Around half of Malaysia

Continuing my travel reports.

Traveling period: 17 Oct 2011 to 20 Oct 2011
Bike: Suzuki GSF 400 Bandit

My girlfriend had a work trip to KL so I though why not I ride up to KL to meet her. This time, however, I took the small roads.

Day 1:
I rode through Route 5 passing by Batu Pahat up to Muar and spent the night there. I walked around Muar and found a Secret Recipe restaurant at the Maur Trade Centre and enjoyed a slice of white chocolate cake and tea. After that, I continued and went to a night market before turning in at the Hotel D'99.





Day 2:
I continued through Route 5 towards KL, stopping by Port Dickson for sight seeing and Klang for bak kut teh. On the way, I had a root beer float at A&W. I rode around looking for any bak kut teh shop. When I finally found one, they only allowed me to take away as they were closing their shop. After that, I rode to the service apartment, Sri Tiara, where my girlfriend and her colleagues were staying at. As the apartment was very near Mid Valley City, we went there for snacks at Krispy Kreme and dinner at Delicious. Only then, I decided to head for Kuantan for the last leg of my trip.





Day 3:
The next morning, I headed towards Kuantan on the expressway E8. I saw the aftermath of an accident. First time have I seen 2 dead bodies laying on the road shoulder with their motorcycle smashed along side them. There are many other vehicles stopped beside the accident. Riding further, I saw the ambulance and police speeding on the opposite direction towards the accident. Upon reaching Kuantan, I immediately went for hotel hunt. After checking into my hotel, I went around sight seeing along the Sungai Kuantan and checked out their local shopping malls.





Day 4:
In the morning, I went to the Teluk Cempedak beach. Other than the Mac Donalds and other shops along the beach, the beach looks deserted and under renovation. After that, I started on my way back to home. Along the way, I saw a herd of goats and cows on the road blocking cars. I travelled through Pekan, Kuala Rompin, Mersing and finally JB Sentral before reaching the Woodlands checkpoint.





Total distance travelled: about 1060km.

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KL Couchsurfing Trip

It has been a long time since I posted on this blog. However, I have not stopped traveling. I will be posting some of the trips I did during this 1 and half year of blog absence to the best of my memories, which sadly hasn't been very good lately. However, I will try to reminisce with the photos I took during the trip.

Traveling period: 28 Jan 2011 to 31 Jan 2011
The 1st trip I will be posting happened almost 2 months after my road trip to Phuket. It was a very short trip and the main focus of this trip was to couchsurf and meet couchsurfers.

How this trip came about was rather incidental. So the story goes like this, there was a couchsurfer named Emma from China who was transiting to Thailand through KL. Apparently, my last logon location on the couchsurfing website showed that I was still in KL. Therefore, she sent me a message looking for a chinese-speaking guide in KL. However, despite the mistake and since I was free during that weekend, I though why not just have a short couchsurfing trip to KL to meet up with her and other couchsurfers.

I started looking for a host and events that are going on during that weekend in KL. I was lucky to find a Pakistan couchsurfer, Umair, staying in KL who happened to be able to host because his family was away in Pakistan at that time.

On the evening of 28th Jan 2011, Friday, I speed my way towards KL with my Honda SP.



Since Umair was out with his friends. I met them at KLCC.



We immediately headed back to his apartment near Midvalley. Me on my bike and them in Umair's car. After a night of rest, the next morning, I went to LCCT to pick Emma up. We headed for an couchsurfing event to eat ban mee at a famous restaurant, Kin Kin. The ban mee wasn't too bad but I ate better. The meeting brought a group of 8-10 couchsurfers of many nationalities together. That's pretty much all I can recall about the meeting.



After the couchsurfing event, I showed Emma around KL. I headed back to Umair's place in that evening, after I sent Emma back to LCCT for her flight to Krabi, Thailand. It was raining heavily that Saturday night and all Sunday so I pretty much stayed at Umair's apartment and couldn't make my way back to SG. That gave us plenty of time for conversations about life in SG or KL or Pakistan, religion, work, family etc.



I went back on Monday morning. Sadly, I had to waste an urgent leave for that day. But I would say it was a rather fulfilling trip, meeting new friends, learning about their lives and enjoying food.

