A Trip To The North To Join AOC Northern TT

Last Friday, the AOC members organized their TTs at three different locations simultaneously. The northern group has scheduled their TT long time ago and when the central and southern groups found out, they also decided to hold their TT at the same time.

The idea was to hold the TT at each location and then each location will provide live updates via Internet. However I guess it didn’t work out that way since the TT location for the northern group was not ideal for Internet access. Updates were done via mobile phone so there is no live images beam across locations.

I was informed of the TT at the last minute hence I was undecided whether to attend or not. Then I found out that one member of the central group is heading up north to join the northern group TT. That’s gave me an idea that I should make a trip up north too. Besides joining the northern group TT, I also want to take this opportunity to visit Penang as I haven’t been there for quite a while.

I graduated from USM so it is probably a good time for me to go back to the campus and check out the place to see how has it progress since I left there 23 years ago. Also I wanted to meet up with some of my university mates from Penang that I have not met for many years. So good enough reason to take a long drive!

This is also a good time to give my giant another long distance run as the last one I did was 7 months ago. I left Kuala Lumpur city at around 2:45pm and the drive up north was rather casual. The original plan was to meet up with another AOC member at Ipoh and then convoy together from there. However due to last minute changes I didn’t stop by at Ipoh. Instead I stopped at Sg. Perak R&R area to wait for two other AOC members, one from KL and another from Cameron Highland.

The 3 giants then convoy together the rest of the journey to Penang Island.

Crossing the Penang Bridge

The traffic on a Friday afternoon is pretty smooth and we arrive at Penang around 6pm and had to bear with the after work hour traffic before we reach our hotel respectively.

Before Hitting the After Work Jam

Once we have freshen up, we meet up again at E-Gate with the rest of the AOC members coming from other locations before we convoy to our final destination.

Checkpoint Behind E-Gate

The convoy took off from E-Gate heading toward a restaurant in Batu Maung. As we had to wait for everyone to depart together, it was rather late when we reach our final destination.

Where We Had Our Dinner

This TT is slightly different from the other I have attended as we have a sit-down dinner instead of a teh tarik session. We only have 11 giants in our convoy but we had 40 attendees sharing the foods in 4 tables.

Two Of The Tables With Food Ready

This is slightly different from other TT as the family members of the AOC members are more involved in this TT compared to others.

AOC Memebr Enjoying Their Foods

Also it is commendable that some non-AOC members actually took the trouble to join us at the very last minute at the invite of one of the AOC members. One of them was in Muar in the morning and after he fetch his family, drove all the way up to Penang. Another was visiting Sg. Petani and drop by last minute to join the TT.

It was nice to see all the family members enjoyed the TT and have their share of fun along the way.

After the dinner, the group convoyed back to an open car park at E-Gate and start to have a group photo session and the customary showing off each other cars and sharing of technical information.

Line Up For Photo Shoot

As it is getting late, those with family have to leave early while other proceeds to Padang Kota Lama for the real teh tarik session. However the nearby stalls at Esplanade are closing at 1am so the group only spent a short time there before we all call it a day.

All in all, it was a good TT as we have very good turn out from the members and their family. Not only the AOC members get to enjoy this outing, their family members also can share their passion during the TT.

I think this is a good sign that the TT for AOC members are more family oriented and I believed more and more members will bring their family to such future events.

Having done a northern TT, I am wondering if I will be doing a southern one in future.

Should I Keep the Forum Alive?

The original idea of setting up the AlphardOwnerClub.com forum was to provide an alternative to those members who wanted to have their own forum as they move away from AlphardAsiaClub.com forum. Also the domain was acquire in anticipation of the setting up of an official Alphard Owner Club and this domain will be used for that registration, hence becoming the official website for that club.

However since the inception of this forum, things has change quite a bit hence it is time to review if there is a need to keep this forum alive. Currently it is kept alive as an information source as it is felt that some of the discussions and reference information might still be relevant to those who want to learn more about Toyota Alphard.

