full ahead both engines!

after much anticipation and confrontation in most of automotive forums, finally i got to test drive the naza 206 bestari. i have test driven the peugeot 206 1.6 dohc, also the 206cc. apart from the ’siblings’, i had test driven the class oppositions  : fiat punto selecta, punto GT(very powerful), very popular honda jazz vtec, hyundai getz,proton savvy and perodua kenari. yet to be test driven in the class : skoda fabia, VW polo,suzuki swift and toyota yaris.

the first impression is that the 206 will beat others on specifications alone: twin airbags, ABS, EBD,EBA and tiptronic gated gearshift. the radio is the same as in the 807 with different  display console. the only supermini with tiptronic automatic transmission.

styling wise, the 206 stands out from the crowd for the" grinning smile grille" made famous by the three year in a row as manufacturer’s champion in the world rally championship. also crowned champion was marcus gronholm with the peugeot 206wrc. the reigning champion, sebastian loeb is running in a citroen xsara that is similar to the 206. i need to remind you that peugeot owns citroen, as PSA  group is the second biggest carmaker in europe  and the second oldest carmaker in the world.

back to the test drive, the 206 surprised me again. none of the way it react like other supermini when shown upon a severely undulated roads. ridges and manhole cover just passed with a ‘thud’ and mid corner bumps are eliminated as if it is not there. the 206 felt like a bigger car, that i am used to driving 405,406 and 806, driving the 206 felt just the same. the black art of suspension tuning came into action again.

my friend who is a japanese car fanatic happens to test drive along with me. to his surprise, the 206 felt differently to what he driven before. he felt that the car is ‘heavy’, which the 980kg kerb weight stated are as the same as proton iswara aeroback. but then, iswara felt like it is flying over bumps while the 206 hugged the road as if attached by a magnet. this is what peugeot have done to the cars in its stable and that was what  makes the different  from the rest. the car just felt bigger than the  rest of the competition.

performancewise, there is enough grunt from the TU4JP 1.4 8valve engine. 8 valve engine was favoured for  bigger torque and less emission. the masses argument  of ‘8valve as low tech engine’ are  being shut down  when honda(the innovator of high tech engine)  launches city and jazz with IDSI engine which boast 8 valves. no more question on which is high tech or low tech. PSA have continued with their tradition by offering sohc 8 valve engine for torque and low down pull that is more important for this class of car: city driving. as experienced with 405 and 806, the 8 valve engine did have grunt to pull at very low rpm, instead of revving unnecessarily for multi valve engine.

the gem of the 206 is the chassis. this is where no other supermini have ventured before. as we know that the 205 was the benchmark for supermini handling, the 206 are as nimble and agile as the 205 but with less lift off oversteer. that sums it. the styling of the 206 also harks back to the 205 : rear window(which was copied by honda for 3 doors civic) and the  silhoutte, is unmistakably peugeot. even the 307 have the same silhoutte, as the whole family looks from the front. the feline theme are as appropriate as the car’s lion emblem. overall, the styling will become a very longlasting looks, as in other peugeot. even the headlights design are similar with toyota estima.

space inside are roomy, considering the size of the car. a 5′7" person sitting behind a 5′7" driver have adequate legroom. i think 5′7" represent average malaysian size. only lack of headrest for the rear passenger shown the entry level/cost cutting theme in these car. by the way, the entry level in europe is 1.1.

summing it up, for rm68,888, this is a very well specified car for that price. for me ,it is over-specced. considering the real competitor is fiat punto,opel corsa,VW polo and skoda fabia(as stated by car, what car? and autocar magazine) the price range of those other direct competitors are way beyond what people are paying for the 206bestari. furthermore, with real support from manufacturer, the brand will gain ground again in malaysia.

you will remember when teachers drive  peugeot 204,fiat 127 and VW beetle to school in the 70’s. the headmaster’s was always a volvo(dubbed kereta guru besar). other government servant drive austin, morris,hillman. i remembered that my teachers have fiat 600(so cute), singer, audi 80, while there are also wolseley elf(mini twin brother). that was in the early 80’s when i was in primary school. toyota corolla was just another entry level japanese car, also driven by these teachers until their retirement. by now, teachers can’t afford a corolla as it is not an entry level anymore. i hope that car prices will be reduced some day.

you can refer to paultan.org for further review on naza 206bestari.

