Updated: Jul 04, 2003 by Groovy Grapefruit
Objective: Recee a new route to Mersing from Penggarang
Mission Status: Failed
Further most point travelled: Tanjung Leman, jumping point to Sibu Island
The Route :
Penggarang->(50km) Desaru->(31km) Sedili Kechil
->(12km) Tg Sedili-> (cross river)Sedili Besar-> (40km)Tg Leman
Difficulty level: Very High
Total Distance Covered: about 268km (81 + 100+ 87)
Likelihood of repeat future missions: Low
The Cast, Starring
Carie is Ah Girl also known as Xiao Mei
Kok Fai Manly (the most Man in the gang mah)
Kok Thye is Kok Thye (if laughter is a medicine, he?s the antidote)
Yeo is Xi Gwei/watermelon (dun ask me why. The man doesn?t even love watermelon that much. Ask KT)
Jansen is Jansen(he who instigated this trip)
Yiling is Yiling (reluctant leader who gotovertaken most of the time
WARNING:
This piece's gonna be quite lengthy. You may ask: for a brief 3-day trip is there so much to write about?!?!?!? You bet, especially when the narrator is me. But, that?s not to say I made the stuff up. I really didn't. They are mostly true. I'm just kinda long-winded. That's all.
Well, the portraits might not be all that flattering but remember they were exposes during moments of duress. And it?s only my point of view.
It was a pretty rough and insane trip but as you will see, the company more than made up for it. It was simply - great.
Looks Deceive
Think you're old and wise enough to NOT judge a book by it's cover. Think again. See, no one really believed ah girl could complete the mission with the rest (anyone took bets?!?!?!). She, who last touched a bicycle 5 years ago eventually covered a total distance of 279km in 3 days. That's roughly 93km per day! (applause!) And all those butt-searing slopes too! (more applause!!) You couldn't believe it? Wait till you hear this: the furthest she's ever cycled before this was from one end of east coast to the other (about 20km and no slopes). Guess ignorance helped big time. And a substantial streak of insanity or naivety. Well-coordinated deception helped too (no one told ah girl where we were going). So to all you who smirked or scared her before her feat, tsk tsk ?
Or you thought the weather's gonna stay neat (not sunny, not cloudy, not rainy and not windy because your fellow cyclists claimed they had prayed to their respective gods) and then it suddenly rained big time! Like you're being watered down with a large bucket of laundry water. The water splattered onto your face (thanks to that fellow in front of you), the wind penetrated into your clothes which were designed to wick sweat out of the system quickly but which were in fact equally fast in getting water in. And you still have those darn slopes to deal with. But rain helped to reduce friction which helped big time when climbing slopes. And we didn't get thirsty too much. Boon or bane? You decide.
After 6 hours of solid cycling, hunger sets in ? then the cold .. then the fatigue .. then the despair ? And then ?. out of the blue, there's a coffeeshop sitting nonchalantly down the bridge @ Sedili Kechil. Ah .. hot coffee, hot teh, hot milo .. oh ? there's hot toast too (altho not crispy enough but what did it matter)! And steaming hot Maggi mee ?!! Never expected to be revived in the middle of ulu-ness? Hmmm?. I'm not complaining?.
Then you're all satiated and ready to cycle another 12 km from Sedili Kechil to Tanjung Sedili (the jetty), nevermind the flesh-numbing cold, or advice from locals reiterating there's no hotels/motels/hostels/resorts out there at Tg ?Ah girl said: can always sleep by the roadside what ? huh? I absolutely couldn't. Not in that cold. Man, and I was bundled up in a long-sleeve high collar shirt and she in a sleeveless, collarless thin Nike do. Erm.
The Making of an Idol
How do we begin to define an idol? No, I'm not talking about popster Idols like F4 or 5566 or Justin Timberlake. This is a cycling trip for goodness sake. I'm thinkin' gun-tottin cowboys. ? indiana jones ? Okie, here goes ?.
a) Defy gravity when least expected to?
b) without doubt very macho but gentle when administering to cycling wounds?
c) Able to joke, sing, have a rousing good time in the face of extreme hardship?
c) Can patiently bandage wounds and decorate the same with expertly tied ?lay-bins? (ribbons)?
Geniuses are born but idols had to be cultivated.
