"Longest blog entry so far ! So many pictures that I have to compile them because of the miserable @#$%* 50 photos per month limit ! More angkongs will be added as soon as I receive them from the other 2 cameras. Please let me know of any inaccuracies or factual inconsistancies."
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3 Weeks in the planning...
3 Bored Singaporean Men...and 2 Malaysian Girls
3 Destinations...KL, Genting Highlands, Cameron Highlands
3 Days of fun...
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The sua gu Devil goes on a road trip to West Malaysia like a tourist should !
Ya, finally a holiday for the computer doctor, who fix up more computers in a day than typical users do in an entire lifetime. Credits to Jia Lun for the planning and his clearly superior driving skills.
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The cast
Jialun and Yongeng are my AMKSS buddies.
Samantha is Yongeng's girlfriend and Qunzhen is Samantha's friend.
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Day 0 : T-Minus 14 hours
Well, things didn't went as planned. We did not get the car we thought that we would have rented. We wanted a "matured" car which would not attract too much attention mainly for safety reasons. Jialun told me grimly that our rented car turned out to be a 2 weeks old Chevrolet Optra 1.6. The car rental company couldn't find a car for rental despite our early booking, and Jia Lun had to wait for over an hour for a car which looked suspiciously like a car that just came out from a showroom. They even threw in 1 day free rental into the deal, making this a super sweet deal : SGD$262 for 4 days !
Ok, you might not understand why having a new car would be bad. The main reason is we are really afraid to lose the car to crime and our ability to keep it as new as it was first rented out to us. It's going to be a long trip, and it's going to get real dirty. In fact, we were talking about taking turns sleeping in the car at night, steering wheel locks and using wheel clamps. The upside is that the tires are almost brand new and that would give us a good grip on the road.
A trip to Bishan Junction 8 in the evening to the money changer ends up in failure. They didn't have ringgits to sell us. So we would go by the Causeway and buy some ringgit at Johor Bahru instead.
Day 1 : Singapore -> Johor Bahru -> Kuala Lumpur (Mid-Valley Mall) -> Genting Highlands
Jialun was the main driver for the trip. Well, he is the most experienced among us, especially that it occurs that the best that I can do is to do successful drifts in Daytona 2. Yongeng was the highway expert for the trip, Samantha as the safety officer whenever Yong Eng drove and Qunzhen, who supervises us all by sleeping though most of the time on the road. I was to be the financial controller. Heng ah, everyone was very cooperative during the entire trip.
We started off at 6am, and made it past Johor customs by 8am. After a quick visit to the money changer, we took the North-South expressway towards the north.
After a short ride after the first toll plaza, we arrived at the first R&R stopover. As this stopover is the nearest to Johor Bahru, the array of stalls and shops are greater than most of the regular stopovers.
Malaysia just celebrated their national day on 31 August, hence their flags were flying proudly at every stopover we encountered.
Many cars on the road also sported miniature flags flying on the side of their wind screen. It's many more than what I saw on Singaporean cars. Talking about supporting your own country by flying your own flag on your car ? Malaysia wins this round. A kiasu driver was seen with 3 flags flying on his windscreen in Kuala Lumpur.
We got our breakfast there, and top up our 2 weeks old Chevrolet Optra 1.6 to full tank with cheap 1/2 priced petrol goodness. That's MYR$65 for half a tank, subsidised fuel is cheap.
Along the way, we saw a group of Malaysian Yamaha bikers. They were in a convoy wearing bright orange safety shirts. They had shepherd riders for additional safety and organisation.
Before we reached the Melaka border, there was a long stretch of straight road. The temptation to speed was in the air. The drivers who could not resist stepping on the gas (read : Singapore drivers) were promptly pulled over after about another 15 mins ride. The Johor traffic police had set up a speed trap and ensnare the drivers who overtook us at 160km/h to 180km/h previously.We were left alone by the traffic police, heng ah !
The next stopover is about 200km away, which is a in the state of Melaka, approximately 10am when we reached there. It's a bridge with shops, a KFC and A&W.
After awaking our sleeping beauty Qunzhen who was armed with inflatable pillow, ear plugs and blindfolds (impressively prepared for the journey), we made our way to the A&W resturant that I had long to visit.
