The Man Who Rode Around Borneo - 8 Back Riding Solo

I woke up confused and angry. Who was that drunkard knocking on our door very early in the morning? Heather was out of the room throughout the night and only got back at 1.45am and immediately after her returned, the knock on the door came fast and furious. Instinctively the thought of protecting the both of us got me. I got out of the bed and pull out my knife and my head torch from the handlebar bag. Only in emergency like this, my training in the army will kicks in and mentally I was ready to take on the drunkard if he ever breaks into our room.

What was Heather doing up till that hour? Drinking with some local dude and in return the drunken guy wanted something? I don’t know the answer. I asked Heather who was the drunken guy knocking on our door and the answer I got was, “I don’t know, I didn’t open the door. It doesn’t really matter...” We’ve only been on the road for 9 days together and it’s still early in the trip and one drunkard man came knocking on our door, and I don’t mean knocking in the nice way. What would be next? I didn’t come here to be involved with unnecessary trouble and I don’t like what happened last night. Normally when a situation goes bad, you’ll get a sense of it before it happens and this was when I sensed our partnership might not work. For a start, we both come from a different background and we both literally come from different parts of the world. We both previously biked solo and to be doing things together rigorously going to be a challenge for us. We were definitely new to each other and that is going to be one thing we need to work on for the rest of the ride. I shook that thought off me for now and put my head back into cycling. I got everything packed and I knew I was going to start the day real bad i.e. lack of sleep. The pouring rain didn’t help either. It went on when we got down preparing our bikes. After replenishing our water bottles and reserve, we waited until about 9.30am when the rain start slowing down and the thought of taking advantage of the cool weather was just too much for me to resist. Heather wanted to wait longer until the rains stop. We spoke about our rest stops, checkpoints and once the both of us agreed on that, I took off. Not like taking off to leave Heather behind, I am taking off to take advantage of the cooling weather. To let it past me was unthinkable. I love riding in the rain! Especially in Borneo where most time you’ll be riding in the heat.

It was Monday and day 9 of my attempt to ride around Borneo when I left Tatau, a small transit town situated about 700km away from Kuching. Ahead of us, we have approximately 90km to get to Selangau, our rest point for the day. I think by now you have figured out that our ride is not straight forward from point A to Point B. There was going to be a photo moments, water break, stopping to chat with the locals and also unforeseen circumstances. It was late when I set off, at about 9.45am and estimated to reach Selangau by 4.30pm, if the rain don’t get any heavier. The bike felt good as I have adjusted the height of my seat post after a week of slight twinges in my left calf. I saw the wrong marking when I put the bike together at Borneo Beachouse back in Kota Kinabalu. I am now enjoying the ride and what more with the rain today; it was a cooling after 8 days of riding in the furnace!

Since there wasn’t anything to see, I flew the first 20km mark from Tatau and stop for a short break to send Heather a quick message,”Just reached 1^st rest point slightly 20km outside Tatau, super cool weather”. Time check, 11 o’clock and by 11.30, I was at 30 km marker and drop Heather another quick message to update my location before moving off. Just when I thought everything was going perfectly for the day, I hit a broken section of the road. There were lots of logging lorries, tankers and other machineries coming in and out from that section and you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to know what was in there and why the road were so bad.  A kilometre later on the broken road, one mental guy threw rocks at me. When Simon Sandi was here a day earlier, I was told the same mental guy was waving at him instead. “Birds from the same flock fark together”. I thought to myself and I now know why. Instinctively, I whipped out my phone and send Heather another message, “Bad bad road at 31km mark. Crazy guy on the left throwing rocks. Careful.” And I got and instant reply from Heather, “Resting at 28, found your hat”. And I followed with a quick, “Thanks!” and continue to chill a little bit more before I took off.

I’ve been thinking where I left my hat as I will need it if the sun is up later on. I am bad at handling the heat and the hat have been integral part of the last 8 days ride. I am so glad Heather found it.  After the bad road, there was one long climb and today, I don’t mind it at all and after reaching the top, I was met by one lorry driver with his attendant offering me banana and a cigarette. I quit smoking sometime back but once in a while, I don’t mind. I thank the gentlemen, pushed my bike up a small hill away from the traffic and drop Heather another message informing her where I was. Though I started late than usual because of the rain, I was covering good distances with such a cooling weather. I stop along the way to sms chat with Simon Sandi, took some photos and I met an interesting Iban couple that I thought I should stop and chat with them or I will regret it later. Before leaving the couple, I request for a photo and they obliged.  Today was the most beautiful day in Borneo so far for me. I wish everyday was like this.