so, after arrival on the 12, i have decided to go back on the 14th. very short time, but i am also on a budget. if not, i would be spending a weeks here. the lesson is : spend little on lodging, since most of the days will be spent outdoors. just make sure the hotel is secure.

another lesson is that outside food is better than hotel food. i have came across hotel food which are very beautifully presented but very bland in taste.( they could have won grand prize for the most photogenic fried rice). just go around mix with the locals and eat with them. but then, you should scale to what limit you want to sample local food. went to nantong,china and saw their seafood plus their exotic food. go figure about eating there.

the 14th, i started early just to make sure i am at the border before the evening. went to the hotel’s coffee house for breakfast, a quick but a light one for the trip. said goodbye to the hotel staff, particularly the doorman. started my bike and warmed her up before the long passage home.

stopped at the bridge that connects phuket to the mainland for a photo and resumed . my speedometer cable broke before krabi and i have no guidance for the fuel level. stopped at a shop in krabi for speedo cables.

what i found out that, honda produced universal connectors for speedometer cable for all the bikes in the range. means that i can get the speedometer cable anywhere. this shop is run by a motorcross champion, by the looks of his collection of trophies. he even show me his pictures in the local magazine. he went through his stock but to no avail. out of stock. the xl 125 speedo cable might fit. he tried the nsr cable but the length was not enough. my fork have been lifted about an inch than normal shadow.

stopped by at another honda shop but still no stock. have to go through the whole journey guessing the amount of petrol in the tank.arrived at the same makcik shop for chicken rice and ayam percik again.told her i am going back to malaysia. that was about it, she dont understand malay and english, i don’t understand thai. i need a pictograph : something to make me understood.

until i arrived at bukit kayu hitam BP at about 6 oclock in the evening. already dark because we have to advance our clock by one hour (thailand is following UTC +7 time zone). one bad thing about passing kedah highway at night. because most of the time spent near the paddy fields, at night those insects are attracted to lights, particularly bright headlights.

my helmet visor are totally smeared with this oily-slimy insect remains.can’t see the road really,have to stop in gurun, for fuel and smoke. still a long journey to go. but then, life have to move on. started back the journey and stopped again in juru for fuel and smoke.

the distance from juru are mere 85 km to taiping, but felt like a 500miles away from home. did manage to stop again in bukit merah for a smoke. i can waste time now since i am on the way home.

arrived at pak man’s soup shop in kemunting passed midnight. had some hot soup and also chat with him. he is a fellow shadow rider from taiping. after a couple of smoke and teh tarik. went back to my mother’s house.
the next day is the ride back home day. another 300km to go. the speedometer still not working. plan for a full tank from taiping and another fill in tapah. that should be enough until sg buloh. at this time, i longed for my sports-tourer,ZZR 250 which i sold for this shadow. easily from taiping to seremban without refilling. 18 liters of fuel with about 2 liters spare.
woke up the next day, bid farewell to my parents and rode back to shah alam. quite a long ride really. i have summed up my trip :
shah alam to taiping           : 300km
taiping to bukit kayu hitam : 300km
b.k. hitam to phuket           : 526km
round island+sightseeing     : 200km
phuket to b.k.hitam            : 526km
b.k.hitam to taiping            : 300km
taiping to shah alam           : 300km
total                                  : 2452km in a week.

2452km in 5days. after all compared to my late friend’s, suhaimi joleman trip around the world onboard his BMW r1100gs, my adventures is considered short and unexciting. anyway. a journey start and a journey ends. that was how life supposed to be. i dedicate this story to my friends who have made journeys to discover places and themselves, that includes me.

i hope i can relived my journey once i got the budget. got to get a bike sooner or later. still on my wishlist.i intend to go further than thailand. have to start raising fund for my big bike purchase. a nice sports tourer should do the  job, even though most circumnavigator favours BMW GS in any guise. they are reliable and strong to take the punishment.

that was my journey from shah alam,malaysia to phuket,thailand and back on a honda shadow 600VLX. got the speedometer from chear motor klang. the cable is the same as the CBX750(traffic police bike).the next day, i went to negeri sembilan for a wedding with the rest of the guy from bikers-net groups, an internet biker community.(that was another story altogether).
that bike bring a lot of memories and was delivered on my 25th birthday. i sold it for the peugeot 405 SRI(which is worth the sacrifices)

so, the songkran saga continue. lucky to be with new friends, they even introduced me to a corner shop which served muslim food. that was an advantage for being friendly in a strange land.more to that in a separate title. this shop is run by an pattani thai, hence,they speak malay. what a relief. after all those hungry hour munching on bread makes me long for a plate of rice.