We bought double root beer floats, double scoop waffles, and onion rings. Reliving the good old days of A&W dining was really nice. It's such a pity that A&W had to withdraw from the Singapore market in 2003. The nearest A&W resturant to Singapore is at Carrefour Johor Bahru, a die-die cannot miss destination on every personal trip I went on.
Mid-Valley mall, a 5 storey shopping mall with 430 shops. As true blue tourists, we hor-lan for 30 minutes before we reach the oddly situated mall. It's located in-between a maze of roads and expressway, which was really confusing to navigate through.
We actually went passed the building without realising it on the first pass. After navigating through a series of seemingly misplaced and mislabelled roads, we managed to arrive at Midvalley Mall and parked in the wrong carpark in the office tower instead of the main carpark. Samantha had a lunch arrangement with her parents who lived in Cheras. Yongeng as her boyfriend, had to accompany her. Qunzhen did decided to tag along with the couple, so Jialun and I paired up and roam the shopping centre till 4pm.
If you like Singapore shopping centres, this is almost a exact replica of out typical shopping malls. Food Junction ? Bread Talk ? Carrefour ? Guardians ? Watsons ? Starbucks ? Kenny Roger ? WTH ?!?! If not for the fact that we were paying in ringgits, I would have thought that I was still in Singapore. Deja vu again.
After drowning in a cup of kopi 冰 and munching on a cheese hotdog (read: Meal 3 of 5), our group gathered at the south court to continue our drive to Genting Highlands. We have never felt more relieved to see our car still blissfully parked in the lot. Samantha's parents led us our of the maze of roads towards the Sungai Besi toll plaza. And so the 2nd part of the journey began.
We got stuck in slow traffc along the road leading to Karak highway. It's frustrating because we are suppose to check in by 6.30pm. As we drove near the mountains, we could see fog running down the mountains, which is a good thing. We did expect the weather at Genting to be cool, so this was a good sign. Shortly after passing through the Sempah tunnel, the evening fog got much thicker. It is a good thing that the car have sufficient power to take us through all 3 of the steep ascents towards the resort. We arrived at 6.40pm, just in time to check in to our super cheap SGD$20 (min 3 days) a night police-force subsidised apartment @ Ria Apartments.
Some random facts :
- The new cable car (Genting skyway) is pretty lame. It starts only somewhere from the 1/2 way point towards the resort. What's the point?
- The packaged food like the Mister Potato became balloon because the air pressure difference caused the air inside the packaging to expand.
- The double deck beds frames are made of metal, and they squeaked whenever someone tossed in their beds.
- The night was noisy as vehicles rev hard at the final steep ascent near crandle rock.
- There is no air-conditioning. (Of coz, that's the whole point)
- There is no heating too. (Not cold enough?)
- The steam coming from the hot water we used to bath caused the whole toilet to fog. (Bathing in the clouds feeling)
- We did not use the kettle to boil the tap water as they look yellowish. So we boiled bottled water instead as it's cold.
- There are touts at the driveway of the Ria hotel who would "assist" you in getting a room for a fee.
- Although the legal limit on the north-south express way is 110km/h, 140km/h is still tolerated, but 160km/h and above will yield a ticket.
At 7.45pm, we made our way to the Genting resort. grabbed a quick meal at a hawker centre which looked suspiciously like a cook house (meal 4 of 5), and went to the outdoor theme park. I used to have acrophobia and motion sickness, so the 3 roller coaster rides sounded very much like a serious challenge for me. We took the most 凶 looking ride first, which came with a 360 degree upside down loop and a series of cockscrew spins. Qunzhen took the opportunity to scream out loud during the ride, which began as the train started the vertical climb and after the braking section near the end of the ride. The ride turned out to be quite short and no kick. My prediction that I would freak out and puke all over the place turned out to be a joke. The second roller coaster ride confirmed this new found fact that my fear of heights has almost completely vanished. After playing a few more rides, the theme park shutted down for the day, much to our disappointment.
It's nice to dream abit
Next, we visited the nearest casino at Resort hotel. I have never been to a casino before, so it's my first time. The visions of grand casinos from the scenes from 双天至尊 series and Ocean 11 quickly degenerates into reality. It's just a hall full of tables and jackpot machines. The most popular games are the jackpot machines and the roulette tables.
