The Man Who Rode Around Borneo - 1 Borneo Calling

The idea to cycle in Sabah, Borneo started early in December on my return from Sumatra and in February 2012 three months later, Malcolm Wong, a close friend of mine from Kota Kinabalu invited me to visit Sabah Tourism Board and his Borneo Global Backpackers NATAS exhibition booth at Singapore Expo to pitch about my idea to cycle in Sabah. It was more of planting an idea to one ‘corporate lady’ (a compliment by the way) who happens to work in the tourism industry. Then, I thought only to cycle around Sabah and there wasn’t specific route I would follow and end it by climbing Mount Kinabalu before cycling back into Kota Kinabalu, the capital and city centre of Sabah. The meeting went well; I met Josephine, the deputy director from Sabah Tourism Board. All good and I was told to drop her an email and she will follow-up from there. That was that and I also get to meet the other land tours agents from Sabah and get to know interesting places to cycle too. I am sold to cycle in Sabah, Borneo.

I waited after dropping an email and waited patiently. Two months after I emailed them, a replied came along saying cycling around Sabah do not come under scope of the board ‘supporting event’. I have absolutely no idea what ‘supporting event’ was but it would be a shame instead to put all those plan on the shelf. I bought a map of Borneo and give it a good look. I also bought a lonely planet book of Sabah, Sarawak and Indonesia and get on reading it. As if that wasn’t enough, I cooped up at National Library to see if I can find anything helpful. I know about Borneo like any other tourists do, places like the city centre, tourist attractions and what not. But I wanted to know more, be closer to the people, go deep in the interior and see what is there and how people live and the idea got wilder.  I took sometimes off with Elaine somewhere over the causeway to think through it, have better perspective from an “outsider”, study Borneo more and see if that would be feasible thing to do.  On my return, the idea to cycle around Borneo was born and carved in stone. I was still alone on this. I do thought that I am mad to be doing this all alone.  Not that I can’t handle riding solo but at least if I went in and ride with someone else, in the event emergency, there will be another person next to or behind me. Imagine if there should be a tiger and I am all alone, not much of an option right? I am kidding! Still, I am sold and the search for riding buddy is on.

Who do I want to cycle with? How do I find people, how do I ask them to be part of the team cycling around Borneo and what do I tell them? These people I am going to approach need to be in their own way, special. They definitely got to be a long distance cyclist, an adventure cyclist and someone who doesn’t mind the filthiness of being out in the rough. Where do I find them? It wasn’t easy to be looking for someone, a cyclist for that matter who has the same thinking as the next person. After a thorough long search on social media and a mini ad posting on this blog, I found 2 riders or rather 2 riders responded to my “mini-ad”.  All 2 riders have never been out of Singapore cycling and they don’t even know where or what is Borneo about. I thank them and kept looking. Much as I wanted a company or two, I also do not want to be responsible for being accused of incompetency. I am prepared to do this alone if pushed come to shove.

While searching for cycling partner(s) in progress, I went on preparing for Borneo. I need to get back in shape after the lull period of post Sumatra and also getting my equipments upgraded or changed. From my little experience, a month or two should be enough to get back into shape; the hardest is to maintain it. I just need to continue riding regularly while the behind the scene work is being done. I had thought a year should be enough to set everything up including getting back in shape. Well, more or less I achieved to bring my fitness to a decent level. Nothing to crow about, I am just happy I can cover distances, doesn’t matter how slowly. For equipments, I got most of what I wanted but there are areas for improvement. For example I didn’t get the video camera to document Ride Around Borneo (RAB). Not that I didn’t have the fund to get it, I just found it to be bulky, cumbersome. Of course I regretted it later on. This won’t happen again for the next adventure. I learned later on that video camera is one crucial equipments I needed to have for company in those long lonely stretch to talk to myself, yes there is nothing wrong talking to one self.  Other than that, I had pretty much all the stuffs needed to cycle around Borneo. Still, there are stuffs I’d replaced.

Fitness wise, I was in bad shape. Not that I can’t cover 100km day, it just that I will be aching all over the next day if I am doing it continuously over a week. I put up a basic cycling fitness program. Monday, Wednesday and Friday endurance ride starting with 40km for 2 weeks, up the distance to 60km and so on. Tuesday and Thursday will be just recovery ride. (Though I sometimes ended going up Mount Faber – To my foreign friends reading this, it is actually a hill about 140mtr high and a good ground to train cycling up slopes). Weekends I’ll do climbing session on Mount Faber and some other slopes in Singapore and favorite would going to all 5 hills a day and repeat it again on the reverse the same day.

