Cross Country to Kuala Lumpur

On Monday the 21st April, Denis and I flew 'Eve' from our home base in Nusajaya to Subang (WMSA) Airport. The purpose of the trip was twofold. First, it was for us to clock some cross country time. Secondly, we were going to orientate DCA's new Head of Licencing, Capt Said, on our club and its operations in Johor, as well as the aircrafts we operate.
We planned to be in Subang by 12pm and so were going to depart at 10am. However, thanks to some car trouble, at 10am we were at Sin Ming area sorting out Denis' aging Porsche. We also had planned to track to WMSA via VFR Route 1, a coastal route from Port Dickson to Port Klang. But, some words of caution from Capt Siva made us reevaluate that decision and we had to do a last minute revision to our flight plan at UEM's office prior to takeoff. The coastal route takes us 5 miles out to sea flying at 1000ft. Not good.
It was a good flight except for some ridiculous requests from Malacca ATC. But, I'm not going to turn this into a rant. Exactly 2 hours later, we touched down uneventfully in WMSA, got picked up by our friend, Mani, and taken to lunch where we met up with Capt Siva and Capt Said. Capt Said liked the J160 and was most impressed with its handling ability, this coming from a MIG-29 pilot! Apparently, he really yanked and banked it.
The next day, we flew back to NJ via another way - Seremban, Kuala Pilah, Segamat, Yong Peng, Benut, NJ. The leg from KP to Yong Peng was absolutely sublime. We cruised at 3500ft, it was calm and we were pretty much hands off the entire route. With only occasional contacts with Keluang ATC, we were happy to take in the scenery and enjoy the freedom of flight. Both of us had silly grins on our faces and kept saying "This is the life!"
We were rudely brought back to reality after Yong Peng when Johor ATC ordered us to descend to 1500ft. At that altitude, we were bumped around with turbulence. "Welcome back to Johor", we were both thinking. The trip back took 2hr 5min, plus we held on the ground for 18min in WMSA due to helicopter and inbound traffic. This is why we are so thankful to be operating out of NJ where we don't have challenges like that.