Heather and I catch up at 57km mark, at a very muddy stop for lunch and while waiting for Heather to arrive, I had the chance to clean the bike, put my wet gears to dry and get my water bottles top-up. We ordered 2 vegetarian instant noodles, ice Milo and 2 bottles of 100plus for me. We rested for a bit more after lunch before I took off at about 2pm leaving Heather to rest longer. We have only about 30 odd more km to go from our lunch stop and from here on, it will be a slow ride to Selangau as the sun was out, not scorching but still as hot and I also want to enjoy the ride. After cranking for about 30 minutes, I saw the sign, “Selangau 20km”. It was 3pm and I know we can be in Selangau before 4.30pm and rested early for the big ride into Sibu tomorrow. Well, that was before I received text message from Heather, “a crack head masturbated at 66 km mark”. Since I was just ahead, I took the initiative to inform a motorist riding towards her to help me check the situation back at 66 and I stay put to wait for Heather next message. While waiting and idling, I realised the amount of logging trucks traversing on this side of the road. Gosh, I was really in the zone today.  A while later, Heather send me a text, “Everything ok. You can carry on”

Since she was alright behind, I move on slowly towards one Rest Stop 5km outside Selangau town which I found out from one lorry driver earlier. I bought some fruits and waited for Heather so we could ride together into Selangau. This where I had the chance to hang out and speak with the logging lorry drivers, many have passed us today with their loads and I was curious where that entire log came from and if it legal. They are all friendly about it but hesitated to tell me more, like the company and exact location of the logging base camp. Nice people and I thank all of them for slowing down when they overtook me. We joke and chatted for a little until I saw Heather in the distance. I have already prepared some cut fruits and drink for Heather while waiting for her to save some time and we stop for a while more for her to rest before moving on towards Selangau together. Once in Selangau, we got ourselves some snacks and hot drinks and not to waste time, I went on to check for rooms. In this small transit town, the hunt for accommodation had gotten interesting. The accommodation comes with no frills. We got everything sorted very quickly, shower, and heads out for simple vegetarian dinner. I’ve learned from previous tour, that the distance is good only for guidance because the terrain and weather will slowed me down tremendously. Also after 9 days of riding, I forgotten my basic core of long distance adventure cycling, to take my time, stop for photos and interact as much with the local as possible. It hit me on day 10 to do just that. Why am I rushing and to where? The destination going to be there tomorrow, and day after tomorrow but the people that I will past might not be there again. I told myself to take it easy. It was a short night for the both of us and of course like every other night, I quietly pray for our safety on the road and good weather (rain, rain and more rain).

Day 10 and I am not ready to go anywhere in the rush and suggested for Heather to move forward as she is also a strong and fast rider. I drop back and slot my camera on my back pocket to make it easily assessable. I was doing 15km hour and scanning for my subject. I kept on alert looking far and out until about 9km mark outside Selangau where I heard the “pop” from the front. I know what was that sound as I had experienced that once, a broken spoke. I can handle it but first, I need a decent shade. Not to slow Heather down, I went on cranking slowly to find a nice cool shade, but I got better, a local Iban home. I didn’t get started immediately as I have to answer questions thrown at me by the Iban family. Where I am from? Where I start from? How many days from KK to Selangau and suddenly I am running behind time. I can fix a broken spoke, no sweat but I hate doing it. But when push comes to shove, what choice to I have? I fixed it quickly, reload my bags and thank the family and off I went. It was a dragged after stopping for an hour.

I reach 20km mark very quickly and by now the heat had gotten to me. I wasn’t tired but it best for me to take a short break in the shade and got to read Heather message. “Not stopping”.  After taking five, I pushed on. Reaching 39km mark, I rode into a small Stapang town (a really small transit and rest area) to look for Heather as she had send me a message of her resting there. I moved out as quickly when I couldn’t find her there. At this point of time, I was riding in the heat. Part of me wanted to stop and rest but not to fall far behind Heather, I rode on with consistent breaks in between. The one thing that kept me going that day was the songs collection I had playing. it sure felt that I was spinning in the gym !