To break the monotonous, I’ll go to places different from the last one. I keep exploring tiny Singapore and I am surprised myself at those places I discovered. There are talks on this cycling fitness thing on social media recently (Long Distance Cycling FB group), should you train before your cycling tour or let the miles during the tour naturally get you into being fit. Miles-by-miles. I don’t know about letting the cycling tour do all the jobs but I’d prefers to be decently fit before embarking on any long distance tour. I am naturally not a very fit cyclist. To be very honest, I am adventurer first and cyclist second. I can’t go fast and I am weak at climbing. Weak as in slow but I have no problem with that. I just wanted to be sure that I have the base fitness and I ride easy later. There are hundreds of long distance adventure cyclists out there and each has their own style of preparation and I am one that likes to be fit before any cycling tour begins. It’s just me.  Sometime you can train all you want, plan all you want, but accident and tragedy may strike anywhere and to anyone. 

Photo: Taken during my First Aid Certification for illustration purposes

It was in June 2012 when my training got interrupted and almost couldn’t continue with my plan to cycle around Borneo. I was involved in an accident while riding my bike at a cross junction on Enggor Street in the city centre. I still remember that day, it was noon and raining lightly. I was on the extreme left lane next to a car with a ‘Provisional’ young driver in it. Lights turned green, I checked right for my blind spot before moving off and the next thing I knew the car next to me cuts into my way without signalling and I jammed my brakes to reduce the force of impact. Bang! I was diving straight to the kerbs (I would like to think the helmet save me from serious injuries). I concussed for a little while and when I came to my senses, the provisional driver of the vehicle was right on top of me saying something like if I wanted “to settle it privately”. Everything went by so fast the next thing I knew two coppers was standing on top looking down at me. By now I was laying down on the walking path pulled by a Good Samaritan. A few minutes later, paramedics were all over me, bracing my neck, cut away my Levi’s jeans and brace my leg. Within 15 minutes I was in the hospital nearby - Singapore General Hospital Accident and Emergency Unit. Writing about it now, I can still remember that young doctor. A sweet young doctor name...never mind, that will be for another chapter. There in the A&E Department waiting to be X-rayed, I thought the dream to cycle around Borneo was gone. Seeing the emergency staff moving everywhere in a rush freaked me out. After all the compulsory checks, I was told I had only a fractured left ankle. I was lucky. I was out of the hospital a day later. I cannot tell you what will be the long term damaged be but I can tell you now I am more determined to live my life the way I want it, my own terms. (I found out later on from the MRI scan, my left knee will need further check / treatment) And while writing this, the case is now in the process to be closed.
 
It took me more or less about 2 months to be back on the bike again. By now it was August and I am leaving for Borneo not in another eight months. I have time to recover fully. I would like to think that my fitness training regime had brought me back to recovery faster. Though my left knee still hurting, I could still pedal leisurely from point A to point B. Then, to me it was good news. Sometime also in August 2012, I got my buddy; Regis Cabaret excited to be part of Ride Around Borneo team.  We got talking on the route, talking about getting sponsors to raise funds and getting Regis a brand new touring bicycle. Regis hadn’t done any adventure cycling but was keen to give it a try. That was good enough. Luisa and Carlos, a husband and wife world touring team and also a season cycling tourer indicated their interest. (Subject to their work commitment in Thailand) and last I got Heather Pritchard showing interest.

Times flew really quickly and January 2013 came and putting work aside, I took my training out of Singapore to Kelantan. I remember booking a one-way night bus first to Kelantan. It wasn't sound as easy. The bus company I booked my ticket with decided to pull a fast one on me asking me to cycle to Johor Bahru instead to catch my bus! I was fuming mad and demanded to speak to the manager and getting a refund. That sorted, I rode to nearby Golden Mile and I was lucky to get a midnight bus to Kuala Lumpur arriving 3am in the morning. I still remember riding in Kuala Lumpur City Centre 3 in the morning until about 6am to meet Ken Kassem at another bus terminal. Again we got played out by a "pirate" bus company. We were made to pay the full first class price but was given a World War 2 bus. I guess this is what I have signed up for. We met Abang Dzul in Kelantan an stayed a night at his ancestral home. Beautiful place!

