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| Roughly at 1149km odo when we started... |
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| Pics above, railroad construction on the left of photo. The road was running parallel to the rail line. |
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| The last refueling just as we ride into Mersing Town. We had over-estimated the ride duration to get to Mersing. Thus we had a "bonus' of an hour or so of arrival time at the hotel (at around 5.30pm). This has been a good day for the ride. The weather was clear (as in hot!), and the traffic on every stretch was mild. |
The room has one queen bed and a single bed - just nice for the three of us. I took the single...
Day 2, Friday 21-Aug-2020: By eight o'clock we were ready to roll out. All packed and had instant coffee courtesy of the chalet.
It has been a fun ride taking the country road on our first day of ride (yesterday), with lots of twisties and uneven surfaces. While the Chaah-Paloh-Kahang stretch has lots of short corners and hilly terrain, the Mersing-Endau route offers long sweeping corners with wide roads and some exciting hilly terrain. I mean, these were pretty good roads and what biker would be looking for...
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| Token Photoshoot at Dataran Air Papan before we head out. |
Just before 9:00am, we were back on the road. It was a non-stop ride to Pekan from there on. There were few scenic stretches of this route, particularly where we can see the seaside as we got nearer to Pekan. But both DocZul and Hussein was on a rushed mode, thus I could just enjoy the scenery and did not make any stops for photos. Probably we should have stop to smell the flowers.....
DocZul and me have a mutual friend in Pekan whom works with Maybank. We have been hinting to him in our (SBM) WhatsApp group that we will be making a visit. So after a short rest at the station, we headed to the bank in town. When we got there, we called Ahjai. But he was in Kuantan! Apparently, Ahjai lives in Kuantan but works in Kuantan :-) So, the confusion was with us...
DocZul's side mirror came loose while riding. He took that off. Across the bank, there was a bike shop. So since we already there, so we DocZul fitted the mirror back...
From Pekan, it was a again a non-stop ride, except for refueling, in Balok, Kuantan. We totally avoided the Kuantan-bypass, going through Beserah ....
Still a long way to go. Today is Friday. Thus our intention was to perform the Friday prayers since during this PKPB period (especially in Selangor), most masjid are closed to public. But not in Terengganu as the state was under PKPP (Perintah Kawalan Pergerakan Pemulihan). However, I know that we need to find a masjid off the main roads as it would be stricter and probably they would not allow anyone out of state to join the congregation.
While we were pushing for time to find a masjid, we wouldn't want to miss taking photos at landmarks. And those photo-stops were really really brief... Anyway, the timing was almost perfect. When we reached Paka, it was around 12.30noon... I made a slight detour into the Paka-Jerangau route to find a masjid for solat Jumaat... And found one we did.. a comfortable place as well...
It was very hot day. After Friday prayers, we took our time and was amongst the few to leave the masjid. In fact, the caretaker was waiting for us to leave as he shut the gate. Under normal circumstances, the gate would normally be open at all times. But since this was the PKPP period, all masjids would only be opened during prayer time...
If I recall correctly, it was already 3:00pm when we left the masjid and continued our journey. We made a refuel stop just before Marang town, and also did make a few stops either for photo-memory or for a snack-stop along the way. Our final destination today would be Penarik, where DocZul has made a booking into a resort that is owned by his uni-days friend Dr. Romzi.
It has really been a long day. What more the scorching hot weather throughout the day tend to make us tire faster. We stopped for e few minutes at the famous bridge - for some pictures. I see that fatigue has gotten to everyone. Plus, we hadn't really taken a proper lunch as yet and its already after 4:00pm. I did ask the guys, but they opted to push on and have an early dinner after reaching Penarik.
Penarik is famous for her many ICT restaurants. That's Ikan Celup Tepung for those whom not in the know, which I very much doubt it. Dr. Romzi came to meet up with us there and I guess the udang celup tepung, ikan celup tepung and sotong celup tepung would be our dinner for that day... :-).
We were there for almost an hour. When we finally left, I told the guys that I would not be joing them for the night in Penarik. Instead I would be spending the night at my mother's home in Besut, which is about 15minutes ride from where the resort is, in Kampung Fikri (not Penarik).
Day 3, Saturday 22-Aug. Did not really bother to take breakfast that morning. Had to meet up with the guys again in Kampung Fikri as agreed, by 8:00am. But when I got there (on time), they were still not ready!
The rather long break - longest in this trip - at Jeli was not really necessary. We were well rested the night before. And from Setiu, the ride took less than two hours. However it was a welcome relief and it gave time for us to get to know each other more.
The Not So Enjoyable East West Highway. The Jeli-Gerik also known as East West Highway has both short and long sweeping corners. The road grades are well design with only a handful of double apex bends. If you ask me, I'd choose this route over Karak Highway anytime. But it's too far from KL which is a hindrance and doesn't make it a popular bikers haunt.
