Day 4: Wednesday, 24 April 2013 - Bandar Sri Begawan (BSB) – Kuala Belait - 110km
Ra:
Day 4, we stayed at the Youth Centre. Though it was cheap, I think it’s not ideal for cycling touring. We woke up really early as we have decided to leave from wherever we are staying earlier than before to avoid the heat. I didn’t get enough sleep as I was trying my best to finished the day3 report. By 430am, I was up and started to pack. At 5.45am, I saw Heather who was sleeping in the girls side of the hostel all smile with her panniers in hand. By 6am, all our bags were loaded on our bikes and I was brewing coffee. Somehow I could feel today’s ride was just going to be rough. We had aimed to be in Miri, Sarawak by 5pm but I doubt that will happen as we have t-shirt delivery , at Jerudong and the shop only opens at 11am. After a mug of instant coffee each, we set off to our first “tourist destination” that Heather had arranged for us to visit. I am always, game. Nothing to me is a waste of time.
BSB Mosque at sunrise
Heather at one of BSB's tourist sites
After the formal touristy visit over, some photos taken, we were off. First checkpoint, Jerudong. I was told by our Bruneian contact that Jerudong is about 30km away. We should be there by 9.30am, this after factoring in the slopes, early morning traffic and stopping to ask for directions. It was really slow getting out of Bandar Seri Begawan with traffic, we only managed to do 10-15km/h. Once we are out, both Heather and I picked up speed. I was clocking an average of 25km/h and smiling. I can feel my mojo coming back, though not fully but I am enjoying this morning’s ride. It was pretty straight forward to Jerudong with clearly marked signpost. A city dude can never get lost in BSB. Sometime around 9.20am we stop at a place name Kampung Tutong. Heather took some shots of a beautiful kampong house and when I saw the sign “Ketua Kampung”, I called out to Heather to come where I was and by chance, I casually asked the gentleman that welcomed me how far more to Jerudong?
“Oh Jerudong? It’s 20km back from where you came from.”
“Really? Back there?” I asked with a slight dismay.
“Yes, you’re now in Kampung Tutong...Tutong District...”
In my head, the word panic ran all over the place. We ain’t pedalling back 20km. Those slopes back there, don’t get me started. We needed breakfast anyway and the house owner pointed us to a restaurant just next door. We were just lucky we met a helpful waitress who gave us her handphone to make calls with our contact. Heather got everything sorted even, topped-up the waitress’ phone card so we can continue making and receiving calls. While waiting for the buyer, Faiz’s arrival, I managed to get some tailoring done, my bike cleaned and checked. Faiz arrived at 10.10am, collected the RAB t-shirts and gave us some navigational instruction to Tutong and beyond. All in all, we stayed 2 hours at the restaurant. We get moving again at 10.45am. We have a huge distance to cover today. 110km to Kuala Belait, Brunei. Another 18km to the border checkpoint between Brunei and Sarawak, then another 40km or so to Miri. I mentally worked the distance backwards and told her we should be able to be in Miri town by 6pm. Oh boy, how wrong I was. For the record, I have been pretty accurate with my estimation of our time of arrival in all my previous cycling tours. In Borneo, I am not going to estimate anymore, I am just going to take one checkpoint at a time.
After leaving the Mono Restaurant where we met Faiz, we didn’t stop and aimed to hit Tutong within an hour around 11.45am to 12.00pm. I don’t remember us stopping at Tutong as we didn’t feel hungry and we get on the new highway towards Kg Lumut. As our water was running low, we made a quick stop along the highway to get water and bananas. All look set, we have the sun up directly above us on the highway and I am ready to call it a day anytime. That was how hot and brutal I felt on the highway. 5 minutes into the ride, Heather pointed the cloud and ahead to me. I saw a shaded highway as far as my eye could see. I picked up speed going riding between 23-25km/h taking advantage of the 1-2 degree drop in temperature. Not long, the highway ended and we are back on the old road with no shade to be seen. I was by now swearing on the lack of roadside trees or at least shade. I kept focusing to be behind Heather, and the moment I saw her signalling left and slightly ahead, I saw something like a roadside stall, and I knew we were going for a water break. No, better than that, It was a watermelon stop, and to top it off, it was free of charge. The owner thought it was just a small gesture. The stall owners, both husband and wife cut one water melon each between them. I kept going as if I haven’t eaten for days. I also found out the stall owner was actually from Kalimantan (Entikong). I took down his handphone number in case we needed someone to talk too regarding Kalimantan at a later stage. Not that we do not have Kalimantan contacts, but to have a few more as insurance wouldn’t hurt. I laughed when the husband told me he saw someone on a “sleeping bicycle” a day before us ride by right in front of his stall. I told him it was Simon Sandi attempting to ride Tip-to-tip of Borneo.
