The much awaited Proton P3-21A has been a hype from the day it was showcased during the roadshow at Bukit Jalil. The car was heavily masked as shown in this photo at Paultan.org.
Unmasked, this is how the P3-21A, or otherwise known officially as Proton Preve, looks like.
From Malaysia-motoring-news.blogspot.com
Touted to be the replacement for the Persona or Waja, this car surely have some impressive specs for the racer boy. In fact, it is being compared to the other two compact sedan by Toyota and Honda. If the specs is true, then the Japanese will be in for a surprise dip in sales soon.
From some site in Facebook. Taken from the same website above. However, note that unit conversion to PS is not accurate. Also, if the replacement is for Waja, then it should be compared against Altis and Civic. No doubt Preve will have a huge advantage with pricing.
Malaysians love their cars and somehow, information such as these WILL leak out. SO, someone working in Proton has perhaps, "left" the full spec sheet, on the table during one of his/her Teh Tarik Session (TTS) perhaps. Here is a scanned copy of the Spec Sheet obtained from various sources online.
click to enlarge
The premium model comes with 7-speed Continous Variable Transmission (CVT) and has up to 103kW power at 5000 RPM, which translate to about 138horsepower (HP) or 140 metric HP (PS).
The above power could be obtained due to the CamPro CFE engine that is also being used by the current Proton Exora Bold. That means, it is a light pressure turbocharged engine equipped car. That explained the flat torque of 205nM between 2000 - 4000RPM engine speed. The above is only true for the Premium model and does not apply to the basic model with the more basic CamPro IAFM engine.
Estimated (unofficial) selling price for the Premium model is at RM78,500 (not sure if on-the-road (OTR) or otherwise), but it is a close RM10K or RM12K when compared to the top line Toyota Vios and Honda City respectively.
Lets hope the above is true - and pray that the above will not translate to more reckless modification or driving on Malaysian road. Our Driving school do not equip us to drive a turbocharged car - be it light turbo or otherwise.
I hope you enjoyed Part 1 of the adventure. For this part today, i will write briefly on the food and everyday life for the locals and myself. To start with, anyone wants to take a cold shower? That is the ONLY option available short of boiling water.
These are rainwater by the way. Water is not potable and harvested from rain.
The Pamukan Resort is managed by the palm oil plantation estate and is a guest house used to house guests such as myself and also visitors. I have been to another palm oil resort and i must say that this one tops it all. The amenities are good and most importantly clean. Toiletries placed in the room would make some hotel looked like a motel. There were real shampoo and real body wash liquid provided and not those 2-in-1 or 5-in-1 crap. The rooms are cleaned (swept and mopped) everyday, your laundry washed and ironed, shoes cleaned and your pajamas left on he bed folded. Some of us are not used to these luxuries and even resorted to hiding our dirty clothing away in case the take and wash it. Somehow, we even make conscious effort to clean the shoe we wear to prevent them from doing it for us.
Officers' Living Hall. Note the LCD and soundsystem setup
Less than officers' Hall. Note the CRT TV.
The only thing missing was Internet connection, which essentially explained why i was missing from the virtual world for the past week. Perhaps, it could be a good thing in some sense.
Our meals were all cooked by the live in family at the resort. It was fantastic food if you aren't too choosy like me and watching what you eat. Every meal has rice. Understandably, it is the energy needed for the Palm Oil estate workers. no complains on the meals on the 4 nights i was staying there. One thing to note, Indonesians in Kalimantan loves their rice as it is. They don't believe in nasi lemak or briyani. Just give them the plain white rice and it will rock their world.
Sardin curry for breakfast on rice, sambal, vegetable and tempe.
Rice, fried fish, vegetable, sambal and tempe for lunch
Oxtail soup that is almost stew like for dinner
Rice, prawns, turnips, tempe and well, sambal belacan...
...and sup sapi (beef soup) with green bean sprout and lemon
Rice, fried fish, sate, vegetable, sambal kerang and chicken soup
The cockles were huge. Half the usual spoon. Compared to the usual sized next to it
Rice, prawns, vegetables, fried chicken,, keropok and sambal belacan
and won't be complete without a tempe. This one, made from mashed tofu
Rice, egg curry, sambal ikan bilis and baby corn vegetable.
..and tempe...
Apart from these main dishes which never did repeat itself, the cook were good with afternoon delicacies for tea time. They make an assortment of kueh and even cakes which sometimes makes you wonder if they are secretly enjoying stuffing these down their guests' gastronomical tracts.