That short trip helps to take my mind of chasing for sponsorship and just enjoy the ride. We rode from Kelantan to Kuantan with Abang Dzul acting as our local guide. A good decision I must say. We ride, stop whenever we want to and however long we want. There are many funny incidents and I still remember the one where Ken left his bag and the last rest stop. I was slightly ahead to take a picture of Abang Dzul and Ken riding. The moment when Ken reached to where I was standing readying for a shot, he went, "Shit, I left my bag!"
"What is inside the bag, Ken?"
"My wallet, myi-phone and and phone charger!"
We quickly loan a motorbike from the friendly stall owner and Ken rode back 20km to the Petronas gas station where we were at our last rest stop.

While waiting for Ken, another craziest thing happened. Abang Dzul, who I should say has very little in touring organization department decided to pour our all his worldly touring stuffs from the 2 panniers and "re-organized" it. You must know, every morning no matter how early Abang Dzul got up, he will still be the last one to be ready. So I can imagined how determined he is this time to get the packing right while Ken was gone. "Abang Dzul, don't bother. By the time Ken gets back, you'll be still packing". True enough, Ken rode back 20 minutes later with a 'I got my bag!' smile on his face. Nonetheless, we all laughed really hard after that, sat longer at our stop and Ken bought us a round of everything he can find at the stall that loan us the motorbike.

From that training ride, I now know where I was in term of fitness, mental state and equipments and I quickly took to task to get it sorted out. Though the trip was short, it was definitely memorable. The people, the food, oh how I missed that and having Abang Dzul leading and showing us places. There are more which we didn't get to cycle too but I am heading there again when I am coming down from Norway. Definitely going to hook up with Abang Dzul. I strongly recommend taking this route to those coming down from Thailand. Abang Dzul is still actively cycling everywhere and it is good to drop him a message before stopping by Kelantan. (You can find him on my FB page: Rahim Resad)

A month later, I went out with another 3 friends, Azman Bilaji, Yasir  and Katya John to tackle the 'Batam-Galang' Highway in the Riau Islands. Butt cracking ride! Nice rolling slopes, bridges, 6 Bridges connecting the islands and the best part is the 80km in and 80km out cycling route. To me that was one ride I am not looking forward to do it if I ever going to cycle in Batam again.

I am not big in planning everything in details as from past experience, it’ll be changed along the way. So what I’d do was to plot a general route. It was straight forward from Sabah, Brunei and Sarawak. Once we crossed the bridge, we’ll talk what we want to do there. Well, isn’t that adventure are for? Plan for less plan and just go venture forward. There are maps available for all four countries that I am going to be cycling on but Borneo map wasn’t as details in comparison to Sabah, Brunei and Sarawak. Even googling Borneo won’t guarantee you complete information. Also with help and information’s received from friends in Sabah, Brunei and Sarawak, my works got cut out to about 40%. I know Kalimantan, Borneo going to be very hard to nail as there wasn’t complete information readily available.  I’ll leave it at that and thought that can be sorted once I am in Kalimantan (Read: ask the locals for information and direction). Nearing to the start of RAB, I was introduced to bunch of motorcyclists from Tawau, Sabah, the same bunch that rode around Borneo on their motorbikes. Great bunch of people I found out at the later stage of RAB.

On the sponsorship side, it wasn’t that easy for an unknown adventurer(s) to be getting a positive respond. I’ve sent out about 200 (maybe more) emails to medium and large company (cycling and outdoor adventure related) and the usual respond I received was dismal. It was alright for me as I didn’t even expect them to be responding to my email at all. I have also planned to print Ride Around Borneo shirts for sale to raise funds. I eventually did and managed to sell it to friend

Towards the start of Ride Around Borneo, there was only Heather and I left and in order to get to know each other better, we arranged to meet. She’s riding from up North while I’ll be I taking a bus up to Kuala Lumpur. We met over one weekend in early April for team bonding (more to see if we can get along with each other) and also to deliver Ride Around Borneo shirts to friends and supporters in Kuala Lumpur. Though it was short trip, I totally enjoyed meeting friends in Kuala Lumpur.  After all are sets and ready, a week before departure, during the final health check, my doctor broke the news to me. They suspect a problem with my heart! What? I was seven days away to the start date and here I was told about this not so good news, quite shocking if you asked me. I was told to do anything strenuous until another health check.  I came back in again on April 18 the day of my departure and was advice to postpone Ride Around Borneo. What do you think I had do?

