PF: Small grp trip to Genting @ 19 Nov 2006

Well, we are back alive and kicking. The trip started well, and we moved off early in the morning around 7am. Checkpoint was smooth and fast and we were at Danga for some "wake me up coffee". Unfortunately, no food stalls were open (dunno why), just a lone drinks stall. We filled up our bladders and moved out to join into the NSH via skudai. Not a bad idea, as we only need to hit 2 tolls from that direction. (total of RM41.+). We only stopped once for food and headed up the rest of the NSH in one go.

I had thought that it was going to be a brainless ride all the way till the end of the NSH. But I was wrong. Pica7 car encountered a dramatic tire burst before Ayer Keroh. Luckily I was able to make out his SOS smoke signal behind and stopped before I got too far away. A malaysian car stopped behind thinking to rob 7 and Speed but seeing my macho built running to their direction, they sped off to look for more vulnerable old helpless woman target. (keke...just kidding. I think they stopped to see if they could help).

We quickly flipped open our "DUMMIES GUIDE to tire changing" instruction book and proceeded with the 56 steps on tire changing. In a brief 10 minutes, broken tire was replaced with spare tire and we moved off to continue the journey. But Pica7 was worried sick that his other tires may not make it.

Luckily for us, after coming out of Sungai Besi Toll, we past by a series of tire shops. We quickly filtered out for Pica7 to change his whole set of tires for an indecent sum of money that could not be mentioned here. I was sure that he got chopped, but hey, what to do? He has a "chop me" face... (die, going to get humtum by Speed again...)

From that point, we headed up to Genting quite smoothly. My little Pica was feeling the load of the steep slopes and I had to downshift my gears and engage overdrive (turning off the aircon), to just crawl up the hilly incline. But it was quite achieveable and Pica did manage to reach the very top without any overheating or "tire burst" problems (like someone else). Most of the uphill climb was on 2nd gear and on one occasion, I had to almost stop to down shift to 1st gear. We reached Genting at about 4pm. (including all the time to change tires, and going to the workshop).

We had a good time at Genting, trying all manners of machineries to toss us here and there. Most of the rides had long queues, and we spent most of the time queueing and admiring the scenery of the back of someone's head. None of us gambled, so it was mainly shop, eat, play...in whichever sequence that our kids dictated. We met up with Speed's mother (who owns Genting), and had a good sumptuous dinner with her.

The trip back was quite uneventful, except that on the downhill, I was following behind this Sin red plated car and he was stepping on the brakes all the time. I could smell the burning smell of his brakes. I was sure that his brakes would be chow tar by now and would need replacing.

We took the wrong way back and had to cut across KL just to link to the start of the NSH. There was a junction to go to Karak or KL, and we took the KL one. Traffic was very bad, and the road signs, quite confusing. But we were lucky, and managed to find the start of the expressway after 2 hours down from Genting. We had a rest stop somewhere before Nilai. At that time, it was already about 4pm. We decided to take a non stop drive all the way to Perling (if I could find it).

The expressway was quite bad that day and along the way, there were many places that narrowed to a single lane due to road construction. Weather was also quite kooky. I thought we passed in and out about 10 rain zones during the journey. There was one time that the rain was very heavy and all the cars would on the hazard lights just to make themselves more visible.

Despite all that, and an emergency call for toilet and petrol refueling, we managed to hit Skudai toll at about 6.30pm. Very good time. The only trickly part left was the way to Perling. I think I didn't take the right way and ended up in Kempas. After some directions asking from fellow drivers, we managed to end up on the other side of the Pasir Gudang highway towards Perling. But alas, the traffic was jammed packed and the progress trickled to a slow crawl. We wasted 30 minutes in the Jam and reached perling around 7.30pm. But quite good time for groceries shopping (gu ni hoon) and late dinner.

From there, it was the usual way back, refueling and back home via 2nd link. My kids and 7 and Speed's "kids" said a tearful farewall and vowed to met for more riddles session in the near future.

It is good to report that our Pica is quite solidly built and is more than able to last the gruelling trip up to Genting Highlands, the city of entertainment and "give me all your moneytainment". I was half expecting to return with a broken steering wheel only, but it is now sitting in my car park looking as new as the day I got it, like a good horse.

http://forum.onemotoring.com.sg/mvnforum/mvnforum/viewthread?thread=2326&offset=30

Trip to Malacca, 12 Nov 06 (Sunday)

Update of the trip: (tek, sorry, I am in a story writing mood....taking over)

We all met up punctually at 6.15am. Jane was earliest. And our book burning friend "surprisingly" turned up. The rest all arrived on time and we set off duly about 6.20am. The meeting location was not a good spot as we were hogging the entire bus lane. Policemen were seen around the area due to a bridge run event but the road was not blocked at that time and we zoomed into the NSH without much jam.