finally somebody spoke the language, so i ordered food. a bowl of tomyam with (how many i cant remember) prawn, teh tarik(finally it’s there) and also padprik rice. very nice. the bill was nice too : rm4.60. very cheap. i wonder how much a kg of prawn cost there. went back to the hotel for sleeping. i should have rented a cheaper hotel as i only spent minimum time there.

the day after, i went to a local bike shop to mend my tight throttle cable. it is tiring myself to twist the ever tightening throttle cable. the local shop is very proficient with this bike because there are lots of them running around as steed 400. the steed 400 is a similar bike with my shadow 600, the only difference are smaller bore and stroke of the pistons,liners and block. that guy tracked down the year of my bike. according to him steed 600 are rare in thailand,most are JDM(japanese domestic models) specced steed 400.i did the lubrication myself as he advises me for free. plus there are so many cbr400rr fireblade, makes my saliva drips. the steed 400 and CBR400 are also in abundance in singapore.

next day will be my day trip back home. the phuket bike week just started but i came here for the songkran festival, i should have came here one or two days later. it is time for me to bade farewell to phuket. i have went round the island, even to the shell museum, couple of shopping complexes. even to the village shops selling handicraft. since i was only on  bike, my usual buy,buy and buy gesture was not being utilised up to the fullest.

songkran festival, is the thai new year festival, foolwing the thai calendar, that was the year 25XX (sorry i cant remember-even though can refer in the net for that). since it is a unique celebration, where people will douse other people with water, also sprinkled talcum powder to other people for luck,happiness and good fortune(as what i have been told).

as for the celebration, that night i hunted for a credible weapon to shoot water. all i got is a replica of a 9mm automatic pistol. i have to consider my position as a biker, i cant handle guns with 2 hands. settled for me then. i really dont know on what proportion the opposition will be armed with. next time ,know your opponent strength and their weaknesses.

went to the famous patong beach. very touristy place and prices of goods are not that cheap. considering this is a playground to the more deep-pocketed european tourists. sad to see those places hit by the tsunami last year.

armed with my
pistol and my documents weather proofed, i went to see the "enemies" . my first traffic light was disaster. i was wet,wet and wet from neck to toe. lucky i wore helmets. stopping at traffic lights will see that bikers will be totally wet with ice cold water. the "enemies" have ice cold water in a huge water container at the back of a pickup. even the traffic policemen are not spared. but then, nobody are allowed to get angry. it is new year, all should be in good mood. that was me with my "allies", some singaporean tourist letting loose in the streets of patong beach.thank you for sharing the photograph with me.

later that night, went to see my new friends again. haven’t seen any malaysian plate bike there. maybe they are coming on the phuket bike week on the 14th. the phuket bike week is the annual bike meet for bikers around south east asia, and also from as far as australia. the bikes are maxxed or modified as long as it is legal. looks like the legality aspect in thailand is way more intellectually and technically advanced. the bike i was on is the way thai people make custom bikes.
not just fancy paintwork or paste-anything-as-i-got-the-dosh customising process here in malaysia.

after eating and refreshing myself, had a smoke, continued my journey to the unknown. so far my machine have proven to be very reliable. she running like clockwork, with every beat, never fails me. the engine have been praised by motojournalist worldwide for being "bulletproof". the only downside is the limited clearance on leaning the bike, it is a cruiser after all.

still along way to go then. phuket seem to hundreds of miles away. passing beautiful krabi islands: you can see it in the james bond movie : the man with the golden gun.i got no much time to stop and photographing all the nice views. furthermore, being solo, all the pictures have to be taken byself, only the bikes with landmark.

as evening approaches, i have to stop for refuelling. one bad thing about this bike is that she does not have any fuel gauge. i have to rely on traditional method, resetting the tripmeter everytime i filled her up. so far she returned 25-28 km per liter. the range is 230 -250km depending on the speed. very small tank, about 9 liters. lucky than some cbu shadows with peanut tank: 7 ltrs.