Before we left, we gave some money to the stall owner’s daughter as we thought it was the right thing to do.
Next checkpoint, Kg Lumut. About 20km from the watermelon stop. It was like 40km! I kept pedalling like Kg. Lumut was in front but nothing was ahead, not even a blardy tree. We kept going up to 2pm when I saw Heather stopping at a traffic junction and as practice, I came alongside to hear her.
“KFC?” Heather asked and smiled.
“Oh Jerudong? It’s 20km back from where you came from.”
“Really? Back there?” I asked with a slight dismay.
“Yes, you’re now in Kampung Tutong...Tutong District...”
In my head, the word panic ran all over the place. We ain’t pedalling back 20km. Those slopes back there, don’t get me started. We needed breakfast anyway and the house owner pointed us to a restaurant just next door. We were just lucky we met a helpful waitress who gave us her handphone to make calls with our contact. Heather got everything sorted even, topped-up the waitress’ phone card so we can continue making and receiving calls. While waiting for the buyer, Faiz’s arrival, I managed to get some tailoring done, my bike cleaned and checked. Faiz arrived at 10.10am, collected the RAB t-shirts and gave us some navigational instruction to Tutong and beyond. All in all, we stayed 2 hours at the restaurant. We get moving again at 10.45am. We have a huge distance to cover today. 110km to Kuala Belait, Brunei. Another 18km to the border checkpoint between Brunei and Sarawak, then another 40km or so to Miri. I mentally worked the distance backwards and told her we should be able to be in Miri town by 6pm. Oh boy, how wrong I was. For the record, I have been pretty accurate with my estimation of our time of arrival in all my previous cycling tours. In Borneo, I am not going to estimate anymore, I am just going to take one checkpoint at a time.
After leaving the Mono Restaurant where we met Faiz, we didn’t stop and aimed to hit Tutong within an hour around 11.45am to 12.00pm. I don’t remember us stopping at Tutong as we didn’t feel hungry and we get on the new highway towards Kg Lumut. As our water was running low, we made a quick stop along the highway to get water and bananas. All look set, we have the sun up directly above us on the highway and I am ready to call it a day anytime. That was how hot and brutal I felt on the highway. 5 minutes into the ride, Heather pointed the cloud and ahead to me. I saw a shaded highway as far as my eye could see. I picked up speed going riding between 23-25km/h taking advantage of the 1-2 degree drop in temperature. Not long, the highway ended and we are back on the old road with no shade to be seen. I was by now swearing on the lack of roadside trees or at least shade. I kept focusing to be behind Heather, and the moment I saw her signalling left and slightly ahead, I saw something like a roadside stall, and I knew we were going for a water break. No, better than that, It was a watermelon stop, and to top it off, it was free of charge. The owner thought it was just a small gesture. The stall owners, both husband and wife cut one water melon each between them. I kept going as if I haven’t eaten for days. I also found out the stall owner was actually from Kalimantan (Entikong). I took down his handphone number in case we needed someone to talk too regarding Kalimantan at a later stage. Not that we do not have Kalimantan contacts, but to have a few more as insurance wouldn’t hurt. I laughed when the husband told me he saw someone on a “sleeping bicycle” a day before us ride by right in front of his stall. I told him it was Simon Sandi attempting to ride Tip-to-tip of Borneo.
Before we left, we gave some money to the stall owner’s daughter as we thought it was the right thing to do.
Next checkpoint, Kg Lumut. About 20km from the watermelon stop. It was like 40km! I kept pedalling like Kg. Lumut was in front but nothing was ahead, not even a blardy tree. We kept going up to 2pm when I saw Heather stopping at a traffic junction and as practice, I came alongside to hear her.
