This was the day that I am attempting the try out cycling in Malaysia, across the border and most significantly ALONE, destination – Desaru situated at the East Coast of Malasyia. Some of you may think that I’m crazy or out of my mind, because as a first timer, shouldn’t I try some places nearer? Yeah, I thought this too… What was on mind? I thought if it’s going to be really tough, perhaps I should just head to Kota Tinggi and return if I can’t take the challenge. But it was all good by the time I reached Kota Tinggi, so I carried on. Following are the details of my solo ride to Desaru, images taken can be found on > Here (click on inages for 1600×1200 resolution)

Registered users can watch slideshow @ Here

Time: 3am, I woke up and started to prepare for the trip and I didn’t catch more than 3 hrs of sleep, I normally sleeps around 3am. Dang! Lack of sleep… But that’s not gonna push my thoughts off this trip. Started for the preparation, my gears, checked the bike’s tyres and parts thoroughly, ensured my spare tube is 100% good. Printed out the maps and passport is with me.

At 4.30am, put on my gears onto my bike and getting ready. By 4.45am, was set to go off to start this exciting journey. How was I feeling??? Thrilled! hehe…

To get to Woodlands Checkpoint, I rode the usual rode that most cyclists would, that is through Jalan Kayu, Seletar Dam, Yishun then Woodlands by riding through Gambas Ave towards Woodlands checkpoint. It was a cooling smooth and relaxing ride to Woodlands as I do not wish to tire myself out from this ride. At 6.05am, I made it to the hawker center, and looked for a coffeeshop for breakfast. Wanted to eat breakfast in Johor Bahru, but worried that I might lost my way within the area so I think I better eat in Singapore. Lol!

From my cycling computer, when I reached Woodlands.

Trip Distance – 26.28
Trip Time – 1.05.10
Avg Speed – 24.52
Max Speed – 39.81

Ate a light breakfast, and slowly waiting for the sun rise as I’m not risking myself riding in the still dark Johor Bahru right?

7am, the sun rise started, looked for a money changer and made a change of SGD$20 to Ringgit and headed towards BKE expressway where the motorcyclists rode through the checkpoint and by the time I made through customs, it was already 7.30am. I took some sun rise images the moment I got across the border.

7.30am, it marked the beginning of the unforgettable cycling journey of my life yet. Rode up the flyover and looked for the route no. 3 started on the map… found the route and ride towards Kota Tinggi which I’d set to be my first pit break point. :) There was a petrol kiok where I took the signboard that shows towards Kota Tinggi and used the toilet before the 38km ride. Yeah, 38km no pitting in between… just all the way… and reset my cycling computer’s trip distance.

Within one and a half hours, at 9.05am, I reached Kota Tinggi at Jalan Kermajuan by using Route No.3.

Trip Distance – 34.18 (Was reset at Johor Bahru, so this is the actual distance from Johor)
Trip Time – 2.40.26
Avg Speed – 23.07
Max Speed – 61.56

Had a good rest and bought 2 cans of 100 plus from the store that I was pitting. They were showing pirated High School Musical 3 on their TV… Lol! I was feeling ok and should be able to travel further down to Desaru as the estimated distance from Kota Tinggi to Desaru was almost 60+KM.

Continued my journey at 10.00am and at about 11am, I was hungry and found a nice village where I can get some food. But the village did not have anything much to my likings, so I proceeded to one of the stores where they sell Roti Prata as I found there were many locals eating there, so I deemed the food to be above average or popular among the local villagers. As I stepped into the eating place, the locals presented me with weird looking faces.. wondering why this cyclist was all by himself I guess…. Took my time, enjoyed the piece of prata with egg very much, curry was testy and guess what, there were onions in the prata which only cost like a few ringgits, bought a pack of ciggies there so didn’t bother how much was my meal.

Check the rest of the nice images I took along the journey towards Desaru…
Click Here To View Them (Opens In A New Tab/Window)

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the evening started at 10pm at pasir ris, we travelled to jln kayu via old tampines – hougang – sk, jln kayu was packed with ppl when we reached at 11pm. finally got seats 20mins later and at the same time, garlic came by to rrss n try our bikes.

