Day 2 - Cameron, Gerik, Kota Bahru

Day 2

I woke up at 7.30am as planned. Check out the room at 8am. Discovered that I couldn't start my bike at all. I thought it was the cold air..wah..so cold until cannot start..Bandits are known to be cold-blooded machine and difficult to start up in cold climate. I pushed the choke to the opposite direction "ON" and hey the bike can start. After a while, I decided it is warm enough but the bike die immediately when I push back to normal position. So I just ride with the choke "ON" to the nearest petrol station. There, I checked my oil level and discovered it was not visible through the view glass. I thought that was the problem. No oil so cannot start. Never mind, but 2 bottle of mineral engine oil and top up. Okay...still cannot start....Hmm....not oil problem so must be carburetor problem lor, since with choke can idle steady and without choke cannot. Never mind, play with the idle setting to raise the rpm so no need use choke. Also cannot. Heck lah, I am not going to waste time resolving this problem here...Since can move then ride with choke ON lor until reach destination then settle again. Later I stuck whole day here even worse. Throughout the journey I attempted to OFF the choke but failed. Bike will stalled at low speed. Aiya bo pian, ride like that lor.

And the best part, when I came back Singapore and go bikeshop change oil (I top up with mineral oil at Cameron remember?), I asked the owner to check for me. He take a look and scolded me

"With choke ON when engine hot of cos bike die lah!".
"No..no.. I ride whole day no problem, next day must turn to opposite direction then can start"
"You go check other Suzuki bike, choke off position is like that!"
"what liew!! So I been thinking my choke position is ON when actually its OFF ah?!"
"Ya lah, someone must had played with your choke. Or you go up Cameron corner left & right until gong liao, choke position also forget"
"How I know mah...I never need to use choke to warm up so if I turn to opposite must be ON lor!"

I was so embarrassed there. I had been thinking that my choke position is at ON throughout the journey. Must be someone played with my bike when I parked it infront of the Pub that night. Ride for so many years, choke ON what position also forget....! si bei malu sia!

Back to the ride. When I started going off it was 9am and very cold and foggy around the town. You can see the fog covering some parts of the buildings.

As I go further down it starts to get warmer. Simpang Pulai corners are more gentle and wide compared to the old Cameron road I went up. You can go at higher speed through these corners and road shoulder is wide enough to stop and take pictures. The view here is not much differences from the other side. I prefer the old Cameron route to the new one as I am more comfortable with low speed of 50, 60kmh as I got time to think about the corners. My reactions are not that fast at high speed.

My route takes me to Kellie's Castle, somewhere on the outskirts of Ipoh. Did not go in, go there look see look see burn petrol...haha...isn't that the purpose of this trip?

http://www.cameron-highland-destination.com/highlands-kellies-castle.html

After this, I went to the temples near the Pamelo stalls. There was a stretch of temples along this route. One of them is built within the limestone caves. I climbed up a long staircase to reach the highest point in the temple for the external view. Got to go pass a short stretch where there is no light, used my phone's light to shine the way. Kind of scary going alone. Heard that there is another one in Ipoh outskirts that can also climb up and look out. In this temple, there are alot of monkeys, duno whether wild from the limestone hills or keep by the temple. The next temple is supposed to have alot of turtle but I couldn't find any. Not sure if I had went to the wrong place.

Morning exercise...

Lots of golden luohans in the pond.

Monkeys! Tourist feeding them with peanuts.

After exiting from the temples is the stretch of Pamelo stalls and a BIG pamelo.

Bridge that I crossed leading to K. Kangsar town

Clock tower in k. kangsar. Kota Bahru has alot of clock tower at junctions too.

I went on to Kuala Kangsar where I wanted to visit the Mosque Ubudiah. It was inside the Kangsar town, which without the GPS I would not had gone in. The mosque was very beautiful and majestic, golden in colour. From the internet, I know they allow visitors and the internal is supposed to be very beautifully fitted. I went there and tried to talk to a malay ice-cream seller and his customers. But they couldn't understand english and I couldn't speak malay. So I didn't dare go in until I saw a malay couple taking photos inside the compound.

Si bei swee right?! with my camera phone also can come out such nice picture or maybe my phone / skill is good....hahaha!!

Unfortunately, I reached at 12.40pm and visiting hours are over.

I continued further down to Palace Bukit Chandan. There seems to be some event going on. I saw a green & beach colour military (maybe private too) helicopter in the field outside the palace. There were many malay people dressed in gold and black colour. Even their wives are dressed similarly. I supposed they just finished some sort of meeting or what. The entrance guards waved me away, not to stop there and after I moved further down and stopped, I saw police escorts on motorbike and car. The guards lined up and saluate the outgoing car and played a short farewell note on their horns. I wonder if I had not moved away what would happened if I take a picture there.....keke.. I tried to catch them on the other way but the convoy had disappeared. Maybe went back to the Istana further up near Mosque Ubudiah.

I guess this is the VIP car being escorted...

Next, I continued on to Gerik Highway. I could't find the big GERIK sign along the whole route 4, suspected to be at the Gerik town which I did not go in. Along Gerik Highway, the scenery is very beautiful. The roads are also wide and long enough for high speeding corner. I didn't stop much along the way except to take pictures. I saw alot of the elephant & cow crossing signs but did not encounter any animals. However, along Terengganu I saw cows and goats walking across the road like they own the road. Even saw a horse sign and SAW the horse but was shy to go back and take pictures. Wait the malaysian thought singaporean so stupid never see horse before must take pictures.

