Of course, riding such a distance up and just going for the race is kinda boring. So the group decided that we roam Kuala Lumpur for 2 days shopping and chilling out before we head down to Sepang for the race.
Day 1
The journey starts early in the morning where we meet up at Gelang Petah Petronas station. The whole group consists of:
- 4 x Suzuki Hayabusas
- 1 x Yamaha Fazer FZ1S
- 1 x Honda VTR1000 SP2
- 1 x Honda 2008 Fit
- 1 x Volkswagen Golf GTI
Considering that there are 2 cars following the group, the drivers are kind enough to let the bikers place their extra baggage into the cars' boots.
Waiting for everyone to arrive at meetup point before moving off...As we moved off very early in the morning (6.30am), most of us had not taken any breakfast and so we stopped at Pagoh R&R for breakfast and fuel. While the Busas still have about 1/2 tank left of fuel, my bike was like down to less than 20% of the tank, way lesser than the SP2! Seems like my bike has the worse fuel efficiency in the group... sigh.
Arrival at Pagoh R&ROnce filling up our stomach and topping up the fuel tanks, we moved on to Sungei Besi R&R as the next stop for fuel. However, me & Bryant had to make one more fuel topup at Ayer Keroh due to our short fuel range.
Once we reached Sungei Besi, we pumped up the bikes and waited for the cars to arrive as we wanted to ride/drive into the city together which is less than 30km away. So while waiting for the cars, I took some shots for the fun of it....
After everyone had rested enough, most of us can't wait to reach the hotel and unload our stuffs so that the group can start their shopping spree. The road to Hotel Nova @ Jalan Bukit Bintang had not changed much so we didn't have much difficulty finding our way there. Thanks to Nokia Maps, Darren & his Black Tortise managed to find his way to the hotel despite losing us during the way thereOnce reached the hotel, we parked outside the building as what I and AngKuGuay usually do whenever we come to our regular accomodation spot. Once parked, we loaned our stuffs at the car and hotel luggage room as it was too early to check in then.
So we went for an early lunch at a nearby coffeeshop where we had their local Lor Mee and Ban Mee (which are very different from our local ones) before we proceed to the Bukit Bintang Shopping Centre, a shopping mall we never miss whenever we ride up to KL.Once it's time to check in, we got our keys and brought our stuffs up to unpack and clean up ourselves for the later part of the day. As our newlywed couple Tish and Blurz decided to join us at the VERY last minute, they got to share the room with the only single in the group, ME.
As Tish & Blurz need to go get some stuff for Blurz's contact lens, I encountered this BMW R1200LT from Karzakstan parked at the hotel which had travelled many countries including Singapore, which was its previous stop before coming to this hotel. So took a couple of pictures but never really gotten the chance to speak to the rider himself.
When the evening is near, the grouup gathered up and proceed to another of our regular hangout: Telawi Street Bistro. However, timing was pretty bad and no cab seems to willing to bring us there, probably due to the congested traffic conditions. So we took a considerable walk to the nearest monorail station @ Sungei Wang and proceed to KL Sentral station
There we have to walk another distance to ANOTHER station which is a LRT station to catch another train to an area near Telawi Street. We were supposed to take a cab there but the traffic situation there is just as worse. In the end, QuizeSilver highlighted to the group that he found the destination is not a long walk away and with his GPS phone, we managed to reach our long awaited hangout. And yeah, by then everyone is hungry as a pig LOL.
Down there we started ordering our drinks and food, not forgetting one of my fav free starter from the bistro: Sour Olive with Bread. We had our usual soup, which is the mushroom soup and some of their well-known dishes. However, to most of our disappointment, their standard seems to have dropped.... and we are even considering whether to come back there again on the next visit.How can we end the dinner without the initialisation of Chilli Padi Volka to our newest member? This time Amy, QuizeSilver's gal, and Darren will be "initialised" and inducted into the group by toasting the potent drink to the group. Luckily, both of them handle the drink. However, poor me, I and AngKuGuay asked for Wasabi Volka (since we never tried it before) and the moment I downed the drink, the drink kinda burnt up my stomach.... worse than my usual gastric attacks...Think I am bothered more about the stomach burning than the nasal choking by the wasabi LOL. This is what I called self-tekan move and from this drink I had realised my body had really gone weak muahahaha.
