I think it’s great to start with honesty. I went to the north, and I reached Perlis, but not by bike, one of my dearest friends’ family took me there where her mom’s family stays. I drop my bike at Sg. Petani at that time. Other honesty is, I got a ride a couple of times, first ride was from Ronda Plus. Well, bicycle is not supposed to be in the highway in Malaysia. However, they’re suppose to know how stubborn I am. One of the ronda plus officer told me anyway, that highway is actually safer since they have the side road for motorbike to ride safely. Second ride came from a Bangla, who has a business at Bt. Ais or any area sounds like that, I didn’t really get it when he talks though. That’s all. Now, let’s get it started.
1st day: Dark in the morning, creepy, exciting, and fresh. I was a lil bit confused too, since I haven’t really met the road yet but through a map and GPS. Instead of taking highway, I took the old Ipoh road. It was a hot Friday of 1st July. I arrived at one mosque at one area called Batang Kali. Took a shower there before the prayer, and talked to the local who leads me to go to the highway, and assured me how safe it is compared to the old road. After prayer, I slept at the mosque for 15 minutes. Which was quite refreshing after five straight hours of paddling. No cram yet, every muscles seems to worked lightly. I was wondering how the 2nd ride felt like.
So I went to the highway, from a place called Tanjung Malim, where the 1st weird thing happened. Sometimes, when the road went up, there is a little bit push at my back and it feels effortless to pedal my bike. Vice versa, when the road went down, my tires seemed not to be working together with gravity. One theory is, it was too hot, and the tires stick to the asphalt. However, I still cant find the explanation of the push feeling at the slightly uphill road, is it the wind from the big vehicle passing by or what? I dont know. I slept at Slim River that night, reached the toll plaza around 7.30, and start to look after a place to take some food. A mamak was there, nearby the Petronas, where I thought to be a good place for a crash, the surau.
2nd day: Here I met and introduced to Ronda Plus. I was stopped on the middle of nowhere, they asked me to get out of the highway was soon as possible. The reason: the procedure, bicycle is not allowed on the highway, once. I went straight anyway, like nothing happened before. Only one thing on my mind, Ipoh to stay at that night. I met one perhentian (rest place) at Tapah at noon, so I stopped, took my rest and food there for a while. The rujak buah there is the best compared to other places I’ve ever tasted around Malaysia. As soon as i felt it was not too hot, i hit the road again. About two hours of a ride, another ronda stopped by and asked me to get out of the highway, again. This time, I forced them a bit, if they wanted me to get out of the road, they better take me to the car and lead me there. They did, after they replaced one tire of a Mer-C in the middle of the road. What a good people. So I arrived at Ipoh safely, and took a decision to have a good rest on a good place. One budget hotel called Tambun Inn was a choice, I didnt really like the place, so I went for a bit walk for dinner. Found a mamak after 15 mins of walk.
3rd day: Plan to went off of Ipoh in the morning. So I woke up at 6 as usual and found out my back tyre was out of air. I decided to sleep for another two hours, to wait for the sun goes up, and the shops to be opened. I went for a breakfast, asked people around about where to fix it. I arrived at the place, it was closed. I asked people around again, and Shell’s employee said that that shop will be opened at noon. I waited for two hot hours there. Thinking of how much further could I go if my tyre was just fine.
As soon as it’s fixed, I hit the road again, it was freakingly hot. The tyres stick to the asphalt as hell, it wasnt moving even though the road went down. It was one of the hardest time, the time when it was all tested, the patience, the resilience, the stamina, the strength. It was the time when I was thinking to stop it all, give up, and head back. One side, my head said that it wasn’t the real me, another side was questioning what actually am I going to get out of this. I tried to keep it calm, and ignore all the voices. Meditation works, most of the time in life, we just shut our ears, even from ourselves, and move on on the things we know is right. I closed my eyes, breathe rightly, shut my mind from speaking too much, and proceed.
Good things happened indeed, one Bangladeshi named Jakir was selling vegetables with his van on the side of the road. I stopped by and asked their story They are all Bangladeshi, who have been working in Malaysia for a long time. Other than the vegetables businessman, they’re hard labor, who are working for the highway’s company on the side of the road to make sure there is no land slide. This man, Jakir asked me to get on his van and will stop me by the road. I took the offer, and I felt really lucky to took it, since there was a big accident on the middle of the road right about 5 km from the road he took me. A big lorry with gas in it hit the railing in the middle of the road, and got burnt before we got there. The jam was about 10 Km, it was awful.
To be continued….
Tonight I heard a comment from my girlfriend in the middle of our conversation that “I’m not matured yet”. My mind suddenly uttered something that I didn’t really think before with “It’s our decision to make, not time…just like praying or fasting, we may not like to do it, indeed we decide to do it”. To be honest, it was not the first time I heard such saying “I’m not matured yet”, “I want to enjoy my young age”, “This is my time to have fun”.
niqisfreax