Pandan swiss roll and cucur udang with potent bird eye chilli
Which was precisely why you need the cold shower!
They make these kueh keladi or yam kueh. coated with icing sugar on the outside and coconut grating inside.
It was delicious. I refrain from second helping.
I was told that the Estate GM for this part of the world eats the same food as we do. He is the numero uno when it comes to the estates and manages the whole plantation with his equal, the Mill GM. Proudly so, both are Malaysians.
It has been a challenge eating clean but i told myself that i will not have enough of time to dictates what to eat. What i can do is to limit the portion on items such as rice and fried items (which is like of everything) and load up more on vegetables. Tough, but do-able. I came to KalSel weighing 68kg and got back weighing 70kg. That is how easy one can put on weight when a meal due to fried item will cost you 700kcal at least.
If you love spicy food, this will be heaven. I have my limitation with spicy food and had to tread it with caution. Especially so when the next day myself and PC planned for a short 30minutes run before going for work. Running in estate will allow us to mingle with the working class and see their daily activities. We started running at about 5.45am in the morning which by then has already started to get bright.
Fresh from...sleep. hahaha!
The biggest challenge of running in the estate was the terrain that forces the core to balance. Apart from the undulating route which goes up as fast as it went down, the air was fresh from the short rain the night before and you get to see the sun rises towards the end of your running session.
Having fun sweating
Cycling to school about 5km away is a luxury. Most walk especially those that can't afford to get their kids bike.
Along the way, we were greeted by the locals going to work (at 6am?) and most gave us a friendly honk on their motorbike or a friendly wave. I do not believe it is every day's sight to see two bule (foreigners, in Indonesian accent) running in their estate road. There is a local bus, which belongs to the estates that goes around picking up anyone and shuttling them close to, or to their destination.
Being chased by the bus?
It was a short 5.8km run for us within 35minutes. Happy that my iphone4 has build in GPS chips that can be used to log my run. I could not see the map until i got internet connection later. But it is more than enough. More so when it is not everyday i would get to run at that part of the world.
Even GoogleMap don't think the place is important!
Oh ya, a photo of the sunrise that greeted me for the past 5 mornings?
Attempting Barefoot walking/running with PC the next morning
The sunrise is magical and the countryside starts to get the warmth by 6.30am. Fantastic.
The rest of the days there were spent shuttling between the Resort and to the Palm Oil mills around the area. Here, distance is secondary as 8km journey will take 15minutes and a 40km journey a long 1.5hours. Undulating estate roads where the ground are a mixture of silt and sand (i have not forgotten my soil borelog!) and often using river stones such as those above to line them.
Typical road and traffic. Sky is always blue with clouds. Fantastic.
Estimated distance and travel time with average 30km/h driving
The chart above shows how critical time is instead of distance when moving within the estates and mills. Of course, it is often just a guidance or best case scenario. Once it rain or once a truck or two get stuck or breakdown, it is "good luck to you". Remember the photo from Part 1? Here is for Part 2.
No tools? Got hands!
Story has it that the Isuzu truck was coming down from the slope a bit faster than it should and lost traction upon seeing the Toyota truck that was stuck in the road due to overloading. So, the only exit point for the commuters were blocked off by the Isuzu truck. It is heartwarming to see how locals comes out to help, with their bare hand to move the stones away so that the Toyota truck could try to move out from the silt. This is everyday occurrence and surprisingly, the people are so patience and i have not seen any incidences of road rage, name calling, finger shoving or things familiar with all of us driving in Klang Valley road. We should consider to send Malaysians to South Kalimantan to make them better driver.
Everyone lined up. No one cut queue. In Malaysia, trust someone will go from the back all the way to the front...
That is it for Part 2. Wait up for Part 3 where i will share more. :)
With more Budget Airlines coming up within the region, more people can afford to fly. With flights made more affordable, something got to give - common sense and common courtesy goes flying out the window. Many times we have seen people rushing forward when the flight call for boarding. Then you get them asking for you to change seat because "i want to sit with my wife", when you paid to choose your seat. Worse is when they start giving you the evil look when they took what is yours - window view.
I had my fair share of perils flying on budget airlines and that include rude flight attendant. Just because we fly budget, doesn't mean we have to be treated like budget travellers.