Looks do not matter when it comes to being an idol, not here anyway. If you have read those novels, watch those movies, you will know what I mean. The sweatier the better. Strong arms help too (you go figure out why). But it's the heart that truly mattered. Got it?
Idols always exceed expectations. It's a fact. Like cycling up a 60 degree slope when everyone else (including Manly) failed. Like not crying out loud even though he was being massaged by a sadist and close to gnawing a leg of Bed.
Or be available to console an exhausted and cheerless girl when she exclaimed very determinedly on a wildly scorching afternoon at a boring jetty: I'm very wilful! I am NOT going to cycle back. I WILL hitch a ride!!!!! I don't care what you all say ?. after she had to endure the most horrible slopes she and most of the rest of us ever encountered.
And of course not to mention taking care of her injuries as and when requested after she sustained them and singing songs along the way to cheer her up ?.
Xi Gwei is Xiao Mei's hero. What say you? Can you better that?
Hygiene During a Road Trip
Malaysia can be quite a treacherous place especially for sanitation-obsessed Singaporeans (though our obsession do not extend to our own public toilets). You rest at simple coffeeshops along the road or makeshift drink stalls next to highways. There would usually be lots of houseflies. The tables and chairs were frequently dusty, dirty etc. You could not know for sure whether the ice in the lime juice was frozen from clean water or whether the food was prepared with washed hands.
So sometimes, you might end up with a stomach condition or if you had to keep going to the toilet, then it could be food poisoning. But before you start suspecting the stalls, the food, everything and everybody around you, check yourself. You know, we were mighty stupefied when the normal hale and hearty Manly succumbed to intestinal discomfort. We suspected a lot of things but the strangest thing was, the rest of us were ok, even first-timer ah girl. Whatever could be this commando's problem?!?!? Then, on the 2nd day, someone (like Xi Gwei) happened to peer at Manly's drinking tube. Aha! It was supposed to be a blue-coloured tube but it looked exquisitely green to us. Turned out the tube had become a condominium for loads of algae-like organisms. No wonder Manly's been having stomach problems on all his cycling trips! Hmmm ? me thought water bottles were still the best! And cheaper (sometimes free even). Manly agreed.
Maps do lie But Signboards usually don?t
So you think have map will travel? We thought so too. Hey, let's try to recee a new route to Mersing via the coastal way. Oh? Gotta to cross a river @ Tanjung Sedili? Shouldn't be a problem. Yeah. Wasn't a problem at all. The river's serviced by bumboats at regular intervals daily from 7am till 8pm. Ah.. everything's cool until we got out of Sedili Besar. Locals confirmed the road's pretty flat. Sure. We forgot they usually travelled either in cars or motorbikes.
On the map the route seemed awfully close to the coast so we thought it ought to be pretty flat. How wrong! It was anything but. Up and down our bicycles went. Up and down we went and still we were flanked by oil palm plantations. Sesessh. Only one word to describe us ? Siao! (insane!) ? for creating such torture for ourselves.
Then we reached a split point. Erm. I thought we should head towards Tenggaroh but locals told us we have to turn right to TG Leman. Right. Another 12km. Should be flat now huh? But ?but ? why? It was the worst 12km we ever cycled this trip. We met up with the worst slopes here ? long, steep, never-ending ?. oh, how could I even begin to describe the agony????? It took a lot from us to head back the same way. As a matter of fact, we breaked for lunch for 2 hours and then frolicked in the sea by the beautiful beach. Can you begin to understand our sentiments then? Beach or slopes' Slopes or getting back in time to work? Sigh. Like, there wasn't much of a choice to begin with.
Overconfidence can Hurt (literally)
Familiarity breeds contempt. And then catastrophes happened. Inevitably @ the most unlikely of places @ the 11.9th hour. Look at how ah girl bounced down a windy kampong road and crashed at the 2nd bend. She was just 100m away from the kampong, the end of a tough ride. Aye. She, who earlier on had bested a huge galloping wild boar, countless killer slopes, scorching weather and dangerous gravel-lined downslopes. So, boys and girls, never never doze while you're cycling. Specially not going down a seemingly innocent kampong road. You never know. You may run into wild boars, chickens, dogs or worse, motorcycles.
