag if I've CONQUERED Gerik...hahaaa

This morning I woke up by the alarm, not from my handphone which I doubled it as alarm clock daily, but from the cars alarm. Daniel bike-key alarm was too activated…

And for the 1st time in my life, I brushed my teeth with a water hose. The budget hotel was indeed budgeted with simple facility, a double-bed, toilet functioned also as a bathroom which is fine for me. BUT there was no wash basin, so as traveller I make do with the hose. Well it still does the job...

We left the budget hotel at 6.30am for the next destination. The sky was still dark, the place Rawang was quiet and cool unlike last night full of people and trafficccc

I like the early morning weather, environment which gave one peaceful feeling.

Take a last photo with my camera that I took inside the police station of our bikes before my camera went 'Batery depleted...beep' and it went dead. So for the rest of the journey, I'd to rely on Eugene's camera.

I've forgotten that I still have my 3.2mp handphone camera, picute quality is not that lousy and good enough for simple photography.

But I've forgotten about it till I came back, is this the sign I'm into my silver year...

*to be continue for my day3 adventure

3 DAYS EAST COAST MALAYSIA TRIP

Day 2 – Full Gerik [18 Apr 2009]

After a day of 15 hours riding and a night of well rested body and soul, we started our journey to Gerik at 6am in the morning because we do not want to be caught up as Day1 with the dark and foggy weather. We timed that by the time we reached Gerik, it will be bright and shine in the morning.

We loaded up our stuffs to our bikes and prepared to set-off. Suddenly I heard a ‘thud’ sound of bike fallen and saw Eugene’s bike on the ground. I helped him to lift up the bike and saw his right footrest has broken off. The cause of bike fallen was due to Eugene forgotten to remove his lock from the front wheel disc brake.

Eugene's bike footrest GONE...but not his spirits

With no alternatives of fixing or swapping his rear footrest, we rode off to Gerik town with Eugene riding with no footrest to hold on his feet. The front brake also came in contact when riding making Eugene uncomfortable with his bike. But what to do, still need to ride it. Suggest to him if he felt uneasy and wanted to U-turn back home, I’ll be with him…my thought ‘We came together, we back together’.

The morning ride was good, weather cooling and road condition clear with not many traffic. We went through Rantau Panjang checkpoint and to Gerik town via the close border of Betong next to it.

Nice scenery along the road to Gerik town. Reached Gerik town and we settled down for breakfast of rice with veggy, chicken drumstick and squid for me. It’s a self-serving meaning we just took how much we want.


Route to Gerik; Grik 155Km - Eugene start to ride off; Riding off



Nice scenery; Cold in the morning - nice weather; Mist and the many many insects on my visor

Well I just took moderate portion as I’m not a big eater. After a few mouthfuls, what a nasty and disgusting sight I’ve…a black cricket below my veggy. It immediately caused me to lose my appetite and spoiled my day. What the hell I’m cursing inside but still I finished the rice, drumstick and squid as I still need to fill up my stomach for the long journey ahead. As for the cricket and veggy, I’m not into fear-factor and left those 2 untouched.

The cricket, arghhhh + yuck yuck yuck + pui pui pui!!!

After breakfast, Daniel checked with a local, as he is more conversant in Malay, is there any bike shop around to fix Eugene’s bike footrest. Lucky there was a bike shop around the corner and Eugene got his bike fixed with RXZ’s footrest, damaged RM20 for a pair.

Without much ado, we proceeded to Gerik as we’re behind time. We’ve fun riding the trunk road of Gerik with many up and down turns and the nice scenery of mountains, greenery and lake. It also improved our skills.

Singapore road is kind of monotonous and is a big difference if one ever rode on Malaysia soil. We reached 3 quarters of Gerik and hit upon Gerik town and have our lunch at KFC. It was hot and Eugene’s camera memory was full.

Eugene's bike fixed with RXZ footrest, damaged RM20...

After lunch, we rode around the town as Eugene wanted to buy new memory card but it cost RM60 for a 1GB memory card. End up he burnt all his photos into a CD for RM5 and clear his memory card for more photos to be taken.

While waiting for Eugene in a coffeeshop, I dosed off again under the hot weather. And feeling bored, I went opposite to look see look see and bought a few stickers as souvenir.

We started to proceed again with the remaining quarter of Gerik which I lasted went through when going to Betong. Reached the Gerik icon signage, this time Eugene and me climbed further up the GERIK sign and from there I took some pictures that were awesome.


GERIK icon signage; Daniel below; An elated Eugene


Top view from GERIK signage

Feeling great with the Gerik trip, we went to Rawang for a night stay to prepare for day3. Reached Rawang at night, there was no street light and traffic was busy. It made our riding tough. And as the going gets tough, the tough gets going.....our spirits was still high!

Couldn’t found a place to stay, we took our dinner at 10pm in Uma Yam, 10 minutes ride after Rawang as we’re famished and tired before deciding where to stay put. During dinner, Daniel remembered he saw a budget hotel at Rawang, so back to Rawang we booked a budget hotel for the night. Eugene and me again shared a room [we're NOT gay!!!, LOL] and as usual Daniel has his own room.

While parking our bikes with Daniel checking the hotel price, a lady told us that Rawang here have bikes stolen almost every night and suggested to us to park opposite inside the police station.

The budget inn hotel

It made us worried and we went to ask for permission to park our bikes INSIDE the police station. The policemen were friendly and agreed to our request. While parking inside the police station and chained and locked our bikes, I joked with Eugene ‘Aren’t we ‘insulting/belittle’ them that we have to chain and locked our bikes INSIDE their premises'.



Rawang polis station - Eugene; Kup kia with thick chain and locked

Well is always better be safe than sorry as we saw a kup kia with chained and locked much tighter than ours. Went to our room and took our bath and rested to prepare for day3….

* to be continue. My camera battery went flat with no photos for day3, pending Eugene to post his photos…