Upon reaching Mac Donalds, we didnt really take a break except buying some drinks at the 7-11 and a quick smoke break… Yeah, we have some heavy smokers on this cycling group, so if you are non smoker, you’ve been warned here… lol…

We continued the journey towards Fort Road, passing Mountbatten and cut through Stadium Drive so we can ride on Nicoll Highway and cycle to our first pit break point at Keppel Bay. Nice night scenery there.

How beautiful? Well, words alone cannot describe this piece of night scenery at Keppel. A picture is always worth a thousand words right? Here’s an image I grabbed from the Flickr.

This is a nice picture doing justice with nice colors coming from the auto-changing bridge lights, I’ve got better links to share with everyone. From these links, you can see a 360 degrees view of Keppel Bay as though you are there!

Wait no further people, click on the images now… IE users may get the yellow notification under the address bar informing you to install the “DevalVR 3D Browser plugin” Ignore that and wait for the page to load fully. It may take a while to load depending on your broadband speed…

360 Degrees View of Marina Keppel Bay 1

360 Degrees View of Marina Keppel Bay 2

360 Degrees View of Marina Keppel Bay 3

360 Degrees View of Marina Keppel Bay 4

Source of the 360 Degrees View of Marina Keppel Bay: http://moonshine.homedns.org:2655/pano/
View more 360 Degrees View images of other locations from there if you like them. :D

4 of us spent estimated good 30 mins of rest at Keppel Bay before continuing the route to West Coast Highway and riding towards West Coast Park Mac Donalds as our next pit break destination. This time we rode all the way to the designated point with no intervals.

After refreshing/relieving ourselves at West Coast Mac, the continuing journey will be tougher. (Estimated 28 to 30km) Next destination was Kranji Reservoir.

Cycling along West Coast highway can be dangerous sometimes because there are often big trucks or trailers driving towards Jurong Island & Tuas area.

Areas we passed by are: Jalan Buroh, Jalan Boon Lay and the nice riding long road -- Lim Chu Kang road. Where is Lim Chu Kang road located? (click to view)

Along LCK, the moment we passed the chicken farms… yeah, the chicken shit smell was uber power…. =.=”’ thats the only thing I dislike about LCK, else its a really fantastic place to ride on but you must be cautious at all times, open up your ears to listen for roaring engine revs from speeding cars racing on this road. Beware…

Alright…. Its Video Time! :D

Jayme must be !$%#%%$^* at me now, why must post that malu picture of her online… Oh no, I’m not trying to get you embarrassed ok… I meant well to educate everyone, please drink more h2o during the before riding at night…

We reached the Kranji Reservoir park soon and visited the public toilet there for quick relief then we rode to the next pit break point at the 24/7 mini-mart along the Kranji industrial estate at Kranji Road. We took a long break there as Jayme’s muscles were still pulling. We should be riding the ever challenging Mandai Road for newbies on road especially when they’d never experienced much up-hills in Singapore plain terrains but due to Jayme’s pulling muscles, we switched our route to accommodate to the situation. The route we took was:

1. Exit Kranji
2. Woodlands Road
3. Upper Bukit Timah
4. Dunearn Road (took a break at bus stop, lots of dawn roadies to watch)
5. Newton Circus

We reached city and decided to take breakfast at Crawford hawker center. After breakfast, when we were started riding in less than 10 meters, the weather turned foul and begun to rain heavily. The lucky four took shelter at the housing estate area just around the corner. hehe… another long break soothing the nasty pulled muscles on Jayme. :p

It took quite a while for the rain to simmer and we took a turn at Jalan Sultan, riding through Java Road before the good old Concourse, back to the usual Nicoll highway, Fort Road then back to East Coast Park. Total clocked distance ridden by Vickie and me was approximately 90km by the time we reached Fort Road. We took the underpass after Mac so we can start the journey back home and call it a “night” but the irritating rain came back forcing us to take another break under the HDB void deck at Marine Parade housing estates.

After the rain stopped, Perly rode towards Bedok South for his home in Pasir Ris, Jayme, Vickie and I rode on Still Road, sent Jayme back along Jalan Eunos and head to our start point Hougang. Nothing particular happened along the way except that owning shag face on Vickie… we didnt sleep a wink since 9pm when we started riding…

Congratulations to Vickie for being able to complete a Century Ride -- 100km! Well done man, its not an easy task for a girl who had never done this before, perhaps your old bike did really “trained” you well…

Perly clocked 120km, Jayme should clocked an estimated 90-100km as well.

Watch out for the ride next week, see ya soon! The END.

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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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• NUS Bike Quest: Cycledelic 2010 (0)
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