Memoir of Malaya Tour

Day #1 – The journey begins…..

(Subang ~ Kuala Pilah, 125km )

I woke up at 6.00am tho I slept quite late last nite. Perhaps the excitement in me about starting this journey that avoiding my eyes to shut and letting me to enjoy my bed like normal ordinary night… After watching Expendables at 3.00am, I forced myself to sleep or otherwise I’m gonna easily feel tired & sleepy on my first day of riding…

rain..rain... go away, come again another day....

Soon after I took my bath, I heard my phone ringing and I knew that it is Bro Jontrow who is calling me. Time was about 6.30am and I expected Jontrow is ready on his bike to push off and meet me at my house in Subang.

“Bro, it’s raining heavily lah at my house….. I’ll be arriving late till the rains stop. U okay?”..

ahh, this is not good as it will delay our plan .. anyway, I told Jontrow that we are not rushing for anything and he can wait. Meanwhile, it gave me sometimes to prepare my things and load into the saddlebag as I was so lazy to do it last nite…..

me & Jontrow before the push off...

Preparation

I didn’t pack many items for this trip as I’ve told Jontrow that we will travel light. Apart from what I’m wearing that morning, I’ve one extra pair of jeans, three SeDARAH t-shirt, a pair of clean socks, 3 pair of boxes for 4 days trip, one sarung for prayer, two pieces headgears, one face towel, a small bag to keep all the charging device, one small laptop & two cameras… yup, that’s my “light” list which later piss Jontrow off when he knew I brought some spare clothing… kekeke.. sorry Bro.


Done with my packing, I rest a while when later I saw the weather starting to drizzling at my house area.. Didn’t take much long time, the drizzling rain turn into heavy downpour and by that time I knew that our journey gonna be lots of challenge & fun.

Rain or Shine

Waited for more than 2 hours, finally Jontrow reached at my house at 9.00am half soaked… looking at the weather that still raining, we knew we can’t wait any longer. After a glass of water, I slowly pushed my Ultra from the garage and warm the engine immediately.

“This is it Bro.. screw it, ignore the rain and lets ride!”…. I said to Jontrow and we were ready to push off. Give a BIG hug to my wife, Azu and without further delay, we pushed off to USJ 21 in heavy cold morning rain..

Jontrow standing tall...lol!

The traffic was quite heavy this morning, perhaps due to the rain and we stopped at the Petronas station in USJ 20 to fuel up our bike. I spent about RM19.00 for this first fuel up and same goes to Jontrow, I set my odometer to log on the mileage.

We left USJ few minutes later and heading to Puchong before using the Silk Highway to Kajang. We could go straight from Subang to Senawang via ELITE Highway and much easier, but I told Jontrow that I rather not to choose LEKAS Highway to Seremban and it’s good for us to try new route rather the one we used to. Jontrow agreed and he later led the way to LEKAS Highway.

Sportster 1200 spoted on LEKAS Highway

We reached LEKAS Highway in 30 minutes from Puchong and we stopped a while to take some shots at the road signage. It was still raining by that time but traffic was much better on the highway as not many vehicles were using the highway neither to Seremban nor KL. I took some shots while riding as Jontrow was enjoying the new tarmac on the highway. His Sportster 1200 Custom looks good and I’m confident that he’ll make thru this journey. Only that he may be a lil bit tired due to the wind resistance and more wet compared than me as I could hide behind the fairing in raining.

self photograph on LEKAS Highway

Weather had become much better as we reached Nilai / Pajam exit, the rain has stopped and the view was exquisite. We enjoyed most of the scenery along the way as the highway passed through the oil palm estate & village houses. The route was pretty high and low and winded, not all the way straight or else it could be a boring ride. However, we didn’t get much opportunity of the good weather as it was raining again as soon we reached Senawang and exit to Kuala Pilah highway.

Rain…rain… and rain….

The rain became heavier as we entered Senawang ~ Kuala Pilah highway. Apart from the heavy rain, we are still considered lucky as the new highway is much better way heading to Kuala Pilah instead using the old trunk road. By avoiding the old road which we had to pass through Bukit Putus and rode along narrow & winding, we saved our precious time on the new highway and even safer to travel. I remembered during the school days when we were using the old road to travel from Kuala Pilah to Seremban for our rugby tournament, it always a terrifying experience to travel on that road. Now after more 20 years, things have changed and getting better…. In other words, there’s no excuse for us to travel within Malaysia!


The Bukit Putus Highway has ended fast as we approached Ulu Bendol Recreation Park and we were riding back to the old trunk road again. However, not far from Ulu Bendol we reached at the entrance of Sri Menanti, the royal town State of Negeri Sembilan. Besides taking few shots for our tour album, we made a detour to this small town to experience the significant and breathtaking view of Sri Menanti's Palace.

SeDARAH wuz ere - Old Palace of Seri Menanti, N.9

Heavy rain once again welcomed us in Sri Menanti. We didn’t spend much time at this ancient place due to the weather and after a few snaps of us, our bikes and the palace we were back onto our saddle and rode heading to Kuala Pilah town.


Back to Memory Lane – Pt 1

From Sri Menanti town, we rode straight to Gentam, as I’ve plan to pay a visit to Tunku Jaafar Science School, my old school. After more than 20 years I’ve not been back to the school and it gave me kind of mixed feelings as I reached at the school's gate.


Old memories started to come across and fill up my head as I look around the school area. There were so much changes happening in the school. From the entrance, the school buildings look neat & newly painted with few additional buildings around the school area. I shared some stories with Jontrow on how much time I spent on the field rather in the class by playing rugby during my study times. The field is now bigger and greener than before. I went to the hall, my hideout place where I spent the last 2 months before SPM by studying alone, away from my classmates.


While goin around the school area, suddenly a lady approached us and invited us to the school office. I later knew that the lady is the current Principal of the school. We chat a while about my school days with her, take few shots in her room and once done, we continued to walk around the school area. We spent almost an hour in the school before I told Jontrow to make a move and stop by for a brunch at one of the food stall in front of the school.


Thank you STJ for being a great place for me to learn and become a person. I learnt a lot while studying in this school and it was a great opportunity to be back and see the place that have made me – THE AWESOME ME! (hehehe perasan....)

It was then 12.00pm, too late for brunch hence we took our lunch at one of the stall facing the school field. While eating, we met with one old man asking about us and the bikes. We told him bout the journey we just started and surprisingly he too has his own experienced during his younger days. He shared his story that he once rode to Penang from Kuala Pilah with his Lambretta in 1963 to attend the Scout program. We chat bout bikes, the road conditions our riding plan & our next pit stops and what we plan to do along our journey. It was a great opportunity for us to meet the old man and share with him a lot of stories.


His amazing experiences make us later realized that, if he could travel on bike in those early years with more challenges and shortfalls…. there should be nothing is impossible for us not to complete our journey as what we have planned earlier……. Lets Ride...!!!