The participants met at Serangoon Stadium at 5.30am to begin our expedition. We cycled quite fast in Singapore and were at the checkpoint in just over an hour. We took a long time clearing the immigrations, mainly because we were unfamiliar with the procedure for cyclists and in addition, the new JB checkpoint was confusing in its layout.
It took us about one hour to clear the checkpoint and one we had done that, we went to makan some nasi lemak at a coffeeshop near Danga Bay. From that place, we could still see Singapore.
We headed along Danga Bay and went through Skudai before turning off, to go towards Pontian. Along the way, we stopped at the Shimano factory in Pekan Nanas and the Pineapple Musuem (Muzium Nanas) although that was closed. But we got a gist of what it was about by the pineapples growing at the entrance. It was about pineapples of a great variety, from red ones to green ones to orange ones.
We had lunch just after that at Pontian Kechil and proceeded from there. The route (No. 5) was really flat and not much to see, just a kampong here and stream there, that’s about it.
However, this went on for quite a while and along the way, Kenneth’s front tube punctured and ZheYin started to suffer from cramps. With this our progress for the final parts was slow and we reached Bukit Banang (Darren’s Place) at 1810.
19th Dec - Day 2
ZheYin decided to rest to recover from his cramps so only the 4 of us went to Malacca. He instead joined our host Darren and went to KL with him.
The rest of us set off in the morning at around 6.45 and had breakfast at a nearby coffeeshop. We went down further into Batu Pahat and stopped at their landmark, a giant hammer and chisel (which is where BP got its name from).
On our long and straight road to Muar, Austin encountered a large hole in the road that caused him to fly off his bike. Fortunately, the injuries were superficial and he was able to continue. So we made it to Muar, where we had an early lunch.
After that we crossed the Muar Bridge and continued to Malacca, mostly on the AMJ, a highway that connected Muar to Malacca. Progress was really good on the highway and we reached Malacca’s Plaza Malaka Raya at 1.35pm.
However our hosts were not really ready for our arrival so we met them sometime later and because we could not yet enter the service apartment, we did the main sight seeing in our cycling attire. Alvin, the ARSL of the people hosting us brought us around.
After washing up in the service apartment, we went to makan at Jonker Walk. The food was normal. We went to the Eye on Malaysia after that, so we saw the city view at night. We had a Ramli burger after that for supper, which was ok. We went to sleep after that.
20th Dec – Day 3
We started the Day with some prata with Alvin before continuing our way. Along the AMJ back, Kenneth’s read tire had a puncture, so we stopped there for abit.
We reached Muar and only stayed to take photos of their clock tower. We cycled for around 30 minutes more and reached Bakri, where we had our lunch. We continued through a more inland route rather then the coastal route we did on the way up. It was more hilly but guess it was not too bad.
There was some road construction going close to the end and that slowed us down somewhat. My rear tire had a puncture and so that delayed us further. Kenneth’s chain also broke, but fortunately, we were already in BP and there was a bicycle shop around 800meters from this incident.
We reached Bukit Banang at around 4.40 and met Darren there. We attended a campfire at Yong Peng, which to me was quite an eye opener. I guess I was expecting something similar to our campfire since they are our neighbours, but the campfire had a mass dance component and a long skit. Even I could tell it was very Taiwanese, even though I am not familiar with their culture.
21st Dec – Day 4
So ZheYin joined us back for Day 4. We had our breakfast at the same place. Around an hour into the journey, my rear tire was leaking again. I guess the replaced I used was not done well and after fixing it, I had a slow leak.
So some kampung after Ayer Hitam, I changed my tube again and after that we had lunch there. We had an interesting conversation with some Bangla, who according to Kenneth was sharpening the knife before holding it in his hand and talking to us. I did not see the knife part, but the guy seemed friendly enough.
The change in the tube worked and I did not have any troubles after that. So we continued our journey, through the plantations and as we got closer and closer to JB, the road started to become wider and more crowded until we were in a highway.
But the good thing was that the people actually gave way when we needed to filter left or right. I guess Malaysian drivers are actually better than Singaporeans. Malaysians don’t follow the law, but they understand that the road is meant to be shared among all users. Singaporeans on the other hand are forced by the laws to be law compliant; however most of them assume their father’s own the road.
The route to the new checkpoint was fairly straight forward and we clear it much faster on the way back. We made it back to near Serangoon Stadium at 6.20 and that was the end of our journey.
1 comment:
i like the 3rd shot.
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