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Madworld

Day 22 (05/12/2010):

When I woke up in the morning, Elma and one of her son just came back her hometown. She brought back many of different types of fruits. Elma fried one of them, known as the Breadfruit. It was probably my 1st time eating it. It has a bit of the jackfruit taste and the texture of the sweet potato.

[caption id="attachment_234" align="alignleft" width="614" caption="Fried Breadfruit with tea"][/caption]

After that, I went for another dosage of Krispy Kreme before heading to the Petronas Twin Towers. At the exhibition centre, there are 4 interesting brain teasers. I had to leave the exhibition centre with 1 unsolved.

[caption id="attachment_235" align="alignleft" width="614" caption="Petronas Twin Towers"][/caption]

After walking around KLCC for awhile longer, I headed for Taman Bahagia in Petaling Jaya for the pork noodles Shuling recommended. Due to the roadblock at Jalan Parlimen, the road I always take towards Petaling Jaya, my direction got thrown off and had to went with the road signs instead. I somehow managed to reach Taman Bahagia after getting a better map at a petrol station, just to find the pork noodle stall was closed at 3pm. The time was 4pm then. However, I was informed by one of the shop assistant that there is related pork noodle stall owned the sister of the owner of the shop here in Taman Bahagia. The shop assistant couldn't tell me which road or which area the shop is neither could he tell me where it is on the map. All he told me was turn left after 2 traffic light, u-turn after another 2 overhead exit which I don't exit and turn left after the u-turn. I decided to go with the directions. Those directions were pretty exactly and I could reach the area with many shops. All I need to do now is to find the pork noodle shop. After wandering around the area a little bit, I managed to find the pork noodle shop, Ah Or Chu Yuk Fun. I learnt that Ah Or is the older brother of the 2 sisters.

[caption id="attachment_238" align="alignleft" width="614" caption="Ah Or Chu Yuk Fun"][/caption]

The pork noodles looks pretty simple but I totally enjoyed it. It wasn't that it tasted extraordinary but just the overall consuming experience was just simply nice.

[caption id="attachment_239" align="alignleft" width="614" caption="Ah Or pork noodle"][/caption]

Heading back to KL was much simpler. I quickly headed back to Elma's place for a change of clothes before going to the "Madworld" at DUMC, yet again in Petaling Jaya. Madworld is a joint evangelistic production between SIB KL and DUMC. A combination of dances and musical put together pretty nicely. It is about 2 man, one who have everything yet a broken marriage and a broken self, the other who lost everything and wander the streets bitter and aimlessly. IMO, the production was rather short and inconclusive but I still enjoyed the dance and music very much.

[caption id="attachment_240" align="alignleft" width="614" caption="Madworld"][/caption]

After "Madworld", we headed for supper at Taman Megah. I had the most delicious Sarawak handmade noodle, one of the best handmade noodle I have eaten, and a very big honeydew juice, just simply satisfying. Also tried other food like the fried oyster and banana pancake, not as nice. My day ended with a smooth Kilkenny beer at a cafe with a live performance in KL.

Day out with Miranda

Day 21 (04/12/2010):

Miranda invited me to go cycling with her cell group in some park area in Shah Alam. It was a pretty good workout, been a long time since I cycled so many slopes.

[caption id="attachment_225" align="alignleft" width="614" caption="Cycling in Shah Alam"][/caption]

After cycling, we headed for Klang to have Bah Kut Teh lunch. The Klang Bah Kut Teh, which the Malaysians are so proud of, is indeed delicious, definitely better than what we have in Singapore. It is very different from Bah Kut Teh in Singapore. It has less of the pepper taste and added mushrooms, pig intestines and vegetables with brown base soup instead. Pretty nice stuff.

[caption id="attachment_226" align="alignleft" width="614" caption="Klang Bah Kut Teh"][/caption]

In the evening, I attended Marinda's church, SIB KL. I also witness the installation of Miranda as a member of SIB KL. Congratz Marinda.

[caption id="attachment_227" align="alignleft" width="614" caption="SIB KL"][/caption]

For dinner, we went to a restaurant named Asian Food House. They have Taiwanese, Japanese and Korean food. I had the Taiwanese pork ribs noodle and bubble tea recommended by Shuling. Pretty good.

