1st ever convoy to Ulu Yam + Bentong Raub - Pt III

1st June 2008 Day trip - FR Part III

The calm before the storm

During our last stop, some more friendly and meaningful advice from our committee. Take care especially during the dark, rainy days and nights - these roads are not to be taken lightly. I keep their generous words of advice in mind and thank them for sharing.

Pushing off from Gohtong Jaya, needed to brake more since gravity was now aiding my K20Z2 in moving my car along the mostly-down hill journey. Good news is that I don't feel my brakes fading that badly. Maybe because I was traveling at a much slower speed to begin with

All the way down hill, gliding past non-civics on the straights, till finally arrived at the bottom, where the FD's were holed up a the rest area (the one with Petronas station and McDonald's. There was some deliberation as to whether some of them needed to refuel or not since. As for me, I was down 4 bars with 60km since refueling. That's 15km per bar. I usually get 25-30km per bar, so that's twice the standard FC. I think that if I keep driving up and down until I need to refuel, only then would I manage to get only 300km out of a full tank. Currently, I can't get less than 400km before refueling, so I reckon our K20Z2 is almost always very economical unless you are trying hard not to save fuel....

BTBR - don't try to be a hero

So, the next route, BTBR was a totally different experience from UY. The wide roads and scenic vistas were replaced by narrow paths and thick vegetation that formed an overhead canopy, shading us from the light of the afternoon sun. The road surface had evidently seen better days, with patches and potholes. The roads were new to me, and there were many blind corners so it was no surprise that soon, we were out of radio contact. There was a vehicle in front of me, my assessment of the situation is that overtaking was not an option. So, I put the transmission in D, and eased up on the throttle, following the guy in front of me. Might as well enjoy the ride, so we turned up the volume on my HU and continued along.

Somewhere in the middle, the guy we were trailing turned off the road, and the road ahead was clear once again. Pulled over and called Benny for directions (got confused at the fork in the road - one way going to "Bentong" and one way going "KL"). After picking up the trail, we resumed the journey and headed off towards KL. It was confirmed that we were on the right trail, as we managed to catch up with a familiar sliver blue civic driven by Bro Ed. I think he was rolling down on gravity power alone, otherwise, how on earth could I catch up with him? Anyway, he must have waited just to see if I had gotten lost. Well, I guess when we saw me, his right foot swung into action, kicking out of "screen saver" mode as his FD once again disappeared around the bends. Hmm, home advantage, I guess. Eventually, I did catch up with the pack. We bid our farewells and parted company at to toll gate.

On the way, we chanced upon some familiar FD's which appeared to have run in to a flat time. I pulled up onto the road shoulder to see if I could be of any assistance. At that time, the tow-truck had just arrived on the scene too. The downed FD crew saw me, and waved to signal that they were ok and had the situation under control. I stuck my hand out and waved goodbye before catching up with the rest of the convoy, who apparently had made some headway by that time.

To KL and back home

Our Melaka Convoy now headed to Pavilion, KL, where we had lunch at some Japanese Restaurant (forgive my ignorance, but me from small town, can't recognize a single restaurant name in the food court - all sound very high class-lah).





After lunch, we walked around and did some windows shopping and even managed to catch a movie (latest Indiana Jones). By then, it was getting late, so Ah Wei and Benny continued shopping, while the rest decided to head home.

Being in the middle of unfamiliar territory (KL), I depended on my GPS to lead our two FD's out back on to the highway. Once Hanne recognized the roads, he performed his signature move - honk and overtake - to disengage and continue on the way. Wai Yee and I decided to take the scenic route through the trunk road, and only joined up on the PLUS highway at the Seremban interchange. Traffic to the south was bearable, traffic towards the north however, was crawling. Highway got four lanes, since no difference - still jam like always. Ironically, Bro Tankiasu was in Melaka for holidays, I hope he's not one of the cars stuck in the jam on the way back to KL....

Anyway, we arrived back in Melaka. I dropped Wai Yee off at her place and returned home. Don't know about the rest, but I was practically half-dead / battery-low mode until this morning....

Well, that's it for our day trip to UY, BTBR, KL. I'd like to thank Benny for organizing the trip, as well as to the committee and other members of 8GCC who turned up and supported this event. Look forward to seeing you guys again during the upcoming Annual Dinner!