So, when a friend shared this video on my timeline, it dawned to me that with Budget Airlines, more can fly, more can also, well, behave badly. With the airline trying to fit the maximal load into each plane, that would meant less leg space, seats that recline slightly and fight, that could result in them. Enjoy the video. It is a pity, as the lady is pretty - but she lacked class. She should be stuffed in the Cargo space where she can shove the luggage around.
The write up on the Youtube video says the following: A woman allegedly assaulted two men on board a Tiger Airways flight from Ho Chi Minh to Singapore on Saturday after she accused one of them of kicking the back of her seat, according to various media reports.
The incident involved Yeo Chia Keat, 37, a project executive who was with his wife, as well as his friend Chua Teck Kwang, 37, a technician who was with his family on the same flight.
According to socio-political website TR Emeritus, Yeo bumped the seat in front of him while stretching his legs. Upset, the daughter of the Vietnamese lady seated in front of him then started yelling at Yeo and his wife.
The daughter then started "shifting her seat up and down repeatedly", Yeo told local Chinese daily Lianhe Wanbao, but the couple ignored her.
Yeo told the upset passenger when their flight landed in Singapore at around 5:20pm that they could go and make a police report together if she was not happy over what happened, but that simply enraged the woman, according to media reports.
Chua recounted to Lianhe Wanbao that the woman flung her hand-carried luggage at Yeo's head, and after the former tried to intervene, she turned to hit him instead.
"She used her sharp nails and scratched my face and right arm", Chua was quoted by the same paper as saying.
Yeo's wife then took a video of the scene with her handphone.The Vietnamese woman can be seen hurling words of abuse at Chua while passengers began alighting.
After which, she attacked him by pushing his chest. Chua's forehead was seen to be bleeding after her attack. A lady tried to stop her by was also hit by her. They then threatened the woman by repeatedly saying that they would call the police on her.
While exiting the plane, shouts from both parties attracted the attention of the airport policemen. Chua told Lianhe Wanbao that the woman claimed the two men had hit her mother.
According to TR Emeritus, Chua claimed that the woman then unbuttoned her blouse and showed her chest to the policemen, telling them that Yeo had molested her.
Chua then called the police, who upon arrival tried to mediate between the two parties.
He later sought treatment at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital for cuts to his forehead and scratches on his chest and arm.
I have been missing from the blogsphere, Facebook-sphere and
Twitter-sphere for the past 1 week. I hope some of you are still around to read
what I will be writing today. If some of you wondered, I was in SouthKalimantan, or Kalimantan Selatan, or fondly known as KalSel the past week.
I am here for work and it has been an eye opener for many of us
whiner back home, especially those that complains constantly about how bad our
roads conditions are or how much we can’t live without our water heater for
that much needed hot shower.
This week, I will save all of you my blog readers the agony of
reading health, exercises and boring stuff about how I lost 17kg in the past 8
months. In fact, there will be pictures and post about the very food I
complained to be unhealthy (Yay? Or Yay!).
I will attempt to provide as vivid
and as lucid of explanation for this particular working trip in a few
installments. Having really limited time and playing catch-up with the family
upon return and also to get back into the groove with the social media, so bear
with me.
My adventure to KalSel pretty much started on the morning on March
18, 2012. I set my alarm at 4.30am so I could get up and prepare myself. The
taxi has been arranged two days before to pick me up at 5.30am in the morning. My
flight is at 8.30am and I can’t miss the flight. There will not be another flight and no one will wait for me.
Don't get left behind. Picture from my Instagram
You know what they say about things that could go wrong? Yeah, it
pretty much started off wrongly. I snoozed my alarm and did not wake up until
the taxi driver called me. Even that, I thought it was the alarm and I tried
snoozing it – again.
What comes up next was the frantic running about like Mr. Bean and
waking up wifey, took a quick shower (with soap), changed (thank God I put out
the clothes I wanted to wear the night before), wore sandals, kissed Ms. Wife and off I went – all
in 6minutes flat. I am proud that I only forgot to brush my teeth and have
breakfast.
The taxi driver asked me if I am late and should he drive faster.
Assured him that I have enough time if he just stick to his speed limit. After
all, rushing sometimes will slow you down as you could meet with an accident –
which was what happened to wifey’s car a day before when a car rushing did not
stop a junction and rear-ended her car. The lady that rear-ended the car told
us that she was rushing to work.
