THE RIDERS:

OIIIIO	MysteryWoman
Saffa G	FakawiChief
Long_con	Monkeysamurai1
Jasontan	Joshawi

 

THE ROUTE:

Click IMAGE for Bigger picture

THE STORY:

So, it’s Friday 30th June 2006. Yes, that’s right, Friday and end of month, now we all know what that means in KL. Even though we all know what it means, I am going to tell you anyway. THERE WAS A JAM. I think that even the airspace was jammed, but nevertheless I made it to Chiefs house by 5:10pm….we packed the Disco and off we went, en route to pick up MonkeySamurai.

Monkey was to meet us at the Mobil, near his house. We met his parents and introduced ourselves as the Faks…just kidding, Chiefy and I were on our best adult behavior and made a great impression of the tribe. So Monkey’s mum and dad waved goodbye and we were off, navigating through the traffic heading for the North-South Highway. The Disco was proving to be a great means of transport for us and we were please when we eventually stopped at an R&R for some makan. The order was for some noodles and some fish ball soup. Monkey opted for nasi and some nummy looking meat.

We were soon on our way and looking out for the exit for Cameron Highland, we decided not to take the Tapah exit and rather go the new way, along the straight road up to Camerons, since it was dark and we didn’t want to ride up the dangerous twisty part at night. Eventually we got to the toll at Simpang Pulai, paid and we off.

Cameron Highland's top secret Mutant Strawberry Research Center

We chatted all the time about the day’s events for tomorrow and were wondering how the weather would treat us. For an epic like this it is imperative that you plan ahead and check the weather and make sure that there is nothing that could cause us problems if we were to be stranded. Of course the Fakawis didn’t look at the weather forecasts…duh….spur of the moment epic. We reached the Kampung Raja area at about 11:30pm and continued to drive to where we thought the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) was located. We knew it was on a BOH Tea Estate, but not exactly which one, so we drove to the one we thought was correct. Now picture this, Chiefy driving, me riding shotgun and Monkey behind us singing along to the music….we see a huge sign saying BOH Tea Estate, Chief says this is the one, so we are off, up into the estate, the winding road and it just seems a little to easy since the directions said that there is a 9km climb up to MNS. Eventually after a bout 10 mins we reach a guard house. Chief spoke to the guard mins and we found out that this was in fact the wrong BOH Tea Estate!! There was another BOH Tea Estate about 20km further on, towards HABU. So in order to find our way Chiefy says we should look at the directions. Now I hope he posts the pics of the two maps he used, one is a small square Post It Pad of paper with scribbled directions, so we first tried to use this. Then when getting lost again, Chiefy pulls out this huge, map from his connections at the Secret Intelligence Agency, bloody hell, why did we use that in the first place I thought….but no… that didn’t help us either. The image was just funny though with sequence of this tiny pad followed by a huge map.

We're the Fakawi!

We finally found HABU, just as you ass HABU, there is a left turn with a big BOH Tea Estate sign…this was the one. A quick call to OIIIIO and we agreed to wait for him and Mystery Woman, they were just passing Ringlet. As soon as they arrived we headed off on 9km climb to the MNS chalets…was an interesting ride up in the pitch dark, I guess it was better not to see the sheer drops into the tea plantations below…and I suppose it was better not to look up either, there were old landslides everywhere!! Nevertheless we navigated out way through and up to the chalets…lugged some stuff up to the rooms and had a quick hydrate of some water and one quick attempt to try telling the other guys that were later than us, where the MNS turnoff was… ooops, no coverage! We assumed that the boys would have great built in GPS trackers and that they would find the rooms!! This they did, but only at 2:30 am. We had already slept for one hour before they came bounding in! So we bunked up and it was basically 4 to a room! Chiefy, Saffa, Long Con and Monkey, with the other room being shared by Mystery Woman, OIIIIO, Joshie, Jason!

Fakawis love furrry little tapirs.

Dont let the many species of bed bugs bite.

BEEP BEEP BEEP! We were up at 6:30am. Still pitch dark and of course a bit nippy too considering the fact that we were 1350m above sea level! Pretty high indeed! Chiefy, Monkey and Myself decided to head down towards Ringlet in search of breakfast, we did this because the other were still getting their hour of sleep, only fair we thought! That’s the Fakawis for you, a kind caring bunch..hmmmmm, but to do an epic like this, we surely didn’t care about ourselves?! So the order was for Roti and take away Nescafe!

Calm before the epic

Once all the tummies were full and the rooms were cleared up it was time to go to the cars, pack the Epic bags and fill the epic bottles and pump the epic tyres etc etc, you get the idea! We didn’t prepare properly and took some extra time in starting off …..Anyway, we were soon off after half of Joshie’s water leaked out of his CamelBak, down into his pants and onto his legs!! Didn’t seal properly!

I forgot to pack my rear wheel!