arrived at phuket and checked in the phuket city hotel. at first i thought i never passed any straits that separated phuket from the mainland. only during chat with several local bikers that they told me the bridge tha connects the island to the mainland. that night, i went around the island and made friends with some local bikers: andaman bikers. the guys was very friendly and i got some local tips on sightseeing. later that night, went to the famous patong beach before i retired with a very refreshing thai traditional massage(really needed : i was on a bike for 12 hours).

as i have promised before, this is my journey to phuket during the songkran festival 2000. as planned by few of other buddies, we would meet at the border for the rest of the trip. i rode from shah alam to taiping first for the first leg. that was 300km and 3 hours of ride. the ride from taiping to the border town of sadao/bukit kayu hitam for another 3 hours and also 300km. from shah alam to the border took me 600km. to my surprise, there are still another 526km to phuket.(before this, i went up to haadyai/yala only).

arrived at the immigration, get the formalilties done. also not to forget, insurance for a week(for the bike). after that was a nice ride towards phattalung. passed by a unique hotel in the shape of a ship.
the road was four lanes highway. very good condition. just enjoying the scenery, since it was in the afternoon.only the road getting smaller and dual carriageway started. passed through a forest reserve and several small towns.

as the road becoming smaller and the traffic became scarce, i hope i was not in the wrong direction. i asked few shopkeepers, mmmmmmm, not a very good response. only mentioned "phuket", they have shown me the right way.stopped at a muslim restaurant near krabi. it looks like a normal restaurant with malaysian-looking people. but then, language difficulties. the people west of haadyai does not speak malay(or any equivalent)the people east of haadyai speaks pattani dialect, which is a malay dialect similar to kelantanese malay.

anyway, my survivors instinct get me going. went to the kitchen to select what i am going to eat. chicken rice, with ayam percik and sugar cane juice. never eaten chicken rice with tis taste before. very tasty and filling. to my surprise also, all are just for rm5. just reminding my self that i am travelling solo.

browsed through old albums,found the album dedicated to my trip to the tokyo disneyland. that was 14 donkey years ago, in 1992. the trip was in conjunction with my ship being refitted at the mitsubishi heavy industries shipyard, honmoku, yokohama.

the date was 25 october 1992 that was a good sunny, autumn day.the ticket cost  Y4000 (=rm96)(if rm24 to Y1000;i cant remember the exact exchange rate) .the crowd gathered in droves: not just kids, this is a whole family affair. it is also school holidays there. we went there in a group. since there will be crew on duty, only half the ship went to disneyland while the other half went there the next day

as the gate opens, all the people started to run for the rides. wow! what an atmosphere.we ran to the space mountain to get a good place in the queue. most of the rides took only 3-5 minutes but the queue time taken is 30 minutes to 2 hours.

we experienced the 2 hours queue waiting for the splash mountain that was just opened then. everybody are just excited due to the new rides. we went to the tom sawyer island as well as the fort st clemens on the island. took the paddlewheeler and fortunate for me, i got the pilot’s certificate for steering the ferry(even though the ferry is really towed by huge cables in spool:no wonder getting the ship alongside was smooth and perfect).

the time spent there was really great and the time provided for us was not enough. we arrived at 0800hrs and went back at 2030hrs. there are still more rides that we missed. hope to go there again and still hoping.

it’s a small world after all!

i have came across a very interesting article about the death of alpha male. also another interesting article on the death of manlihood. i found that both articles are about the same topics. manlihood is about pride and honour. about being in command and in control. about being a role model. about being in authority. (i am just starting to sound like a male chauvinist)

have men gone soft nowadays? or have women gone stronger than before? i have had a long talk with my old friend’s mother. she is a retired school teacher and now residing with my friend.  from her experience, in her generations, men  are the decision maker and their words are the final say. nobody will either protest or say anything after the decisions was made. does men in the previous generations are really smarter or there are no direct competition then?

only plus point of today’s men are they are willing to share housework with their spouses, which men in the last generation won’t even touch a baby, can’t even differentiate between diaper and wipes?which is good for the fairer sex but also lamented by them. do women needs increase or men are just becoming lesser intelligent? that remains a mystery to this day.

whatever it is, the declining of alpha male are as fast as the decline of the western civilisation. many westerners are known to adopt eastern/oriental way of life because of the pointless life they are leading. why some of us are still looking west when they are looking eastwards. look at japan when they adopt everything west. their decline of family values are apparent and we don’t want this last values that we preserved for so long cease to exist.

