Day 1          

Riding to Johor is the least favorite among bikers. There are no mountainous routes that offer sweeping back roads, tricky tight turns that spook unsuspecting casual bikers. I pretty much spent my teenage life in Johor and naturally had my first taste of motorcycling there. I been back for Chinese New Years and weddings and occasional bike tours with my ride buddies. It is not so much of finding and riding the best motorcycling roads in Malaysia in Johor but as part-Johorean, I always find something nostalgic to soak up while riding there. Hence the assembly of my biking buddies to hit the roads again.

The weatherman predicted that we would be facing heavy rainstorms throughout the three days of riding. The day started with steady light rain hence the decision to deck out in my seldom worn waterproof cordura jacket.. The morning assembly at Shell Station just after Sg Besi Toll complex was as usual delayed proofing yet again we, Malaysians are never punctual. We only get to hit the road dully at 730am. The plan was to ride to Ayer Hitam before turning into the trunk road to continue the ride to Mersing. A supposedly small ride group ballooned to eight riders with a wide range of two-wheels. I planned a couple of check points to enable the riders to ride at their conformable speeds so the nonsense of "Who’s faster or slower? Will they mind if I stop to smoke?" become irrelevant and all of us could happily enjoy the ride at their own paces.

We finally settled into two subgroups with myself, Phang, Ivan, Zain and Deng aka Batman with Batgirl zipping away in front while  Oonta with Ismail trotting at lazy speeds behind. Meanwhile, Rashid was waiting for us impatiently at the Seremban R&R as he used the E46 Expressway to get out of Shah Alam.  E46 exits at Nilai. Later, Oonta, Zain and Rashid decided to hit off with their own route to Mersing while the rest followed the pre-planned route. 

The ideal place to stop for a quick caffeine and nicotine boost is the Overhead Bridge / Ayer Keroh Rest Stop just before Ayer Keroh exit. We reached the rest-stop at 9.16 am. My personal favorite coffee stall is Highway Cafe manned by a Chinese Hainanese couple. The Hainanese clan is traditionally famous for making good coffee and butter-kaya toasts with half-boiled eggs.

Out of Ayer Keroh Rest Stop, we headed south towards Ayer Hitam. The Deepavali Public Holiday gave us rare expressway devoid of heavy trucks. The traffic was surprisingly light and most of us were zipping along the expressway gleefully. The weather was scorching hot when we exited into Ayer Hitam. We had ridden about 240km which was about right to refuel our bikes. We would have another 140 km to cover to reach Mersing. Ayer Hitam simply means Black Water. Ayer Hitam seen its heydays before the North-South Expressway was opened. Passing vehicles and people who travels north and south would need to pass through this town. This place is well-known for its ceramic items. Ayer Hitam is also dotted with many stalls selling local tidbits. Amongst the famous ones are prawn crackers, steamed corn, tapioca chips, and the must-try Johorean "otak-otak" or fish cake .

Upon refueling, we turned straight into Route 50 by-passing Ayer Hitam all together. We were eager to reach Mersing before late afternoon as rain was predicted to pour in the evening. Route 50 basically is the main trunk road that connects Ayer Hitam to the eastern side of Johor. A reasonably well-maintained two-carriageways road with smooth pavement that is still mostly potholes-patches free. Although the road is built over relatively flat terrain, it does offers sweeping curves and fast bend to keep riding on it interesting enough. With my Zed behaving devotedly to it master’s command, I was having a good time. The road turned a little rough with about 20km to Jemaluang. I was riding cautiously when I was sent flying through the air when crossing over a bridge. I found out later that most of my ride mates had similar through the air experience.

We reached Mersing about noon. The still blistering midday made a mockery of the weatherman’s report. I trusted the silly forecast and I was made to pay for it. I shouldn’t had wore the cordura jacket and I was sweating profusely because of it. The town’s KFC Restaurant was like heaven sent. Normally we would not have bother about dining in a fast food restaurant but the air-conditioning looked mighty tempting. It was a no contest when I proposed we have our lunch there.

We checked into our pre-booked accommodation for the night at Rajavilla Resort and Hotel which is about 2 km away from the town’s center. We had a fuss-free check-in with Mr Tan’s help. The heavens opened up big time when we were about to collect the keys to our rooms. Good timing.

We had the rest of the afternoon to rest. In the past rides, we would be still on the road riding. The rain stopped in time for us to go out to check out the little town. Phang was keen to check out a shop selling certain Seiko’s divers watch. We did found the watches but the prices were ridiculously set. Perhaps, the shop owner was targeting foreign tourists going to Tioman’s Island.

As it was still too early for dinner, we decided to hop to Air Papan beach for some sight-seeing. Out of Mersing, we darted north towards Rompin. Air Papan turnoff can be seen about 6 km after Mersing town center. We detoured to Teluk Air Buih to check out the beach resort. The resort boasts a private beach with jetty and a newly built swimming pool. Given enough time to relax and to enjoy the facilities, it would make an ideal over night rest place. Air Papan was almost deserted when we reached there about 7pm. The souvenir shops selling T shirts and swimming accessories were about to close for the day. We managed to find an eatery still willing to heat up the stove. The food were deliciously cooked and we enjoyed our dinner by the beach side. It would been an excellent place to dine if not for the very menacing tiny beach bugs making their rounds and kamikazeing around us at every opportunity. Heartily fed, we clumped back to our parked bikes in the gravel parking lot to ride back to town.

We re adjourned to Mersing town’s beach cafe for drinks. Originally stopping for just teh tariks by the seaside turned into a feisty round two with satay as ‘desserts.’ Our resistance proved futile to the tempting smell of barbecued satay. Oddly named as De Muara Ibu Restaurant, the joint boasts a tidy LCD projector showing TV program, a good place to goof the night away especially with a nice light sea breeze blowing around.