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| Kota Iskandar |
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| With our Singapore friends at Chef Prata |
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| Based on the story of "The tortoise and the hare", the tortoises were first to arrive! |
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| Kg Sg Melayu |
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| Kg Sg Melayu |
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| Kg Sg Melayu |
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| Kg Sg Melayu |
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| In the spirit of Christmas, wear something red, green or gold! |
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| Marlborough College |
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| Marlborough College |
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| Puteri Harbour, note the reindeers!!! |
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| When the ladies posed, cameras started clicking! |
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| An obsession with the crown! |
The street outside Chef Prata, Bukit Indah was abuzzed as early as 7.00 am. Even though the stated meet up time was 7.30 am and roll out was 8.00 am, many Johoreans were already there, early....having breakfast, chatting up their friends or setting up their bikes. The "Malaysian Time", a popular quip to describe how we are always late for everything doesn't hold true today. Instead, we appeared the graceful hosts, eager to meet and greet our neighbours!
Arriving at first light, Sibyl even had spare time to take a snooze. Waking up later in a groggy state, she must have clumsily cut her finger while setting up her bike.
The idiom, The Early Bird Catches the Worm cannot be more true today. The hungry ones arrived early for a seating to avoid long queues. While VT, Claudine and Thomas reached Chef Prata timely to get hold of their menu, Sai Kit and his gang sauntered to the corner coffee shop for some real Chinese fare.
It was almost 8.00 am when Philip and his entourage "almost arrived" at Chef Prata. They were held back in indecisiveness 50 meters away when their fellow comrade fell over a bump and injured herself. In pain, she requested to abort her ride and return to Pariss Hotel.
While some crew stayed with her by the roadside, Philip rode over to report on their status. In order to counter everyone's dilemma, Sai Kit offered to ferry her back but the resourceful crew had by then called a Grab Taxi and arranged her ride back.
At that point, another team were just arriving from Singapore! Since they had not had breakfast, Team Johor decided to take a warm up ride to Columbia Asia Hospital and back.
Returning to Chef Prata after a good pump on the pedals, Team Singapore were just about to finish their breakie. We took the customary group photo with our new friends before heading out.
It took awhile for our fellow friends to push off. Leading the ride at 8 kph, it was presumed that the 2 traffic lights stops at Bukit Indah will allow time for them to catch up but somehow they did not! It was then, left to VT to direct them.
On Nusa Idaman, everyone started to pick up speed. At the T-junction to Jalan Ceria, Claudine and Kai Weng stopped to direct riders. However, the likes of Sibyl, Desmond, Kim Hai, Jolin, Chiam, Regis and a few more raced ahead, spurred by Ivan and his Singapore friends who were tailing behind.
While Sai Kit stopped to take photos, Desmond rode ahead to the newly paved road at Horizon Hills. This section is not opened to public use but was our intended route. Strangely, Desmond directed the lead team to turn right to Nusa Sentral while asking everyone else who came later, to go through the barriers. This caused a lot of confusion later on!
The rest of the back riders met Kim Hai and Regis who both stood as markers to direct riders along the way. Passing Regis, Claudine was asked to guide Chew and Nick who had never come by this way. Together, the three reached Kg Sg Melayu expecting to see a large crowd but were clearly perplexed with the lukewarm reception.
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| Sibyl asking for directions |
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| Team "Lost" |
It was then that phones started to ring! The lead team had gone into Nusa Sentral upon Desmond's direction. Everyone had followed thinking the other person knows the way. It was a case of herd mentality!
In all eventualities, we all managed to regroup at Puteri Harbour but that was before some little dramas of tyre puncture, a doctor having to leave the party to attend to his own neck pain and a tour of the kampung's burial grounds.
There was a real threat of rain this morning. Time was also running out for Team Singapore as some of them needed to check out of Pariss Hotel. The route was improvised with a photo call at Kota Iskandar and Mahkota Park before we all said Au Revoir! While the day did not go as smoothly as planned, we can only say some others made long lasting friendship that will sail smoothly into eternity!!!
Photo Credits :
Jolin
Philip Sim
Long Ride Home, Christmas Eve Album
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