n the 16th of November, 2000, 3 Scouters and 6 seniors namely
SSL Kevin Yew Chun Weng, ASM Bala s/o Suppiah, SPL Yam Wem-Jhien,
SPL Tan Hiang Liang, SPL Hoo Yuan Feng, SPS Tee Jin Xiong, SPS Chong
Wen Han, SPS Joey Lai Chong Hoa and yours truly embarked on a journey
to Penang. Determined to break the previous Kuala Lumpur-Penang cycling
record of 5 days, set by the batch of '93, we set our target to 3 days.
For security and safety purposes, we had 2 marshals to aid the expedition,
the father of SPL Yam along with SPL Tan Hiang Liang, who was not well
enough to cycle, and the other, ex-SS David Jacob who was later joined
by ex-TL George Samuel. The former was to follow the last cyclist in a
Pajero carrying all the necessary tools and equipment, including a spare
bicycle in the event of an emergency.
Day 1 - 16th November, 2000
It was determined beforehand that we would have to
cycle at an average speed of 20 km/h in order to keep on schedule. Our
assigned distance for today was 160 km, the longest distance of the 3 days
that would see us in Teluk Intan for the night if all went as planned.
Our journey began in the early hours of the morning,
with the scout den as our starting point. After we re-checked our bikes
and equipment several times over, we started cycling in full speed, the
Pajero following behind. Those at the front were cycling very fast and the
group was split into 2 main groups. SPS Joey Lai was assigned to lead the
group in front, as he was the most capable cyclist among us. After cycling
close to one and a half hours past the highways and trunk roads, we finally
reached Paya Jeras. Here, we faced our first taste of rough dirt roads as
the narrow tar roads were jammed with vehicles. I suddenly found myself
wishing I'd invested in suspension for my bicycle as I felt pain shoot
through my entire pelvic region each time I went over the pot holes in
the road. Much to our dismay the sky was starting to turn dark, so much
for wishing for good weather during the expedition. We increased our
speed in hope of finding a place to stop for food (we discovered that
cycling fast for long distances makes you hungry extremely quickly more
than thirsty). For now the only things we could see were palm trees.
At 0810 hours, we finally reached a small Malay coffee
shop about 20 km away from Kuala Selangor and stopped for a snack. After
taking a 30 minutes break, we continued our journey, this time with only
long, straight, seemingly endless roads ahead. We reached Kuala Selangor
at 1014 hours, still keeping good time. Along the journey, we noticed quite
a lot of kampung houses in sight. There, we finally stopped for a proper
meal. The remaining 6 cyclists reached the stop one by one, until the last
one reached with the marshal. SPS Chong found himself suffering from dizziness
probably from exhaustion and the heat. Half an hour was all we needed to
regain our energy to continue our time SPL Hiang Liang replaced SPS Chong
on the bicycle.
At half past noon, it started to drizzle, not a good sign,
considering the sun was still shining brightly, otherwise known as hujan
panas, an easy way to get sick. Luckily, the sky only turned very dark
but it didn’t rain. We managed to cover 40 km since our last stop before
stopping for lunch, with everyone drinking like starved men. At this point,
our second marshal, ex-SS David joined us together with ASM Bala. He was to
drive on in front to monitor the leading cyclists. At 1500 hours, we resumed
our journey, this time in blistering heat as the sun suddenly showed its
face again. SPS Chong returned to his bike after the short. Half an hour
later, we were cycling through Sabak Bernam. A sign board stated that Teluk
Intan was 48 km away. I estimated that we could reach there by about 1800
hours if we maintained our speed.
We appreciated the beautiful scenery of paddy fields
while we cycled. The downside of it was the vast open spaces gave way to
strong winds, making it almost impossible to maintain a good speed fighting
the wind. We trudged on wistfully wishing the wind would blow behind us. It
started to rain on and off as we reached Daerah Hilir Perak, actually quite
welcomed by us after the heat of the sun we had been cycling through. At
1720 hours, we reached our third stop for the day. The last of us reached
just in time with the marshal before it started raining really heavily.
