Tuesday, September 27, 2011

ItaliaAuto Grand Trip 2011 : Avventura Costa Orientale

On 23rd September 2011, ItaliaAuto made their annual Grand Trip 2011 for a 3 days 2 nights fun at Rompin. The event titled "Avventura Costa Orientale" will set to a drive to the east coast of peninsular Malaysia.

Below is the trip report (edited) written by one of the founding members of the club, Gtfan.

9 cars turn up on an early Friday morning for the Kuala Lumpur leg of the ItaliaAuto grand trip drive. Also accompanying is 1 car from the official distributor of Alfa Romeo's in Malaysia, Sime Darby Auto Connexion (2 representatives) who was there to meet us and flag us off the grand trip. Later, 2 member cars from Singapore met us at the Lanjut resort itself.

The drive, I think among all ItaliaAuto trips, this is the most saint drive. Everyone convoy together. As usual, Yellowtaxi and Zainframe got lost during one of the leg. Even though there was some Wiralution which try to challenge the boys, nobody took the bait while we were cruising along Karak highway. I guess we misses Uncle Botak (Lustful_69) hahaha.. he will sure challenge the wiralution.

Along the trunk road after Karak town heading towards Gemas, we were actively looking for durian stalls but alas, tada. Seems like out of season. The boys only manage to savour the durian on our trip back. We stopped in Segamat for lunch and Didi in her 156 was there to meet us up. Even though it was a short brief session as she need to rush back to work, it was great meeting up with her.

After a hearty lunch, some were complaining no bak kut teh, we drove off in convoy again along the trunk road. Luckily with the walkies on, we manage to joke about property prices in remote areas and where to retire. Not only property prices have gone nuts in KL city, the virus had spread to remote town too. Some of the project we pass thru was laughable for the price they are asking. :shock: Even our banker says, crazy.

Before we reach the resort, we stopped at the last checkpoint for regroup and realise Joe was missing. I had to backtrack to seek him out but luckily spotted him a few km down the road where his car appears to have christmas light. It's due to bad battery connection. Luckily the car is driveable till the hotel where we re-tighten the connection again. Zain red slut suffered a cracked idling valve but luckily i had a spare unit which i charge him RM1k for it :mrgreen: (ah long price). Interest of RM50 per day if he don't return my idling valve :P

After the usual check in, most of the IA folks hit the swimming pool to cool down or should i says, gay bonding session :twisted: Some wanker banker decide to go jogging instead #-o

Dinner was BBQ and the food is so-so at the resort. Xavier decide to turn the tempo up by mixing the grape juice dispenser with some vodka. We got a warning from the hotel for that coz they says, they want to charge us corkage fees. The finale of the evening was the lucky draw. Every driver is guaranteed a prize to go home with (sponsored by Liqui Moly). The grand prize a set of 17" tyres sponsored by Quick Save was won by....yes....ME :mrgreen: That gives me more reason to buy 17" rim again. Yeah, some of you out there still very sour about it....hahahaha... Some want to complain to MACC.

After dinner, some folks decide to retire to room to make babies, some decide to 'tembak cicak', while the rest decide to hit rompin town to check out the pub. Jing hao manage to convince the hotel gal to bring us out to party. We found a pub....kinda crap if compared to KL standard. While we were happily boozing, karaoke, playing pool, a few policemen decide to check the pub patrons for IC. After a lengthy 30 mins, everything is good. Some of us decide to leave while the rest still party and i heard even the police who came to check ic, joined the boozing party session too =))

Next day, it was free and easy, most of us decide to laze around. Some play golfs, some were sleeping like pigs, some were playing brokeback (psst...Taxi and Zain), some were hitting the beach. Lunch and dinner was in rompin town. Nothing fantastic except the fresh sotong which V8 sponsored for dinner. Night time was mainly casino time and boozing again. Some lost, some win the equivalent of 2 rounds in Cititel :-'' Pity sam room, look like warzone after the party.

Next day, everyone depart in the morning, some only check out late, i have to goto Kuantan to run some errands, the SG boys was planning to head down to JB for a wedding function.

Overall, it was a good trip without any major issues. Everyone arrived home safely and a memorable experiences.

A very special thanks to our sponsors, Sime Darby AutoConnexion, Liqui Moly, Quick Save, GT Radial, Emech and some individual private ItaliaAuto member sponsors for making the grand trip even more exciting.

To those who participated, thank you all for your comradeship. For those who missed this, there's always next year.

More photos and report at: www.italiaauto.net