Monday, March 17, 2014

20140225-20140311 exploring indochina....

our last trip was to pattaya. took sometimes to materialized this one. members in and out. finally only 5 of us. me, dato b, zack, and 2 new comers to king mat jue and pekan. again it has been delayed when chukai and kuantan were hit by the big flood end of last year. we had to postpone again. a little bit tense when we something was delay. anyway.. it was a go on the new date.

we make a move one day earlier from the original plan. the idea was to have an extra day in cambodia.

day 1- kuantan to thung song

i left home at 330 am in the morning. why??? not really can sleep that night. pekan was already somewhere in segenting kra riding. so i have to move alone from kuantan till chukai. mat jue and dato b still at home when i were in petronas jakar.


ready to rumble... only three of us from chukai. zack is on his way from the platform and waiting for us in kota bharu. anything chopper delay that morning.. we have to say good bye to zack. but alhamdulillah zack manage to touch down at 9am that morning.




 having breakfast at kak comel stall in pasir putih. rezeki dia pagi tuh.. after so many stalls mat jue stop at that one.. we had a lite breakfast before move to tasik banding waiting for zack.

our original plan was to go thru rantau panjang border since using this route can save us almost 2 hours. so while waiting for zack we decide to wait for him in banding resort. look at the view. beautiful God creation. who says malaysia do not have a beautiful route??? actually grik-jeli is one of my favorite route in malaysia. especially in the early morning. during metal butt in 2011, we ride thru this area at 3 am in the morning. have a sleep for couple of hours before we finish metal butt.




zack arrived about 1 hour later. we regroup and headed straight to sg petani to meet hj own our route advisor.
i can say we had a lunch here even we are really hungry actually.
as planned, we met hj own. he said a few words about riding in these new countries. he went to all these countries except he only went to north vietnam-sa pa. we are using different route. and we covered more than he did.

the mamak restaurant where we had a meeting.
while refueling at changlun we received a call telling us one of our good friend asmawi abu bakar passed away. we were shocked. he lived behind dato b house in binjai. it was all sudden. Al-fatihah to him. may his soul rest in peace.
the border clearance was smooth that day. we arrived in thung song around 7pm. straight to the muslim restaurant opposite of our hotel. good food. it is at the petrol station food court.

day 2- thung song to ratchaburi

we had a breakfast at the same restaurant that morning. almost the same menu.



it was cold that morning. i am worried since i do not bring water proof pants. only jeans. i said to myself if this continuing like this i will be in trouble. alhamdulillah... this condition only for like an hour and so.


only for a while. it was hot and getting hotter after that. this is what i hate about segenting kra.


look at dato b. tired he said. too hot.

our supposed to be nakhon pathom. but the gps showed us a muslim restaurant near ratchaburi. so we looked for it but we are not that lucky. it closed at 4pm. one of the owner sons' bring us to one the stall. owned by aminah. a very nice lady.


day 3- ratchaburi to siem reap
as usual we start early to finish early. we always on the bike at 6am. all riders had to adapt with our way of riding.

stopped for breakfast.


breaking up is normal especially in a heavy traffic area. we lost mat jue. just sit tide. relax.


the day was getting hotter and hotter. especially when we approaching cambodia border.




no wonder when we arrived in cambodia border it was dusty all over the place. it answered all the question why it was so hot.
we regroup with pekan here. border clearance in thai side was easy.

dato b... soon will be dato'


photo session at the cambodia border crossing.


we almost failed to enter cambodia. alhamdulillah .. god knows how it was settled.
the road from the border to siem reap was quite rough and tough. potholes everywhere. road under construction. the visibility is very low to spot the danger in front of us. we are quite late in siem reap.


token from us to the restaurant owner. i forgot the name of the restaurant. but guys... must go to this restaurant. may be because of we hungry?? hahahha


do some shopping. but dato b was flat. sleeping.


day 4- siem reap to phnom pehn

breakfast before left for PP. not bad this hotel. bed and breakfast.


we have our time at this hotel. center of the town. in front of the hotel is a shopping area. like nite market i can say. other than that of course ANGKOR WAT. dato b said siem reap is nothing without angkor wat. we went to angkor wat. good thing is we can bring our bike into the wat area. but not really into the central wat. that one you have to walk actually. we made a few round before we left for PP. for those who wants to visit here. at the ticket counter just bur the ticket and ask the permission from the authority. they will allow you to go in. 

so many temples here. small and big.


pekang aka shah rukh khang sungai isap
biasala.. mesti sengihnye hahhaha
mat juee our speaker..
blek the legend..

dato b.. coolest dato'


bravo blekki..
macho man dato b... hok ni la datin sue dok tahan sgt tgk ni


our moment here... life time ride....

