Wednesday, November 14, 2007

IA East Coast Expose in Pictures

ItaliaAuto East Coast Expose slideshow. Enjoy!

Pictures contributed by ItaliaAuto members.

ItaliaAuto East Coast Expose 2007

Recently, ItaliaAuto made a trip to the east coast of Malaysia from 2-4 Nov 2007. A total of 50 pax, 40 cars joined the 3D2N event. Started from the Sungai Buloh RSA to Fraser's Hill GAP to Kuantan, Cherating and finally Kijal.

The group stayed at the Strawberry Resort Kijal.

Field Report as posted by Redd @ ItaliaAuto.net:

Day 1

day started at 730am and we didnt arrive at the hotel til 730pm. 12 hours on the road! a lot of it was from waiting for stragglers at collection points, and of course in true IA tradition, getting lost. even with GPS mapped pace notes and in-car GPS units we managed to get hopelessly lost. the Get Lost Champion was Vio who lost his way by over 70kms at one point. but the mad driver still managed to catch up and overtake everyone. hahahaha! after Raub, we got lost looking for Jerantut and happened upon this beautiful back road! it was lovely! undulating terrain with lots of elevation changes and sweepers. there was one hill that if u had crested too fast u'd have caught air; and there was a left hand curve right after the crest! it was like a rollercoaster ride. by the time we got to the resort, everyone was tired, hungry and grumpy. so it didnt help that the hotel wasnt fully ready for us. some of the rooms had no a/c. there was no towels and soap to shower with. and the yellowpansy insisted on having hot water or it would be bad for his skin. or something equally gay like that. most of us crashed early on the first night but the hardcore gang stayed up to play blackjack.

Day 2

the resort definitely looked a lot prettier in the daylight. after brekkie, we arranged a quick autokhana course in the large parking lot. a lot of cars ran the course but top honors was taken by our resident angmoh Alexxx in his 1980 Porsche 911. the RWD monster demolished the course with untouchable times. second and third were thkc and vio, respectively. after the autokhana, we went into town for lunch and came back to relax at the beach and pool. the beach was beautiful! it was a bit of a walk, but the beach was pristine and we had it all to ourselves. after horsing around the seaside for a couple hours, we went to the pool to de-salt ourselves. that's when we started a new IA tradition - tossing people into the pool! we tricked and threw ballerina, may and d320 into the water. so girls, when we say come in swimwear, we mean come in swimwear. and oh, dont wear white so much. lamoo took us to kemaman town to eat stuffed crabs. after dinner, some of the guys went to see kelip-kelip and the rest went back to prepare for the grand opening of Casino de Kijal. we gambled into the wee hours of the morning playing blackjack and in-between. the in-between game was the most stressful, and that was where the screaming of "TIANG! TIANG!" came from. one particular pot lasted almost 2 hours and went from as low as RM8 to nearly RM400 at some point. everyone was shitting bricks as we were paying double if you hit the tiang.

Day 3

Day 3 was the trip back. after the photo session at the resort, we headed off to town to buy snacks and lekor. lunch was at pak su seafood restaurant. after lunch we headed back home towards KL. mid-way on the ECE, tezza called on the walkie to complain about bad vibrations coming from the car. we stopped over at the R&R and determined that it was caused by a badly bulging front left tire. the IA pit crew came to the rescue and we changed tires on the spot and were quickly on our way, albeit at a much slower pace. thkc, stevo and gilaman paced tezza all the way back at 80kph. by the time i reached home, it was 830pm and i was unconscious by 1030pm. all in a great trip! day 1 was definitely one of the longest drives ive been on so far. it was nice that we had the whole 2nd day to relax at the resort. i think we should it this way more often as it gives us more time to enjoy the location we're at.