This trip started with Endlessloop's itchy backside as usual. Within days of his posting on our MotoV forum, I gladly signed up. The night before I couldn't sleep again. I don't know why all these trips haven't got me desensitized a little.
18 bikes departed on Saturday morning.
We hit the road early and arrived at Fraser Hills' base early afternoon. There was a slight hor lan (getting lost) incident, but otherwise we were doing ok.
Pic taken at the base of Fraser Hills. 
Nice scenery at the base.
This dam at the base of Fraser's looks like one of those bottomless ones you see movies.
Many of Fraser's bends could only be taken safely at around 50 or less. It wasn't the most pleasant route amongst the peaks, but it was a good challenge.
Alan, William, Lawrence and Barry left Singapore in the afternoon and reached Fraser Hills at night. 
Just in time to join us for dinner.
Dawn at Fraser's.
We encoutered this thousand year old, thousand legged millepede. Look at its size relative to a regular handphone! Imagine one the thickness of your thumb and longer than twice the length of your handphone!
It was Alan's bright idea to ascend a half kilometre jungle trail. The group was game enough to get out of our comfort zones after some deliberation! Game on!
Just as we started climbing up the trail, a family came down frantically with a kid having a leech stucked to his foot. Lawrence used his cigarette to burn the leech off.
Never mind that we were decked in berms and slippers, not exactly trekking gear, and certainly easy targets for the leeches. We pushed on.
As we were taking a candid shot mid trail, most of us in this pic were jumping up and down, shuffling around or looking intently on the ground. Barry brushed off a leech fast enough before it started sucking his blood. Lawrence's cigarettes had just appreciated in value on this trail.
We survived the trail with zero casualty.
Some of us had a race at Alan's Water.
We departed Fraser Hills early afternoon and left for Genting Highlands. At the base of Genting highlands, 7 bikes departed for Singapore. The remaining 15 headed up.
Amongst the few peaks I have rode up, I have to vote for Genting Highlands as the best peak.
Ascending up Genting was the fun part. Coming down was more dangerous though.
The team made it up Genting safely...
and made a grand entrance at First World hotel
After dinner, we strolled outside the outdoor theme park, and came across this new roller coaster ride.
Me: Hey guys! Come on! Lets get up this ride. We came all the way up here, we gotta ride this man!
William: Ok lets go.
Inside Genting. Mini pig out session in Lawrence's room again on Sunday night. 
We departed Genting at noon on Monday.
We took Karak Highway E6, followed by route 2 and route 9, trunk roads which led us to Melecca instead of the usual NSH.
Alan with the towkay.
For a while, I was alone on route 9, and the road was simply amazing. It was a biker's dream come true. There was no one else, just me and the road. Taking those sweet constant radius corners helped me find my lines and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Half the team agreed this was a great route and both Endless and me vote it as the best trunk route we ever took. 
From here things went down hill. There was a near incident where one of the riders almost low sided. His pillion kicked the ground so hard her shoes tore and her foot bled a little and she was almost thrown off as well. After that, it started raining heavily. One of us highsided and went down. His gear took most of the damage, but thankfully he was ok. No one was hurt too badly and both could still continue to ride back. These were some tense moments for the team. Alan displayed great leadership, riding back to assess the condition of the riders while directing the rest ahead to wait at a rest point. In a similar situation, I would have been rather stressed. But Alan was very calm.
My rain coat was leaking from Day 1 and I was soaked on both day 1 and 3. The rain was relentless on the second half of route 9. Visibility was very low and we pulled over for a short break. Notice the puddles of water that dripped off us and our bikes. We eventually made it home at about 9pm or so. Looking back, I certainly do not enjoy episodes of getting lost, getting soaked on many occasions, tracherous roads, possiblities of crashes in a foreign land etc. Yet these are part of the adventure in touring. All of us would want as smooth a ride as possible. However, things happens. And when nothing serious crops up on a trip like this, we can afford to laugh about it. Touring certainly took me out of my comfort zone. As Simon Soh, one of the more well-known tourers in our circles quotes, "Its not the distance conquered but ourselves". Till our next trip, MotoV. 
2 comments:
PPlater,
Well said quote and wise wisdom!
huhhhh...very nice ha your pic, your trip..
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