Day 2: Mersing to Rompin (62km)

Today, we slept in till almost 10am before we finally dragged ourselves off the bed. I guess all of us haven't really been training much for this trip, so the sudden increase in riding distance took its toll on our bodies.

The first order of the day was for us to find a bike shop that could replace my rear hub. The first shop we went to was a rather small old-fashioned bicycle shop. The owner was really friendly and tried to help, but he didn't carry any suitable hubs that could be used on my rear wheel.

Nevertheless, he was kind enough to point us in the direction of another shop which he said probably could help me in replacing my hub.

On our way there, we passed by a breakfast stall, so we stopped for some delicious kaya toast, eggs and teh bing~

Deming and the dark soy sauce that he insisted on putting on his eggs

About 100m away from the breakfast stall, we found the shop that the previous shop owner told us about. It was called J.R. Rider and seemed very promising as we saw it stocked quite a few famous international brands.

Going in, I was lucky enough that the shopowner just happened to have 1 last piece for a Shimano Deore rear hub that I could use. Furthermore, inclusive of labour to change the hub, it only cost RM50! Back here in Singapore, a similar part with the labour would probably cost me S$75.

I was more than happy to let him change it for me and we sat around for an hour or so while he expertly unthreaded my wheel, put in the new hub and re-built the entire wheel.

J.R. Riders - My lifesaver~

My rear wheel in the process of being re-built

My brand new RM50 Shimano Deore rear hub

By the time we got the hub changed and were ready to set off for our short ride to Rompin, it was already 3pm and the sky was starting to get cloudy. Still, we had to make it to Rompin one way or another so we set off at a brisk pace of around 25km/h. Taking advantage of the cool weather, we rode at a constant speed and managed to cover half the distance to Rompin before we stopped to take a break.

Ominous grey rain clouds ahead

Getting on our rain gear

We put on our rain jackets and pretty soon, it was pouring! Well, according to Deming, it was at least much better than cycling in the scorching afternoon sun. Anyway, after about 30 mins or so of riding in the rain, the rain stopped abruptly and the sky cleared.

Just 30 minutes later

The rest of the way into the sleepy town of Rompin was an easy flat and uneventful ride. We made it to Rompin by about 5pm and promptly checked into our favourite Hotel Sri Rompin.

Easy ride to Rompin

No kick!

Pre-dinner snack of Ramlee Burger

As per Mr. Chung's Request

Happy with the short and painless ride

Yeah~

Entering Rompin town

Hotel Sri Rompin

What's up, Shohei??

As usual, we had a sumptuous dinner with quite a few dishes and fried rice. Sometimes, I wonder whether we will gain weight on these trips as we seem to be consuming much more calories than what we burn!

Bo Chun! (Wiped out!)

After a hearty dinner, we went back to our hotel room and spent some time studying our route for the next few days. Previously in 2007, we had taken a wrong turn somewhere along our way to Kuala Besut, so this time, we wanted to make very sure that such a mistake would not happen again!

Studying our map of Malaysia

Our laundry area

Day 1: Singapore to Mersing (144km)

Our first day of the trip started rather early at around 6am as we had an estimated 140km to cover before reaching our intended destination - Mersing.

Waiting for Shohei and Deming at a busstop along Upper Bukit Timah Road (0600hrs)

Everyone arrived at around 0615hrs and we set off for Woodlands Checkpoint to cross into Johor Bahru City, Peninsular Malaysia. As usual, there was the routine traffic jam at the checkpoint, but the queue for motorcycles and bicycles moved fast enough such that by 7am, we were well on our way to our brunch point, the little town of Kota Tinggi.

Riding steadily towards our brunch - the renowned Kota Tinggi Bak Kut Teh

During our ride last year, Shohei used only a backpack throughout the entire journey. This gave him a nasty backache after each day's ride, and even more so on the days which involved riding more than 100km.

This time round, he decided not to let history repeat itself and came well prepared with clamp-on panniers for his clothing and equipment. The specialized bags were not cheap but from the wide grin on his face below, it seems well worth the investment!

Fully satisfied with his Topeak clamp on pannier rack and bag

Deming refuelling with Bak Kut Teh and 100 Plus

After an energizing meal of bak kut teh soup and rice, we were refreshed and raring to go! It was to be another 90+km to Mersing, but we had ample time to reach before dusk.

On our way to Mersing

Unfortunately, at about the halfway mark of our day's distance (70km from Singapore), the freehub on my rear wheel started to fail. This was probably one of the worst kind of mechanical fault we could have faced, there was no way to repair it except to have the whole rear hub changed.

Miraculously, as I continued to cycle, the freehub managed to hold up with only the occasional slipping of the hub. We could only pray that it could tahan all the way to Mersing, and hopefully, there would be a suitable bike shop in the town that could help to replace the hub.

I really should have sent the bike for a full servicing before the trip!

Taking a break at a road side food stall

21km more to go!

Fortunately, we managed to make it all the way to Mersing without further incident. By the time we cycled into town and checked into our accommodation for the night, it was time for dinner. As it was a Sunday, the bike shops in town were closed, so I had to get it repaired the next morning before we set off for Rompin. Good thing it was a short ride of only 60km to Rompin the next day.

We made it! - In front of our Mersing hotel

For dinner, we wanted to have seafood but our favourite restaurant was full house! Apparently it was Father's Day so many families were eating out that night. (Last year, when we went to Mersing during our 2007 ride, we also could not eat at that restaurant as it was closed)

Anyway, we still had a hearty cze char dinner at an eating place near our hotel and went back to have an early night.

Prologue

The very first time we did our Length of Malaysia ride, it was in August 2007. We left in early August and made it back to Singapore in a little more than 2 weeks.

I didn't take many photos during that trip, so this time, to compensate, I decided to write about our travels in this simple blog.

Initially, we had not planned to do the Length of Malaysia ride again after our attempt in 2007. The original plan was to try to execute a Length of Taiwan in June '08. However, due to the history of bad weather, especially typhoons, in the mid-year in Taiwan, we figured it was a better choice to postpone the Taiwan ride to a later time.

So, we settled on doing the Malaysian ride again - this time with longer distances ridden daily and also an extended 4D3N stay in the beautiful Perhentian Islands.

We hope you will enjoy this blog, and perhaps be inspired to do the same!