The Man Who Rode Around Borneo - 7 Sawit Hell!

After yesterday 152 butt breaking kilometres, I am not looking forward to ride in the heat. I guess we were too tired but that is what I signed up for when I decided to ride around Borneo. To be fair, we met numerous well mannered drivers yesterday and throughout this far. Those big truckers slowed down to a crawl to make sure they don’t scare us off and taking their time to overtake us. I really appreciate their road manners. Every single day, doesn’t matter the distance, the heat is just the same or like yesterday, it got mercilessly worst. What do I need to do other than drink up, sunscreen, arm sleeves and shade? The temptation to stay for another in Niah National Park was on the table but the show must go on. I know it is not always one can ride this length of Borneo and to know I am racing past it is starting to make me think what I am here for. Fortunately I am not here for some research or historical lesson. I am just riding through and soaking up the atmosphere and experience. If I wasn’t sure about anything or I wanted to know something, I can always ask the people there or go search on the internet when I arrived at my day’s rest stop.

For the first time in RAB, we took our tent out last night. It was definitely a different but nice experience sleeping under those stars and accompanied by the sound of nature, mating crickets. One downside was those blardy mozzies sneaking in to my tent. The MSR tent was fine, it just that I forgotten to zip it up properly when I had the tent up. I only found that out very early in the morning. Anyway, that was just small stuffs and part of the adventure. What didn’t kills you make you stronger, they said? I have to deal with the rest of Borneo for the next 50 or 60 days and I am not sure how is that going to come around.

We got up this morning as planned, very early and on the dot. One week into our adventure, we are getting in the groove.  We just knew what to do and in what order. We are still flexible with our routine though. After us both wash up, break camp, pack and went over to the park’s cafe to eat our decent breakfast and had our coffee prepared by the park’s cafe staff. Smooth. We were ready by seven and thanks to the kind cafe staff who provided us with cookies and free water on our way out using the short- cut he had shown us. We shave off about 8km on our way out of Niah National Park!  And on our way out, we stop at a small town populated mostly by Chinese to replenish our water supply before the long way ride into Bintulu. I was having so much fun on our way out from Niah National Park when Heather came by next to me and asked, “Would it be ok for us to do another coffee?”  Anything to do with rest and coffee, I am sold.

“No problem let us do it”. We reached the main junction 10km outside Niah National Park and stop at the same cafe from yesterday which we named, “coconut cafe”. We were there at around eight in the morning. Heather went inside the “coconut cafe” to make order while I approached one truck drivers to ask about our route ahead.

“Bang (Brother), if I am heading to Bintulu from here, how far?”
He paused, inhale his ciggie, looked down at me from the driver’s cabin and say, “If I drive, about 2 hour”.
“How fast you drive?” I asked again.
“60-70km an hour.” He blew down his cigarette smoke towards me and waiting for my following up question. I got what I wanted and thank him. You don’t need to be a genius to get the estimated distance but still I did a quick number crunching and rode towards Heather at the “coconut cafe”.Heather already made the order for my refreshments. Efficient I tell you this girl. I told Heather the estimated numbers I work out to be about 120km. based on the information gotten from the truck driver and to cross check; I send Simon Sandi a text message for confirmation and information ahead of us.

We got the rest of the information such as water stop, roadside shades; oil palm plantations stretch (OPP) food stop and road conditions from Simon Sandi. Smooth. The distance won’t slow me down but the heat will. We gathered from Simon that our first water stop was approximately 60 blardy km away from where we were seated, the coconut cafe. Factor in those slopes, the heat and traffic, which would take us about four hours to get to our first water stop and eight hours to reach Bintulu. We aimed to be at our first water stop by twelve noon. No rushed as Simon Sandi, a friend who is attempting to ride from Borneo’s ‘Tip-to-tip’ was there at 2pm the previous day. I can imagine it’ll be like hell to arrive between twelve and two in that heat! We would later found that out on our own.

We set off from coconut cafe, our first rest stop of the day at about thirty minutes past eight and we stuck together as the road wasn’t heavy with traffics as it was a Saturday. Heather and I chatted whenever there was no vehicle behind us. We kept cranking it easy at about 20km hour. An hour past and clocking the first 20km gone by and we were still cranking. 30km mark gone by and we still at it, eventually the heat got intense at around ten o’clock and we continues cranking in the intense heat. At 40km, I asked Heather to overtake me as her average speed was slightly faster than mine by now.  I saw Heather somewhere in the shade at 50km mark and I know now I have the chance to get in the shade for a little while and top up my water bottle and fifty meters before reaching her, I rode into a huge pothole! My front left pannier flew and my rim is off-tune! Small issue and will get it fix in Bintulu. We continued and Heather went ahead and I know the next stop will be our intended rest area, Nyalau at 60km mark, a very small rest area indeed when we got there.  By now I am feeling the heat and my focus slackened. I like to document every single act which I think might help me remember stuffs. And at this particular stage, I was taking shelter from the heat and wanted to take a picture of it. Since Heather was way ahead, I got to do it on my own, and I am good at it. I stop alongside where it was safe, left the bike standing by a concrete post, ran up towards one oil palm tree and posed. Twelve seconds later I realised I didn’t set up the camera!  I walked back to my bike with the thought to set the camera but when I got to my bike, I was too exhausted to do anything else. I walked back to the shade and sat there and thinking if these goings to be like this throughout, I’ll be fry! Sometime it is also good to put your camera or any other gadgets aside to enjoy the moment better. I did just that, seating there for 5 minutes just enjoying myself.

