The Road to Gerik: Day 3 River Ride (Final)

We hit the bed at about 3.30 ~ 4.00 am. When I opened my eyes, it was already 8 plus am.
I got up earlier and went to eat at the resort's complimentary breakfast. It was nothing fantastic.



I think the world is made up of 2 groups of people. You are either a morning person or a night person.











I am a morning person. I have no problem in doing the rise-and-shine.















There are also some night persons amongst us who have difficulty waking up in the morning.















We bid goodbye to this nice resort. When split amongst the 5 of us, the resort wasn't expensive. The one-night stay (or 4 hours sleep) came to about 60RM per person.

We noticed that this Dungun resort is also popular with other malaysian bikers.
We saw a few different houses with big malaysian bikes parked in them.
We left the place around 10.30 am.

This is our route today that would take us back to Singapore:















Ride south along route 3, from Dungun. Then just before Kuantan, we would take the new mid-East-West highway called E22. This highway cuts through the middle of west malaysia, taking you from Kuantan all the way to KL.

We would then exit off E22 at Temerluh, to get ono Route 10. We have never ridden before Route 10. So let's see what is it like.



















We take Route 10 South all the way until it joins Route 9, in the state of N. Sembilan. We would then switch to Route 9, where it would take us to NorthSouth highway, around the Tampin.
After that, NorthSouth back to Singapore.

Ride to Temerluh

The first part of the ride is along Route 3. Nothing much to say about it except that I noticed that all the petrol kiosks along the way are quite packed. Maybe that there is nothing much to do around this area. So one of the popular sunday activities is to go to the petrol kiosk to top up.

We topped up our tanks at one of the kiosks.

The quality of the road along Cherating is especially good. Then I realised why.















Because there is a very very big Petronas refinery there. Maybe got a lot of VIPs will go there to visit the Petronas refinary plant there. If road bumpy bumpy, wait make the VIPs vomit, then Petronas no face.

We got onto the E22 highway. When you are on it, it looks exactly like the E2-E3 NorthSouth highway. Both sides of the highway are nothing but plantations and plantations. I think every piece of usuable land in Malaysia is used to plant oil palm.

Some slight differences: There are far fewer traffic along E22. There are atmost 5 vehicles around you at any one time.

The ride along it was quite long because we covered 100 km.

We had an interesting guest though.

Midway along the E22, we saw a green Malaysian Goldwing (the 1500cc model) with 2 person on it.

They waived at us and then we rode together. So our convoy of 5 became a convoy of 6.

The green Goldwing exited earlier and we continued.

Then we reached the Temerluh exit and exited too.

We had our lunch stop there at one of the mini-hawker centres.

Forza ordered an interesting dish.
















This is Ulam. Malay for raw. It is really another version of the ang moh salad.
Just raw vegetables to go with different sauces, contained in the small pots. Forza said it is very hard to find in Singapore.

Route 10 The River Ride

We got onto Route 10. Route 10 is a nice route to ride.
Because from its norther tip, it runs parallel to what I think is the Pahang river.
For about 20-30 km, the river is just next to your left.

Another reason is that it got some nice gentle turns. So you can try Route 10 when you are around that area.


Route 9

From Route 10, we turned onto Route 9.

Route 9 is not as nice as Route 10. The road surface is more uneven.
There are also some tight turns that are compounded by uneven surface and debris on the floor. So when you ride Route 9, approach the turns with caution.




















This is towards the end of the ride of Route 9, near Tampin.
There are many cow/goat dungs on the floor. There is one right next to the red SV.
If you look very carefully, you can see the boot print mark on the dung.
The owner of the boot print mark is somewhere out of the picture cleaning his boot and cursing.
We also told him to stay away from us.















Ever since encountering the dead wild boar in the middle of the road at Gerik, I have learnt to treat all these cute animals by the road side with a new found respect.
I don't think they quite understand the meaning of right-of-way.

NorthSouth Highway

It was about 6.30 pm when we hit the NorthSouth highway. I made another fuel stop at Segamat exit.

The rest of the way, is night riding along the NorthSouth highway. But this was definitely not as bad as my night riding along the pitch black trunk roads of Terranganu.

Reminiscence

In another words, thinking back of my this ride to Gerik.

There are times I really felt I could go and feature myself in this show called "I Shouldn't Be Alive" on the Discovery Channel. Many things could have gone further wrong in the Gerik storm and the night riding.

From the tight turns of Gerik, close to the edge of the mountain, to the "keep-your-fingers-really-crossed" night riding. The ride was very intense and there was tremendous demand for full concentration on riding.

The side effect of this intense riding was strangely, it was totally relaxing and therapeutic to the mind. The riding totally kept all your worries back in Singapore at bay. You have no time to think of these things. You just have to keep your mind fully on the ride itself.

So you came back with your mind totally empty of your initial worries and recharged. I think it is a bit like why people find doing Tai-Chi, Yoga or even the Zen-Japanese-Tea-pouring ceremony effective as ways of destressing.

I think this could be another uncommonly known side-benefit of riding to Gerik. Maybe that's why there are bikers who go back to Gerik every year without fail, almost like a ritual.

Is Gerik a riding paradise as it was claimed to be?

I wouldn't say it definitely is. Reason is it depends on what you mean by paradise. Different people would have different expectations. I also don't want to set such high expectations that would be impossible to live up to.

But I would definitely say that Gerik is a biking heaven and a must-go for all bike tourers.

If you can only do only ONE tour in your lifetime in malaysia, Gerik could be the one.

For me, I am fully satisfied and contended with my Gerik ride. Because with the storm and night riding, I experienced even much more. I came back to Singapore with this strange blissful feeling that I am very contended and fulfilled that I tell myself that if I stop riding right now, I have no more regrets.

It is like you just had a very good meal. You are fully satisfied and have no wish to eat anymore. After the Gerik ride, I thought of the idea if I have should hang up my riding boots for good.

Of course, I still intend to ride. Of course, I would start complaining about my boss soon. But it is such a strange effect that this ride made on me. I had never made any ride that had this effect on me before.

That is why 2 months from my Gerik ride, I have yet to feel any urge to go on a biking tour yet. My Gerik ride is that powderful in detonxicating me of my riding addiction.

It was hell of an adventure, my Gerik ride was.

This is my entire Gerik ride route.
I clocked about 1,800 km in total.
Amazingly, the ride cost less than I expected.
Fuel, food, accomodations all in, it cost 400-5ooRM only.

The Sign that says I have done it.












Remember my pomelo bought at Ipoh?

Here it is, back in Singapore.

I bought it at Ipoh and we were supposed to eat it at Ipoh. But I had forgotten all about it.
So the pomelo rode in my box, through the entire Gerik route.
Through the severe storm, the black night ride, along the River ride and now back to Singapore.




I a bit ser bu der (can't bear) to eat it.