Ride to eat or eat to ride...

Ride to eat or eat to ride, now that is the question...

On this day, the boys and girls from the Multistrada Owners Club Malaysia (or MOCM for short) and I chose "ride to eat"..hahaha. It was totally an ad-hoc trip and the destination was set to Leban Chondong Rest Area in Kuala Rompin, Pahang for its famous udang galah (lobsters). 

Source: Perpustakaan Desa Leban Chondong

Leban Chondong is situated in the State of Pahang within the District of Rompin, east coast of Peninsula Malaysia. Population is very small and the main industry here is fishing hence, it's famous for cheap and tasty udang galah. Some say, it is cheaper then another udang galah place in Temerloh. In fact, it is very famous hence the people there erected an udang galah statue.

Source: satuperlumbaan.blogspot.com

So, on 27th Apr morning, 16 riders (20 pax altogether including pillions) gathered and the route was set as KL-Senawang-Jempol-Kuala Rompin.

The weather was fine and dry. We pushed off roughly around 0930hrs from Kuala Lumpur and reached Jempol at about 1100hrs to refuel and took a short break. 

These inner roads were great and I was amazed by the good road condition. Jempol is about 150km away from Kuala Rompin so we took at least another hour to reach the Leban Chondong Rest Area. We were so ready to eat!

There are variety of other food here but the main highlight of this ride was the udang galah..!

At least one or two other shops were closed and compared to the number of patrons, the shop we were at didn't have enough udang galah for us. So we had to wait......but, i guess "good things come to those who wait"..our orders started to come one-by-one. There was sotong (squid), vegetables (ordered out of guild), fish, and of course...three types of udang galah...i) udang masak sambal (cooked with chilli paste, the best out of the three, if you like hot food), ii) udang galah goreng kunyit (marinated with tumeric then fried), and iii) udang galah masak lemak (don't know how to translate..hehe). Everyone had one udang each and I must say that I highly recommend this place if you are looking for food awesomeness! (of course, if you don't mind the distance)

Pic by MOCM ~ the waterface says it all

Superbly awesome may sound exaggerated...but that was how we felt after whacking all the udang... Chit chatting continued and suddenly popped an idea to ride to Kuantan, Pahang to one of our friend's restaurant. But before that, one photo please!

stomachs full, happy faces

Oh...while we're at it...make it two photos please..!

the dudes...

So off we went to Kuantan, approximately 140km away. We were on Route 3, a coastal federal road with many scenic spots and photo opps. No, we didn't stop at all, what a waste. So, if you ever go on this road, keep in mind to stop for photos and let us be jealous of you.

It took us about 1.5 hours (1530hrs) to reach Warung Mazenah Nasi Kukus in Kuantan.

This restaurant is another place where you can find awesome food. Really! What you really2 have to try are nasi kukus (steamed rice) with tumeric fried chicken and gulai kawah, meehoon soup, and the pudding truffle. Kudos to the owners and chefs! (Note to owners: Let me know if you want to setup a branch in Kuala Lumpur..hehe)

At 1700hrs, it was time to head home. Feeling stuffed but the journey had to go on. Slowly but steadily we rode off and got on Route E8 to Kuala Lumpur.

It was raining half way through but nobody seemed to care. By the time we got on Karak Highway it was already dark and the trafic was quite heavy. We reached Gombak toll plaza at about 2000hrs where we took a break before bidding farewell to each other.

never too tired to put up a smile

The Strada Ladies

We clocked yet another 750km, buttocks got numb, exhausted, but it was an awesome ride, yet!

Winding roads, amazing sceneries, superbly awesome food, and great and supportive company. It's just another ride to remember. The udang galah at Leban Chongdong was awesome and cheap. Warung Mazenah Nasi Kukus in Kuantan is also a must visit restaurant if you happened to be in Kuantan, or...even if you just want to take a makan trip like we did. The next obvious question would be....WHERE NEXT, GUYS!?

Where are u...

(Pic Source: thestar.com.my)

I am sadden by the news of the missing Malaysian Airlines aircraft MH370 on 7th March 2014 which until now still have no confirm report on the fate of the crew and passengers on board. A lot of speculations and assumptions have been made by self-declared aviation specialists which I think can only make matters worst.  Notwithstanding, the relevant parties to the Airlines should also answer all questions properly and professionally and not to leave any question hanging or give an open-ended answer. This will invite more and more unhealthy assumptions. These "specialists" should also be sensitive to the families of the crew and passengers.

I pray for the safety of MH370. Really hope that they are alive and surviving somewhere and may God steer away all misfortune.

Mandarin Ride...

Ride to Malacca, done it a few times already.....ride to Port Dickson...mmm..nothing much to do there...breakfast at Karak...what's new....how about...RIDE AROUND PENINSULA MALAYSIA?? Yeah! Lets!

