Ivan and I have been riding together for a long time to the point there's hardy further surprises from him. Ramon aka Raymond on the other hand made the short weekend ride interesting. This was only our 2nd over-night ride with him and boy .. we got surprises.
Ramon suggested Kuantan as he wanted to visit his old pal. Ivan and I, on the other hand, took advantage of this to do some riding. I was not keen to ride to Kuantan via the East-Coast Expressway (or LPT) as the old route, Federal Route 2 offered a more appealing alternative. Route 2 was actually built in 1940 to link Kuala Lumpur to the east coast. The route runs along the edges of Titiwangsa Mountain Range and thus is relatively flat. The mostly single carriageway route was over-ran with heavy traffic in the 1990s. ECE, an ultra modern dual-lane expressway was opened to traffic in 2004 to complement the always congested Route 2. As most motorists opt to use the fast but boring ECE, Route 2 is suddenly an interesting road to ride on again.

The traffic police was slowing making their presence felt at the Gombak toll on weekends. Most motorcyclists were asked to stop for licence and road-tax inspection. However, as I rode through the bike lane, the traffic cop waived me through. Meanwhile, a couple of tough looking guys on Harleys quickly by-passed the Police bike-lane road block by zipping through the car lane.

We planned a brief stop-over in Karak for breakfast. To our disappointment, my favourite stall's tables and chairs were still packed up neatly at a corner. The wan-tan-mee stall's operator was waiving his hand signalling that he was not ready to serve yet. Thankfully, there were quite a handful of coffee shops we can choose to have our breakfast. Like in a movie-script, it began to rain as we settled into a typical Chinese kopi-tiam. Ramon surprised us by jumping up from his seat to push his bike to a covered area. He mumbled that his pussycat was getting wet. Thankfully, the second choice wan tan mee was not bad at all. The gloomy weather conditions hinted we would be riding in wet. Except for Ramon, we were suited up in all-weather gear. As Ramon began putting on his Givi-sourced rain suit, the rain stopped. Ramon got us in stitches when he took out a cloth to wipe the pussycat's seat which was a little wet. Perhaps it was just a quick natural reactive action as he did not want to get his pants wet. Then again, he was already wearing his rain suit and that damp patch on the seat would not hurt him at all. Ramon later revealed that it was only his second time wearing the Givi rain suit.
As we rode on towards Temerloh, rain started again. It was actually quite nice to ride in light rain . Then again, the road was dirty with lot of muds and earth. The lorries compounded the condition when their giant exposed wheels spilled out mud laden rain water towards us. In just a few kilometres, our bikes (and ourselves) looked like authentic Paris-Dakar editions but so much for my bike getting the professional (wash) treatment by Auto Bavaria Motorrad just a few days earlier. In typical tropical fashion, rain and showers were extremely isolated. The gloomy rainy circumstances would change into sunny and dry in a flash and back to showery next. That pretty much described our riding conditions till we reached Gambang when the air was dry and hot. Ramon, probably having a ciggie withdrawal syndrome, was giving me a frantic hand signal to find a place to stop.

We had 2 stops in 30 minutes as we forgotten that Zaman Restaurant was only a few clicks away from the first stop. It was already past noon and the breakfast we had earlier in the morning had probably made their way into the small intestines. Earlier in the morning, I anticipated that we could reach Kuantan by noon for early lunch but we ended over shot our ETA by well over one and a half hours. Looking back, our ride on Route 2 was slow due to rain and still heavy traffic and Ramon. We rated Ramon as a super cautious rider especially riding on unfamiliar road and in the rain. Anyway during our nasi lemak lunch at Zaman's, Ramon revealed that he could not see the road and concentrate riding due to excessive dirt and grime on his helmet's shield. His pussycat mini shield did an exceptionally poor job of keeping the road dirt and grime out especially when trailing a lorry in the wet. Ramon has been extremely reluctant in forking out cold dough for bike accessories but after the short brief ride to Kuantan, he was ready to spend to buy a taller shield.

It was unbearably hot as we rode though the many traffic lights in Kuantan. The air was devoured of any breeze. We slowly crawled our way to Swiss Garden Resort which was about 14 km away from Kuantan city center. As we rode into the main lobby drive-through, the bell-boy promptly ushered us to park right just opposite of hotel's entrance. Cool.

I was surprise to see the lobby pretty quiet as I was expecting a lot of guests around. We originally wanted to stay at Duta Village Resort which was actually located next door. Regrettably, it was running a full house for the weekend. As I was receiving the door access cards from the reception, Ivan signalled that we should use the pool to chill off.  I could not agree more. Swiss Garden's beautiful pool was world apart compared to the scrawny pool at Duta Village. The soon-to-come year end monsoon was already showing its signs. The red flag was raised to warn guests not to swim at the beach as sea waves were pretty strong and aggressive.

 

My favourite restaurant to have dinner in Kuantan is always Alor Akar Seafood Restaurant at (you guess it) Jalan Alor Akar in the city. Ramon has not been to Kuantan for ages and he has no clue where to eat and drink.  Good thing we decided to head to the restaurant early as we could not make any prior reservation. We figured it would not be terribly difficult to find a table for four. As usual, Tak-Chea (that's Chinese for Big Sister) came to our table to take our order. We been regulars there for many years and Tak-Chea knew us very well. We swiftly ordered soya-sauce steamed wild Patin fish, butter-fried tiger prawns, crabs sautéed in salted egg york, fried marinated chicken  and some fresh veggies. Everything turned out great except the crabs' flesh which were a little mushy. All for RM125. The Patin fish dish alone would had cost RM100 in KL. As we parked our bikes back the hotel's lobby, rain began to fall. Talking about 'perfect' timing as we were not decked in any riding gears when we headed to city for dinner. 