Think the night is over? You wished. the group decided that we go to Zouk (yes, there's a Zouk in KL as well) to chill out before we call it a night. Seems that the girls are having more fun than the guys and the faces shown in the picture speaks it all LOL.
Day 2
Early in the morning, we had gathered up for the breakfast at Jalan Petaling, going to our usual coffeeshop, which is AngKuGuay's favorite, as that's where his favorite coffee is brewed. Once we had our breakfast, we moved on to shop along the street where cheap "branded" goods are sold to tourists like us. Of course, I won't miss visiting the famous Muah Chee stall for the unique flavoured Muah Chee.
AngKuGuay with his trademark look LOLIn the afternoon, most of the group went back to the hotel room to rest until dinnertime, while I, with Red Devil & LavaLife, went to Low Yat Square (Equivalent of Singapore's Sim Lim Square) to get poisoned with new gadgets. While the stuffs are tempting (the thumbdrives are really dirt cheap), we managed to hold off the urge so we only get what we need to get: LavaLife got her "chong" phone headset and I got myself Sony earbuds since my Panasonic earbud had gone up the lorry.....
Come night, we went down to the food street to have our dinner. The street is just in front of the hotel (one of the main reasons why we chose this hotel as our regular accommodation choice) so it won't be long before we found a good seafood stall for our seafood extravangansa. Now come to realise... we didn't even call for crabs WTF!!! LOL. Nevertheless the food is nice and we headed back to the hotel after the meal and we chilled out at Bryant's room for chitchat session to cheer him up. For obvious reasons, I had chosen not to disclose the details in this blog.
Day 3
This is the day why we had this trip in the first place. MotoGP!
For many of them, they had been there before but for me, it's a first. I must say I am pretty excited and at the same time, feeling pissed cos of the freaking hot weather and I am wearing a touring jacket with helmet & tankbag, walking for Hell-knows how long before reaching the mainstand. By the time I unload everything, my Tee is literally soaked with my sweat... and I really mean LITERALLY.That was really my first time seeing such a massive gathering of bikes of different brand, class and types of bikes in one single place. You see bikes coming from Thailand as well. I must say it was a breathtaking scene.
And on the way, Tish highlighted something that is pretty interesting. Look at the photo and you'll know why
Irony LOLOnce settled down, it won't be long before the 125cc class race had started. I had expected the bikes to be loud but they were even louder than what I had expected. It came to a point that I really had to use earplugs to filter out the piercing part of the noise. During the race, I noticed the Suzuki Rizla+ team brought out their MotoGP bike to perform some tuning and I had never heard such sweet, loud, rumbling engine in my life until then. The sound can be heard from where I was seated and the pits were like about minimum 200m away. Here's the proof.
Shortly after, 250cc class race started and in the afternoon, the most anticipated race is beginning. I saw Casey Stoner's Ducati in the flesh riding out of the pits to his starting line and of course, Rossi's Yammie riding past as well. Lavalife went hysterical again when Rossi rode past the the grandstand LOL. Once the warmup lap had ended, it's time for the real deal. With the green light goes on, the bikes launched thru the start line, fighting for the first position. Perdrosa started the race in the first position, however overtaken by Rossi at the middle of the race, who took the first position in the race... as expected. I would have hoped that Stoner could cliched the top 3 positions but seems that he did not perform well in this race and landed in the 6th position.
I would say this is totally new experience for me and as a biker, it is another personal objective accomplished. Lastly, I will like to thank the group for bringing out the fun and laughter that makes this trip a tiring but very enjoyable one. And while browsing thru the photos/videos, I simply couldn't resist the urge to share this video of Tish's trademark statement LOL
