Dark storm clouds lie ahead in our path up across the Gerik mountain range. It looks like the storm is unavoidable.
And it was getting a little late in the afternoon and we are still quite far away from our planned night stop at Terrenganu.
This is bad news. If we can’t reach Terrenganu before night fall, it would mean that we would have to ride in the dark along unfamiliar trunk roads. That would be extremely dangerous and none of us want to do that.
Spectrum and I are the last bikes in our convoy of 6 bikes. Denden, SV650, Weiz and Forza are riding ahead of us.
The trees are swaying wildly as strong wind blow across the Gerik mountain tops.
Now we have to concentrate even harder as we ride our way.
Imagine riding along the sharp curves of Singapore's South Buena Vista road, but with a big-lorry-wake-strong sidewind blowing at you.
Beh lor hor.
Then really lor toa hor.
I quickly stopped to put on my rain gear and continue riding.
The start of the unriddeable rainBut I could ride only a short distance and was unable to ride anymore. It is the heaviest densiest rain I have ever encountered in my life. Must be because we are up on the mountains and only a short distance from the cloud source.
You can feel the heavy weight of the rain hitting your shoulders, despite wearing rain coat on top of armoured jacket. And when you look in front, you can see atmost one-two meters ahead. What lies beyond disappears and gets swallowed up by the thick grey curtains of rain.
The rain is so heavy that it made me just stopped riding in the middle of nowhere. I just stood beside my bike on the grass, in the open, under the pouring rain.
To let you understand how heavy the rain is, I tell you I am not a rain-shy rider. In
Then Spectrum appeared from behind. I plucked up a little more courage and we rode on together very, very slowly, almost bicycle speed.
So we are now caught in a storm more Perfect than George Clooney's Perfect Storm because
we have to deal with:
(Sharp bends) + (blind corners) + (decreasing radius bends) + (steep downward sloping road) + (mountain wall on one side) + (deep canyon on the other side) + (strong sideward wind) + (super heavy rain) + (almost zero visibility) + (cars passing very closely beside us)
= Perfect Perfect Storm
******
Somehow, it seems that the Heavens is really out to test/punish us.
The pair of us rode slowly. Visibility was very very bad. We could hardly see more than 10 metres in front of us.
We see cars just in front of us suddenly slow down. What is happening, as we reach the frantically braking cars?
Shit!!!
Right speck in the middle of our rode path, less than 2 metres away, is one big dead wildboar!
Both of us took evasive actions and thankfully, were able to split narrowly around this dangerous road obstacle!
The big dead wildboar.
It was lying in the middle of our lane on the road.
Weapon of Motorcycle Destruction
During my army national service days and reservist days, I would occasionally see wild boars running around in the tall grass. They looked so cute and shy, as they would run away with me chasing behind them for fun.
After this, I no longer think wild boars are so cute afterall. In fact, I think they are deadly.
******
I was thinking, “Poor wildboar. I also pity you. So suay. Must be kena banged by car. But of all places, why must you chose to collapse in the middle of the road? At this time, when there is a thunder storm going on! Nearly make me hit you. Then I confirm lie down beside you and keep you company.”
Still thinking about the wildboar, I passed by a shadowy lone figure standing by the road side. The rain is very heavy, my visor is covered with running water droplets. I cannot see clearly. Looks like some Malaysian motorcyclist. So unfortunate to have his motorcycle broken down by the road side and kena stuck in the middle of the Gerik mountain under a raging storm.
"Wah, why got some much things to say to a malaysian motorcyclist?"
I U-turn, ride passed Spectrum and the stranded motorcyclist and backtrack up the road to see what is Spectrum up to.
*****
It was SV650. I had rode past within 1 meter of our own tour mate, not once but twice, and yet I couldn’t recognize him. Shows you how heavy the rain was.
His front brake system has, of all time and places, malfunctioned. So he has to stop riding.
We looked at each other, through our misty water droplet covered visors.
What to do next?
We are all lost what to do. And I am feeling tired, physically and mentally from the ride since morning.
The heavy rain still pouring down on us.
The situation then reminded me of my national service days in the army.
Like stucked in some tortuous trench digging exercise, under a soaking rain, without any option to bail out. Very tired already, and still have to wear a stupid helmet. But the only way to go on is to continue with the nightmare. Inside, I was really wishing somebody will shout out the magaical “EXERCISE CUT!” and end this whole nightmarish situation.