However since the last major meeting among the members from various regions in October last year, it was agreed that all active Toyota Alphard owners will participate only in one forum which is the AlphardAsiaClub.com forum. Since the domain registration for AlphardOwnerClub.com is still active therefore it is decided that it should be kept open until such time when the official Alphard Owner Club is registered and then a decision will be made on the existence of this forum.

However, lately there has been a lot of registration of new members from the western world that has no presence of Toyota Alphard in their own country. Most of the IP addresses shown that they are coming from UK, USA, Canada, and Russia.

I think most of these registration are done by the so call "robots" that go out to search for forum and try to do an automatic registration. The idea is that once they are registered, they can either spam the forum with whatever they have to offer or try to trick members to click on certain link that will cause some malicious codes to be executed and infect their PC.

Luckily the Alphard Owner Club forum is set to required activation before anyone can participate in the forum. Therefore those registrations can be safely rejected and remove from the forum.

However the frequency of new registration is getting higher and higher each week so clearning up these new registration become a chore. I am thinking of temporary shutting down this forum for now. If you are registered in this forum, please take note that this forum will no longer be active from April Fool day.

If you have any other questions on this forun, you can post a comment here or send me an email at askds@live.com

Feb 2010 AOC TT

Last night I join the AOC's TT held in the same old place. It was like an anniversary to the very first major TT they held a year ago in the same location. Back in January last year many founding members of AOC gathered at the location and mooted the idea to form AOC. AOC stands for Alphard Owner Club and it is a gathering of owners of Toyota Alphard.


Since then many founding members have drifted away from AOC so it was nice to meet up with them again last night. I have also not sign on the AOC for almost half a year so I have not meet many of the old faces so I am glad I turn up. As usual many new AOC members also joined the TT to get to meet other members and put some nicks into faces.

From 9:00pm onward, many AOC members started coming in and by 10:30pm we filled a long tables with 16 owners chatting away enthusiatically. The topics of discussions again center around what have other done to their giant (AOC members like to call their Toyota Alphad as giant) and how is their ownership experiences. By about 11:00pm, every decided that it is the customary viewing time for each other giants. Everyone marched to the parking lot outside the cafe and gather around each other giants. Some owners showcase their modifications on the exterior while other climb inside to admire the interior of others giant.

Again I had a busy times answering some questions from newer members on certain features of their giant.

Previously I wrote that retroffiting a feature doesn't equal original was evident in one of the AOC member's giant. He asked me a question what is that "extra" button on his dashboard that he never touches before. After experiementing with the button for a while I confirm that it is the button for the front camera.

As mentioned previously accessory shop here can retrofit a front camera for those giant that doesn't come with a front camera but they can't retrofit the button onto the steering wheel to operate the front camera. This giant already has a front camera button on the steering wheel but it doesn't operate the front camera. When you push that extra button on the dashboard to "ON" position, it switch on the front camera and the front camera view appear on the head unit monitor.

The problem with this kind of retrofitting is that the button operate independent of the ignition switch. That means you can turn on the front camera even when the engine is not started. This means that the owner has to remember to switch off the front camera every time he switch off the engine. Otherwise the front camera (and the head unit monitor) will continue to operate even when the car is not running.

One interesting thing that come out of the disussion is that many owner don't know what's the use of the "AC 100V" button. I have previously highlighted what are those buttons in our giant and briefly cover this button as well.

I also had some interesting discussion with the members on the power sliding door. We experimented with one of the member giant and confirmed that once the petrol tank cover is opened the power door on the passenger side cannot be operated electrically. We can manually pull the power door open and then push it toward the back of the car and it just stop short of hitting the petrol tank cover. There is a built in "stopper" that "sense" that the petrol tank cover is opened and the door will not move any further.