I stopped at Petronas and take my first drink and my "livita" of the day. I had been pumping and go and visiting the various places that I forget to stop for a drink. When you are dehydrated, you get restless and cannot concentrate on riding. You just want to rush through everything.

After I left the petrol station, I saw 2 Singapore bikes along the route, a Suzuki GSXR and a red bike which I think is a VFR. They zoomed passed me and I could only get a short look at the red bike that it is a FW plate. Much further down the road I saw another 2 bikes, not sure same group as they are going even faster that I couldn't see what plate.

GPS showing the estimated time of arrival. Quite accurate right?

My destination is Petronas Bukit Bung where I would decide where to stay for the night depending on what time I arrived. I passed by the turn off to the Thailand custom, as usual go too fast to stop, before reaching the petrol station.

At the station, I pumped and had my usual "livita" and a drink. A malaysian driver asked me where I was from in malay. I can only catch "....singaporean....*nod my head*....satu orang...*nod my head again*..." There was an interesting episode which I failed to captured. A horny cock (I mean the feather type) was chasing this poor white hen around the station. The white hen was flying up everywhere even my handlebar to escape the horny cock. The cock managed to catch the hen 3 times and sit on her before having his way with her. By the time I take out my phone, he had finished (that was fast) ..After that he was no more interested in the white hen.

wah seh...almost all the way leh...proof that Cameron's twistys are fun!

Dun play play hor....

I checked my tyres and I think my bike had fun playing corners too. I had just changed to R1 tyres (190 rear). Very good for cornering. By the way, I had thought of a new name for her(bike), Princess Darkness. Can call her Princess or Darkness (sound like your highness...keke). Initally I wanted to call her balck beauty as it the story book. My bikes are all female, so all can be my partners in crime...haha...previously all are known as Silver cos silver colour but this one is different.

I took a walk around the petrol stall visiting the roadside stalls. Even though it was only 4pm, I decided to stayover at Kota Bahru as I think it is more interesting than Penarik. Penarik offers the fireflies and fishing vilage. I just had to take longer time to reach Singapore from Kota Bahru.

My route to Kota Bahru is routed to pass through the Thai temples in the area. Along the way, I saw alot of muddy fields. Later I suspected that they could be padi / rice fields as I saw a sorting machine used to collect the rice grains (forget the correct name). I was too far from the field edge to get a sample to verify. I couldn't find the Wat Pothaluh temple with the 24m sleeping Buddha (I went back the next day and found it). I found the other Thai temple with the huge sitting Buddha. The amosphere in the temple is like you had reached Thailand.

I proceed to Kota Bahru as it was already 5.45pm. Following the GPS, I arrived at Suria Court, somewhere around the town but not exactly central area. There was no private carpark at the hotel. There was an open carpark with coin operated machine and timer. I was lazy to search around for one with carpark so I just park somewhere across the hotel. The hotel was full and happened that I saw the KB Backpacker Hotel sign at the same building. Lonely planet highly recommended this place for backpackers as a low budget hostel. I chin cai one, got room can liao. I got a single room at RM15 (so cheap!). The room comes with a fan and bed and dressing table. There are available aircon rooms but all had to share the bathroom. It was difficult to bath as there was no hanger of any sort to hang anything. So i just place everything on the floor and hang the clothes where ever I can find a place.

As I was going out to look for dinner, one of the 2 operators of the backpacker hotel, Bob stopped me and asked where I was going. I told him I was looking for dinner and any recommendations. He said he haven had dinner so we can go dinner together. I was fine with that since if not I would just package back to eat in the room. As we chat while waiting for his friend to come back and take over the counter, I found out that he used to ride too. He was waiting to take over a BMW GS1100 from his German friend who imported in the bike to Malaysia. He has riding friends from Kuantan group and used to go touring before he had an accident.

He brought me to this Swedish place which was opened by his female friend whose boyfriend is a malay. It was a very nice and cosy place, something like a homely sort of Pub. I found out more that Bob was of Portagese origins and he is half-chinese (mum is a chinese muslim, grandpa was chinese). No wonder he has such nice eyes and fair skin. I recalled that one of my malay friend whose mum is chinese also look like that, fair skin and big round eyes and plump features. Don't worry, Im not interested....haha..

After we finished dinner, as we were leaving, a group of malay men enter the place and sit infront of the cable TV. They took out notebooks and started calling their phones and making notes. I think they are the malaysian bookies and Bob confirmed so. They were quite obvious in their actions, and lady boss take it that nothing happening; or she can't do anything.

I wanted to walk around as it was still early. Bob decided to show me the night market nearby. I had wanted to explore on my own but did not know how to reject his kind offer. As we walked around the stalls, I found that I seems to be the only chinese around. I asked Bob and he replied that the chinatown of Kota Bahru is somewhere away from here. I think thats why he wanted to accompany me around. The night market was very near our place. It looks like the night stalls that JB used to have at the open drain after the rows of money changers. Daytime was carpark area and night is all the movable hawker stalls. All the stalls sold muslim food and each stall comes with a TV to attract customers. They were showing either the malaysian football or the malaysia idol show. We sit and talk for a while with his friend. After that I went back to my room to take notes. Halfway through I think I fall asleep. Later Bob told me that 2 of his kuantan riding friends rode pass and U-turn to inspect my bike parked at the open carpark among the honda cubs. Too bad I had slept liao.