VCS Pengerang Trip 08

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Click the above link to view the photos taken during the trip.

Riding into M'sia was a very different experience.
On the highway and the pretty much more urbanized area, it was still ok, it's just like riding in S'pore only with slightly faster moving vehicles. ((Disclaimer, lol)) Well I am certainly not a tourer and this was my first overseas riding so I may not get everything right. Just sharing the experience in my very own perspective and opinions yes.. (meaning noob haha)

Second link was very nice. No traffic on a Sunday morning and we could all fly! Yes in our very own Vespa way. Gathering at this erm.. I forgot what it was called but yeah, place with a lot of local bikes. Should be some universal meeting place for all. Sports bike, Tourers, Dirt enthusiast, you name it! Travelling was a breeze and as it was still somewhat a populated area, it wasn't that bad. Managed to catch a bit of break before heading off towards Kota Tinggi.

The road to Kota Tinggi were kind of tedious. We went through the rural areas and it was just roads meandering within the tall grasses area. There were no street lamps there so riding in the night is strictly not advisable especially for motorcycle. Everywhere around you is just forest and forest of palm trees (i think so?) and not forgetting, the crazy cars. At least the roads were proper tar roads, only with random pot holes every now and then. But they're usually at the side so pretty much ok, problem only comes if the crazy cars want to get pass you. It's only a 2 lane road and its for both directions, the double white line is of no issue to them and they cross the line and go whenever they can. So whenever you see two cars going against one another, the bikes better stick to the side to make some space for one of the cars to squeeze in between. Some of us were quite new to riding together in M'sia so we started out blocking a lot of vehicles. They must have thought that we were so damn annoying. Travelling at 80km/h hogging the road. Heh oh well. Oh ya btw, uncountable amounts of road kills. I saw some dead furry thing, no idea monkey or dog or cat? There were dead birds, a lot of them and even monitor lizards. Or some kinda lizard-like thing. Rats and one saw a dead python. Free animal carcasses, damn.

After which we finally got closer and closer to our destination. I forgot whats that place called, I asked my friend and she told me the name but I forgot. It's quite hard to memorize all the names of these places, besides they were in Malay, which makes it slightly more difficult. We didn't really go to Pengerang, as my friend also said that the place is pretty much a dead town. Nothing much going on there, so the main objective of this trip is to go to the small town which is slightly before Pengerang to enjoy the wonderful LOBSTER! We had so much of good food and it only summed up to about 50RM per person, worth every bit of it.

The ride back was a torture. Going through the same route but under the hot sun and when it's about 3 plus pm, just after lunch, lethargic is the word. A couple of us nearly fell asleep while riding, including myself haha. It was also mind challenging, have to keep concentration on the cars passing by and also the pot holes. The scenery which doesn't change for miles made the ride mundane as well. Seriously, it was out to kill us! As it is, 100 over km, we're complaining this and that. I really have to salute to those people who could ride all the way to KL, or even Thailand. Amazing. Truly amazing.

When we finally reached Johor Bahru, it was probably around 5 something already? The traffic was packed, I believed everyone had already finished work and was on their way home? Also those S'poreans, like us, whom had already enjoyed themselves and were heading home. The traffic jam was terrible, all the way to the custom and it was then when Ladytron had to give me problem. I could not power her up and in order to maintain the engine, I have to hold my throttle which is ridiculous because I'm stucked at the custom. Those who have been stucked in the jam before should know that it's not a good time to have a failing engine. The system is such that if you can't cut in, everyone else around you is going to cut in and all these bikers all had to horn and horn which I felt that it wasn't helping at all. It only irritates you and distracts you.

Ended up pushing all the way till I left custom checkpoint and throttled all the way. It's like I can't stop because if I do, Ladytron dies? The guys were still waiting for me at the road shoulder so managed to get a bit of help from them. They said that it could be due to the bumpy road that caused something inside to loosened. After tightening it seemed fine but it still feels kinda weird, even today. The throttling feels different, got to send it to Piaggio later on. I hope Ladytron is all strong and well.

That's all, Goodnight.

"Patriarch on a Vespa..."