Day 3 By Affendi

Bro Sham, superb account of Day 3..allow me to add some bit parts..& photos uploaded

I like the part where we meandered through the back roads of Johor and got into the outskirts of Melaka. Lovely kampong side views and the aromatic smell of home cooking really stirred up the palate, pretty sure that an enjoyable meal of gastronomic delights await those families. And the distinctive aroma of daun pandan being used brought back vivid memories of mum’s nyonya dishes. She used to cook up a storm during weekends. Sigh, how I missed them good old days.

It was pleasing to note that Amir had over the 2 days, gathered his own band of ‘tourers’ and for this day 3, they were tightly bunch together and resembled a closely knitted group. When we passed them, I caught sight of a father and his young son in his child seat fasten at the front of his bike (not sure if this conforms to safety standards) and a couple on a tandem bike. The mee rebus of Gino located in Ujong Pasir where I used to live sadly wasn’t as good as it used to be. I guess commercialism has caught up with him, his son is now doing most of the work which makes this a 3rd generation business. Gino’s father started it about 6o/70 years ago and the same 3-wheeler is being used up to now, at least that hasn’t changed. Like Sham said, Baba House is a hip place, nice traditional setting and very cool inside. We didn’t stick around for the group dinner as it was crowded so we ate elsewhere, gorged ourselves with masak assam pedas kembong and ikan pari with sambal belacan.

Made the day as I would described it as poetic justice to be able to finally savor a home cook meal which was tasty and delicious. To top it off, we settled into lazy chair while we got ourselves a foot massage, that really top the day. Ode to Day 3! Overall, I had thoroughly enjoyed myself and though quite a number of us had stomach upsets when we got back which was the only downside, IS09 was a roaring success by my reckoning. It was well run and organised, the route was well charted and meeting other fellow cyclists sharing the same interests was the major highlight. Can’t wait for IS10!

Regards,Affendi