Back to the story of KalSel, yes, I managed to reach the Puduraya
for Airplane aka LCCT on time at 6.30am. A short wait and I had my two other
colleague, PC and Zain joining me at the bag drop counter. No drama here as
everything was done two days before. I know – I am anal when it comes to these
arrangements especially when travelling. We had breakfast shortly preparing for
what will come our way which will be travelling for 8-hours from Balikpapan to
Pamukan Bay.
Pretty decent. Maybe because I am not choosy. Black with no sugar for the win.
The flight was on-time and we found ourselves seated between all
the “tetangga” or the Indonesian neighbours. They must had been to KL for the
weekend for some work or shopping trip and I found myself seated right in the middle
of 8 others Indonesians. I got 3-hours to learn the lingo or subconsciously
soak them all up.
Onboard the Caterham Plane
With little geographical knowledge of KalSel, I estimated the
journey is towards Gunung Aru, which is about 400km from Balikpapan. I found out the journey was only 200-odd km. So, 8hours sound
pretty, long. It is like snailing pace from KL to Ipoh which will be a typical
2-hours toll to toll journey. But 8-hours? Like Seriously?
Landed. A short walk from plane to Immigration at Sepinggan International Airport
Misleading artwork for the Visa On Arrival
We landed at Sepinggan International Airport and a short walk got
us into the immigration clearance office. The place is small. With only three
counters available; one for VOA (tourists/social visiting pays USD25 for a
30-days visa), one for Foreigner or Bule and citizens of Indonesia, and one
more for citizens only. We were asked to move to the VOA line and it took us
almost 45minutes to clear the immigration. We were the last in-line (for VOA)
and the others behind us was diverted to the other two counters.
160 people from the plane, into 3 lines. I should had seen it coming.
We secured our
luggage (it is conditional release, so make sure you don’t lose your luggage
chit if you are checking in luggage). Then, it is a compulsory custom and
immigration x-ray scanning upon exiting the airport. Don’t ever think of
bringing in anything funny – though my EDC was in my toiletries bag.
Upon exiting the airport, we met up with the other team – the
potential JV partners of the estates and mills we are visiting. There were 5 of
them and the total strength was 8 person. We waited for a while and had the
representative from KalSel meeting us. We had to take three taxis from the
airport to the jetty to catch a speedboat across the Balikpapan Bay. The distance
was less than 15km and it cost us IDR450,000 or MYR150! Time taken were about
20minutes.
Toyota Vios as Taksi, as they call it.
The short drive took us down this Oil&Gas town and I was
starting to wonder if the 8-hours as told by the driver sent by the estates
were true. They initially estimated an hour from Airport to Jetty, but it was
only 20mins! So, can’t be that bad. See how I was still trying to convince
myself over the journey? Those that know me will know why the apprehension.
Those that don’t know, I have motion sickness and was known to barf from KL to
Penang on the train when I was about 5 years old travelling with my parents for
work. We arrived at the Semarang Port Jetty where we will take speedboat instead of Ferry to cross the Balikpapan Bay.
You eat this at your own risk. Their version of Ais Kacang
It takes only 15minutes on board the suicidal speedboat, where no life jacket are given and you do ride at your own risk.
Colorful Speedboat with no proper chairs
It was in a way fun though, never mind the rickety old speedboat that make those fast double on-board speedboat to Redang looked like a luxury boat.
Kreenggg Kreennngg!!
How simple was the speedboat? Well, here is a photo of our driver, Pak Shamsul (left) sitting at the front with the boatman.
Even Pak Shamsul is hanging on for his dear life
We reached the other side of the bay and was warned by Pak Shamsul not to allow the locals to carry our bags. They will make a fast one on us for a short walk across the jetty. A few of us got charged IDR50,000 or about RM15 for that short 150m walk.
The Plantation host prepared 3 Toyota Innova, otherwise known as Toyota Kijang to take the eight of us from Balikpapan to Pamukan. The team was split to 3-3-2 with each Kijang assigned a Supir (driver) each. Apparently, the Supir drove from Banjarmasin - 16hours from Balikpapan...
Refuelling before journey...from a Jerrycan stored behind the car. Talk about exposure to BTEX inhalation...
From there, the adventure officially begins. With no idea of what lies ahead, we hop onto the Kijang (but the one i was in was a new Avanza and we were to change to Kijang at Tanah Grogot as the Avanza would not survive the road after Tanah Grogot) and mentally prepared for the long 6-hours drive (as it takes an hour from Airport to Jetty, another hour across the bay). The thoughts of why the Avanza will not survive the journey after Tanah Grogot kept me awake.