Another test we did is to lower the windows on the passenger side power door. It can be operated electrically and again it will stop half way. This confirm my observation that it has built in safety feature. This feature prevent incident where young kid who stick their head out of the window from hitting the rear panel when the power door is slide open.

Another member encountered an issue with his passenger side power door not opening electrically. Since I didn't remember what's the procedure to reset the power door, I was not able to help him on the spot. I did tell him to send me an email so that I can show him the procedure.

Time passes very quickly and by midnight, many members start to leave and only a few remaining die-hard members stay back and chatted until almost 12:45am before they bid goodbye to each other.

After The Fact - Learn More Before You Buy Your Toyota Alphard

It is always disheartening to meet a fellow AOC member in a TT then to find out that he has been kind of short-changed by the dealer. Last night I met a fellow AOC member who recently gotten his 2006 NFL AX-L. However his unit comes with only single power door without the original head unit and the front camera.

I don’t know if this is the latest trend but just this week I found also a few units of NFL AXs in my regular dealer come without original head unit. I know many owners have purchase their car with aftermarket head unit but in this case the car was not fitted with one at all. I consider myself lucky as my AX-L come loaded with all the features that normally not available in an AX-L. At least in all the TTs so far I have not seen another AX-L has the same spec as mine.

So what do the new owner losses when he bought the car?

Without the original head unit, he can’t make use of all the buttons on the steering wheel. He loses the hands-free function and the Bluetooth function. He loses the default reverse camera guide lines. He misses out the function to have the 30GB hard disk. He can’t play CD/DVD with the built in DVD function on the head unit. He doesn’t have the roof-mounted LCD monitor. At the end of the day he has to spent a few thousand dollars to retrofit an aftermarket head unit and other accessories just to be able to play DVD and to have the reverse camera view (but without the original guidelines). Since his unit doesn’t have the front camera, he will have to buy one if he wants the front camera view. If he wants to retrofit the other power door, that will cost him another few grand.

Therefore when I show this owner all the functions in my car that he could have gotten if he has opted for a different unit or one with the original head unit I can only imagine how unhappy for him to find out what he has missed.

I guess the new owner doesn’t know much about Toyota Alphard and probably hasn’t done much research on this subject. At least in the AOC forum I read that there are owners whose has done a lot of research and have scouted at many dealers before they commit to the unit that suits them. I think this is the way to go as there is no point in rushing to get something less at a higher price. In this case this particular owner is relying on the trustworthiness of the dealer who happened to be his friend to advise him on the best option to take. However like any dealer they just wanted to sell their car so they will take the easy way out by convincing the buyers that those features doesn't comes with the car. If the owner has done their homework then he would have not taken this car. I know this is after the fact and that the buyer should know what they are getting when they commit to buy a car. It would be nice to know that they gotten a better deal rather than to point it out to them the hard way.

I put up this blog with the hope it will help more potential buyers to learn more about this car so that they always get the best deal. If it is convenient I don’t mind meeting up with potential buyer to view the car with them so that they can make a better judgment before they commit their purchase. Send me a comment and I'll contact you if you need help.

Cheers

AOC October TT

Last night a total of 29 AOC members gathered at Car Park F, Bukit Jalil for an impromptu TT gathering. Impromptu in a sense that it was organized in a very short time frame and the original plan was to allow regular AOC members to meet up with one of the AOC member from Kelantan who is visiting Kuala Lumpur. Due to the last minute announcement (I only got an invite through SMS) the organizer was not expecting a big turnout. However it ended up being the largest gathering of AOC members since May 2009. A total of 28 Toyota Alphards gathered together this time exceeding the previous record of 25 cars.

From 8:45pm onward, the members started arriving and everyone sat down to chat with each other. Even though this is not planned as family event, many members brought along their spouses so while the members are having lively discussion among themselves the spouses also took the opportunity to mingle among themselves. It was encouraging to see many new AOC members join us for this gatherting. And it is nice to see some long time members who hasn't been attending recent TT turn up for the gathering.

