Driving Down South

The last time mad redo1 was in Johor was back in 2009. That was when he travelled down south with the Terengganu President's Cup team for the final of that competition in Pasir Gudang against Johor FC.

On that occasion he travelled by bus.

Last weekend saw he travelled down south again. However this time he drove for the first time to the Darul Takzim land. The destination was Tanjung Leman in the Mersing District to cover the third leg of the 2012 Malaysian Match Racing Circuit (MMRC).

It was a smooth drive even though mad redo1 had to make a couple of stops before leaving the Darul Iman land due to drowsiness. He used the Route 3 that took him through Pekan, Nenasi, Rompin before arriving at Mersing, a town that looked familiar but completely differed after his last visit in 1982.

There was no time to stop thus mad redo1 drove on through the small town of Jemaluang which again was not the same place as he had in his memory. More grey cells had died it seemed.

Not far from Jemaluang mad redo1 arrived at a familiar looking place just before Maghrib. It was indeed the same place the bus that carried the Terengganu contingent had stopped for lunch on their way back from Pasir Gudang back in 2009.

However, it was still another 25km drive from there and after confirming with Rahyu of T-Best that nobody would be at the chalet at the time mad redo1 decided to have his dinner first. 

Afterward he continued his journey through the narrow road and after driving through the dark with the beam almost constantly ON, mad redo1 arrived at the chalet compound. Unfortunately the guys he was supposed to share the chalet with was not around as they were still at the media centre.

Eventually they came back. These guys were from the webnews portal: KL Pos while another one was the official photographer for the event, a company called Desiran Image.

For the next few days mad redo1 spent his time at the media centre and also on the water. The first day which he missed saw just a few action as there was no wind but with the arrival of mad redo1 it began to pick up and by the final day it was a gutsy 7 to 9 knots.

After three days of racing on the water, the Royal Malaysian Navy Match Racing Team 1 won the event. The skipper, Masyuri Rahmat denied his nemesis, Jeremy Koo from making three wins in a row to keep the answer of who is going to represent Malaysia in the Monsoon Cup hanging until the last leg in Pulau Duyong.

It was a good trip to the south and certainly the hospitality from the organizer was top-class. As always.

The drive back to kT was another smooth one with no untoward incident at all. mad redo1 did a brief drive-through the towns of Mersing and Pekan with a brief stop at Nenasi to have nasi puteh for lunch before continuing the journey back home.

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