Over the past Saturday, some 20-odd riders from the SGNC7 group went up to Malaysia over a day/evening trip which we call West-East-West ride (WEW ride). Four of the riders had pillions with them (yay!) so I had some female company!
We all gathered at Gelang Patah R&R (Northbound) Petron around 7.30am. It definitely felt like there were more people this time compared to the last SGNC ride!
Breakfast
Then we set off to Kanteen31, but it was super packed. So some of us split to eat breakfast nearby. I opted for kaya set toast with 2 half boiled eggs at a coffeeshop, while others went to have the iconic roti canai fix!
We then set off to Desaru.
Desaru Bridge
Of course, the highlight of this journey is to stop at the Desaru Bridge. We quickly lined up along the road shoulder to take a group shot, and then off we go to Pantai Tanjung Buluh Sedili! I’ve never been to this part of East Malaysia through the J173/213 road.
The route was pretty scenic, even though there were some light drizzle at some points during the ride.
Pantai Tanjung Buluh Sedili
We had a short midway briefing at Pantai Tanjung Buluh Sedili and a short group photo.
Motorbikes against the sea – Photo creds: Faizal
Celop Celop 5A
Since it was nearing lunch time, we road up even further to Celop Celop 5A located in the nice seaside town of Sedili Besar, Johor. We reached around 12pm, which was a little bit too early as the jetty-side restaurant was only open from 12.30pm. Thankfully, that worked out well, because shortly after we were seated, the whole restaurant was full with locals!
The food was no short of amazing. We had a spread of sotong (octopus/squid), fried fish, tom yum seafood soup, some stir fried vegetables, white rice and refreshing syrup lime juice. There were around 26 of us, and the damage turned out to be 30MYR per person!
Delicious spread of food!
BHPetrol River Ridge
After that, we needed to fill up the bellies of our bikes at BHPetrol River Ridge (Jalan Jemaluang, Jemaluang, 86810, Johor, Malaysia). At this point, we were a little bit cautious about the weather as parts of the route we were about to take were raining. Welp, none of us wore raincoats and decided to embrace the rain!
Emerald Lake
We continued the journey to reach Emerald Lake. At this point, the journey was quite relaxing and not too challenging yet! It was rather deserted, no toilets. We took a quick group photo and went on… to the start of “The Betong of Johor”. Keep in mind that this is monsoon season, and the rain was non-stop. Not too heavy till it warrants a full stop, but enough to keep the ride rather dangerous if we’re not careful.
Group photo of motorbikes against Emerald lake – Photo creds: Faizal
The selekoh (twists in the roads) were quite interesting and challenging. I practiced my trailbraking skills, since using rear braking will cause the bike to fishtail (even though NC750X has ABS, which prevents wheel locking).
There was a point were the turn was quite narrow, and a rider and pillion in front of me almost went off the road. I screamed in the Cardo set… (so scary!)
Thankfully nobody was hurt, but those who witnessed it and went through that were definitely scarred. We rode a little less reckless (we weren’t actually) and took more precautions to slow down even more before the turns.
Ayer Hitam Petrol Station
It was time to then make our way to Ayer Hitam (west side of Peninsular Malaysia). It was a long 1h 40 min ride passing by Kluang town. My butt was starting to become a rock honestly because I rarely ride beyond 1h 30 mins. Extreme test of stamina!
By then, it was around 5pm-ish, so we made our way to our final stop for this ride – Coxn Cafe Pontian!
Coxn Cafe Pontian
When we reached, it was super dark as the sun had just set. Again, I have no idea how the recce team found this gem of a cafe.
Entrance of Coxn Cafe – Photo creds: Faizal
The food was super good. Honestly, even with a huge group like us, the owners were able to capture our orders perfectly. No missing orders! I had the Lamb Steak and Chocolate Milkshake (I copied this order from Syafiq because I was too lazy to think). Good choice! Trust our official videographer Gen Z!
After that, half of them went to EZ Riders Cafe to get their bikes washed while I followed the other half back to SG. One of the riders’ bikes (Tang’s) had a weak battery. Thankfully Bosco had a jump starter. Somehow Yongjia and I lost Tang after the SG customs… but all of us made it home by 10pm-ish!
Quite a fun ride, honestly. SGNC7 is one of the biker groups that is quite enjoyable to be in. Some are really jokers, so we need to take their conversations with a pinch of salt sometimes haha. Still waiting to meet other female NC750/700 riders! Please join us!
Do watch Syafiq’s (our official videographer’s) take on what actually went down during this trip 🙂
@syafiqbjai SGNC Year End Ride – West to East to West #sgnc #insta360 #sgbike #sgtouring #sgbiketok #malaysia #sgtiktok ♬ Dj Last Friday Night Viral Tik-tod (Remix) – Dhota Ap
Leave a Reply