As the two guys sped off I was falling behind, especially when climbing the road ascends. There were some problems with the X-adv! The gears were not shifting. I tried all options - D mode, S mode and manual shifting. The gear just stucked at 6 after auto shifting. Tus slowing down then trying to pick the speed up again was really a hassle. I know I had to stop and figure things out (which to no success). The only thing I figured out was that it shifted down when I completely stop (at Puncak Titiwangsa).
Feeling unsettled (from the shifting issue unresolved), my mind was not at 100% as we continued the journey. And the journey need to be continued. Fortunately enough the (gear stucked) issue doesn't get worse as I rode alone trying to catch up with the guys.
By the time we crossed the East-West Highway, it was way past lunch time (around 1:45pm). But since for lunch, we had set to stopover at Castella Cafe (dalam air) in Kampung Padang Stang, about 15 minutes from Gerik. But when we got there, it was only for pre-book customers during the lunch peak hours. Alas... a bit disappointed, we moved on..
We finally arrived our destination, Legong. Before going to our booked hotel, we stopped in town for lunch. The hotel, or our accommodation for the night is located within a recreation park here in Legong...
Pusat Rekreasi Air Panas Ulu Legong (Hot Spring Ulu Legong) was rather quiet when we arrived. Apart from chalets, thus place is actually a recreational place managed by the state government. And its opening hours are from 8am to 5pm. That would explain the empty parking lot.
The RM300 room, or rather chalet is very nice and comfortable. Spacious with two king beds plus a lazy sofa that was used by DocZul to sleep that night. So each of us had a private space this time around!
It was early. So we had time to walked this park. DocZul and Hussein went for a dip in the hotspring... well at least the hot water in the pool came from the hotspring somewhere nearby. Its what this place is famous for.
Although we had a late lunch, came night, we went out again to find food....
The Long Way Home. While this place was very cozy, we do not really have the luxury to spend more time there as our journey from here going back home is somewhat a long one. The longest leg of our tour. Will be covering more than 400km today.
First order of business would of course be to have some late breakfast/early lunch. Its back to the small town of Ulu Legong... We found this cozy little place that specialize in roti canai. Seemed popular with the local folks...
Kampung Seri Desa. Hussein's home in Kuala Kangsar. We made a long stop here - lunch and a good rest (i.e. sleep). It was almost 4:00pm when we arrived. Lunch was already served by his wife. Just about time as well... err maybe a bit late for lunch.. close to 2:00pm...
I thought Hussein would be spending the night here, but apparently he would go back to KL together with us. After quite a good rest/sleep, we headed out again at around 4:00pm, exiting into the North-South highway at Kuala Kangsar's interchange.
Remember the issue I had with downshifting and upshifting of gears? Well it happened again as I was trying to overtake cars on the highway. After slowing down, the gear would shift down - tried going manual, still didn't work. So, I applied the same solution, i.e. stopped by the roadside, kill the engine and re-start. And again, it worked. But not for long. So I decided to stop at a rest area, and Tapah RnR was coming up. However, as I truned into the rest area, the x-adv stalled and died! Could not get it back to start. Luckily we were already there... although DocZul was aeady ahead (and he came back, against the traffic later, in time to help Hussein and me to push the bike into the RnR and park proper - well at least not by the roadside at the entrance of this rest area!
After parking the bikes at a safe place, I called the Honda shop where I bought the bike from. In fact I had been in contact with the the salesman since the first instance I had this issue. He initial advise was to bring in the bike after I get back since the problem was on and off. But this time around, it seemed like a more serious issue since I could not get the bike started. In my mind, this definitely has something to do with the battery. Specifically issues with the ECU or charging of the battery. In fact my first solution was to jump start. But after talking to the that Honda guy, he asked to check on the battery connection first.
Alhamdulillah that issue was resolved. No more "check engine" or stucked gears after I fited back the connection. The bike could be immediately started....
The original plan was for us to shoot direct after we left Kuala Kangsar without stopping. When we first stop (due to my x-adv stalling) it was already half past five. It took more than half an hour for us to push the bike to safety, figure out the problem and making good. By the time this was done, it was already half past six. And we really needed some coffee. So, we agreed to have a pit stop (only for coffee) at the RnR. But fate has it, when we walked to the place, it started to rain.. and continued to rain heavily!
It was already close to maghrib when were about done. So we decided to stay on (since it was still raining) and do our solat there. But, after we finished with that, it was still raining... and DocZul said he was hungry again. So, we moved to another stall... and had dinner... :-)
It was already 9:00pm when we finally headed out of this place... And timely enough as the rain finally stopped - well it stopped earlier while we we having the second round... It was a non stop ride, and we exited Subang, taking a short break at Petronas. By the time we reached Subang, it was already 11:00pm.
So there you have it. A for days 3 nights excursion supposedly pusing Malaya... but not really as we did not cover all the states. Passing through on the highway should not count, right?
All in all, it was a darn good trip. While we were rushing to get to our destinations on each day of the ride, we did not really push the speed. Of course there were times we did above 140kmph but on average we were doing around 100kmph. Probably the trunk roads that we took (instead of highways) was the main contributing factor.
