So I'll now re-post the entry I made from the trip Paige and I took on our route recce to Mersing a couple of months ago;
With a full tank of over-priced local gas, Paige and I saddled up on the trusty R1 and took a blast up into Malaysia; for the hell of it, as a bit of a recon mission to see what the border crossing entailed, and what the potential routes for the last part of the bike ride could be.
All was well to start with... We didn't get lost, the local drivers were significantly more courteous than their Singaporean counterparts, and the sun was shining. Unfortunately, the latter didn't last, and we got caught in a torrential tropical downpour.
Resting up at a simple roadside snack stop, we waiting out the worst of the rain before pushing on to Mersing, where we stayed for the night.
It was there I snapped another pic of an amusingly, and some may say, aptly named bank;
The next day was blazing sunshine, so we carved up the winding roads heading back south. The bends were great fun to slice around, although often the road conditions were less than perfect, poor Paige having to hang on hard to avoid being pogo'd off the back! She did enjoy it though, and the ability to twist the throttle and seemingly blast into light-speed, overtaking and leaving pretty much everything else behind like they were going backwards was immensely satisfying! Something I'll have to NOT get too used to, as the grip don't twist on my mountain bike!
As far as the mountain-biking thoughts go...The traffic was not too bad, and I think we'll be OK to cycle along the roads, as although they don't always have much of a shoulder, they are wide and the drivers are pretty patient and used to slow moving 2-wheeled transport. The grades along the route we took were nothing huge (yes, I am allowing for the fact I had an engine), but I'm not sure if that'll be the route we actually head south on... It could more likely be the west coast we come down. And so, we are planning a ride to KL, and possible Penang, so we get an idea of that route.
The border crossing might be a bit of fun though, as the only approach is on a large motorway/interstate sized road... How far we have to cycle along it, I will have to figure out another time, but I didn't see any minor roads joining in to it anywhere near the checkpoint... I reckon we'll wing it OK on the Malaysian side, but once we get to the Singapore side we might have a few frowns...
I'd rather try the Tuas crossing than Woodlands though, as Woodlands is usually completely packed and slow moving.
More things to figure out over the next few weeks anyway.
Good news is that I found out from the customs guys that the Thailand-Malaysia crossing is an easy one to get through, and both US passport holders, as well as NZ citizens like myself, both get 90 day visa-on-entry stamps, so we'll be fine for time in Malaysia.
Now I just hope we can find plenty of Bubble Tea stalls as we ride, because in Johor, Paige and I could only find BURBLE Tea!
- Posted from my amazing iPad!
Location:Hougang Street 92,,Singapore