We left the BOH Tea Plantation head South East….this was one of the longest downhill stretches that I had ever ridden….it comprised of a series of winding roads, both dirt and tar! Now let me give you an idea of this, we started off at 1383m and ended up at our lowest point being 241m. Some might think riding on this tar is easier than the dirt, but I would say on some of these corners it was a little dangerous, one wrong grab of the rear disc and your sliding!! Luckily no casualties on this first downthrill, I mean downhill section! At one section we passed a massive construction area where they were building a new highway right through the middle! Can you believe a highway is going up? Well guys, if you are planning an Epic there, then I suggest you get going now, when that highway is finished it is going to be one concrete ride. The first outpost we passed through was Pos Mensun, quite a well inhabited area with very curious looking kids wondering what the hell these people are doing!! At this point we had down approximately 13km and decended nearly 700m. At this stage it was still fresh and the sun wasn’t really beating down on us, YET. The ride through the many Kampungs was pretty fun, it was great to see the Orang Asli kids from the Semai tribe, and they were so inquisitive and very shocked to see a white Saffa riding along!!! Chief shocked them even more by showing them pics on his Digi Cam! What was quite cool was the fact that all the kids wanted to do was touch the bikes! They stared at the bikes and were so pleased when they got the chance to touch, even one of them plucked up the courage to even sit on Chiefs sweaty seat. It was a brilliant experience to see these kids and how they live in their Kampungs! During one of our downhill section Monkey decided to see how well his Sony Digi Cam would hold up being dragged along the rough road surface, needless to say, he was still attached to the Digi Cam during this test! Ouch! Check out the pics in the album to see his scraped and burns!

Looks like some sort of road allergy

Chiefy and I wanted to bring the Orang Asli kids some pens and some books, but we didn’t find any on the way up the previous night!! So I guess it’s next time Chief!! We didn’t think power bars would do the kids teeth any good either and the power Gels would surely mess their hair up! Some of the villages we passed through were:

• Kampung Leryar
• Kampung Susu
• Kampung Semangkar
• Pos Telanuk
• Kampung Rengkas
• Kampung Terakit

We eventually made our way through the winding single track, mixed with some jeep track towards a really inviting river crossing over the Telum River. We decided that this would be a great place for lunch and also to refill the CamelBaks! Good idea! So it was time for cream buns, powerbars and peanut butter sandwiches! This all went down well! Chief decided that he was interested in a swim, so off he went, but the rest of us were concerned that it would cause irritation to be wet! I really regret not jumping in!! It was heating up!

We moved on towards what we thought was the correct direction, only to discover at Kampung Rening that we had overshot our turn to the left which was actually 50 meters from where we had lunch….oh no, we didn’t need an overshoot like that. OIIIIO asked some locals for directions and we were soon on our way heading northwest on the right side of the Telum River…..we continued along here and all was well until I started to feel a little weaker than I should have. Maybe even a little too tired…could this have been the onset of a bonking session? YES it was! Oh my gosh, after 37km’s, that was me done….I was very much heading for a near death in the next few kilometers! As buggered as I was we decided that we could make it out , it was basically another 15km’s…what I didn’t realize was that in this 15km’s we would need to climb about 600m in altitude…now when you are bonking and you have to climb like that, anything could seem better, even being hit by a bus maybe! We rode along this route for another 11km, now I say rode….I tried to ride, but mostly came to a walk/drag/crawl!! The cramps were setting in and Chief was kind enough to hang back with me while the Front Runners kept going like Ferrari’s! Hats off to you guys! I reckon I can blame it on my ankle, keeping me from training for 2 weeks! Now enough of the excuses, lets move! We eventually got to a point where there had been a huge slide and there was a huge group of trees piled up in the middle of the track! Nothing to do but form a charge across this section and hand the bikes from one end to the other…great teamwork Fakawis…

A little further on at around 5pm we found a huge river crossing that had to have been around 20 meters wide, maybe more, about waist deep and flowing quite steadily…we made it across after securing all the valuable items in everything from bread bags to waterproof sacks! Improvise or DIE. Across we went and at the other end it was time to clean the sand out of our shoes and gloves……and also fill up the bottles with a little more water.

Jasontan realised that he is so dehydrated he is light enough to walk on water.

Then it was off again, by now I was bonking like nothing on earth…terrible, feeling, you want to just curl up and lie down, make all the aches and pains go away….and you honestly start wondering why you are doing this? Surely it isn’t fun! Ha-ha, but it is, well afterwards it is! We realized after this crossing that the sun was setting quickly…and we knew that we had to pick up the pace! I was bonked and chief was also getting tired, even the front runners were a little bushed, but still riding like machines!