Well since the car park is not properly lighted, the photo come out blurred as my old faithful digital camera don't work well.

Half way through the lively chat some members wanted to have a look at each other cars so everyone headed toward the cars.

The main attraction again is none other than the two “show” cars. One has the distinction of being the only Toyota Alphard in the country to have 22-inch rims. Of course he has many other nice features added such as 6 projector lamps and a collection of VIP accessories. The owner was busy answering questions like how is the ride with the 22-inch and where to get those accessories. The other is the only Toyota Alphard with a set of air suspension. Of course those lucky AOC members get to see the air suspension in action on that night. Also of interest is the lighted door step and the lighted arrow on ths side mirror of one of the member.


I was kept busy the whole time as I was interacting actively with many members. I chatted with one AOC members on various topics. I also showed one member how to operate the hands-free function, maintenance items and HDD songs maintenance. I assisted one member to confirm the exact model specification of his car. I then show another member how to recognize through the model code whether a particular car is a 2WD and 4WD. Overall I was very happy with this opportunity to be able to interact with the other AOC members since the last gathering.

Since the Car Park F is rather dark so it was not easy to take a group photo. Again the members improvise and lined up a few cars with the light switched on. That provided enough lights for those with camera to take a group photo.

After the group photo, some member starts to leave while other stay back on more chit chats and at time technical discussion and the TT officially ended around 11:50pm when the last group left the Car Park.

If you want to see more photos on this TT, please check out the AOC website.

Looking forward to bigger turn out of AOC members for such TT.

Cheers

The New AOC Website

I was rather busy lately putting some finishing touch to the AOC website. This is my first experiment with this type of work so I was spending quite a lot of time researching on this subject and have not put up any new post on the giant. I have finally put together a simple website as I learn along the way.

The new website is now live at http://www.alphardownerclub.com/. I will continue to enhance on this website as I find time to do that. A group of AOC members plan to register AOC as a club and this website will serve as the base for this club. Let see how this will planned out.

I also have spent quite a bit of time researching on setting up a new forum for Alphard Owners Club. I have done all the ground work and have open it to a small group of Alphard Owners. So far I think we have work out all the logistic for the new forum and now we are really to open it to the rest.

If you are viewing our new AOC website, you'll see a link at the top that bring you to our new forum or you can reach us directly at http://www.alphardownerclub.com/forum.

This is for registered member only so when you get to that forum home page, you'll have to register yourself and wait for the approval email from the Administrator before you activate your registration.

Hope you'll have a fun time in this new forum.

Cheers

Updates: After almost one year and 3 months, there is still no sign that the official Alphard Owner Club of Malaysia will be up and running. Therefore, the AOC website will have no updates until such time when the AOC is officially formed.

How difficult could it be?

I was always wondering how difficult it is to transfer a domain from one host to another host. I have done enough of research on the Net and have also confirmed with my hosting provider and it turn out that it is pretty easy. The steps are:

1. Backup the database from the old server
2. Upload the database to the new server
3. Unlock the domain
4. Transfer the domain
5. Restore the database

That it. Very simple steps and no rocket science is involved. In fact step 3, 4 and 5 are all done by the hosting company so I only need to worry about step 1 and 2.

Unfortunately my last experience trying to do a domain transfer was an unpleasant one.

The AOC domain was hosted in Singapore and the AOC owner has agreed previously to transfer the domain to the local team and host it in Kuala Lumpur. So he pass over the access to the Cpanel so to back up the database was not an issue. He wanted to be just a member and don't want to continue to administer the forum anymore. Well fine so let the local team administer it.

The most important step in the whole transfer exercise is to unlock the domain. So I send a private email to the owner and he said he will asked his staffs to looked into it. On the day when we wanted to do the transfer, the domain was still locked. So another follow up email and this time another email address was given to me. Apparently this is the email address of his brother who is the 'real' owner of this domain. So an email was sent to his brother but he never replied. So what's the last resort?

