Day 1 – SIN to Jeli (Kelantan)

6.30am, feeding mossies at Tampines Stadium carpark. “Where is the driver!” Collin was late. He looked like he just woke up. Along TPE, Val called LCT on where the heck we were and LCT told her: “5 mins more, we are reaching…” “What!” I looked at him like hey-we-just-board-the-van. -.-

Arriving at Jalan Kayu and Val stood there in matching colors of red, white and black, same as her bike. Ooh, you are using 1.25” tyres? “I figured that I rather trade comfort than speed after digesting what LCT said yesterday.” Oh great, now I have the fattest 1.6” slicks among them. :) Noise level increased when we picked up Michelle & Sok Hui (SH) at Kranji and off we go! For breakfast!

Loading up the bikes

Surprisingly there was no jam at the causeway and we broke free heading to our Pelangi Tim-Sum breakie! Yah, even the driver was hungry. But the standard felt like it dropped a little bit. With our stomach full, we set off the long distance drive up to Kelantan. Collin brought up a small LCD screen and DVDs much to our delight and we watch 2 movies in a row. A few hours passed and we reached Tangkak to buy our chicken rice lunch. Stopped at a toll-station canteen to eat what we bought, that was where we saw the infamous Kajang satay that we failed to eat the other time during our PCC ride. The carnivorous decided to buy the rabbit meat satay much to my disgust! They ate it anyway. -.-

Tim Sum breakfast!

Smiling faces due to heavy breakfast

The journey continued and we got lost in the outskirt of Ipoh for a while. We even went into the police station to ask for directions. It’s lucky Mich could speak Malayu. Manage to find our way thru’ and from here on, the road started to get winding. Soon enough our ears started popping and I became partially deaf. “We reached high altitude. It could be 1000m already” exclaimed LCT holding up a bloated pack of chips as his indicator. The rain came on and off, and it was getting colder outside that we switch off the air-con and enjoyed the cool breeze. What can I say, the view was just spectacular as we approached Cameron Highlands. “I’m going at 110km/hr down on free wheel!” Collin yelled from the driver seat. The ladies all went: “Ooooh…”

View from the van along Cameron Highlands

The road is still winding until the sky turns dark. We drove past Dabong. “Wah! Dabong! Stong! So far already!” exclaimed Michelle. The kampong small road was extremely dark when suddenly we saw 2 headlights coming head on against our van! For a moment, all our hearts went into our mouths! Luckily nothing happened as the other vehicle managed to swerve back to his rightfully lane. Phew! The journey to Gua Musang was long, so long until Collin grumbled: “Daddy, 到了没有.” We finally found a Chinese restaurant and had our dinner. The carnivorous attacked again. This time round they had wild boar meat, much to my extreme disgust! -.-

We couldn’t find the location of our Jeli guesthouse. Asked a few villagers there and they gave different directions. After about 5km of searching, we found a rest inn. One kind villager followed our van all the way to the rest house to ensure we got to our destinated place. How nice of him. The guesthouse was non-aircon but it was clean and simple. I lamented that there was no hot water for shower, but turned out the water from the tap was good enough for a night bath. Meanwhile at the other room, Mich told Collin his turn to bathe, his reply: “"我可不可以不要冲凉, zzzzz.”