We were stranded there until the rain stopped. We received
word from ex-SS David that SPS Joey, who was far in front, stopped here
for a while but continued to cycle before we arrived. When it was about 1840
hours, we had decided that it was running too late and resumed our journey
through the slight rain. The marshal arrived at a junction and turned right
to Teluk Intan. After a considerable distance covered, there was still no
sign of us. They started to wonder if we had taken the wrong way. Meanwhile,
without us knowing it, we had indeed missed the junction and cycled on
straight without a clue that we were heading the wrong way at full speed.
At this point, SPL Yuan Feng, SPS Jin Xiong and myself
were in the leading group, aside from SPS Joey, whom we assumed had arrived
at Teluk Intan by now. We were already wondering if we were on the right
track as there was nothing along the way to suggest we were anywhere near
Teluk Intan. The marshals had already encountered SSL Kevin Yew who had
headed to the correct direction. When they detoured towards Bagan Datok,
they managed to locate SPL Yam and SPS Chong who had stopped at a bus stop
when they found out they were going the wrong way from a local. The marshal
told them to stay there while they drove on ahead to locate us. At 1935
hours, still unaware that we had lost our way, we were cycling in complete
darkness relying only on the occasional vehicle for light. The light from
oncoming vehicles on the other side of the road was so blinding that we
were blinded for few seconds each time a large truck or bus passed us.
By this time, we were certain we had gone the wrong way because at our
speed we should have already reached Teluk Intan. However, with only
plantations on either side of the narrow and dark roads, we thought it
would be pointless and dangerous to stop and stand in the rain and so we
cycled on hoping for a place to stop and contact the marshal. No one came.
Ten minutes later, we stopped at the side of the road
at the sound of a horn coming from behind. To our delight, it was the marshal.
SPL Hiang Liang regretfully informed us that we had over sped more than 20
km from the junction. (Well, not that far if you had covered the distance
in a vehicle). We were 6 km from Bagan Datok (a fishing village). We had
no choice but to cycle back. It hadn't stopped raining and the three of us
were freezing cold. Nevertheless we turned around and resumed our cycling
at the same speed at the promise of a nice hot bath and a hearty meal. We
finally reached the bus stop where SPS Chong and SPL Yam were waiting. We
waited there while the marshal returned to Teluk Intan to unload the bicycles
into the boot and come back with the other marshal to fetch us back to the
hotel along with our bikes. They finally returned and we eagerly climbed
into the car after loading our bikes into the Pajero. At 2130 hours, we
finally reached Teluk Intan. We settled down in Hotel Kok Min. At 2415
hours, all of us turned in for the night.
Day 2 - 17th November, 2000
The new day saw us awake with terribly painful
buttocks from the previous day of cycling. Our designated stop for
today was Taiping. Today we had only 100 km to cycle. We decided we
would cycle approximately 25 km between each stop. ASM Bala joined us
cycling today.
At 0645 hours, after having breakfast at a nearby
shop, we began the day's journey. Again SPS Joey Lai led the group.
Midway, ASM Bala had to stop and waited for the marshal for equipment
to pump his bike. Two and a half hours later, the leading group reached
our first stop for today, Ah Choo Restaurant. Most of us ordered light
meals while drinking at least 2 cans of the 100 plus we had bought
previously. Minutes later, the rest arrived. At this point I was
suffering from terrible stomach cramps and I was seriously doubting
my ability to go on. After the break, everyone resumed cycling
except SPLYam and SPS Joey. SPL Yam had some problems with his bike
and SPS Joey (our very own bicycle expert) was trying to help him
out. I retired for the day and joined ex-SS David in the first
marshal car. Eventually SPS Joey exchanged his bike with SPLYam,
a huge booster for him considering SPS Joey's extensively upgraded
and modified bike. We reached Pantai Remis, with only palm trees on
either side of the road. At least the journey so far was a bit less
mundane with the roads uphill one minute - forcing us to burn our
thighs in strained effort - and downhill the next - relaxingly
cruising on our own momentum.
We made our second stop for the day after cycling
through the sun’s blazing heat. This time everyone enjoyed a hearty
lunch. I opted to travel with the Marshal, as the cyclists needed
more assistance with the equipment. After SPL Yam had had his share,
SPS Joey returned to his beloved bike. After the meal, everyone
left except SPS Joey who was having some problems with his bicycle.