After a meal of Roti john, mee goreng n drinks, we rode over to seletar camp where garlic took a spin on our bikes at piccadily, after the test ride, garlic bid ur goodbye n we went on our way….

the dam was packed wif ppl compared to the last time we came, mabbi cos it was fri nite. alot of scrabblers n harleys. from yishun, we took mandai rd towards kranji, rolling hills along dis stretch took alot out of me (*mental note to get slicks =p), we passed by the zoo where unker snapped some pix….ended up at the LNG station in kranji where we proceeded to Kranji dam.

as this was the first time we hit dis area so i prepped a map + the SLA pda app. we managed to topo our way till kranji road, asking ppl along the way…

riding into kranji way, we passed by the rail tracks with an old skool intersection then into heavy industral area…..lots of dogs here so do take note….just before the dam, there is a JTC hawker area where we spotted a 24hr mini mart for e foreign worker hostel in the area…mabbi next time we can plan 1 water break here…from the dam, we can see the bright lights of JB on one side glowing becons of the massive BBC antennas….and crossing the dam we hit neo tew….

this part of the ride was most enjoyable….long, meandering, deserted rds with dim str lamps, it no longer felt like we were in SG…we went pass alot of agro farms n sungei buloh nat reserve…

soon the narrow path opended up into wide fields, the air was krisp with the smell of greenery…we can just spot the mist in the distance along the rolling plains…the land here is really extensive…a reminder that we are now riding along SAF training gnds…CHEY…no wonder it felt so familiar….=p we can make out the camp boundaries of tengah AB, as we reach a junction to turn into lim chu kang rd.

from here on is mainly SAF gnds, we went pass Armor camp in sungei gudong, ama keng camp, tengah AB n SCDF academy, etc….it was also along this stretch we rode along the temp runway stretch b4 the LCK cemetary gnds, around 3-5k of straight, 6 lane rd….spotted some inital D wannabes here, civics n evos….drifting within the cemetary gnds….

proceeded straight done to jurong were we spotted HDB blks again….just as we crossed the MRT tracks b4 boon lay station, it started raining and we had to take shelter at a bus stop opposite caldbury choc factory….yum yum…after waiting for 20mins, it seem that the rain was not going to stop anytime soon so we packed our non water proof stuff and prep to ride on…

straight down to jurong island causeway, we took a right to jln buroh, a couple of flyovers later we reached west coast road, came by a rodalink, at first tot it was related to the rodalink chain where we bot our bikes but later realised that this might be a stand alone shop….moving alone we passed ginza plaza (upgrading) and haw par villa….took a break at 7-11 along the fong sing stretch be moving on to vivio then fullerton…

by then the rain had stopped….but as we rode into raffles place, it started raining again, it grew larger as we rode along nicoll and we stopped large groups of students on a mass cycling event taking shelter at bus shelters n flyovers…this group was huge, easily 2-300 strong, all with matching tees and cisco outriders to boot…WTF?!?!??

we turned into fort road and moved into ECP where unker seperated at Mac to move on to still rd, ubi, hougang while i moved on east to pasir ris…the rain turned into a downpour as i rode pass the hawker centre area, with alot of the osim tri workers taking shelter everywhere…the stretch along from bedok jetty till saf sailing centre was in bad shape, alot of flooding on the whole path and u can easily ride into an open drain as it was no longer able to differenciate the 2…in short…i was aquagliding in a swimming pool…lol…

cool n shivering from the cold sea breeze, my fingers shrivelled like a prune from the wet, i pushed on….(lan lan, how else to go home?) rode along a deserted coastal route sans a few hardcore tri/marathon ppl…

reached changi v. FC and rushed in to gobble up a nasi lemak….(hungry n cold….smlj oso taste goot….rofl) be continuing back to pasir ris….dat was it….a smooth ride sans the rain….only mishap was i drifted when i reached my blk….my knobbles were so wet there was no traction at all on the ceramic tile floor…ride states below…till next ride then….=)

distance – 119.5km
time peddled – 6hr 40 mins

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