Yeap, that's the town road!
10minutes into the journey, our van stopped by the road side. Our Supir told us that he need to refuel the car. But I do not see any petrol station. However, what i saw was makeshift stalls selling petrol (otherwise known as Bensin or Benzene in Indonesia) using those 5liter plastic containers.
Cewek (girl) that knows her liquid. Solar refers to diesel and also known as Suria.
Talk about occupational hazard. I am sure she won't suspect the exposure to the hydrocarbon fumes and sun will potentially give her bad complexion. But i guess she is very well prepared with some personal protective equipment (PPE) in the form of...cooling powder on the face.
Strong one hand operation. That explained the delts.
We refuelled with about 10liters of petrol and if the convention is right, Tanah Grogot is about 100km (assuming the average fuel consumption will be 10km/l) - so, it should just take slightly over an hour. Conversation ensued with the Supir and i came to realised that our Bahasa Malaysia is not understood by the locals. I had to be quick and start to catch on some para-phrase to bridge the communication. Somehow, i know i will need to learn it fast - there are possibility i will need to perform the presentation in the best possible comprehensible way.
The main road starts getting tighter and smaller. Polisi (Polis) riding side by side - wearing bulletproof vest!
About an hour into the car ride, i start to realise that the car hardly exceed the speed of 50km/h. The road seems to be riddled with potholes and we were sharing the road with other heavier vehicles and with other commuters on two wheels. It starts to get you thinking if that 100km will ever happen. What follows for the next close to 3hours was vehicles overtaking recklessly, motorbikes coming up the wrong direction, sudden braking due to huge potholes, human standing right in the middle of the road, 150 gallon barrels placed in the middle of the road and other nuances that will make the average Klang Valley citizen cringe and show their middle finger.
And that include "toll collection" and/or what seems to be "fund raising to build a mosque at the area you pass-by". Notice the 3-tonne truck in front and that the road is no longer tarred.
I wasn't joking about human standing in the middle of the road as you can see from the photo above. Apparently, this part of Indonesia is having some problem with their fuel supply. Ironic as Balikpapan is an O&G town. We were told people line up, or park their cars overnight at petrol station to fuel up!
Traffic jam caused by these stations along the way, further aggravating the travelling speed. If you think the NGV taxis in Klang Valley should be shot for lining up along the main road, then be prepared to see how it is at 10 times worse here.
After what seems like eternity, we finally reached Tanah Grogot. It is like small town where it gets a bit more civilised compared to the road that we drove on for the past 4 hours. Lunch was served at 5.30 in the late afternoon, or was it dinner?
Hungry hungry hungry. Everything is fried! :(
Disconnected from the luxury of internet connection and a free way to keep in touch with the family, finding a wifi spot (that is free) is like striking gold. It could be the very last for days to come.
Internet! Yay! Nevermind the pre-broadband days 56K speed...
I was not sure if i was hungry or was just gonna eat my misery away. I ordered a plate of fried duck with lalapan (or salad) that comes with rice. PC, my colleague/senior in office went a bit adventurous and ordered Nasi Bakar or Burn Rice with Kampong Fried Chicken.
My Bebek/Lalapan dengan Nasi. It was a skinny duck with no fat. Some vegetables, compulsory sambal and what looked like ginger paste...i think.
PC's Nasi Bakar with Kampong Fried Chicken, some vege, sambal, ginger paste and water to wash your hand. They assume you will eat with hands - like a man. The nasi bakar is actually just rice that is barbecued/browned using the leaf to wrap the rice in them.
Lunch/dinner was good. As planned, me and PC (riding in the same Avanza) has to change to a larger Kijang for the remaining of the 100km, or more, journey. We are about half-way there. Total travelling time was already close to 5hours since we landed. With an hour rest for us and the Supir, the journey continues. It was about 6.30 and it was already getting dark and the road has no street lights. Our Kijang has misaligned front light. Road getting tighter. Trucks getting more. Potholes got bigger. And the rest of the 100km was nothing more than 30km/h - with a lot of last minute braking, swerving (to the opposing lane and seeing your life flash before you), falling asleep momentary only to be woken up as your head knocks the window due to the extreme movement of the vehicles. By then, the promised 8-hours were running thin. It has been more than 12-hours since i woke up at 5.30am...
Highbeam when unsure. Time : 7pm.
