Do not stay at Apa Kaba if you dislike friendly, helpful and sincere host.

26 March 2012

Did a short ride to Kuantan and some other roads with Uncle Woo on a DR650 and Sam Leong’s 660 with Hock being pillion on Sam and sometimes, Uncle Woo. This was a very rare occasion where Samantha didn’t join us. So, I could ride Hope Too to feel the actual weight.

It was an early Sunday Ride at 7am. While we rode through Kota Tinggi, we could feel the cool cloud among us, creating a little dew.

Michael Soh went 1 day ahead of us with his girlfriend.

Gambang Resort City is a nice place to bring your kids to enjoy. A few good man like us enjoyed the companionship and laughter of the ride.

http://www.bgrc.com.my/home.php

4 of us, sharing 1 unit of 2 rooms, a living room and a small kitchen is RM$428.00. Bike parking below the apartment and it is out of our sight.

N 03°42.260’

E103° 02.926’

Buffet breakfast included. Free WIFI at lounge.

27 March 2012

Country road ride: instead of going south back home, we rode some country road and went north, to a famous Indian temple at Maran.

The Sri Marathandavar Thevalaya Temple is 120 years old ad is one of the holiest pilgrimage sites for Malaysian Hindus.

N03° 42.087’

E102° 39.254’

Road leading to the temple is curve but cool as it is shade with trees. This is the region where it is next to the world oldest tropical rain forest that aged 130 million years.

If you are late, Jerantut will be a good town to stop for lunch and topping up.

Good pork rice lunch at:

N 03° 56.398’

E102° 21.904’

Since we had late breakfast, we rode to the ferry point at Kuala Tembeling, where you would witness tourist with trolley luggage come in buses to be boat over to the resort in Taman Negera. This stop, is one of the very rare places in Malaysia where toilet would cost RM0.50.

N04° 04.304’

E102° 18.531’

The road leading to Kuala Tembeling is a roller coaster ride. Believe it or not, I would rate this road as the most fun road in Malaysia.

Our late lunch at Bentong was simple. Bentong is so much of a typical Chinese dominated town with lots of activities and good food, if you know how to find.

Lunch point:

N03° 31.346’

E101°54.462’

The Karak highway to the east is fun towards Temeloh. We exited Temeloh, got our last fuel served and rode south into a deserted and sharp road. To Teriang, to Bahau, Gemas, Segamat, then Yong Peng. Looking at the map, Temeloh to Bahau looks short but the windy road had given us extra time to play.

2 weeks later, 3^rd March, we went for the Gunang Ledang ride with the Storm Riders.

http://singaporedream-rtw.blogspot.com/2012/03/storm-riders-singapore.html

Then, Jannick (pronounced as Ya-Nick), came to Singapore and stayed for us for some days. After he was done, we made a short ride together with Cherie, Richard, Juvena, Samantha and me to Malacca. That was 2 weeks after the Storm Rider’s ride. We took the trunk road from Kulai to Yong Peng, to Labis, Then to Tangkak. The route from Labis to Tangkak was nice. When we reached Tangkak, it was already dark and was raining. We decided to abandon the trunk road plan and rode fast to Malacca where we stayed in the cosy place: Apa Kaba.

3 person in 1 room: rm$54.00 with breakfast included!

Kenny, the owner of Apa Kaba had this idea of homestay and converted part of his property into a guest house cum hostel. He made a little space in the garden where guest could sit at the sofa and read.

In the morning, we will be greeted many times by 3 ducks as these ducks are doing their daily chores.

1) Do not stay at Apa Kaba if you do not want the host to take care of your motorbike.

When we parked our bike and took our shower, while waiting for the taxi to come, he came out with 5 pieces of cardboard and tiles and place them on the seat of the bike, ensuring that his cat will not mistaken that your motorbike seat as a new bed.

2) Do not stay at Apa Kaba if you dislike friendly, helpful and sincere host.

3) Do not stay at Apa Kaba if you love party and drunk people in the guest house during sleeping hour.

4) Do not stay at Apa Kaba if you don’t like nature and the real traditional Malacca house.

5) Do not stay at Apa Kaba if you don’t want special discount if you bring your own tent to camp at the beautiful garden.

Apa Kaba

N02°11.518’

E102°15.234’

We didn’t went to Jonker’s for dinner. Instead, we went to Papa Joe’s. His restaurant was close but he allow us to order from his neighbour and dine at his place. The Portuguese Malaccan seafood dinner was not expensive and fresh!

As usual, chilling around the bar with Joe ended up with so much malt juice. Ask our friends, it is the best beer around the region.

A week later, we left our bike in Singapore and took a ferry to Batam in Indonesia with Gael and Cheryl for a touristy 2 days 1 night trip.

So much things to do!

All photos of Apa Kaba homestay are from Juvena Huang Huilin.

Apa Kaba Guest house

No.28 Kampung Banda Kaba, 75000 Melaka.

+6062838196

+60127981232 mobile

apakaba28@gmail.com

Are you riding or driving into Singapore?

'But I was surprised a modern country did not have all the facilities for filling out forms at the border,' he said.

Swiss adventurer, 39, messed up his paperwork and was stuck at Woodlands Checkpoint for several hours. Mr Baumann did not have two documents needed to bring his Swiss-registered car in.

One was an International Circulation Permit (ICP) from the Automobile Association Of Singapore (AAS).

The other problem was his car insurance. He was told that he had to get insurance from a local company.

http://www.asiaone.com/Motoring/Drivers/Story/A1Story20090831-164759.html

How to drive into Singapore? what are the rules and red tape and documents?

http://www.aas.com.sg/?show=content&showview=8&val=138

But why Automobile Association of Singapore (AAS) is the issuing authority? It should be LTA or the Customs. because AAS is an official association in Singapore in the AIT/FIA Customs Documents Network.