5 minutes break


waiting for exting the temple area. so any vehicles and tourist. gotta take turns. tired. all muka ayu. we spend almost couple of hours i guess. we jsut riding all over the places. for the tourist you have to walk to see inside the temple.

dusty from siem reap to PP. all day long like this.



pre-arrange by our agent. halal restaurant on the way to PP. good food. i forgot the name of this place. but if you pass bye here, you will not miss. got big signage by the road side.
god knows how tough this ride was. but we enjoy it very much. very dusty. bad road surface. we have friend went to cambodia by cars. they said how can we ride in this kind of conditions.


day 5-phnom penh to gia nghia
since we enter cambodia border, we know our journey will be a tough ride. leaving pp to enter vietnam is another day ride. dirt road almost half way before arrived in xamat border vietnam.


having breakfast by the road side. our agent fauzi tapau our breakfar from pp.


take 5.. as usual. hot weather.


some house photos in cambodia.

the most exciting moment in this ride is to enter vietnam border. hahaha we manage to get thru.


on vietnam soil....



my plate number for vietnam..
the real avventure now begins hahahaha mann the road condition even thougher than cambodia.... nok nangih waseeee...

the hotel we stayed in gia nghia... power failure that night. no wifi, nothing... blep even more tension

day 6 gia nghia to kon tum
pretty cold that morning. we move as early as posibble. we had meeting with our guide every night. we were informed about the toad condition. pretty tough until we reach ho chi minh trail.

sunrise on the mountain. we were told that most of the area were planted with coffee. Vietnam is the second largest coffee producer in the world. anyway, among the best coffee i ever taste is vietnam coffee.


stopped for breakfast. tuna with french bread. fresh from oven.

bon ma thuat



we have a surprised her in kon tum. our arrival were welcome by kon tum bikers at the city entrance. about 20 various bikes waiting for us i guess.


even most of them cannot speak english but we tried hard to communicate even with sign language
hahahha this one is a bit controversial. anyhow its in kon tum to far from malaysia. if its in hatyai will be a different story hahaha.. one of the bikers family. her first kid.









we were escorted to a few tourist attractions in kon tum. thnaks to kon tum bikers. for the hospitality.



day 7-kon tum to quang tri
































day 8-quang tri to thai hoa











day 9-thai hoa to son la







































day 10- son la to dien bien phu











day 11-dien bien phu to oudomxai laos





















day 12-oudomxai to vang vieng















day 13-vang vieng to saraburi






















day 14-saraburi to prachuap khiri khan










day 15-prachuap khiri khan to hatyai









day 16-hatyai to home sweet home










Sunday, February 2, 2014

20140202 easy riding to kuala terengganu

started with kc and awin. i told pok arr if i joint i wanna bring mem along. he said ok i will bring mine hahhaha.. life is so wonderful with these guys...

pok nong my silence millionaire...
a lot of mystery behind that sun-glasses hahahha awin and kc

romantic and loving couple.. pok arr and datin akma
mama always love riding... never enough...
awin.. bring your mem next time..
most of the pictures with smiling face..
vvip cat... our ride were safe. enjoyable and memorable.. especially for the wifes.

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

20131222-20131224 exploring songkhla

year end ride..two of us. thanks to my sister for taking care of my kids. they love it so much. actually its ride to nowhere. songkhla, hatyai, ko samui blablabla endup songkhla. i told my wife thailand is overrated...
we took off at 9am after having breakfast at our regular stall near jpj. easy ride arrived in rantau panjang at 1pm. alhamdulillah, everything smooth at the border regardless of people complaining about the jpj and custom procedures in both sides.
never miss this place if using sg kolok border. lunch time in chana. on the right side to songkhla. one row of muslim restaurants. highly recommended.
reached songkhla around 4 thai time. having hard time finding this place. when i called the reception.. no english no english... halamak so how??? nengung tepi jalang la.. i dont have any gps with me except my hp. normally i use google map but this time the address is not in the google. said to myself the only way to find this place is by using tut tut hahahha here we go. luckily this place is quiet famous. dato h also said the same. he also having hard time when the address is not in the gps.
by the way, how do i know about this resort? byroadtomalaysia... hahahhah they stayed here. i follow their fb. BRTM is very interesting journey. i wish i can do the same. this resort sponsored them if i am not mistaken.
not bad. 60 bath per night. for me. just nice. no need to spend more unless you want to have sea view of course you have to stay samila beach resort or a few other big hotel by the beach.