Nobody was doing this...sigh
The girls decided to stay at the 大小 table, which Yongeng and I joined in later. Jialun got bored and went back to the apartment to sleep. At the end of the night, the girls won a total of MYR$60, Yongeng lost MYR$10 and I won MYR$50. The formula of doubling your bet whenever you loss and resetting to the minimum whenever you win actually appeared to work ! While making our way back to the Ria apartments, we stopped over at a lok lok stall for supper (meal 5 of 5 for the day). The night was really cold. A hot water bath never felt better.
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Day 2 : Genting Highlands -> Cameron Highlands
At 8am, we checked out of Rias apartment and made our way to Cameron Highlands, about 3 hours away. While packing up, Jialun accidentally crushed Yongeng's specs which was lying on the bed and shattered 1 of the plastic lens completely. That's something new, plastic lens can still shatter ! The $400 titanium frame survived, proving it's worth.
Our downhill racer driver was Takumi Jialun in his AE86豆腐车 Chevrolet Optra 1.6. The descent started after we fed the Optra. In order to conserve our brakes, which could glow red hot and fail when excessively used, Jialun decided to use The Long Forgotten : Not-So-Secret Engine Braking Technique for most of the descent.
The roads have been greatly improved since the last time I had came to Gentings in 1995. Clearly, they took safety seriously after the many accidents and landslides in the past.
The road is in good condition, safety barriers in place, and stop pits have been constructed at sharp bends.
Our ace driver overtook a slow poke as we engine braked towards the base of the mountain at 40km/h.
Braking can cause the disc brake to glow red-hot due to the heat generated from friction. The brake will suffer from brake fade and eventually fails when it warps and deforms.
Near the base of the mountain, just before the rapid mountain climbs, there is a stretch of shop houses and resturants which we picked one of it for breakfast. We ordered RM$82 worth of tim sum, 肉骨茶 and E-mee. It was also the first "proper" meal so far. Not too bad, considering it cost us only SGD$10 per person, which can only buy us a measly meal at a resturant.
Along the expressway towards Ipoh, we took a break at a stopover. There is a Baskin Robins ice-cream resturant there, and we decided to top up our stomach there. While choosing the flavours of ice-cream for my 2 scoops waffle bowl, Qunzhen had already sampled 7 mini-scoops of ice-cream from the salesman ! Slow ! So slow ! By the way, Baskin Robins have exited the Singapore market several years ago, as A&W had.
We took the new road to Cameron Highlands near Ipoh. Although it's longer by distance but it's a lot easier to drive on as the road is still new until the cramp and worn out old road. Cameron Highlands is a series of mountains and valleys, and our destination was a stretch of road which links 3 the main towns together (Tringkap, Brinchang, Tanah Rata).
We arrived at 1pm at our first town,Tringkap, where the Rose Valley is (something like botanic gardens on a hillside with a MYR$4 entry fee). There is are also flower farms around the area and shops selling honey, flowers, strawberries (and its derivatives), cactus, and vegetables. Later during the trip, we realise that the stalls at Cameron Highlands typically sold a combination of the items previously listed. It get's old quickly.
Our next destination was the Boh Tea estate. The road to the estate was nothing short of a serious challenge to our uphill racer driver, Keisuke Jialun in his Mazda RX-7 Chevrolet Optra 1.6. The road could barely fit 2 vehicles side by side and have many blind corners which our uphill expert had to sound the horn regularly to alert unseen incoming vehicles. A single mistake would have sent us diving in the valley. Of course, our skilled driver took us to the Boh estate and back in one piece, or else, you should be really be afraid of what's writing this blog.
The Boh estate cafe has a nice view of the valley. I wasn't expecting to find a the city quality cafe there, and the Boh tea shop was not your typical boring souvenir shop. The salesmen can speak in good English and have good knowledge of the products they are selling. That's pretty impressive as we were deep in some Malaysian mountains. Not expected and pleasantly surprised. We ended up buying many tins of special blends of tea which were not sold in stores. Later during the trip, this fact was confirmed : The special blends in tins were not sold anywhere else.
As we left the Boh estate, we opted to take the dirt track to the carpark instead of the road. It's wet from the perpertual rain, narrow and steep at some points. But this made it even more fun and exciting.