Well I met with the brother personally and he agreed on the spot that he will unlock the domain once he get back to Singapore. However two weeks go by and still nothing was done. Well as long as the 'owner' of the domain doesn't unlock it, no one can transfer that domain out of the registrar where it is registered to. Also, it is unwise to unlock a domain and leave it unlock for a long time because anyone can take control of that domain.

Further communications via the AOC forum on this matter suddenly become abusive and it turn out to be a unpleasant experience for all. Despite all the private communications, the AOC owner still can't facilitate the transfer in the most pleasant way. Maybe the owner of AOC have no means to convince his brother to unlock the domain so this transfer is definitely not going to happen. I have not dealt with anyone from that island country before and this experience told me that I need to take their promises with a grain of salt. Almost 3 months was wasted to plan and set up for the transfer.

Anyway recently it was highlighted by one of the member that the authority is monitoring the AOC forum. This has created a lot of uneasiness in many AOC forum members so many of them stop posting. As such it would be unwise for the local team to go ahead with the transfer.

We have now found a new place to share our passion about the giant (Toyota Alphard). If anyone is interested to join us, send me an email and I'll send you an invitation.

PS. Recently I came to know that the owner finally transferred the domain to another hosting company but at quite a high cost. Is this the reason why the previous transfer didn't work out. Well.

AOC August TT

Last Saturday, AOC central region members organized another TT for new members. It was held at the restaurant in Taman Tasik Permaisuri in Cheras. That location is quite a good place for TT as they have ample parking spaces to cater for the giants (Toyota Alphard). A total of 22 AOC members turned up for this TT.

I was not planning to attend initially as I have other prior appointment. Since I have a last minute cancellation, I dropped by after 3pm to join the TT. By the time I arrived at the restaurant, quite a lot of AOC members already there. After the normal greeting to regular members and introduction of new members, everyone sat down and have a lively chat on all thing related to our giant.

Some members also went out under the hot sun to admire the giants of other members.

Many of the new members also take the opportunities to learn more about their giants from each others. Also this is a good time to make new friends and to put a face to the nick name (as they appear in the AOC forum) for those who have not met each other.

The TT ended around 6:30pm when the last group bid farewell to each other and looking forward to the next TT.

What's the ruling on privacy glass?

Recently several members of the AOC was given an inspection notice (Arah Periksa Kenderaan) in several road blocks set up by JPJ (our Road Transport Department) on the privacy glass in their giant (Toyota Alphard). It seems JPJ now deems that the privacy glass in our giant doesn't meet the specification for tinting.

But what is the guideline on the specification on privacy glass for imported car like the Toyota Alphard? The JPJ website doesn't has specific guideline on this and the only way to read the above ruling is listed in theis page. Unfortunately it is written in Bahasa Malaysia which translate to "all the glass at front must have vehicle light transmission (VLT) >70% while side and rear glass must have VLT > 50%". If this is the ruling apply by JPJ then I guess all Toyota Alphard imported into this country would not pass the specification. Also, without a clear guideline, they are only issuing the inspection notice rather then issuing a summon to the owner for violation.

Then the question would be if JPJ doesn't allow imported car to have privacy glass that doesn't meet the specification, why would the dealers are allow to import these vehicles into the country.

The logic goes that our Ministry of Trade International (MITI) issues permits for vehicles to be imported. Its permits specify brand, model, etc but does not go into details regarding specification for privacy glass. Then our Customs Department is only interested in whether the cars have a legal Approved Permit and determine any payable tax. With these two conditions met, the cars get into the country legally and cannot actually be stopped since they meet importation laws.

The issue starts when the cars are sent to JPJ for registration. JPJ will evaluate the cars on technical specifications which must comply with our Vehicle Construction Rules, which include permissible levels of tinting. This is where the problem starts. JPJ will find that the tinting is beyond permissible levels but because it is not a film and actually the glass itself, it cannot be changed just like that. But the importer has already sold it to the dealer and the dealer has a customer who has paid a deposit for it.