The Man Who Rode Around Borneo - Prologue

I only found out how mentally drained and physically knackered I was only after I got home in Singapore three days after the end of Ride Around Borneo (RAB). I was also too affected by the experience cycling around Borneo. To see how people live in remote parts of Borneo, especially in Central Kalimantan and the little helps given to them was probably too much for me to handle. I felt so helpless and wish I could do more while I was there but then again, I was struggling myself. I’ve been to remote places before but I have never seen such poverty like this in my life.  Well, there will always the first time.

After all the unpacking, cleaning, assembling the bike, catching up with “work” (I do work in between cycling) and friends, the next thing I needed a real break. Get off the bike and get my mind off it for a while. It was a little overwhelming to experience Borneo on a bicycle speed in a short period of time.  Even until now, the memories of Kalimantan are still fresh in my mind. The people I met and those who have given me shelter and those took care of me. Thank you very much.

Well my rest obviously took longer than I have expected; it is more resting my mental than physical. RAB to me wasn’t exactly a bike tour (touristy like cycling) like many had expected it to be. It was more like a challenge for me to complete that one circle and prepping myself for my future big cycling adventure. As much as I wanted to see and go places in Borneo, I simply don’t have the luxury of time, especially in Kalimantan. I was like racing against the clock the moment I got in to Kalimantan. Ideally, it would be very nice if I could go slow and take my time. I couldn’t get the 60 days visas I had wanted.  After crossing into Kalimantan via Kampung Aruk, it was all get there, eat, sleep, wake up the next day and go again and it keeps repeating until I got out from Kalimantan. Even that, I overstayed in Kalimantan by a day and valid for the officialdom there to charge me for overstaying. To the Immigration officers in Tarakan, Kalimantan Indonesia, thank you for your kind understanding.

I am now well rested (sort of) and compelled to share my story here. It’s not going to be easy for me to put my experiences cycling around Borneo into words as I am bad at writing. I hope you can understand. But before I go on rambling, I would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you (you know who you are) for making cycling around Borneo happened. Those of you that have supported this adventure (buying Ride Around Borneo shirts and indirectly contributing to raise fund for charity), you people will be remembered as long as I live and breathe. Yes, every time mounting the bicycle when I was in Borneo, many of you came to mind. Many times the thought of giving up came to mind and when the road gets tougher; many of you linger in my thoughts and urge me on. Without many of you, cycling around Borneo will be just another idea and dreams of mine. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

RAB did not happen overnight obviously. It took me few months after cycling in Sumatra to decide where will be my next cycling adventure going to be and the thought of somewhere nice came to mind. You know, touristy cycling. I was thinking places like Bali (which I rode around with four other friends on rented motorbike), Krabi (which I rode before with bunch of cycling friends – The Slackriders), Phuket, and Langkawi and as far as Australia, as in cycling around Australia. They are all to me attractive places to be cycling on.

I needed a place to harden and taught me the real world of ‘hardship’ before my next big cycling adventure and initially Sabah, Borneo comes to mind. I chose the road less-travelled; Borneo to feel how is it like to be alone on a longer period of time on my bicycle. Also Borneo is known for her harshness and I had thought this would be a good ground to test my physical and mental endurance before I embark on my longer cycling adventure tour. Then I thought to cycle from U.K to Singapore. But now, I am happy to share that I’ll be cycling from the Arctic Circle, Norway to Singapore. It’ll be called ‘Arctic – Asia Solo Cycling Adventure 2014’. A quest to cycle unsupported from Arctic Circle, Norway to Singapore. To celebrate Singapore 50^th Birthday. Through this, I also hope to spread the message to people out there that anyone can pursue their dreams if they set their mind on it - illustrating "nothing is impossible" spirit and to bring Singaporeans together to celebrate this grueling adventure.