We had a short distance ahead of us but the climb was crazy something along the lines of 500m to 1000m in 2hours…this is almost 40 degrees in incline! Crazy, but we kept pushing on! The goal was to get our steamboat dinner in Camerons….that’s what motivated us!! As we moved along things started getting worse….Chief even spotted a green Toyota Harrier in the trees…..I didn’t see that, but I did see a road sign…I was so happy, thought we were at the end, but alas, it was only a hallucination. We pushed, I mean we dragged on…..it was getting really tiring for me!!

SaffaG did not have enough energy to give the thumbs up...

We peaked and this was answered by a fast downhill section that came out at Sekolah Pos Terisu….honestly an oasis!! There was Joshie, Monkey, OIIIIO, Mystery Woman and Jason, they had bought MeeHoon for a snack, what a great meal that was. I ate and immediately hit the floor….I just lay there, resting, while the others lay on the benches deciding what to do next. Luckily the caretaker had a kind heart and let us in for our rest stop.

I was absolutely finished, it was around 8pm at this stage and it was dark as hell! I wasn’t at all prepared to ride in the dark in the condition that I was in….Chiefy asked the caretaker if we could sleep there at the School. It was that bad folks, we were really tired and were prepared to sleep there, well some of us…but the front runners were ready for a night ride of serious danger….the plan was for the others to go and ride to the MNS area and fetch a rescue vehicle to come get myself and Chief from the Sekolah….in the end, after all the planning, the caretaker tells us that the Teacher, who coincidentally lives a few meters form the school, has a van! That’s right folks a Van…now believe me in the state I was in, anything would have done, even if they were prepared to drag me on a skate board with 3 wheels! OIIIIO and Mystery Woman managed to convince the teacher that the South African was about to die and that they would pay the fuel for the trip……..so along came this small van…and we all piled in except for Monkey and Jason. As I climbed in I noticed a few huge cockroaches running around the back of the van. I didn’t want to say anything, since that would have been rude. How can a guy almost on his death bed complain about roaches….so I bit my tongue. As soon as the doors were closed we realized what mountain bikers smelt like after 50km or riding over nearly 12 hours…Mystery Woman even started gagging the smell was so bad….Joshie said he didn’t smell, sheesh boy you should have been me, everytime you lifted your arm to chat to your cellphone/girlfriend, it hit me! Bam! But smelt terrible myself, mixture of sweat, sweat and more sweat with river water….hmm you can imagine! So now it was 40km ride back to the MNS Chalets to get the cars….man it was one difficult ride, both for the van and for us, with the smell and all. To kill the smell we had to open the windows, this meant cold Camerons air blowing on us….man it was chilly, I was shivering like mad! Chief must have thought I was rubbing his leg…..but no, it was shivering. We had 7km before we hit the main road and back to Camerons…the 7km stretch was done at a max speed of 5km/h…..there were potholes everywhere and even drunk locals….one of them knew we were coming through as we drove past he shouted “FAK” this was great, kept the motivation up and kept us smiling, sure hope he wasn’t swearing.

The remaining 40km made up a trip through some markets in and also to a shell service station to fill the Van up with the fuel as promised! Such kind teachers they were, the kindest I have ever met. As soon as we pasted Brinchang town I knew it would be soon as we would be able to get into the Disco and go finish up for the night.

The teachers got us safely to the MNS area where we all picked up the cars. The plan was to stop and get some dinner, Tandoori chicken, Nan, fried rice and some curry mutton. After a long ride like that I reckon even cardboard would have been good! The disco team (Chief, Joshie and I) were tasked with finding suitable accommodation before heading back to pick up Monkey and Jason. We tried all over, but alas everything was either fully booked, or damn expensive! We ruled out the Equatorial at first, but later we had no choice but to go in and ask! As stinky as Joshie and I were, we walked right into the lobby, past the porches and Jaguar. We managed to get a room for 4 for RM475…that’s great we thought, smiled sweetly took the key and went to get our baggage before waving chief a fond farewell so he could go collect the bikes and the others from the Sekolah! Little did the reception know that we were going to squeeze 8 riders into the room!

Joshie and I checked out the Room and thought we had really struck a bargain until I tried out the loo ….oh no what a disaster….the damn toilet didn’t flush….and Joshie was complaining that the shower didn’t want to work in the other bathroom. So a quick call to the lobby and we had another room assigned to us. So zippy pack and we were off to the next room! All was well in the new room until I decided to go for a shower…I ended up slipping out of the shower, hitting my head on the toilet, smashing the lid, and hurting my ankle AGAIN….along with my elbow..terrible night I know!

Chiefy and te rest of the guys returned to the Sekolah by 1:00am and were back at the Equatorial at around 2:30am. I was so bushed; I was in bed when they got back!

The next morning was spent eating Nasi Lemak, Scones and tea at the Bharat Tea Plantation which was a truly great experience.

I just wanna say thanks to all the Fakawis who made the ride an absolute blast; even though there was bonking I hope it was still fun for the others! This will surely be something that I will never forget and will be one of my best memories of Malaysia!