This is real.
Finally, we recovered enough of our senses. But not much. We decided, let us go to the nearest shelter. Then think of what to do. Back-tracked 100 metres up, there was something like a shed.
The shelter that we took refuge from the storm.
******
We found the shelter. It was like a very run-down provision shop/kopi shop/house. I still cannot understand who would want to live/do business in the middle of nowhere up in the mountains.
We were not alone. A Malaysian lorry trailer driver was also taking shelter there. We ordered some hot drinks there to warm ourselves up.
What to do next?
OK, let’s regroup everybody first. There is the 3 of us in the shed. There is the other 3 Forza, Denden and Weiz who are ahead of us. Let us call them to come to the shed to regroup.
Spectrum took out his mobile phone to call. Ou, oh!
The mobile phone doesn’t work.
No mobile network coverage in the middle of Gerik.
Like that how?
We got one broken down bike.
Our tour group is spread all over. Who knows where are they? Where are they heading?
What has happened to them? How to continue when all like that?
The Perfectx3 Storm just added another Perfect.
******
We really don’t know what to do on how to get everybody back. In the meantime, we think about what to do with the broken down bike.
How to leave the bike in the middle of nowhere? Wait get stolen how?
So do we try to ride the bike to the nearest town, down the windy mountain slopes, despite a malfunctioned front brake?
Or leave the bike there and wait for towing truck to come and tow it? But where to find towing service in the mountains? How long would it take to come? Hours or days?! Are we going to wait there (it is getting dark) or do we leave the bike there?
Decisions, decisions, decisions.
A sudden thought flashed through my mind: Mummy, I want to go home.
******
The storm which looked like it would last days, amazingly, came to a stop.
And sometime later, we saw Denden’s bike riding back up the mountain road.
We quickly run out, waived and jumped to catch his attention!
What a relief, Denden is together. Where is Forza and Weiz?
Spectrum, Denden and mine bikes outside the shed.
Denden said, “Isn’t Forza and Weiz with us?” Shit.
Denden said he was the first bike as just now, he overtook Forza and Weiz. Denden had rode as far to Jeli before he stopped to take shelter from the storm. But when he back-tracked to Spectrum, SV650 and me, he didn’t see Forza and Weiz.
So where are Forza and Weiz? And no way to contact them. Shit.
******
Miraculously, after we spent worrying for some time, we saw the two riders Forza and Weiz also riding back up the mountain roads towards us.
Forza and Weiz re-appeared.
Now, what to do with the broken down bike?
As we were discussing, a tow truck drove towards us. We quickly jumped out and stopped the driver.
We asked the tow truck driver how much to tow the bike.
Forza, our Negotiator.
We are at the mercy of the tow truck.
The tow truck quoted 150rm just to tow to Jeli
We are unable to decide. The tow truck driver, sensing our dire predictable, was unwilling to compromise his price. Take-it-or-leave-it. We can’t decide and he just left us.
After the tow truck left us, we decided: Let us ride to Jeli town. There, we should have mobile phone coverage. We shall then call to our known
Nice peaceful weather after the storm has passed.
We left SV650’s bike behind and rode to Jeli.
Jeli
It took us a good 25 km before we reached Jeli town.
Along the way, I saw this nice looking piece of rock.
We stopped at a Shell petrol kiosk and filled up.
21RM. It was already 5.35pm.
Fortunately, there was mobile phone coverage. Spectrum called his towing service guy.
It was like a war-room.
Spectrum was busy talking over the mobile phone, at the same time, scanning and pointing at the Malaysian map laid out in front of him, trying to describe where in the world is our stranded bike, in the
Finally, the solution was found. The
X-Men.
The last photo before our group broke up and before night falls.
******
After SV650 left us, our group had our own problems to tackle.
We are still at Jeli. It is only the mid-point between
What time could we get to Terengganu?
No time to waste. Our convoy of 5 bikes left the Shell towards Terengganu.
Night Rider
All our worst case scenarios happened in our ride. Caught in a storm. Broken down bike. Riding in the dark along unfamiliar trunk roads.
The sun soon set. And we rode the Route 4 trunk roads in the night. What was it like to ride in the night?
It is totally not like riding in Singapore at night.