Back to Ride Around Borneo. When I first pitched the idea to friends and interested parties (potential sponsors), they (even myself) had thought it was a crazy idea. Not achievable. I was told there wasn’t proper road in Central Kalimantan (mostly true), it is dangerous and stuffs like and I read in a blog post on how bad the roads in Central Kalimantan is if I ever got in there. I know people have cycled in Malaysia side of Borneo, from Kota Kinabalu to Kuching and vice-versa. Two very close friends of mine from Kuching, Simon Sandi rode his recumbent bike from one end of Sabah (Kudat) to the other end of Sarawak (Sematan), a total distance of 1,400km with two other boys from Sabah.  And another, Francis Ho cycled from Kota Kinabalu, Sabah to his hometown, Kuching.  Not a great distance but I encourage cycling enthusiasts (especially roadies) to give it a try to see how you handle that mentally. Simon Sandi had called it ‘Tip-to-Tip’ the same time I rode around Borneo. Writing this now in comfort of my home, thinking of riding 1,400km in that kind of Borneo’s scorching heat was unthinkable. I am melting just thinking of it now. I ride in the rain anytime in Borneo that is for sure.

I never rode any place as remote as Kalimantan, especially in central Kalimantan where on some stretches there wasn’t anything resembles a local village or a decent track (not to mention asphalt road).  If there should be a road, you’ll find it in the middle of nowhere and hardly any vehicles traversed on it as the locals there still prefers the old shorter logging trails, this mean through the jungle. And then when I thought I’ve found that perfect asphalt road, I can’t to think it’ll go on and on. Most of the time, it never did as it will just disappeared in the abyss. That is the state of the basic infrastructure in Central Kalimantan. I was told on one stretch that I was on, some 5km long took years to complete. It was still work in progress when I rode there, with only two workers from Java working on it. I swore I rode past one or two ‘Zebra Crossing’ right in the middle of nowhere with no other vehicles or villages insight. No I wasn’t hallucinating. 

Never had I seen genuinely sincere people. Every one of those people I met tried their very best to make me comfortable. Yes I do accept their hospitality with a little bit of hesitation in the beginning because I wasn’t sure if having me in their home would inconvenience them. What more with me being dirty most time not to mention the smell of course and the stuffs I brought along on my bike. Slowly but surely I had realised all that doesn’t matter to most. For them, hosting a stranger on a bicycle is like a gift from God.  To hear the stories and experiences we brought along to share with them from other places is priceless. The trick is to ask and you’ll receive.

Many times in Kalimantan I was on the verge of ditching it all and flew home, it was that hard. I wasn’t used to their heat. Maybe heat is an understatement; let me try again, the scorching heat. By 9am, most days, I felt it was like I am riding under noon sun. Imagine what it’s like at 12pm. I can’t even go out there to cycle. But I need to move on to catch lost time. And when it rained, it pours. I remember leaving Naga Bulik in Central Kalimantan to Pangkalan Bun, one gentleman reminded me to be careful of the storms. I was told about the storm while standing directly under the morning heat just before leaving the roadside food stall, “When it rain later, find a good cover”. I looked at the gentleman with disbelief and inside me I said quietly, “you got to be kidding me”.  True to form, the spirit of Borneo, after 2 hours of pedaling, I can see the clouds forming ahead. I was just through 30km of scorching heat and just ahead of me the storm gathers to welcome me. And I am not even halfway to my next checkpoint, Pangkalan Bun. Here I am behind schedule by 2 days and the weather playing havoc. I saw motorbikes (moped mostly) slowing down ahead of me to one small roadside stall and I followed. It was a simple set up with Keropok (fish crackers), Teh Ais Botol (Indonesia produced bottled Ice Tea) and home cooked dishes. Here taking shelter, I got to know in-depth on Central Kalimantan and the roads ahead of me. The storm come and go, it was one of the heaviest rain I’ve seen, at least to me but the local shrugged it off and told me they have seen worst. Nothing damage from where I was so I guess that wasn’t their worst.

I continue on from there and keep convincing myself everything will be alright. One checkpoint at a time and I’ll make it through. Boy I was wrong.

Some others have gone much longer and farther cycling around the world and in comparison to what I have achieved cycling around the third largest island in the world, Borneo, it is no sweat. Anyway, I love riding my bicycle the same. In the heat (though I’ll be swearing), in the rain (and I’ll be wet and cold), riding up slopes up the mountains, through broken roads and the best part of going through all that will be the chance meeting people along the way and I am not going to lie, the foods.  This writing is a way to share my experiences cycling around Borneo. Though not the best place to cycle tour, but if you’re looking for an adventure, Borneo is the place to be.