We did not realise it as Halloween's weekend until we check out the hotel's pub, the Malibu Bar. The pub was knock over with all the Halloween trimmings and decorations. For Malaysians especially the Chinese, we were more accustomed to the 7th Lunar Month or the Hungry Ghost Month.  Halloween, a contraction of All Hallows' Evening is an annual holiday observed around the world on 31 Oct, the night preceding to All Hallows Day which itself is an ancient event honouring the dead. Halloween is also thought to be heavily influenced by the Christians' holly days of All Saints Day and All Souls Day. As opposed to Chinese version of Hungry Ghost Festival where the hell's gate is opened for one month for the ghosts to roam amongst the living, Halloween is now celebrated with fun activities such as costume parties, playing scary pranks and childrens' trick-or-treating calls. Hollywood also uses the opportunity to sell horror themes movies like John Carpenter's Halloween. My favourite Halloween movie is still Bettle Juice by Tim Burton. I watched the movie when I was a college student back in the 80s. I also remembered I was costumed as a female ghost which was not my 1st choice but I get to wear my pretty land-lady's lacy bra stuffed with Kleenex!   

We were early at Malibu Pub. The cover charge of 25 bucks each person was waived when we ordered the beer tower. The 4 persons (3 ladies and a dude) Pinoy band was about to kick start the evening. Raymond was ecstatic when he saw the pretty waitress carried the beer tower to our table. Don't get him wrong, he just was thrilled to see the beer. As we helped ourselves to the beer, the 3 Pinoy ladies in Halloween costumes came alive with not so current hits. We sang along to the old familiar hits.  Raymond perked up again when the Pinoy ladies dropped by our table to say hello during their break. That was when Raymond became Ramon when he introduced himself to the ladies. Way to go Ramon ..!  The new band was new to Swiss Garden. I suspected they can only play older hits and the 3 Pinoys ladies can sing for sure. A request was made by a lady guest asking for the song 'beautiful girl.' Somehow, the lone dude sang the version 'beautiful girl' by Jose Marie Chan, a super popular hit in the Philippines back in 1989. I suspected the lady wanted to hear Sean Kington's 2007 hit beautiful girl. Nevertheless, Jose Marie Chan's version was rendered superbly. We left when they were into their 3rd set. More pretty guests poured in as we made our way out of the pub. Apparently, the 'real' Halloween party has yet to start. Don't tell Ramon as he would be very happy to order another beer tower.

Before we retired to our respective rooms, Ramon asked Ivan if he snores. Turned out both snore during sleep. Fair and Square then..

We had a wonderful in-house buffet breakfast at the hotel's Garden Terrace before packing up for the ride back to KL. Ivan divulged that Ramon was a quick sleeper and was the 1st to trigger the snoring symphony the night before. Ramon on the other hand was totally KO'ed and was unaware of Ivan's salvo.  Snoring has also been suggested that it can cause significant psychological and social damage to sufferers. But I can't tell Ivan suffered any psychological damage as he was as cheerful as before in the morning.

We took it casually in the morning as we would only need to ride back via the ECE. Ramon had never driven or ridden on this expressway. It is easy to hit triple digits speeds on this road.  Before turning to the expressway, we detoured to a specialty shop selling all kind salted sea products to do some light shopping before heading home. The weather was extremely hot and humid when we hit the expressway about noon. We cruised at about 130-150km/h. Admiringly, Ramon was able to keep up. We were just telling him that he would not able to keep up with us to Thailand if he stuck to average speed of 80-110km/h. A lone biker on a Versys decked with ADV panniers from Hepco-Becker was also on his way to KL. However, we were a little fast for him on the expressway. We saw the Motorrad guys and gals having their pit-stop at Gambang R&R. Motorrad Club Malaysia organised a 3D/2N family days at Kenyir Lake. The bikers would ride to destination while their family members would go there in chartered bus.

We hit one hell of a thunder shower at Termeloh. I could barely see the road as my shied was fogging up. I ended riding with my shield opened even the rain water was pouring ferociously into my face .  Thankfully, we cleared the rain after some 15 km of riding. 

We exit into Temerloh R&R for a ciggie and toilet break.  The lone Versys pilot came in some 10 minutes later. I love the extra large ADV style panniers on his bike but I also felt they were a tad too wide for city commuting.

Our final stop before we break off was at a Chinese restaurant before Genting Sempah/Janda Baik. There a numerous restaurants specialising in fresh water fish and some are known to be 'black-shops' specialising in ripping off unsuspecting customers. Ramon initially protested about having another heavy meal. I ordered anyway a sautéed Talapia fish in claypot, fried kang-kung (water morning glory) in belachan (chili with prawn paste), stew pork with yam and  toufu in claypot. Ramon ended having two platefuls of rice as he enjoyed the food.

We had our mission accomplished. Fantastic food and comradeship over two days of casual riding. Big shout to Ramon aka Raymond for being extremely sporting. And to Ivan being the ever faithful fellow Bagsters  and of course to Anne for being the best pillion rider with fast improving action photography skills.