what i can say about setting of the infra, houses, roads, hiways, more or less like u.s. may be i was wrong, but when i was travelling in the u.s this is what it look like. same goes to nz and australia.
opppppssss forgot to tell... dato h also with us but  he came with his beloved family. we stayed at the same resort. they will be off to krabi the next day. i am happy to see people spending time with family traveling. i did that sometimes domestically. insyallah i will internationally someday.
we went together looking for breakfast the next morning. went thru the town, the wet market, the streets hahahhaha my wife said busuknyeee hahahahah i told her thai is overrated in most of the cases hahahah
finally we found one goos muslim restaurant. very clean with marvelous food. located in patthalung street near the mosque. the landmark is songkhla nursing school at the junction.
very nice nasik kerabu. we spend a few times here. a lot of malaysian muslim working offshore eat here.
dato h with datin. so romantic. ahaksss
last day having breakfast before we off back home.
mam at he jetty.
we had one whole day to explore songkhla. from our hotel we rode to the other side of the river. we end up in a small fishing village ban khao. you can see this village from samila beach. majority of the community are muslim. got a few masjid and surau. jsut like kuala kemaman and tanjung api but more dirty and stinky.
view of the village from other angle.
to get to this place we can use road and ferry. the ferry connecting this village and songkhla municiple song thale park. need to pay 3 bath for the service.
full house.
posing sikek... hahahha
samila beach. tourist attraction in songkhla.. overrated hahahah kalu nok banding dengan pata malaysia jauh mbeng lawo tepak kite..
i think dragon is the legend here. the head is here. the body on the other park. and the tale somewhere on the other side of the beach.
view from samila beach resort..
centre of the park.
we went back for a rest before continuing exploring songkhla in the afternoon. feeling tired. quite hot that day in songkhla. hahahha we went to the zoo you know. my wife said why not?? hahahah i thought its only like a mini zoo in kemaman. i was wrong. its big. you can use car to go from one place to another. new experice for me. kemaman should have this since the area is big.
the zoo located on the hill. this view is from a restaurant. not only restaurant, they have a big waterpark in here. surprisingly.. a lot of malaysians hahahahahah

will come here one more time hahahahahha..... mem said why dont we go inside the uni? hahahhha i am so happy for that hahhahaah just kidding mama hahah got the other uni beside thaksin. but i did have the picture with me.


Sunday, October 27, 2013

20131025 meng finally back to sportbike...


meng back to sportbike. he is the sportman. enjoy watching and washing his bike actually. anyway meng, asal kau bahagia. we always pray for your happiness meng. i went to chukai with my wife just killing the time waiting for our kids got home from school.

just arrived. ducati panagale(sorry of the spelling is wrong)
meng rode with me to kuantan. since it was late in the afternoon, meng decided to overnite in kuantan.
meng meng.. whatever you do meng, we always love you. you always make us laugh. from a quite, nerd handsome guys, you totally changed after a few years hang out with. you are now such a naughty boy meng.. hahahhaha... live your life to fullest meng.. god bless you.. god bless us all...

Saturday, October 19, 2013

my best riding routes in malaysia

this is just my personal opinion. base on my experiences riding throughout Malaysia. i look from a few aspects like road surface, traffic, corners, safety signage and so forth. there are a few places that i have not been there yet like kuala kelawang, therefore i cannot comment.

1. sg koyan-cameron highland-gua musang
rode thru this ride a few times. never feel enough. road surface, i can say about 80% good from sg koyan to cameron highland. 20% may be for the landslide and bumps especially at the corners. low traffic. but we have to be careful still. low to medium speed corners. cameron to gua musang even better. 90% road surface are good. less traffic. hardly see other vehicles. scenic view all the way.especially when you are approaching cameron from sg koyan.
2. pengakalan gawi, kenyir-felda aring, kelantan
very scenic view. the road is alongside with the lake kenyir. so beautiful if your riding in the early morning and sunset. road surface 90% good until you reach felda aring which is 70% dirt and gravel. low to medium speed corners. a lot of truck moving logs and palm oil. so please be carful riding this road.
3. grik, perak-kulim, kedah
partly highway if you are from kulim. road surface excellent. high speed corners. but watch out for bumps sometimes.
4. jerangau, terengganu-jabor, pahang
i do not know why i kinda like this route. may be because this is my regular route. visiting my parents in kuala terengganu i guess. got a few area need the resurface. the rest are good. low to medium speed corners. not really scenic view. but it is awesome during early morning ride. just like you can touch the cloud just above your head.
5. bandar penawar-tanjung sedili(johor)
this is very relaxing ride along the coastal line. road are bumpy but manageable. scenic view. very beautiful beach. windy sometimes. 
6. jerantut-kuala tahan(pahang)
a lot of corners. short corners. narrow road too. extra careful when riding thru here.