Our next destination was the mountain top, which is 6km deeper in. We hor-lan abit and had to back track. Thanks to a nice man who told us to follow the long houses with blue roofs, we found the correct way towards the mountain top. But alas, 1km into the journey, we had to abort as the road got progressively steep and narrower. As the road was still wet from rain, and considering that we were driving a new rental car, we had to sadly forgo the mountain top.
We travelled back to the main road and visited the Ee Feng Gu, which is a bee farm just next to the road towards Boh tea estate. The honey bees were pretty friendly and never hostile to us.
But unfortunately, Jialun lost his SGD$270 Adidas shades in the toilet. He would have put his hand in if not for the fact that the drain pipe was not connected to a trap. That means the water falls straight downwards into the drainage below along with his shades. This was the most expensive lost ever, also the 2nd specs that had met its untimely end of the day.
As it was nearing 6.30pm, we had to cut short our visit to the Ee Feng Gu and proceed to check-in at Cluny Lodge, which is at Brinchang.
To our surprise, it's a bunglow with 3 floors and a basement. As it was bought over by the Singapore Government and provided as a form of welfare for civil servants, it cost us a measly SGD$60 for 2 rooms a night. It has really nice funishing and is very well maintained.
In fact, it's way better than the Ria apartments @ Genting Highlands. It's on a quiet spot on a hill, nice and cool, nicely decorated. large and spacious ... it's an excellent bargain.
Comes with a garden, and a playground. Photos available on day 3.
After we unload our bags, Jialun went on to clean up the car which had went through thick and thin, mud tracks and highway with us for the 2 days so far.
As Cluny Lodge is situated on top of a hill overseeing Brinchang town, the view is great and air is cool and refreshing.
As it was nearing 8pm, we got ready to move on to Brinchang for our dinner. The plan we made in Singapore was to get steamboat dinner and we made sure that we did so.
We did not have to travel far to get our steamboat dinner fix. As the farms at Cameron Highlands are grow mainly vegetables, our steamboat items are mainly fresh and healthy greens. As it is situated in-between lots of mountains, we can't blame them for giving us 4 small and miserable looking prawns which we threw away anyway. There wasn't much meat, but the girls found extra animal protein on a stalk of vegetables in the form of a snail and a worm. It didn't fit their taste nor does it fit the guys', so we had to forgo the extra protein source.
After dinner, we went to check out Tanah Rata town. Yongeng wanted to his KFC cheese fries ever since we were on Genting, so we asked the waitress at the steamboat resturant if there is a KFC nearby. She gave us false information and we found a Mary Brown instead of KFC to Yong Eng's disappointment. Tanah Rata is by far the largest town among the 3 main towns. There were many small hotels, cafes, pubs and eateries around. We found a optician shop which we spent a while to get Yongeng's specs replaced. The friendly salesman knew his trade well, and got the specs made on the spot instead of making us wait for the next day. That's very good service, as they had to work overtime to do so.
After we left the optician, we went to a night market for a walk. We had missed the large Pasar Malam which was scheduled on saturday nights though. We shopped around, went back to Brinchang to get some strawberry ice-cream and left for Cluny Lodge to rest for the day.
Back at Cluny Lodge, we feasted on the junk food we had bought. I guess that the mainly vegetable steamboat can't satisfy the canivorous appetites of city folks like us. Despite repeated attempts to spook the girls, I failed to get them to share ghost stories before turning in for the night. Hey we are in a bunglow on top of a hill in the middle of some mountains, very nice back drop for a haunted night out right ? I took a short walk outside for some fresh air, and spent some time staring at the constellation of Orion, waiting for Betelgeuse to go nova in the lightly light polluted sky. Ah, no such luck.
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Day 3 : Cameron Highlands -> Johor Bahru -> Singapore
This was the best night we spent so far. The bed was clean and comfortable, the temperature was nice and cool. We had a full 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep, which was a far cry from the night at Rias apartment at Genting Highlands.
