Sunday's morning weather was excellent for riding.
We had no issues cruising from Blue Lagoon to Sungai Panjang before turning off to the Kuala Linggi.
This was the beginning of a series of undulating terrain leading to Malacca.
We thought Malacca's coastline was flat.
Boy, we were wrong!
Kuala Sungai Baru was about 25km from where we started and by mid-day, our tummies were rumbling.
We found this corner coffee shop at the junction towards a fishing village and ordered two plates of 'kwon loh' mee.
The bill came to RM7 for two plates. Not bad. We drank mostly 100PLUS along the way and at this shop, its RM3 for two cans. So far, we spent RM10 for our meals.
From the Kuala Sungai Baru junction, we made our way to a fishing village.
The scene was wonderful there. Just a few kilometres of inner kampung road and we were back on our way towards Tanjung Bidara..
So, there we were, struggling to get out of Tanjung Bidara.
We rode past at least 10 resorts before finding ourselves at the far end of Kem Terendak.
I made a judgement call and wound up at the gate of Tanjung Bidara beach.
It was a dead end.
Then I asked a soldier on how to get to Malacca town.
He said we had to detour towards Masjid Tanah to get back on track.
So, this fishing sight-seeing thing had just added the mileage.
It was there that we learned about Malacca's terrain.
Much of inland area including parts of its coastal forest are hilly.
And this was a true test for the cyclist on how they tackle the terrain - fully loaded.
Its easy to climb with a road bike. Bigger wheels, lighter frame, if the rider is experienced, won't even break sweat.
But here, we have a small bike with at least 25kgs of load.
Lucky for us, the conditioning in Hulu Langat really helped.
An old timer said: "A bike is as good as its rider.. ". He's dead center with that. I don't see any reason why some people who hardly rides would give so much emphasis on having a bicycle with 30-speeds when all they do is cycle on a training roller at home.. Hahahah!
TOP LEFT: A friendly pooch in Lubuk Cina, Malacca.
TOP RIGHT: Taking a break under the hot sun.
BOTTOM RIGHT: Snapshots at Pengkalan Balak's fishing village.