Solo Riding From Singapore To Penang

On my first year of owning a motorcycle and my own KTM Duke 200, I had an impromptu idea of riding to Penang over the course of a few days. After pretty minimal planning and no clear plans, I packed my bag, grabbed my passport, and headed across the border for the first time!

Trip Details

Distance Covered: ~ 1,442 km /896 miles

Duration: 4 days

Bike: KTM Duke 200 (2019)

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Highlights: First trip across the border, generally good road conditions, no toll charges and mostly free parking, affordable petrol, great food all over

Negatives: First time border crossing can be intimidating and confusing, city riding can get extremely chaotic, long distances on a small cc bike can get tiring :')

It isn't a big trip for sure, but for my first experience, this was a huge learning experience, making possibly all the mistakes you could - going to the wrong side of immigration, getting tyre punctures midway, almost running out of fuel... it is a wonderful experience and the first of many adventures to come. Because of how lazy I am with editing footages, it took me a year before getting to the footage of the trip back. There, I had a lot more fun experimenting with my insta360 x2 which is super useful when vlogging by yourself.

Extra Tips for Beginners

Some tips and tricks I've picked up which may be useful for first timers!

When leaving Singapore at the checkpoint, if you have a Singapore registered bike, ignore the on screen instructions to make any payments, it's going to cause the system to error out and you'll need to be escorted and manually cleared
When entering Malaysia, avoid lanes marked as M-bike (Malaysia Bikes) and try and follow other Singapore plate bikes if possible. In general, look for human operated booths and you should be good :)
When travelling around Malaysia highways, always keep to the left most lane when going through tolls, there will be a motorcycle lane and you do not need to make any payments.
I have accidentally ended up on a car lane, and naturally had to pay the bill
For carparks that require payments, having a physical touch and go card is very useful and convenient
The left most shoulder lane of the expressway is generally where smaller cc motorcylists ride, but be careful of debris which may cause punctures, stopped vehicles, sudden ending of road shoulder, larger vehicles inching closer towards the sides
As with a lot of southeast asia, the smaller cc scooters are the king of the roads here. They go incredibly quick in crowded roads so be extremely wary while changing lanes or lane splitting. Car drivers are pretty used to lane splitting so not too much to worry about there but the usual precautions apply