which way is the right way? i just let god almighty to decide. we can just try to figure out what is best for ourselves.

as i browsed through my old pictures, i came across some of the most memorable moments. that was the year 1995 when i signed on the MT Bunga Mawar, 30,000tonnes chemical tanker. at the beginning of the voyage was the beginning of ramadhan. as i knew that people who signed on before ramadhan will spend their aidilfitri onboard.

so the ship was loading for cargoes bound for rotterdam. as the voyage is long, it takes 2 weeks from singapore to suez and 2 weeks from port said to rotterdam. we loaded the final cargoes in singapore, along with stores and provision. the voyage begins. the ship service speed was 15 knots and we are on the outward bound journey to europe.

after arriving at suez, we were anchored for convoy confirmation northbound through the suez canal.it takes 12 hours voyage through suez canal, the northbound convoy have to drop anchor midway, in the great bitter lake. while awaiting for the southward bound convoy to pass us.
along the canal, there were military presence all along the canal banks: remember the six day war between israel and egypt, fighting for control of the canal.

after transitting the canal, we are therefore on our own from port said. the voyage will be for 2 weeks more before arriving in rotterdam. the proclamation of hari raya aidilfitri was confirmed by our radio officer and we are to celebrate before arrival. what a relief. better to spend a public holiday at sea, rather than the ship is in port.

we celebrated aidilfitri in the bay of biscay. the bay is known for its notorious swell and high sea, for ages sailors have dreaded going through that stretch of waters. anyhow, we managed to gather the ship’s crew for an aidilfitri prayer lead by the chief steward. we swayed along as the ship rolls and pitch.

as per normal, aidilfitri is about visiting out relatives and friends. in the ship’s case, the relative part is omitted. the chief engineer’s son was the most lucky person on board: loads of "duit raya" for him. for others, it is just a normal raya at sea.

that night, eventhough cold temperatures outside, we managed to hold our own raya barbecue by the swimming pool. party time as usual. the ship’s crew gathered and we spent the time there until 3 o’clock in the morning. i was the third officer then, rejoined the party after midnight. i was the officer of the watch(OOW) on the 8-12 watch.

hi again. since the last posting, i really don’t know what to write about. a lot to digest really. have i swallowed more than i could chew? mmmmmmmm. time creep but slow(it’s that japanese poetry again).
met few of my old friends from the fraternity(not freemason). exchanged a lot of stories. well , men always diverted everything to either cars or women. let me get to the point of women.

why god created women? a very big question that is. the main reason is to complement men. makes men complete. to live together with men. to be everything, with men. that is when god created Hawa(or Eve, anglicised name for arabic hawa) so as to accompany Adam. the main task of Eve was to accompany Adam and therefore produce offsprings on the face of earth.

so,as an unwritten tradition in any civilisations, men grew to be hunter, while women grew to be gatherer. when the human race gathers more knowledge and experience, they started to raise farms and cattles and all. that was the time when human lives are not complicated. father-farmer, son-farmer,grandson-farmer,great-grandson-farmer. very simple indeed.

fast forward to the 21st century, the traditional men-hunter, women-gatherer have gone complex. the line that separates them are becoming fainter(am i using the correct word). men-computer programmer, so do women-computer programmer.the opportunity of pursuing higher studies spreads equally between both gender. so does the opportunity to grow career.

lately, there have been more female students doing their tertiary education. which means that men of quality(if you choose education as quality) are dwindling in numbers. where does the men goes. have they gone back to the men-hunter mode? or have they went totally wrong.

it is not wrong for a woman to pursue higher education, i supported that. only one thing that we have seen happened in the west was that feminist movement have done too much of these gender equality thingy , that they have end up as lonely old ladies. we have seen this squabble in our country and this is unhealthy.

we don’t take everything from the west without filtering whether it is appropriate for us. therefore, we must remember after the industrial revolution, it takes 100 years to clean back the environment back to what it suppose to be. we should learn by mistakes, western mistakes and we should not repeat of what went wrong. this is because we have seen the consequences.

so does in our human relationships. when the other half was speaking about equality, there are always argument on both sides. why don’t we come up with a win-win situation. i see that we are going the way of the west 50 -60 years back and repeat the same mistake. that is the price to pay for modernisation.

p/s: thank you mr wmsoo for the photo.