Armoured vehicles, camper vans, caravan trailers and mini buses with cooking and sleeping facilities are NOT allowed into Singapore.

1) get your documents ready.

2) park you vehicle in malaysia and walk or take other local transport to:

Automobile Association of Singapore at River Valley road, to purchase an

INTERNATIONAL CIRCULATION PERMIT

don't forget to purchase

Autopass and insurance coverage.

3) go back to malaysia and drive your vehicle in and with the carnet, vehicle registration card/book, valid insurance for singapore, autopass, International circulation permit and all papers.... drive in, pay, pay, pay, pay and stamp, stamp, stamp and wait, wait, wait and repeat this cycle for a few times and...

welcome to Singapore!

so, you see, we do not meet much travellers around the world in Singapore.

But there is a motorcyclist name Yarat, he came in and went to a busy street in Singapore, park his bike there and show everyone his bike and his trip. well, he got some money from Singaporeans for goodwill and well wish. where all these money goes? i guess Yarat need to invest in paying the customs, Automobile association of Singapore, Insurance company, cash card, just to ride into Singapore for us to see and for him to experience. So, the maths equation is, we pay the authority to let him in.

http://www.lta.gov.sg/content/lta/en/motoring/driving_into_outofsingapore/other_foreign_registeredvehiclesoutsidewest-malaysianregisteredv.html?parent=other_foreign_registeredvehiclesoutsidewest-malaysianregisteredv&child=&root=driving_into_outofsingapore&rootFlag=block&parentFlag=none#Document_Chk_list

Storm Riders Singapore

3rd March 2012, Storm Riders Singapore held their Annual General Meeting at Gunung Ledang, Malaysia. We were hesitated to go due to the work commitment and the condition of Hope Too. Sam and I seldom join organized group for riding. In the end, we give it a try. The only contact we have with Storm Riders is Steve Chia.

Meeting time was very easy. we could sleep till our normal hours and wake up. We found out that the packing procudure was tedious. packing for a 2 days trip is almost the same as for 2 weeks trip.

There were marshall briefing before setting off and they reminded us not to speed because there is a police road block within few kilometers.

The convoy of about 50 went slow and reached the police road block. Everyone went smoothly and the police put out his hands and fingers, pointing at me! Hope Too can't travel more than 110km/hr (the Malaysian highway speed limit) and I was thinking, why me? Hope Too was the only bike that got stopped out of the 50.

3 policemen came over and spoke to me in a warning tone:

WHERE IS YOUR FRONT NUMBER PLATE? HOW IS MY CAMERA GOING TO TAKE PHOTO OF YOUR BIKE NUMBER? THIS IS MALAYSIA, NOT SINGAPORE.

I pointed out at the 'spare' numbers I had at the front fork. The policeman says it's not acceptable. The camera can't capture the image.

YOU TELL ME HOW? THIS IS MALAYSIA.

he looked furious.

Situation control:

1) has to give him lots of respect because he is the authority and we are in his country.

2) identify and admit the problem with sincerity.

3) provide solution for him.

4) be friendly.

Because i just changed Hope Too's front windscreen, i forgot to fix the metal number plate and luckily it is in the box. I took it out and fix it.

While fixing, they scanned my bike and seeing some signatures.

He pointed out one of them and asked who is this and I replied: that is my president, my president of Singapore's signature. you don't know him?

He walked away.

After fixing the number on the bike, they didn't seemed to bother talking to me anymore. So we rode off.

The rest of the convoy rode at their normal speed but Hope Too was coughing and sweating if he is going above 100km/hr. So we were the last bike to reach the next meet up lunch point, Pagoh.

When we reached Pagoh, the hardworking marshall were waiting for us at the point of entry under the hot sun. they were very patient.

While we were having lunch, someone tried to break the car door of one of the member's. it was noon time, bright daylight, the police beat is just about 10 meters away and yet, it happened. The Northsouth Highway's R&R is a dangerous place. that is where our Hope was lost before the trip. it's actually risky to park the vehicle and walk up to the eatery with out able to view at your own vehicle.

the ride continues to Tangkat exit where we regroup and ride into the resort with local police escort. The traffic police of Malaysia stopped every vehicle that is coming into our way and made them stop aside. We may have caused a little congestion in the town. Hope Too told me that he overheard other vehicles that were being stopped complained about us. I wonder if the Malaysian bikers were to come to Singapore and we can organize our traffic police is able to do the same.

Gunung Ledang is the highest mountain in Johor State.

The trees here are massive, hugh, straight and stout!

One tree can support many life form. If we cut or remove a tree, it is the same as demolishing the house of many friends out there.

can u see the leech?

We met many old and new friends on this short trip. Some of them were facebook friends that we have not met before. Some were veteran bikers that had venture South East Asia when I was still learning how to ride a bicycle. Mr Loh was telling me of his epic journey in 1985 where he rode to Golden Triangle, Thailand. Also, Anthony, that we met via facebook. I was so glad to see Our Motorcycle Diaries sticker on his bike.

good camera to spot the adam's apple on the performing ladies.

Previous president of Storm Rider did a good job. He sung 'My Way', it's a simple song but heavy lyrics.

Bikes, friends, beer and sexy ladies always made a good combination.

and we started with one beer,

Singha beer complimentary from Mr Loh.

continued with some beers.

ended up with .....

and

Next day, we went to Malacca for a cold desert..

It is actually our 6th year wedding anniversary trip.