“KFC?” Heather asked and smiled.
The next thing that came to mind was, is she having heat exhaustion or something? We are in the middle of the freaking nothing (well there is one oil refinery on our left, along the coast) and she asked me if I wanted KFC??? Just playing along, I thought to make our ride slightly fun, I asked, “really? Let go! But where?”
Heather pointed me to a KFC signboard on my right shoulder diagonally across the traffic junction. Seeing the KFC sign was like heaven, something which I would usually have ignored back home.
I just let Heather make the choice, for me at that point of time, I was ready to eat anything. And very quickly, it was 3pm and we had 36km more to go to Kuala Belait and by now, I realised it was going to be impossible to make it to Miri. We stopped couple more time as the heat was on my face. We reached Kg. Lumut and was greeted with nothing, really. There wasn’t anything at Kg. Lumut but a name. So avoid it if you’re Riding Around Borneo next year.
Heather pointed me to a KFC signboard on my right shoulder diagonally across the traffic junction. Seeing the KFC sign was like heaven, something which I would usually have ignored back home.
I just let Heather make the choice, for me at that point of time, I was ready to eat anything. And very quickly, it was 3pm and we had 36km more to go to Kuala Belait and by now, I realised it was going to be impossible to make it to Miri. We stopped couple more time as the heat was on my face. We reached Kg. Lumut and was greeted with nothing, really. There wasn’t anything at Kg. Lumut but a name. So avoid it if you’re Riding Around Borneo next year.
After the stop and go, heat on my face with my teammate being patient enough, we saw the sign, Kuala Belait – 22KM. It was the most brutal 22 KM so far. We took the last stretch real slow as there was a road widening construction going on. At some stage, we were on the newly paved road. Just the two of us, pedalling and pedalling. After pedalling like an eternity, I saw the sign, K.B 14km. “What????”, I hear myself screaming in my head. Time check 4.20pm. We need to be at the border crossing before dark. Heather stop ahead of me and I saw her popping one more electrolyte (her third I believe in a single day). If Heather need another electrolyte this late in the day, I am screwed. She is the team’s strongest rider! I took a sip from her bottle and we made the decision to get back out to the old road and sped. She flew right in front of me and I was fairly closed behind. We were at Kuala Belait junction in no time at all and talked ourselves to go on to the border crossing about 18km away. At this stage, 18km can multiply if we factor how long we were already on the road, the amount of water left and our fatigue level. At the toll, we checked with the officers if there were any accommodation across the border in Sarawak. No, was the answer. We made the hardest decision to pedal back 4km to Kuala Belait town for dinner and to look for a place to stay.
RA's refuelled and recharged look
Well, it was one of the longest day though the ride was short. 110km in Borneo is brutal. We didn’t find any cheap hotel and when pushed came to shove, we had to find shelter. Heather suggested the Police Station and I suggested the Fire Station. We ended up at Kuala Belait Boat Club, and was taken care by their senior staff Helen, up until we left the next morning.
I had to admit it was one of my toughest rides.
I had to admit it was one of my toughest rides.
View from Kuala Belait Boat Club verandah
Heather:
We started to get back on track by making Nescafe 3 in 1 with the camping stove at the BSB Pusat Belia (Youth Center). We took advantage of the magic light in the early hours of the morning to take photos of the national mosque and nearby water village. Then we joined morning rush hour traffic slowly rolling along, stopping at many lights, and breathing in exhaust. A group of young children getting their exercise by playing soccer were distracted when they saw me. The teacher went with the flow and called them all to wave, then got their attention back.
Heather savouring coffee before hitting the road
We were on our way to deliver t-shirts to a bicycle shop in Jerudong, but missed the turn. An outstanding kampong house caught our attention so we stopped to speak to the owners. It had recently been featured in the film Jasmine, staring a top Indonesian actor. (I’ll have to check it out on YouTube someday). From the owners we found out we missed the turn and were 15km from where we wanted to be. Faris was kind enough to drive out to meet us for a tea and collect the shirts. He taught us that the Brunei government pays its citizens to go to school. Any program they choose is paid for and they are given an allowance. What a fantastic policy! Invest in the people and watch the society flourish. The full name of the country is Brunei Darussalam, Brunei Abode of Peace.