On the way back to Elma's place, I picked up half a dozen of Krispy Kreme donuts. Yes lah. Finally, I had my awesomely delicious Krispy Kreme donuts. IMO, they beat all other donuts I have tried.

[caption id="attachment_228" align="alignleft" width="614" caption="Krispy Kreme"][/caption]

Familiar Faces

Day 20 (03/12/2010):

Another day of traveling. I rode out of Pulau Pinang at noon. I managed to find my way to my couchsurfing host, Elma's place in Kuala Lumpur. Elma stays in a nice cosy terrace with her sons, daughter and 5 cats at the border of KL. The cats are really playful and cute. At times during the night, one would cuddle and lie next to me.

After settling into Elma's place, I went to Miranda's cell group meeting at another side of KL. After 20 days of traveling, they were the 1st familiar faces I saw, Miranda and Shuling. They were my care group mates back in Hope Brisbane when I was studying in Australia. It was really nice to see them again. It reminded me of the days in Brisbane which I still misses.

[caption id="attachment_216" align="alignleft" width="614" caption="Miranda and I"][/caption]

Dry, Full & Happy

Day 1 (14/10/2010):

Forgot to mention something. On my 2nd stopover for the rain, there were 2 Indian guys who stopped at the same flyover. Just after they got off their bike, one of the Indian guys passed the other a can of beer and they started drinking. They sure are prepared for occasions like these.

If you guys ever come KL and want to stay near the Bukit Bintang area, you can consider the hotel I'm staying in right now.



It is called the yy38 hotel. It may sound dodgy but it is actually pretty good imo and new too. I found it by chance when I was in KL for the KL marathon in June. 1stly and most importantly, there is free wifi which I'm using now. The room is clean and cosy. If you drove or rode, you can park just outside the hotel. There are security to look after your vehicles. You need your room access card to get to the floor your room is in, which is pretty common but in the more expensive hotels. It's near Bukit Bintang shopping area and there is a 24hours carrefour just in front of the hotel as well as alot of eating places nearby. I'm staying in a single bed suite which is RM120 a night. It may not be the cheapest but for the standard, I'm happy with it. Here is the link to their website if anyone is interested.
http://www.yy38hotel.com.my/

Wet, Cold & Hungry

Day 1 (14/10/2010):

Current status: Wet, cold and hungry. How I landed in such a situation? Read on to find out..

I left home at 0930. Took 1/2 hr to secure my 65Litre bagpack to my bike (which I'm still pretty amazed myself) and, then, it started raining. Great start eh. Thank God, the rain was light and short-lived.



The problem with having such a big bag on your rear seat is that I keep getting unwanted attention especially from the custom officers and police officers. I had the Malaysian custom officers checking my bag and police officers staring at me when I rode pass.

Nevertheless, I managed to pass the 1st toll on North-South highway at 1107. I stopped shortly after the tollgate to ensure my bagpack was still with me. Then, I had a Malaysian Indian guy on a bike stopped beside me and said something in malay to me which I don't understand. After awhile, I gathered that he was asking if I was ok so I assured him I was ok and he left. This made me wonder if he was really concerned with my well being or just checking out his potential victim. Hmm..



I wanted to spend more time in Penang so I decided to skip Melaka and cheong as far as I can. Hopefully I can reach Penang or at least Ipoh before the sun goes down. All my wishful thinking. Stopped a couple of times for drinks and petrol and at around 100km to KL, it started pouring. It was 1500. The next flyover was about 1km when it started pouring and left me pretty wet when I hit the shelter.



The rain only cleared up after 40mins or so and I carried on my way. When I reached the Kajang exit, which is 60km away from KL, it looked like it was pouring far ahead so I decided to stop for awhile to observe for awhile. Soon enough, it started pouring. That lasted for an hour.



Just when I entered KL, the rain started again. zZzZz. This time the nature was calling me and I had nowhere to answer her. So after a short stop, I decided to brave the rain.



After some hor laning, I managed to find the hotel I stayed in for the KL marathon in June. So here I am. Still wet, cold and hungry yet blogging. Finally, I can have my hot shower and dinner...

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