30 Jan 2014 is the date, me and 6 other friends set to start the new year to ride around the Peninsula Malaysia. First,  we are going to head south to Johor Bahru then we are going to take the east coast routes to Kuala Terengganu and lastly to cross west via Kelantan to Ipoh, Perak before heading home to Kuala Lumpur. We gave a name to this ride... "Mandarin Ride'...why? First, it was because the dates were on Chinese New Year....secondly, that's the only name we could think of! (hahaha)

Day 1, KL-Port Dickson-Melaka-Muar-Tg Piai-Johor Bahru.

After a quick breakfast, we rolled out at 8.30am from Dengkil rest area, we set to Port Dickson via Sepang. We used the inner ring roads just to make it less boring compared to going on highways. Inner roads bring more action and more places to swing by and visit.

It took us roughly around 45 minutes to reach our first stop, Port Dickson (PD). We didn't do much here, just stop by the beach and took some photos. PD is the closest nice beach town from Kuala Lumpur so on most weekends, this place is pretty crowded. Although, it's too bad to see abandoned buildings/projects that became an eyesaw to tourists.

After Port Dickson, we continued our journey to Tanjung Piai in Johor. It is the southernmost tip of the Asia continent. From the ticket counter, one has to walk about 1.5km through a reserve forest to get to the tip.

Next we headed to our homestay in Johor Bahru where we were going to spend the nite. It was a double-storey house with 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms and it was all for MYR250 per nite. Cheap, huh?!

We had our dinner at a restaurant called Salsabilah in Johor Bahru. There we met a group of friends from the Johor Ducati Riders Club and also the Ducati Club Singapore . It was great to meet the guys!

Day 2, the ride continued on to Kuala Terengganu. From Johor Bahru we took da east coast routes via Mersing-Rompin-Pekan-Dungun-Kuala Terengganu. And of course, we stopped at every photo-opp there was!

We reached Kuala Terengganu quite late, around 11.30pm and we were greeted by fellow biker from the Desmo Society Terengganu (DST). They took us around for a short ride to some tourist spots and we went for a quick teh tarik. Afterwards, DST showed us the way to our homestay. This time it's a single-storey terrace house, MYR250/nite with 3 bedrooms. Each bedroom has one queen size and one single beds.

Day 3, we were set to cover about 520km that is from Kuala Terengganu(KT)-Kota Bahru-Pasir Mas-Jeli-Gerik-Kuala Kangsar-Ipoh. 

Before we left KT, one of our friends, Chaya Juhan invited us to her home for breakfast. Lots of food, small tummies to fill! Whacking is still a must!

Once done with a very good heavy breakfast, we hit the road. Thanks Chaya! All set to Kota Bahru, Kelantan before we turn towards the west side of the Peninsula. About 60km away from Kota Bahru, the traffic started to build up and it was quite massive. We had to stop for a breather.

Continuing on to Kota Bahru will be a disaster as the traffic was terrible hence, we decided to detour. So we skipped Kota Bahru and Pasir Mas and went straight to Jeli via Machang.

We stop at Jeli for a quick refuel and head straight to Banjaran Titiwangsa. The road was winding and it was awesome! However, do take note that the condition was quite bad at some parts of the road, but other than that...weeehoooo!! The scenery at the top of the Mountains was breathtaking. Loved it!

Too bad we had  a time constraint, after a few minutes we continued our journey on a yet another set of winding road leading to Banding Lake. The lake was huge. Its a dam actually. There are boathouses and some resorts in that area.

We had a good time here. Next, we moved on to Ipoh, Perak where we were going to put up the night. It took us like another two hours to reach Ipoh only to find out that there we no vacancies. Everyone was exhausted. We held ourselves together and took our dinner while searching for a hotel on the net. Finally, we found a small hotel in Chemor called, Chemor Inn. Thank God! Its a shoplot turned hotel. Comfy and the hospitality was satisfying. Once we all got our rooms....it was nappy time!

Day 4, time to go home but our expedition was far from over. From Chemor we headed to Kuala Lumpur via Batu Gajah-Teluk Intan-Kuala Kangsar. Since the distance was not too far, we took our sweet time and rolled out a little bit later than usual.

Our first stop was at Kellie's Castle , Batu Gajah, Perak. The castle was built by a British named William Kellie Smith for his lover, Agnes, in 1915.  Kellie, sadly, died during the construction period and the castle was never finished.

Next stop was at Teluk Intan, Perak and its famous leaning tower.

The tower is at the centre of Teluk Intan town and you will not miss it.

After a quick lunch, we continued to Kuala Selangor, our final destination for this expedition.  We went passed a padi field and stopped for a quick photo session.

 

The traffic to Kuala Selangor was pretty bad. Took us at least three hours and truly exhausted but the scenery revived us. We went up a historical Bukit Melawati (Melawati Hill). In its days, it was a heavily fortified stronghold and administrative centre of the Selangor Sultanate in the 18th and 19th centuries.

So..Bukit Melawati was our last destination for the ride before we parted. All of us had a great time...and we are planning to have another ride together and this time we are going to cross border to Thailand. But for now....PENINSULA MALAYSIA....CONQUERED!