To get around this ruling, the dealers will change these dark glasses (temporarily) to clear glasses before sending the car to Puspakom for inspection. After getting the report back from Puspakom verifying that the glass has passed inspection, the dealer changed the glasses back to the original dark one before delivering to the customer. From the customer perspective, since there is an approval by Puspakom, then there shouldn't be any problem with JPJ. The recent operation by JPJ seems to indicate that they are strictly enforcing their ruling on privacy glass.

There has been many attempt by JPJ to enforce the ruling on tinting before and their efforts was stopped by the Government several times. I am wondering if this is an indication that they are going all out to target all Toyota Alphard owners.

The privacy glass on the pre-facelift model is actually darker than those on the new-facelift model. Therefore if this new "ruling" by JPJ is strictly enforced, then all pre-facelift model owners will have to change the privacy glass to clear glass. I don't know if the new-facelift model privacy glass will pass the specification but very unlikely.

Another AOC member who recently bought a 2nd generation Toyota Alphard was also "caught" in a recent operation and was also asked to change the privacy glass. I don't know how long all Alphard owners can hold out before they see the next JPJ Operation and get a notice in their hand. I am not looking forward to that day myself. In the AOC forum, many members have started a discussion on putting up community voice to the media to highlight this concern.

I heard that our Transport Minister also drive a Toyota Alphard. I wonder if he has to change his privacy glass!

Alphard Owner's Club

If you own an Toyota Alphard in either Malaysia or Singapore and you are not aware the existence of a Alphard Onwers' Club in existence, head over to http://www.alphardasiaclub.com/.

Back in late December last year, a few enthusiatic Alphard Owners mooted the idea of forming an Alphard Owners Group. The objective is to have a common place for passionate Alphard owners to share their knowledge on their giants as there are not much information available on Alphard on the Net other than Japanese website.

On the 1st week of January, a dozen or so Alphard owners who used to meet at the Toyota MPV threads in the Motor Trade Online Forum met for the 1st time in a little café in Bukit Jalil. When I said passionate, I really mean it because the first gathering actually have Alphard owners coming all the way from Johor Bahru and Singapore! The group agreed to set up a dedicated forum for Alphard Owners. A fellow member from Singapore took up the challenge and offer to set up this forum on his own expenses. On January 8, 2009, the Alphard Owners' Club (AOC) online forum was officially launched. Even though the forum is called AOC, it is not an official club registered with ROC yet. There is plan to register the club eventually but at the moment, it still exist as an online forum only.

Within the first month, there is already 95 members joined the forum. The founding members that forms the online forum have been actively participating to make the forum more lively from the very beginning. There hasn't been much publicity done to promote this forum but through words of mouth, more and more Alphard owners found the forum and started becoming a member. As of the writing of this post, the forum just passed the 600 members mark after almost 7 months in existence. I believe the number of new members will continue to grow in the coming months. Hopefully we can pass the magical 1,000th member mark before the end of this year.

Currently the forum has members from all over the world. By then I mean other than majority of the members from West Malaysia and Singapore, we have members from East Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Hongkong, New Zealand, Ireland and St Lucia (West Indies/Caribbean - the one and only one Alphard on that island!). Not all members own an Alphard but we do welcome them. Maybe after they learn more about the giant, one day they will become an Alphard owner too.

Currently the online forum has many threads covering various topics including General Discussions, Technical Discussions and the Classified Section. The forum is only accessible by registered member hence general public will not be able to view any of the topics posted in the forum.