A while later, Heather send another message over about a temple and a restaurant on the 28km mark outside Sibu and I was just outside that temple and took the left turn in and rested there for a good one hour with free flow of 100 plus (I drank in total of 3 cans) courtesy from one Royal Malaysian Ranger. By now it was scorching! I was so glad to have made the decision to chill and have some shut eye. I moved out around 2 o'clock and I know I can be in Sibu before or by 4pm if I keep pushing on forward. It was so hot and so tough to get in to Sibu even though it was just 28km away. On the last 10km mark before Sibu I saw one Shell station and quickly move in and have another 100 plus, cooling down inside and this is where I saw a new message from Heather, she was slightly ahead of me and having problem with her bike and heading to the city center to look for a bike shop. I got lucky while standing around getting some aircon inside Shell, a local dude riding a motorbike started to ask me question about my bicycle and more and offered to show me the short cut to the city centre. It was literally a short cut! Within 10 minutes, I was just across Pintu Gerbang Sibu (Sibu Gateway) and Colonel Harland Sanders KFC Restaurant was calling out my name. “Ra! Ra! Ra!”. Yes, I rode straight to KFC and jokingly asked if they would provide me with a free meal if I help them sweep the floor! The manager was sporting enough to accept my offer and handed me the essential equipment – the witch broom stick!

I send Heather a short message sharing my location and that I was having my late lunch. Chicken never tasted this good before. I was so tired by now from the heat; the city noise pollution didn’t help either. 30 minutes later, Heather appeared and we continue cycling in the city to look for a cheap place.  RM50.00! River View Hotel was superb. So far the best budget hotel I’ve stayed in Sarawak. Time passes so quickly and we met our Sibu contact, Glenn to discuss Kalimantan. Not much about the route, just Kalimantan in general. Before bed that night, I vet through the route towards Kuching and updated the schedule and right after, I fell asleep. I was that tired.

Adventure cycling, cycling touring or any cycling that involve distances without support is a chore. There wasn’t enough space for luxury! Like a spare riding jerseys, tights etc. Not many have seen ‘behind the scene work’. In the morning after getting up, packing needed to be done, coffee needed to be brewed (at least for me), make sure everything in order and secured before loading it up on the bike (in some places, we will need to lug everything two or three floors down). And the packing need a little bit of science, the stuff that you need regularly has got to be assessable, load distribution needed to be balanced. When you are done with the day’s riding, laundry need to be done or you will be riding with salt in your arse and it’s like riding with sandpapers stuck in your butt. In a perfect world, your laundry will dry the following day, but not in the adventure slash touring cycling world.  So on top of all the day’s planning and the ride itself, I have packing, unpacking, laundry and as for Ride Around Borneo, people need to talk to me, people want me to reply to their email or their sms soonest possible.  Now, put yourself in my shoe, cycling day in and day out, pack and unpack, email to reply, new email to send, sms to reply and new sms to send. You’ll be amazed that I was still on the road. That will soon change.

On day 11, I got up with another new task. My bicycle needed attention and I am not complaining. It is part of the Adventure. I don’t feel good from the sound coming out from the bottom bracket. I don’t remember when or how the sound got there but I have distances to cover with load. Our very first place for the morning was to Glenn’s cafe (our contact in Sibu) and Heather was leading. I lost her initially and after about 10 minutes, saw her across the junction, by luck. Heather was looking for the cafe and I was just following with the bicycle creaking. I lost her again the second time and being hungry and needed to get the bike fix, I send her a text letting her know I have stop to have breakfast and going to wait for the bike shop to open and suggest she moved ahead first. My morning turn out to be memorable one. I met a lovely couple, we chatted, and they gave me basic navigational direction to get out of Sibu, the short cut and landmark to look out for. This is on top of what Simon Sandi provided me and they both gave me similar direction and landmark. Though it wasn’t that difficult, there was one particular area the road sign will get complicated, I was told. I’ll find that out later and will pass on the message to Heather.