Before we left Cluny Lodge, I went around and took some photos of the place. There is a playground which was very much like the ones we used to have in Singapore in the 1990s. Alas, all of these traditional playground equipment gave way to the safe plastic dominated playground we see today. Ah. memories of Singapore playgrounds. The merry-go-round that gave me a couple of bruised knee caps, throwing swings into many 360 spins and launching people into the air on the see-saw. Such were the naughty things that I did. *grins*
Our first stop for the day was Healthy Strawberry Farm, which was along the way to Tanah Rata where we would get our breakfast. It's the first strawberry farm we visited offering us the opportunity to pluck our own strawberries charged by weight. But a visual inspection of the farm told us that the strawberries were already harvested, leaving only small unripen strawberries hanging. We ended up buying an assortment of strawberry products, strawberry jam, dried strawberry, and fresh strawberry.
When we arrived at Tanah Rata town, we tried our luck at at Tanah Rata market. Jialun thought it was a mosque from a distance, and it looked like a wet market cum food centre to me. That's until we got close enough to realise our disappointment. There are only 1 vegetable stall, 1 meat stall, 1 provision stall and 1 food stall. Needless to say, it failed the Singaporean "Got what to eat?" test. We decided to go for the coffee shops along the main road instead, and ended up having Yong Tau Foo for breakfast.
As we decided to use the new road again to exit Cameron Highlands, we visited the Multi-crop centre which is along the way. As expected, honey, flowers, strawberries (and its derivatives), cactus, and vegetables were sold.
You might wonder what do I mean by strawberry derivatives. Well, here is a non-exhaustive list :
- Strawberry Ice-cream
- Strawberry Pillows
- Fresh Strawberry
- Dried Strawberry
- Strawberry Jam
- Strawberry stickers
- Strawberry drinks
- Strawberry tarts
- Strawberry cakes
- Strawberry candy
- Strawberry toys
I tried to buy a piece of the honey comb which we were given a free sample of. But the man didn't want to sell it. Sian, got to add honey combs to the list of things money cannot buy. They only supply in bulk to hotels.
A little further down the road, we arrived at the vegetable market. This is also the entrance to the Rose Centre.
Yongeng at this point of time had some discomfort in his eyes from the smoke last night, so we left him to guard the car as we took a walk.
Apart than the typical assortment of honey, strawberries (and its derivatives), cactus, and vegetables, we saw a much wider variety of flowers, fresh from the flower farms.
The Rose centre was on the surface of a hill, and didn't look brightly coloured due to flowers from afar. It could only mean one thing. The flowers were already harvested and sold along the streets we were walking on. Hence we decided to abort the Rose centre visit.
[Above] Qunzhen and her new purple hair band which she had bought at the mutli-crop market.
Next we revisited Ee Feng Gu bee farm. This time round, we bought plenty of honey products. My mom had a wish list so I had to spend MYR$160 to fulfill that. We bought hundreds of ringgits worth honey, royal jelly, and pollen like tourist would. The sales ladies must be delighted that their sales pitch worked like a charm.
Last on our list for Cameron Highlands was a revisit to the Rose Valley at Tringkap. Its situated on the face of a hill and we paid MYR$4 to enter each.
Yongeng bought some fresh flowers for the girls which was sold at 6 bunches for MYR$10. It's not very wise to avoid buying flowers for your girl friend when she is looking at some right ?
At 12.40pm, we made our way out of Cameron Highlands. The mountains near Ipoh are granite and limestone mountains, which are being mined.
Guess that sooner or later, we will find the mountains tore down to make cement and limestone for construction. A flatter terrain for Ipoh perhaps.
Ipoh itself have a limestone mining industry, a previously money making tin industry and a rubber industry. There are many limestone caves at Ipoh. The most famous being 三宝洞 and 霹雳洞. If we have extra time, we could have paid a visit to the limestone caves and the many water falls in Ipoh. Ipoh's food is also quite famous. Ah, too bad, maybe next time.
Ipoh is my mother's family hometown. But the haydays is long over for Ipoh. Most of my mother's generation had left for Ipoh better prospects. That explains why she ended up in Singapore.
Our next stopover was in-between Ipoh and Kuala Lumpur. opposite the one we had visited on the way to Cameron Highlands where we had Baskin Robins.
Similar to the opposite stopover, it also have Baskin Robins and Dunkin Donuts besides the standard hawker fare.