The founding members have also been very active in organizing various event trying to attract more members. Since January this year, the following major events were organized for the members:

March 14, 2009 : Day 1 - Gathering of Alphard Owners in Putrajaya; Day 2 - a Day Trip Convoy to Genting Highland
Apr 25th, 2009 : Gathering of Alphard Owners in Awan Besar Rest Area
May 9th, 2009 : Convoy to Kuala Selangor
Jun 6th, 2009 : Gathering of Alphard Owners in Bukit Jalil Golf Driving Range
July 25th, 2009 : Durian Trip to Bentong and Raub.

In between there are also many smaller TT gathering in various locations in Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh, Johor Bahru and Singapore for Alphard owners in those regions. This month we hope the planned TT for Brunei Alphard owners will be a successful event. The next major event is the proposed family day for Alphard owner somewhere in a beach resort down south during the next school holiday.

If you would like to become a member of this fun-fill forum head over to http://www.alphardasiaclub.com/.

Below are photos of some of the major events.

AOC Convoy in July 2009

Two weeks ago, the Alphard Owner Club (AOC) group orgainized its 2nd outstation drive for the year.

AOC is curently not an official club yet but there are plans to formally register it with the Register of Societ once all the paper works are done.
Most of the members of AOC currently "meet virtually" at the online forum (http://www.alphardasiaclub.com/). In fact other those members who regularly meet up during TT, there are members who joined this drive without even met any of other members! But the spirit of AOC prevail and those who are able to make it come forward to make this event a success. Also, many bring along their family members to join in the fun.

All togther, a total 17 Toyota Alphard turn up on a sunny Saturday for the convoy. Member from as far as Penang and Johor Bahru joined the convoy as well.
All members gathered at the petrol station after the Gombak Toll as early as 9:00am for breakfast and then the briefing for the convoy.

Courtesy of Bro Tamkm54

Once all the cars has been assigned the convoy number, the convoy was led off by our organizer bro Bigphil.

The convoy depart the petrol station onto the Karak Highway heading toward the Bentong exit. Being a weekend, there was not any heavy vehicle traffic so the drive was very smooth. The group stop by at the Petronas station just before the Karak toll to pickup two members who over shoot the rendezvous point!


The group departed the highway and turn into Bentong town where we got into a bit of local traffic as we negotiate our way to drop by at one of Bentong famous ais kacang shop. It was nice to find that there is just enough parking space to cater for all 17 giants. Apparently we are not the only tourists to this shop as we there are already many others customers there enjoying the shop specialty which is the ais kacang or their own brand of ice cream.

After the group has quence their thirst, we have out first group photo.

Courtesy of Bro Tamkm54

The next item in the itenerary is the main event - Durian Feast. The group depart for Raub to one of the durian farm to feast on the King of Fruit. The route to Raub is a stretch of winding trunk roads that cut across many tiny towns. Contrary to popular belief, the trunk road is actually well paved and wide enough to accommodate the giant. I am sure many in the convoy must have enjoy driving on such roads compare to the monotonous constant speed cruising on our highway.

However the slip road to the durian farm is quite a challenge tough as it is narrow and can barely allow two cars to pass each other. After a 10 minutes of manevouring over pot holes ridden road, we finally arrived at the durian farm.

After short walk from the cars into the farm, the durians and other local fruits are already waiting for us.



Above photo courtes of bro Tamkm54

Everyone take turn to try the various variety of durians such as D2, D101, D24, Gua Musang, Bamboo legs etc.

After the durian feast, the convoy now heads to the Camang waterfall. The journey take the group back toward Bentong town and head towards Camang. Again the road leading to the Camang waterfall is narrow and winding. By the time we arrived at the waterfall the car park is already full. Apparently this waterfall is a favourite weekend hideout for many local. We have to drive out and park at the other car park at a higher ground.

The children had a great time playing in the shallow section of the stream below the waterfall.

Around 5:30pm, the group reconvene at the car park again and took one more group photo before our return journey.
Courtesy of Bro Tamkm54

We bid goodbye to each other and then the convoy make our way back to Kuala Lumpur and all giants return home safely.

For more information on AOC and it activities, logon to http://www.alphardasiaclub.com/