What is that in the middle of the road that cause the car to jam it's brake? Oh, potholes...
This is not estate road yah, the above is still the main trunk road! Motorbikes rides in darkness, some without frontlights and have to brave those destroyed road. We in Klang Valley complains about bad road??? Eat this...
...and this...but careful as...
...swerving to the opposite lane just to get stuck? Sucks big time...
A 10-tonner showing how it should be done. Potholes? What potholes?
Just how really bad was the road? Watch this 28 secs video and tell me if you feel sort of motion sickness. We had to endure almost 140km of these road condition.
Just as you thought the road condition improve enough to allow you to adjust your seat belt, you get surprises (which apparently, are pretty normal in this part of the world) such as the few photos below.
Defuq?
Looked like the only road to get to the other side is now officially blocked by two trucks, laden with goods, sinking to their respective side as they tried to manoeuvre past each other. The convoy of 3 Kijang stopped, got out and "enjoyed the view".
PC the Engineer trying to figure out how that happened while Zain wonders why he was even asked to come along.
There was no way these two trucks could be pushed or moved away without proper tools or tow truck. In fact, i have not seen any tow truck along the road the whole day. It was already 9pm when the above happened. We were officially on the road for no less than 9 hours. Estimated distance to destination is about another 40km and will take about 2hours - best estimate. One thing that i must comment on the people in Kalimantan. They are helpful and selfless. One would expect only the drivers and assistance of both the trucks to be trying to get their vehicle out of the ruts, which is the very typical style of any Malaysians minding their own business. There were three trucks behind the truck facing us from the photo above and they all came down to help. Everyone is doing something to help rectify the situation.
Help came when another truck has cables that can be used to pull the truck out. Noticed the spacing between the two trucks? yeap, they were driving that close to each other!
Many Hands Makes Light Work. No pun intended.
The selfless truck was none other than a truck painted with the image of Indiana Jones. Got to love the artwork and the irony of it.
look at the two photo before this. You will see Indy reversing and positioning to help ;-)
The attempt was not successful, unfortunately. But these Banjarese people do not give up. So, they continue digging, planning, and smoking their Kretek to find a solution. We has already waited for about an hour.
Indy tilting his body to lend weight to the rear tires for more traction. My biggest worry was that the cable used to hook both the trucks will snap and cut someone standing nearby into half.
30minutes later, a 10-tonne truck drove up and offered to help Indy. They discussed and decided the best thing to do was to have the 10-tonne truck pull Indy, while Indy pull the stucked 3-tonner. Think of it as metal orgy of almost epic proportion.
The 10 tonne pulling the 5 tonne pulling the 3 tonne
While waiting for the outcome of the tugging and pulling, a short conversation with the Supir had us understand that the Kijang used to transport us is no ordinary Kijang. These "uncle" van widely used as people mover (within the RM100K price range in Malaysia) is rear-wheel driven and most impressive of all, have trucks suspension absorber and uprated springs.
With a little touching up on the photo above, I am sure Toyota will consider using the image for their marketing purposes! Note the road condition, these cars aren't even 4WD!
Hooking up the 10-tonner to Indy
Finally! After almost 2 hours!
I was expecting the truck to drive off since it unstuck itself. That was when i saw the men started walking towards the hole and trying their best to level off so other vehicles could past! Talk about "after sales services" ;-)
They know well, if they don't level it as much, they can't pass too
Cleared!
We continue our journey and finally reached the destination after almost 12hours on the road. The estate road condition was slight better compared to the trunk road. Due to the amount of time travelling and the road condition, the Supir wanted to get to the destination as fast as they could. All i recalled was being thrown around at the rear seat mercilessly. Holding on to the seat belt and having the restrain activated due to sudden jerking movement was just crazy. It makes the roughest ride i ever had in Kuantan recce-ing for the Xterra biking trail looked like paved heaven! We reached the officer's mess of the plantation otherwise known as Pamukan Resort. A long house that has 12 rooms with each able to fit in 3 person comfortably.
Home for the next three nights
The bed and room - was a welcome sight. We rested the body for work begins the very next day. The amount of time spend travelling from KL to Pamukan was almost a day worth. None of us were looking forward to the return journey to Balikpapan and that was for sure.
Day 1 : 220km travelled at 25km average...
Hope you enjoyed Part 1 of this write up. More will follow and this week will be a super busy week for me, so do drop by on a daily basis for Part 2 as i myself do not know when it will be published too!
