Milestone

My virgin 'touring' trip...if you could call it one.
Destination: Kota Tinggi, Sungei Ringitt, Desaru.
Mileage Travelled: 279km return trip.
Pictures are available:

WeiZ stayed over at my place the previous night, and we had a mere 2 hours sleep before we had to get up to leave for the rendezvous point. We were late arriving at the Tim Sum place, but still managed to get a cup of coffee and lo mai kai into our digestive systems.

We set of at a leisurely pace, the 1st and supposedly fast group hardly breaking away from the trailing convoy of Phantom riders who wanted to play safe. Saw Bubble's pillion twisting around to snap some pictures, and along the way was prevented from going at my normal pace by Xiao Di's RVF. On the way to Kota Tinggi, he didn't take one of the left bends and went into the oncoming traffic lane. I had to follow as a result, or he'd be in a fix if a vehicle appeared on that lane and I was beside him inside the apex of the corner.

Arrived at Kota Tinggi and decided against jumping into the water. I suggested a trek up the waterfall and managed to garner a decent enough following to venture skywards. The route was narrow; certain points had enough foothold for half a foot only and we had to grab on to the twine to get across. There were lots of fallen tree trunks and loose pebbles and stones that could easily twist your ankles. The way up seemed almost neverending, but we managed to get up to the summit. The sparkling cool water was a panacea for our fatigue, and washed away the drowsiness I'd accrued through sleeping a mere 2 hours the night before. I felt like jumping into the water, or at least dipping my head into the water after the hot trek up, but had to content myself with simply washing my face as the gradient of the rocks bothering the water didn't allow me to dip my head in without falling in altogether. There was this still pool of water where all the bubbles from the waterfall had gathered, and so we pretended we were peeing into that pool; the water gathered there, coupled with the bubbles really looked like urine. Haha...imagine the scare we gave those folk who were frolicking in the water all the way below when they saw the photos.

Vince had a fall on the way out of Kota Tinggi. Don't know if he didn't dare to bank or what. Ended up turning late and going over sandy ground...and when he applied his brakes on the slick surface, he went down. Saw it happen in my side mirror and stopped in front to help him out.

We left Kota Tinggi for Sungei Ringgit to have an unfufilling lunch. We had around 6 dishes, the highlights of which would have had to be the abalone and the lobster. The food tasted good, but not exactly fantastic and definately not worth the RM50 price tag per head. At the end of it, I wasn't even satisfied appetite wise as I had a very big eater sitting two seats away from me.

Set off for Desaru, blasting away at speeds of 120-140km/h. Still a rather slow speed for such long distance travel, but I guess this gives me the training I'd need if I were to ride in with Dad on his Phantom at about 100km/h all the way to KL or Ipoh -_-
When we arrived there, we found out that the resort had closed and had already been converted into apartments. The Go-Kart track was still operating, but when asked when it opened, the guard told us "They want to open, they will come and open, if they don't want to open then they won't open".

Guess that's expected when you got a whole buncha muds yalam running the whole show.

Decided to turn back to Singapore. I went to Holiday Plaza with Alan, Wei Siong, Vince, Richard and ThChong. On the way there, we actually overtook the group of riders who were headed for the GP R&R who'd left a good 10 minutes ago...imagine how slowly they were going. Had a haircut, then proceeded to Beijing restaurant for a decidedly more sumptious dinner. To the tune of RM 20, I consumed dishes I found tastier and stuffed myself.

All in all, not a very exciting trip, but it's good riding experience.

Tired...must rest or I'm finished. Reservist tomorrow....