(He left 5 minutes later). SPL Hiang Liang took to the roads to
cycle with the rest, replacing SSL Kevin, who joined ex-SS David.
By now ex-TL George had also joined them in the first marshal car.
SPL Hiang Liang who was further up ahead encountered problems with
his gear and had stopped to wait for SPS Joey to catch up and help.
He soon reached and found no real problem, much to our amusement.
Twenty minutes later, SPS Chong made a stop as his bike was faulty.
I took out the spare bike but found it had problems with the gears.
After repairing the bike, I gave it to him and he resumed cycling.
Suddenly at 1640 hours, it started raining! I
hoped that all the cyclists would speed up as we seemed quite close
to our next stop. Just in time, we reached the others who had stopped
at a small stall for food. The rain did not cease and we decided we
didn't want to repeat yesterday's mistake of resuming our final
20 km too late, so we continued in the rain this time cycling in
a proper single file order. Halfway in our journey, SPS Chong
suddenly started to have muscle cramp. He stopped at the side
of the road. SPS Joey (who was leading as usual) turned around
like a sick fool on his bike to see what was happening, narrowly
missing a speeding car. Thankfully SPS Chong recovered soon enough
and the cyclists resumed cycling. Finally at 1840 hours, we reached
Taiping but didn't know where to stop as the first marshal car had
gone ahead to look for accommodation. We stopped at a coffee shop
and contacted the first marshal car. Thankfully, the hotel, called
Meridian Hotel was just opposite the road. We moved the bikes into
the hotel after a light snack. After cleaning up, we went to have
dinner together. Lights out at 2330 hours.
Day 3 - 19th November, 2000
Finally, it was the last day of the expedition.
To our delight, our distance for today was only around 90 km. We
discovered we would not be allowed to cycle in through the
famous Penang Bridge due to the hazardous traffic flow, thus
our destination was the Butterworth train station, where we
would send our bikes back to KL.
We woke up late and decided to have breakfast
later to take advantage of the cool morning weather, This time we
decided that we would maintain a formation throughout the day We
had developed a plan whereby SPS Joey would lead to set the pace
and I would stay last to ensure no one was too slow. At 0900 hours,
we stopped at Bagan Serai for breakfast. We were all starving and
ate our fill. Our plan seemed to be working, the leading group reached
only 5 minutes ahead of us. An hour later, we started moving again
in the same formation. On the journey, ASM Bala had a flat tire,
we stopped and waited for the Pajero. Five minutes before noon,
at a mere 23 km from our journey the sky started to get dark,
just like the past two days. Cycling from a distance I watched as,
for some reason, SPS Joey began to lose balance on his bike and
almost knocked into ASM Bala, but regained his balance at the last
minute only to accidentally pull ASM Bala down. I signalled the
Marshal to speed up and check it out. SPS Joey escaped with no
injuries, but ASM Bala suffered a nasty gash on his palm (he was
not wearing gloves). We walked with our bicycles to a nearby coffee
shop for lunch while the Marshal took ASM Bala to a clinic to get
his hand treated.
At 1345 hours, ASM Bala returned and we took
our time to have our lunch as we had only 10 km to go. Two hours
later, we were on the move for the remaining distances. ASM Bala
was determined to finish the expedition despite his injury and
so took to his bike and resumed cycling with his hand bandaged.
Suddenly, it started to rain. We were beginning to get a taste
of the insane traffic as reckless drivers drove by us like road
hogs ignoring our presence on the road. The situation worsen at
intersections and roundabouts with even more motorists speeding
through along the way. Cycling in the rain, we finally reached
the Butterworth Train Station at 1600 hours. Before loading our
bikes into the train, we had our photography moments, posing along,
some smiling and even can't stop talking about the journey itself.
It was indeed the most memorable moment of all, posing for the camera
along with our precious bicycles and of course the troop banner.
Overall, it was a satisfactory expedition well
organized and well on schedule. Nevertheless many aspects could
have been improved on, such as the group being split. We found that
when cycling in a group everyone was equally motivated and the faster
cyclists could set the pace well for the slower ones. Each cyclist
should have been familiar with the route taken to ensure mistakes
like the first day did not occur. However those aside, we proudly
add another feather to our cap. As a first step in the new
millennium, may the troop always remain…
SECOND TO NONE
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