The roads are completely unlit and there are no civilisation with lights around.
So you can't see anything in this darkness. If you put your hand in front of your face, you cannot even see your hand.
All I could see are the 4 red small taillights of our convoy in front of me and a little shade of yellow from their headlights. The rest all around is just black. Our headlights are quite useless in such darkness.
It was really pitch dark all around us. I can’t see anything that I rode passed. When I turned left or right to see what am I passing by, I can only see complete darkness. I don’t know if I am passing trees, houses or open land.
There were times we rode across bridges. I know beside us must be river. But I dare not try to see the river. Because I scared I would fall into the river because it was so dark and so difficult to ride.
I can’t see the road ahead. I just try to ride the exact same path the bike ahead went through. I can only hope that the bike ahead chose the right line and not ride over some obstacle because I will ride exactly the same line as him. He in turn, would probably have to trust the bike ahead. In the end, we all place our lives in Spectrum, who was riding up front.
We rode through a stretch of road where I realized that there were large piles of mud, debris or cow dung thrown onto the road, probably by some large trailer. The piles are so large that if I rode over them, I would definitely fall off my bike. Somehow, our convoy always managed to ride in between these large piles of dangerous obstacles.
Because we are so far from Terengganu, we cannot afford to ride slow. We were riding in this pitch blackness at speeds of 90-100kmh, the speed in
The trickiest part is when the road turns and becomes bends.
If we cannot see the road, how to know when the road starts to bend?
From the yellow arrow signs placed beside the roads that you often see in the malaysia trunk roads. You can see some of them in my Day 2(part1).
When we see a series of yellow luminous signs with arrows appear, it means the road is bending. We would ride following the curve of the bend.
When we see no yellow arrow signs, we assumed the road is going straight and we just ride straight.
What would happen if the road bends and someone forgot to place yellow arrow signs?
Our whole convoy would have just rode straight on and fall off the road.
We placed our lives in these yellow signs.
This made me realized that
This is how Spectrum was able to ride and see in the dark, according to him:
"As for me in front... Most of the time... I pick a vehicle to follow..That helps me know which way the rd is turning...Thought the Night ride was.... Interesting.... Haha!"
The other problem I have to cope with is my mind. At times, I have to fight off drowsiness. And we know how almost impossible it was to fight off the zzzzzz monster. And in this situation, it would be deadly. If my mind ever drift into sleep for 1 second, I would ride off the road.
And after prolonged riding in this pitch blackness, your mind starts to play tricks on you. All you see is a constant pitch blackness and a constant 4 red lights.
After a while, I can’t tell if I am really awake or am I imagining/dreaming of the 4 red lights when I am actually sleep riding.
Now and then I would slap my helmet "Bang! Bang!" to make sure that I am indeed not dreaming.
******
After riding like this for what seemed an eternity, we finally stopped for dinner.
I don’t know exactly where we stopped. But we had rode non-stopped for hours. It was 9 plus in the night.
We stopped by a stretch of kopi-tiams along the road.
I ate half-happy-half-sad. Happy because we finally get to rest and have some water and food. Sad because we are still nowhere near Terrenganu, I am dead tired, sleepy and still have to continue with lots more of pitch-black riding.
Happy that we have some food to relieve our hunger and a break from our non-stop night riding.
I am hungry and also sleepy. I could have been lying on a nice soft bed back in Singapore now. Why do I tekan myself and come to Gerik?
A lesson in Astrology
We rode on and on and on in the darkness. Nothing but hours and hours of complete image of pitch darkness, alternating between red dots moving in straight lines, and a string of turning yellow arrows signs.
Then we stopped again for a fuel stop. 21.50 RM, 132km from the Jeli fuel stop. 10.40 pm.
After our tanks were topped up, we stood and chit-chat awhile. We needed the rest and we needed to bring something different to our minds which were numb from the pitch black riding. As our ride rode longer, we know we would get even more tired. We were afraid that we would fall asleep later during our ride.
Spectrum then share with us some of his knowledge about the stars. The night was pitch black, so the stars were bright and highly visible up in the sky. As Spectrum described and pointed out which stars and where, I marveled at how beautiful the night and Earth is. Why didn’t I realized this when I am back in
We rode on.
Terengganu
At last! We reached Terengganu! Our deadly night ride is coming to an end. Sleep and rest on a comfortable bed at last!