After fixing my bike, I send Heather another text message informing her I am done and to let me know if she is on the move as the signage’s out of the town will be tricky. I rode consistently cranking 22km/hr on a decent flat road after the Lanang Bridge leaving Sibu behind until Batingkor about 40km away where I send Heather messages to lead her to the short cut. No response throughout and I only found out later when we met again in Sarikei. Heather phone was almost running out of battery. Now that we’re together again, I suggested we rode together but I was told she preferred to ride alone. Fair enough. That was the last time we rode together and in my heart of heart, I pray for her safe journey. There wasn’t any drama or anything. No goodbyes and hugs. I was cool about it. Looking back, I might act like it wasn’t a big deal then when she told me about riding alone. If it true, I hadn’t meant to.

The next thing for me to do was to relax a little, get a room and reorganized the packing. As by now, I have Team RAB full load again. Repacking it was easy but I tell you cycling with that kind of load were pain in the neck. To be honest, I am happy to be riding alone as it what make us solo ‘Adventure Cyclist’ special  – we are capable handling any sort of situation on our own. After repacking, dinner and walking around the small town of Sarikei, I went to sleep and it was the best sleep I ever had.

My dream of a beautiful morning was granted on day 12 as it was raining! I woke up at 5am, brewed coffee, got all my stuff sorted and was ready to go by 6am. When I got everything down, it was still dark and moved slowly towards the main road that led me towards my next checkpoint, Betong or Sri Aman. The rain was just perfect. Not too heavy and it was cooling. I race to the 10km mark where I was told there I could find coffee and breakfast. Though I ordered breakfast, I wasn’t in the mood to gobble everything down. In my mind was just to get on the road. I convinced myself to enjoy the coffee and that probably save my live. About 5 minutes later, 200 meters ahead, one RAV4 skidded off the road and went into the ditch. I could be on that side of the road. You never know. After witnessing that, I stayed longer and finished my coffee. I was shaken a little and rode slow and check my side view mirror regularly. Since there was nothing to see or scenery to photo, I pick up my speed on the flat road out towards Betong until about 25km out where the famous Bukit Sebangkoi was waiting for me. Well, I am fitter and I know how to handle such hill, I stop, took out my stove and brewed a cup of coffee and just enjoying myself. A truck driver stops just ahead where I was seated drinking my coffee and asked if I needed a lift. I was that closed to say, “Yes!”  Instead I just say thank you and smile. It was nothing really, that Bukit Sebangkoi but tries riding up with my loaded bike! After the two hills, I was practically racing back down, and down and down and I hit 60km mark by 10.30 am at Saratok rest stop. I gave myself an hour rest there but it was still early for lunch so I packed it. After an hour of water break, pack lunch and charging my phone, I move again slowly and by now the sun was sitting on my head.  I only managed to pedal 20km before my brain start frying and told me to look for shade. While scanning farther up, I saw an old lady crossing the road towards what look like an abandon shade with the traditional Sarawakian farmer basket behind her back. I pedal on thinking I should take a picture of her. I made the turn to the shade and as I got nearer, the shade do have water and ‘sayap ayam pangang’ (BBQ chicken wing) but the old lady looked really tired and I am not sure how far she was going to walk and to where. I dismount and leaned my bike, greeted the old lady and the stall owner, an old lady too.  I thought both ladies gave me the “poor guy, cycling in the scorching sun” look.

I started a small conversation and found out she went into the wild daily to look for edible vegetation to sell it at the market. I asked the location of the market and was told it is at her long house.  I offered her my lunch and somehow managed to make her feel relax and I needed the break too as it was too hot for me to go on. I also brought out my bananas and oranges to share with both ladies. (I didn’t know then it was going to be very difficult to find anymore lunch stop). We sat and chatted for almost an hour and I get to share with her my stories and she in return gave me a little bit of education on the Iban and their longhouses. I also learn something from her. Kindness begets kindness. She told me when I am down and needed help, someone will come forward instinctively. No need to worry.

“I would like that to happen now. I need all the help now to help me reach Kuching”.  I told the old lady in broken Malay. She gave me a smile which I thought was priceless.