On our way back, between Sedili and Desaru, we met a huge lizard. It was sprawled smack right across the middle of the road. It must have been almost 1m long at least and wearing a most malicious look. I almost expected it to pounce towards me as I cycled past. But it only glared. Ah, it's long tail was amalgamated to the tar road, part of the blood red flesh exposed. Urgh. It didn't look dead but it sure ain't moving. Sigh. Another road kill. What a waste. After growing to such a menacing size, it went to get itself killed. Along the way, there were many others. I think roadkills met their sad fates because they were too ya-ya. Oh yeah, let's challenge one another to cross over the road to the other side. Fastest lizard gets to take home the yummy rat. Erm. You'd think they'd be acquainted with those notoriously fast M'sian drivers. But no, they never learn their lessons.
We're not much better too. Woke up @ 630am but had such a long breakfast we only moved off @ 840am. Sure, gotta wait for 3 lazy bones to crawl outta their beds but then, couldn't fathom why drinking 2 cuppas and a bowl of mee could take us more than 1 hour? Well, it was so comfortable to be just resting. And hadn't we cycled this part before? Should be easy. Yah sure. It was so fun battling the mighty head wind which later turned into a storm. So interesting to see how it wobbled our bikes left to right while we were desperately trying to clear an oh-so-long upslope? so shiok to finally have to paddle on downhills ?. But my legs, knees and butt didn?t think so ?
Choose your leaders wisely
Some people are natural born leaders. Some are good followers. Others make good last men- patient, understanding, encouraging and blessed with very strong legs.
Now, a good leader would allow you to rest when you needed to rest, best if he could find some drinks, food to go along with the rest. And he's seldom out of your vision. Good leaders would wait. Not-so-good leaders would resort to the whip. Faster faster. Got a ferry to catch by 3pm. Cannot rest for more than 5 mins. Wait for ah girl? No no .. cannot let her stop. Lunch can only break for half an hour. Not enough time for lunch? Buy chocolate bars and munch as we cycle. Ah? Next time must not allow Manly to be the leader. What a slave driver ?
A good leader should have excellent map reading skills, be multi-lingual and have photographic memories. Assuming that a road that's close to the coast was flat wouldn't go down well with members. Or claiming that there?s a resort 1km away from tanjung sedili when it was actually 11km away! Or cycling way too slowly even while dogs were swiftly catching up with those at the back. Or suggesting cycling in the night all the way to Desaru. Huh? Never never let a lunatic run the show ?. Sure. That lunatic's me ? ha ha. Hey, will be glad to pass the baton to someone else - anyone but Slavedriver Manly.
Exhuastion can lead to many ailments ?
Sometimes cycling too much could take it's toll even though the parties affected might not exhibit the symptoms outwardly. Like, on our way back from Tg Leman. We took 5 @ this closed coffeeshop. After drinking water, eating titbits we were ready to go again. But there were 2 bags @ the table. Hmm.. Manly and Xi Gwei must have gone to take a leak. Then I turned around and saw them standing smugly by their bikes, all ready to go. I looked at them then I turned and looked at their bags. Xi Gwei recovered earlier ? oh oh ? forgot my bag ? he quickly retrieved his bag from the table. Manly was still standing coolly by his bike ?. Well. But he recovered lah eventually. Or we wouldn't be able to move off. We couldn't let him abandon his own bag what ? especially not the precious titbits inside ?
On Borrowing Other People's stuff
It's stressful using other people's stuff. You know, I was having so much fun fooling around with Ah girl's nikon coolpix and then KT and Xi Gwei would alternatively pedal up to remind me: it's $600 ok? Make sure you don't fall down and damage it ok? Hey, it's not easy to cycle and take pictures at the same time. They were not even concerned about me?!?!?!?!? Sigh. What a life.
Men do have labour pains?
Go ask Jansen.
By Groovy Grapefruit
PS: We will really like to thank those guys who knowingly or unknowingly lent us their bikes: teck siong, Ah bee and Eng tat and were not the least resistant to taking them back unwashed (the riders did offer but that would pose some logistical problems and they may never see their bikes again). I hope there were not too many scratches. :P
We are also extremely grateful to Kokwee and Hakloon for answering our call of distress, came to Changi Village to pick us and bikes up and sent us home that Sunday. Your vans hadth never looked lovelier!
Also thanks to Miss B for lending us her memory card so that we could take so many photos!
Cheers