We stopped at the first rest point for some decent tasting Nasi Lemak and had a good time catching up with one another. From there, we drove up another hour or not before another food stop. After more munchies, we did the remaining stretch of the way in one go.

At one spot, some of us saw a broken down vehicle spewing smoke on the opposite road. The poor guy went on to unscrew the radiator cap and a gush of steaming smoke spewed out at him. Saw him jumping out fo the way comically. Hope he is alright. If it had been a lady, I would have stopped, climbed over the divider and help to fire extingush the smoke...keke.

Along the way, our eagle eyed RED leader saw someone high flashing on the opposite direction. That was the undocumentated code to warn chiongsters of a speed trap in front. RED got the message and slowed down the entire convey. We saw this blue Savvy zipped past us like his father's road. Sure enough, at a few km down the road, there was a road block and our blue savvy got stopped "savvily". Lucky for all of us, we were waved onwards to the north.

Turning out at Ayer Keroh, we were on the right track and very soon saw the giant arch with the "Welcome to Malacca to spend more money" message.

From that point, it was another drive of about 30 minutes before we were right into the heart of Malacca. We wanted to head for the St Paul's fort and my map was not working (low batt) and we ended up circling the whole of Malacca town and finally ended up as lost survivors outside a shopping centre (Tesco). All tired and hungry, we decided to stop here for food and refreshment before continuing our search.

Tesco was quite interesting, being a giant 1 level kind of mega mall. But we didn't have time to shop much and after lunch at "the chicken rice shop", we did a quickie and set off to find our A'formosa fort. One thing that was interesting however, was that we met SHE here. (guys, who has the pic? please put it up)

St Paul fort should be just a smallish one and wasn't worth the time to be searching for it. This time, Red took the lead with a more expensive map and we were able to finally make our way to Jonker walk, driving. The road was narrow as a chicken neck and it was a challenge to keep together. And as we turned out to a wide open carpark, Red, Orange and I realized that the rest were not to be found. Argh! Our communications signal sets were all not working. Red and I quickly set off in my car to do a search and recover mission. Driving wildy around Malacca, we hope to be able to rescue them from a certain death as Malaccans were known to kidnap unsuspecting singaporeans and sell them off as slaves to far eastern Russian. As luck was with us, at one busy junction, we saw a bunch of lost chickens shouting, jumping and waving at us from a distance. Yay, the rest of the gang. Phew! I skillfully manouever my Blue in the mad cap traffic and regrouped with them. They were all sobbing and crying and I had to pass them my dirty handky to wipe their tears. I could see the gratitude and relief all written over. From there, I re-plotted the waypoints from the stars and lead them to our 1st checkpoint. Everyone was glad to be together again and swore never again to be naughty.

We parked a the carpark and set off on foot to visit the red building. Along the way, we saw a Malaccan Monitor Lizard swimming lazily in the canel. The rest had to forcefully restrain me from running back to the car to get my fishing gear. It started to drizzle and we had to see the red and WET building. But nevertheless, it was fun and we took quite a few pictures but didn't quite understand what the fuss is all about this red building. YELLOW asked me like some tourist why the building red? I was stumped and didn't have a knowledgable reply. Hrmph..need to brush up on my history. Amidst some old and worn grave headstones, Jane found that her past life was Mrs Jane Charlotte married to Lord Abdullah from Muar of the banana plantation.

After red building, we did our favourite thing: SHOPPING. Jonker walk was all full of knick knacks shops and at the rate we were moving, it would take a full month to complete the tour. But after walking down a row of shophouses, we got tired and broke and decided to skip the visit to the Mahkota Parade mall and headed home. By that time, it was already 5.30pm and we should be reaching home rather late. The plan then was to head down to Perling for dinner and Gu ni hoon if possible.

But on the way back, it started to rain (quite heavily) and we went slow due to the rain and darkening sky. Hence, the trip home was more tiring than the way up and by the time we reached the first rest stop for coffee, it was already coming to 8pm.

When we were near to Johor, I didn't exit by the correct way and ended up missing Perling all together. Coming out from the toll, another police check. Again, we were lucky not to be caught. This time, a Malaysian car got pulled over.

From there, we decided then to do dinner at the last rest point before hitting the last Malaysian toll back to Sin. Reaching there, food was surprisingly not too bad. The kumpung burger was quite tasty and a few of us had 2 of it. The satay was also delicious. All in all, quite a decent meal. From there, all went for refueling and parted our ways. At the Tuas checkpoint, there was a queue but luckily, they opened a few more counters and the jam cleared.

A very tiring but fun day indeed. To date, this is our biggest turnout (7 cars in all). Only missing our green and silver. :). Malacca is only 2 hours away, but boy, it sure was tiring. Especially if you were up since 5am. However, I think I speak for all that it was a successful trip in all. (time to throw away my lousy map).