This time round, we had chicken rice for lunch. The Malay stall holder could speak in cantonese and chinese too, confirming racial integration is possible. I just don't understand how can racial problems occurs when it's simply better to work together to make more $$$.
I finished my lunch quickly and went to buy the famous made-in-Ipoh junk food which I was hooked on ever since I was young : 鸡仔饼 (sweet and salty) and 萨骑马.
Meanwhile, Yongeng went off to get Dunkin Donuts (6 for RM$10) before we continue our journey. We ate only 3 of 6 donuts by the end of the journey.
The gruesome and brutal journey back to Johor Bahru begun after lunch. We have to travel approximately 600km total from Cameron Highlands to Johor Bahru. In order to save time, we cut short most of the smaller stopovers so we can reach Johor Bahru in 6 hours.
This of course took a toll on our 2 drivers, which was a price to pay for not having a 3rd driver. Ok lah, I know what to do. I will go and get a license next time lah.
Along the way, we saw a convoy of Ah-Gong's vehicles passing us at high speeds. (They have special emblems attached next to their number plates).
We arrived at Johor Bahru at about 7pm, and got to Pekin Resturant near Sentosa for dinner. It's a nice chinese resturant with great food at the cost of coffee shops. We order enough food to fill up 2 tables.
We ordered 豆苗，米粉，蒸鱼，烧鸭，啦啦，铁板豆腐，油条 and 红烧猪排. That's 8 dishes for 5 people ! It's not too expensive too, just MYR$142, approximately SGD$14. That's why I didn't like to eat 煮炒 in Singapore. It's so much cheaper over in Malaysia.
I also learnt from Jialun that if clams aren't open up after they are cooked, it's probably not fresh and should be discarded. I took the liberty to name them 啦啦级品.
Before we left for Singapore, we gave our hardworking car the spa treatment as Jialun promised the car rental company. For MYR$8, they handwashed the car and cleaned the interiors. Well, the car rental company did give us a very good deal, and we did feel bad for breaking the previous mileage of the car more than twice over, (or is it 3 times over?) within 3 days.
The carwash was near New York hotel and a disco. The disco is a very happening place, seedy and a trouble prone spot all in one.
After this, we made our way back to Singapore via the causeway. From the moment we cleared the Singapore Woodlands customs, we could feel the expressway lag. The crusing speed on the roads fell from the 140km/h that we had grew acustomed to for the past 3 days, to a leisurely 80km/h. Ah, we didn't want to try our luck with Singapore speed cameras. Besides the speed limit, in comparison with Malaysia, the cars on Singapore roads are generally newer and the street lights are everywhere.
Jialun sent Samantha and Qunzhen back to their Serangoon apartments, before dropping me and Yongeng. Jialun went back to the Sim Ming carpark to try to locate his motorbike which had been parked there for the duration of the trip. All was fine, the bike was still intact, and the bike wasn't stolen a second time. Phew.
Samantha gave me the stalk of pink daisy. At last, it is something different from the typical chocolates that I receive from girls.
This concluded the end of the trip. The next day would be another working day. Back to work, back to reality. Goodbye clean air. Goodbye nice cool weather. Until next time then.
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Statistics of the Journey
Mileage - Approximately 1800km
Total cost - SGD$791.93
- Car rental - SGD$262
- Toll charges - SGD$61.60
- Petrol - SGD$148.08
- Common meals - SGD$146.31
- Lodgings - SGD$120
- Outdoor theme park - SGD$41.17
- Parking - SGD$9.30
- Others - SGD$3.47
Average cost per person - SGD$158.39 over 3 days. (Excludes personal purchases and losses)
Happy tourists - 3. (2 are Malaysian, so they don't count as tourists)
119 photos and pictures on this blog entry. I should have broken all previous records by my fellow friends who blogs.
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[Revision history]
1.0.2 18/09/2006 2300
- Corrected : Qunzhen's name from Quanzhen.
- Added : Yongeng's photos.
- Corrected : Cluny lodge is owned by SG government, not the SG police force
- Corrected : Grammer in text
- Added : Johor-Melaka speedtrap
1.0.1 16/09/2006 2300
- Change to large fonts and added colour for readability
1.0.0 16/09/2006 1800 First complete release
0.0.1 12/09/2006 0703 Incomplete release
