finally... pictures from the weekend

UPDATE:
ok, all the pics are up... have tried to include a short write-up in between the pictures. Will follow up with a separate post on the race on Sunday..

We started off bright and early on Friday morning to meet the TDS crew and Mimi opposite Kranji MRT. Loaded up the car and drove over to pick my mom up. Were running a little late and the entire crew minus Mimi was waiting for us at the meeting point. Mimi rolls up a little later after dropping his kid off at school... we pack everything up into the cars, say goodbye to my mom and roll off to the Causeway checkpoints.

Drive up to Penggarang. Running quite a bit late. Got caught in some bad traffic near Kota Tinggi. Finally made it to the Penggarrrang Ferry Terminal (which is really quite ghetto) at around 10am-ish. Kale got suited up, had his sugar checked (first time of many) and then mounted his trusty steed.. (sounds like something out of a romance novel.. haha)

Starting off at Penggarang with the Doc and the nurses hovering around anxiously
The entourage raring to go
Still fresh and smiling, weather's holding up

About a half hour into the ride, the clouds loomed over and it started to rain.. pretty heavily. Luckily, it was a passing rain cloud. Turns out we would have been better off with the rain, cos it got blistering hot really quickly after...
Lovely malaysian scenery...hah
The sun is out and beginning to burn...bleah

We stopped for lunch at Kota Tinggi, had a quick one and then rolled off to hit Mersing by 6pm. We stopped every hour and a half or so for the doc and nurses to get Kale's sugar readings. The ride was harder than Kale expected cos of the very unforgiving headwind and sun.
At the afternoon pit stop at some dinky road-side stop

My hives started flaring up cos of the heat... and I proceeded to get REALLY uncomfortable. Began to feel for the hubby cos he was out there in the sun riding while I was feeling really gross just being inside a vehicle. Geez..
A shot of my hives...

Finally pulled into our pit stop close to our ETA. The flush didn't work in our toilet. Eugh. Bed was ok though... washed up, met the rest for a quick dinner in the hotel cafe (food was so-so) and then had an early night.
At the end of day 1, in the parking lot of Hotel Seri Malaysia in Mersing

Woke up early the next morning before dawn, packed up, had some breakfast and rolled out... today's target distance of 250km was slightly longer than the distance of 210km the day before so we had a long day ahead.
Day 2 - A little up, a little down, but mostly flat..
A picture worthy of Amazing Race - rustic Malaysia
Through a sleepy fishing port
Kampong scenery

Had a chance to get up close and personal with some of the M'sian animals. The lead car had to slow down at one point to distract a baboon that was seemingly intent on chasing the cars and Kale. The baboon actually leapt up and down trying to attack the windows of the lead car while Kale gingerly rode by!
Goat family... more of the animals spotted on the ride
Ironing out the kink in his foot during the afternoon break
Proof we're really going up to Kuantan...
Monkey see.. monkey run

Once we left Mersing, we were pretty much on a coastal road that left Kale pretty much at the mercy of the coastal "breeze" which made the ride that much harder.. the scenery was pretty good though...
East Coast of Malaysia
Aerodynamic butt shot

We finally made it to our destination a little later than we expected. Kale was totally knackered by the time we got there.
Ending point of the journey - Legends Resort, Cherating
Us at the end of the ride

AFter the ride, we showered, the TDS crew were nice enough to ask the hotel to pack some food for us for the drive, and Mimi, Kale and I packed in the vehicles to drive cross-country (literally) to Sepang in preparation for the race the next day. We finally made it into the hotel at about 10:30pm. Phew.

Tomorrow's a big day - it's my next detailed scan. Tomorrow we get to find out for certain the gender of the baby and get to see the baby again on the ultrasound. Hopefully we can get some pics..