For the Sake of Seafood

I was in some taxi, speeding down the narrow winding roads of Changi. Somehow, I was instructing the driver in shifting his gears, or something to that effect. Then, Justin Timberlake’s “Sexy Back” cut into my thoughts and I was jolted awake. It was 3.50am. I was supposed to meet Eng Joo at 4.30am.

He reached early, despite sleeping only for 1 hour! We set off for the Woodlands Customs and as expected, traffic was super sparse. At that weird timing, I was glad to see a friendly smile from the customs officer. Clearing Kompleks Sultan Iskandar, we turned onto the familiar Jalan Tebrau, greeted by the first major climb of the day.

The ride to Kota Tinggi took roughly 2 hours, our progress impaired by hunger settling in. The town was abnormally quiet today and my favorite pit-stop was not ready for business. Hobson’s choice, we settled for another “restoran” where food and service standards were just average. Fortunately, the prices were reasonable.

Stomachs filled, we started on our second phase of the expedition – the ride to Desaru and subsequently Sungei Rengit. The weather was in our favor today and we made good progress. I started to face headwind halfway through, and just 12km from Sungei Rengit, we encountered wet weather. Rain covers up, we pedaled on.

Eng Joo is a strong rider and we managed to reach Sungei Rengit by 11.15am, probably the earliest I have reached the town so far. We met up with Bro and Phebe – I recognized two familiar helmets in the distance (a grey Giro and blue Prowell).

This time, we patronised Restoran Makanan Laut Yoou Kee, 55 Jalan Pantai, "critically acclaimed" for its lobsters (with Mediacorp food critic programmes featured over the shopfront). We had chilli crab, sambal kangkong, breaded prawns, bean curd with mixed vegetables and mushroom soup. The bill including drinks came up to a total RM121. I thought the prices of the main dishes were reasonable, the canned drinks slightly expensive and the serving of snacks very exorbitant! Just one plate of the fried popiah skin snacks caused us RM4! That’s how the restaurants in the area attempt to increase their profit margin – through charges of small yet “hard to reject” items such as wet towels and snacks. Nonetheless, the quality of the food served was fine - we had a good meal.

We paid a visit to the mango farm but harvest season was over. Dejected, we returned to Tanjung Penjelih where I started experiencing slight pangs of hunger. We managed to get onboard a Malaysian bumboat for the ride back to Changi (RM15 per pax, RM3 per bike; as opposed to S$9 per pax and S$2 per bike). Yay!

I lived to regret my decision not to grab a bite at Changi before heading home. In the pouring rain and pervading cold, weakness started infiltrating my system. I just couldn’t find any more strength amidst my hunger to continue pedaling. I am just glad my mental strength held me through the last few kilometres and the moment I reached home, I started gorging on any food I could find. =(

Total distance: 200km approx.
Money spent: RM54
Participants: LSH, Eng Joo, Bro, Phebe