While we waited we had delicious nasi lemak (coconut rice) and coffee. As soon as we were rolling again I felt the caffeine and maybe because the previous day was short I had a bit of speed. It was a fun ride. With Miri as our goal, we tried to keep a decent pace, topping up our water regularly but not taking long rests. For about 10km a large dark cloud blocked out the sun and I felt the heat drop by a few degrees, again spurring me on. Ra was suffering from the heat. Knowing he liked watermelon, I stopped at a road side stand. The Auntie immediately began cutting up a sweet juicy watermelon for us- offering it for free. Ra chatted with the husband and received some information that may be useful for Kalimantan.
Just about time for another rest I saw a sign for KFC, another one of Ra’s favorites. He thought I was joking when I asked if he wanted KFC, and jumped at the opportunity when he saw the sign thinking that it would be air conditioned. It was wide open but breezy and cool. Ra stripped down and probably could have camped there for the night, but I insisted we move along.
Along the way I saw a burning dumpster. It’s common along the routes in Asia to see trash piled up along the side of a highway. This was at least organized into a dumpster and was intentionally being burnt. I didn’t make much effort to learn about their recycling system, if they have one. The road sides were very clean, not much litter. Roadkill was more prevalent. Cats, dogs, snakes -garden size up to 4ft long, some coiled ready to strike- one baby turtle that was headed inland instead of out to sea. That’s what highway riding is like.
At Kampung Lumut we were able to turn off the main road and visit a kampong (village). Remember Brunei is a wealthy country, so this village was full of mansions. The houses were gorgeous, there were 2 to 6 cars in most driveways, and all had satellites; the people were obviously flourishing materially. I hope their inner worlds are as rich. I happened to be ecstatic. It wasn’t until we turned into the village that my whole body eased in the quiet of small roads where the only sounds were birds and wind. We found our way to a beach line with pine trees and rested in the shade. Just off the coast the shoreline was dotted with oil rigs. It was tempting to jump in, but I didn’t want to ride in wet shorts so I resisted.
The beautiful Brunei sea
All day the conversation had been about making it to Miri or not. We’d been warned that the stretch of highway from the border to Miri was dangerous and we’d need to pass it before dark. (Since we’ve been told that is ridiculous.) Feeling satisfied by spending just a bit of time in a neighbourhood and getting a taste tiny taste of life in Brunei, I acquiesced to finding accommodation near the border. I was hoping for something on the Sarawak side because of the cost. Prices look the same between the two countries, but the value of the currency in Brunei is 2.4 times that of the Malaysian Ringgit. The words dollar and ringgit are used interchangeably, but the difference is significant.
About 18km before the border we were about to pass a toll booth and Ra needed water. He was signalling to the cars, desperate. He admitted he could not go any further and so the wisest thing to do would be to turn back 1km and stay in Kuala Belait. At 4pm the heat began to get to me too. The sun is usually waning in strength at that point, but it was still strong and my skin was beginning to burn. When we chose to turn back it was about 5:30 and I was red. I’d been able to spend a full day on the bike on peninsular Malaysia at the same latitude without burning. The sun is stronger here. (Why? Anybody know?)
We went for food first, then scouted for hotels. I wasn’t comfortable with the prices 110BND/264MYR/88USD and Ra agreed to seek an alternative. I suggested asking the police (who had been gracious hosts in Thailand), Ra preferred the Fire station, and we ended up at the sailing club. The manager accepted us immediately giving us three options- to set up a tent down stairs, lay out our mats on the veranda upstairs in the restaurant away from his guests who were still dining, or take the couches by the fan. He also offered showers! We took long enough cleaning up that the diners cleared out and Ra made himself at home on the couch. The rain which was a sprinkle when we arrived which grew to a heavy down pour as the night went on. The staff of Filipino women took good care of us. They gave us the wifi password and we did a bit of work before turning in. Feeling that our planning was insufficient and contingency plans should be in place, I tried to gather information up until I could no longer keep my eyes open. I chose my Thermarest mattress and Ra curled up on the small love seat.
In the night I woke once to catch a glimpse of the full moon as is dropped just below the roofline.
Kuala Belait Boat Club - home for the night
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