It was 12.00 am and Terengganu town was asleep.
We were not able book any hotel rooms in Terrengganu in advanced because there were not available rooms in those hotels which we checked their internet sites.
Since Terengganu is quite a big town and there are plenty of hotels there, so sure to find rooms there.
We rode to the biggest hotel there and asked for room. Sorry, rooms full.
Ok, we will try other hotels there then. No problem. Spectrum head towards one direction to look for hotels. Forza and I walked on foot to another hotel further down the road.
That hotel receptionist also told Forza, rooms full. We asked and were told there are another 4 hotels further down.
We continued walking further down. Next hotel, room full.
Same for the next hotel. And the next. And the next.
All the hotels are full!
How can this be?! How can all the hotels in Terengganu be all full?!
Today happens to be the Ah Gon’s birthday. Ah Gon is the King of Kings in
What to do now? Do we ride non-stop then without sleep for 48 hours and back to Singapore?
Or do we just ride to the beach along the East coast, find a bench and sleep in the open? So chum so poor thing like that!
Our mind again too concussed to think properly. We ride to a hawker centre and have a drink, then think of what to do.
Weiz’s Map to the Rescue
Remember back at the
I laughed at this Weiz because he want to see the pretty receptionist at the hotel called Nardia. But he shy so he pretend and go to the reception area to collect the free Malaysian tourist map there. He made many trips and collected many maps because he want to keep seeing Nardia many times.
And one of his numerous maps he collected was a tourist map of Terengganu. Behind this map is a list of hotels and resorts around the area.
Spectrum diligently called up each of these one by one and asked if they got anymore available rooms.
One by one, he went down the list, no rooms. Or no one picked up at this time of the night.
Finally, he found one with available rooms! But is about 100km from Terengganu.
No choice. We go there.
Dungun
The resort is at this place called Dungun.
Despite being dead tired and sleepy, we had to drag ourselves to ride on. The ride is not 10-20 minutes. It would take us over an hour to reach.
Spectrum tell us: The receptionist’s voice sounded as nice as like Nardia’s. Maybe twin sister. It helped and it immediately perked our spirits up.
On our way to Dungun, some 100km after Terengganu.
Spectrum also say he sleepy liao.
Finally, we reached the resort.
We were a little disappointed because the receptionist looked nowhere like Nardia.
But we were relieved we finally found a place to sleep.
Ride until die cock stand.
We stayed in a single-storey semi-detached like house. There was living room, a kitchen and 3 bedrooms. We quickly split into the rooms and hit the beds. We had been riding since morning when we left
This is what our resort looked like in the day.
We would hit the beds and get to close our eyes for a couple of hours.
Then we have to wake up and resume our last leg of journey, the trip back to Singapore.
Where we have rode over our 2 days.
Note how far we rode in the dark.
We rode further in complete darkness than during day time in Day 2!
The third day ride: Ride next to the Pahang River!
2 comments:
KISS from Singaporebike forum says:
I just read the 2nd part of Day Two.
I think the first mistake is to leave Ipoh late. On my rides, I will leave early at 8am. This is to allow more 'day' time for emergencies, like the one u encounter.
I have been lucky not to encounter any difficulties during my ride up in the mountains at Route 4.
The second is that none of you are familiar with Trengganu. After Jeli, you will hit Jertih, which is the first town in Trengganu. 15km from Jertih is Kuala Besut, a small town where there is many seaside chalet and resort. Kuala Besut is also the town where the jetty to Pulau Perhentian is located.
In recent years, I have chose to stay at Kuala Besut (KB) on my ride up to Grik. By staying at KB, this will make my night stop near to the entrance of the EastWest Highway (Route 4) for the next day ride.
Anyway, I enjoy reading your blog.
Oh boy, am i glad I did not follow you on this trip. This storm just reminded me of my misery of being caught in a coastal thunderstorm when riding my bicycle up the same trunk road to Kota Bahru. Thunder and lightning with huge rain drops pelting down on our bare limbs. We had no rain gear, it was the middle of May, hot as hell, never expecteded such storms. Hid in an oil palm plantation off the road. Desperation, much like what you must have felt, grew as it got darker and darker. Cycled on in the darkness with no front lights, freezing cold and starving, wondering why the hell I abandoned the comforts of homes for such an endeavour.
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