At eleven o'clock, we crossed Sungei Nyalau and were so excited to see the stalls ahead! I lost focus and rode into another set of potholes! We were at the rest and water point for about forty five minutes. Got ourselves enough water, Malay kueh and stretching our muscles.  Our next checkpoint will be 10km out from here. Only ten?  It was already scorching by now but we have no choice but to push on. About forty minutes later, we were at 70km mark and the last water checkpoint and we load up two more big mineral water (on top of the 2 each one of us carries) as we have about 60 - 80km to go into Bintulu, depending where we wanted to go in Bintulu. The time was now thirty past twelve scorching afternoon when we set off. Simon Sandi who was ahead of us by a day have been sending me messages on this route and one message read like this, “38km to Bintulu. We are pushing on, just to get out of this sawit (Oil Palm Plantation) hell”. I will soon find out.

We established our ride sop again before we move off from our last stop. Rest next 20km or where there is shade near 20km. We have about 60 to 80km to go so technically we can be in Bintulu by six in the evening(after factoring the rest stops, slopes and the heat).

Heather went ahead of me and I start cranking slowly taking my time behind her. How do you motivate yourself to ride in this sort of heat day in day out? I will remember to write it down If I ever find an answer but for now, swearing works fine for me.

On the 87km mark (17km from where we last stop), I saw what looks like a shape of a bicycle in the shade but with that, an odd young local boy in it. As I got closer, I saw the bike just like Heather’s but with it sat a local boy. “Where is Heather?” The question came to mind. As I got closer, I saw Heather lying down on the bench with the boy playing with his phone. I went in quickly, let Heather know I am there, and took a quick 5 minutes break and move on. It is still scorching but there wasn’t much option. I could stay in the shade or move slowly. 10km out, I was knock out by the heat and needed to get in the shade quickly. I spotted the exact same pondok (Pergola) where Heather was last seen in and took it. I took all my cloth and took a towel bath to cool down. Just to be sure. Twenty minutes later, Heather showed up and a local on a bike happens to just coming out of the plantation.  I asked a quick question where we can find food and was pointed to the right direction.
“It is just there, 5km away”. He was spot on but it was actually nearer, only 3km but not complaining. Heather race ahead and I followed behind.

We arrived at the construction road side stall at 3pm, had two packet of instant noodles in a bowl with omelette on the side. Since it was still scorching and Bintulu is now 40km from us, we made the team decision to leave at 4pm. We will ride another hour in the blardy scorching sun and another hour to do a cool down ride into Bintulu. While waiting for the time to move, Heather got the laptop out while I brewed coffee and source for information ahead of us. “There will be lots of hills in the front and lots of cheap hotel in Bintulu.” I am convinced.

At 4pm, Heather still on the laptop. I quickly pack my stove and told her I will see her up on the hill immediately after the stall. It was a long climb up and when I checked my side view mirror, Heather was in sight, I gave her a “thumbs up” and I was in shocked to see how quickly she overcame that hill and from here on, we sort of race towards Bintulu just for the fun and I felt my fitness is back. Not fully but I am enjoying my ride. Especially since the stiffs was long gone. I am really enjoying the ride now and maybe the heat wasn’t that intense at this late hour of the day. Beautiful rolling hills with less effort and I was totally enjoying it while Heather was fast behind me. 14km later, I got caught in a long climb and Heather overtook me on the down. Still, we rode as fast as we could into Bintulu.
At about ten or fifteen kilometres outside Bintulu, I had understood why the Dutch family I met in Niah National Park took regular weekend trip out from Bintulu to Miri. Here the sky looks grey and industrial chimneys can be seen miles away. It looks and smells polluted. The roads filled with potholes and rubbish (especially plastic bags) were strewn everywhere. I can see plants in the middle dividers were dying. I can tell from that impression Bintulu is not a well maintained city. I hope I was wrong. By now Heather was slightly ahead of me and I still had her in my sight. Usually when approaching our day’s final checkpoint, I’ll cruise in to cool down my ‘engine’ (muscle recovery). I’ll rode towards the last ten kilometres into town slowly and try to absorb as much happening as possible. What colours are those buildings, how high were those shop houses, what are the people doing at that hour when I arrived into towns. Seeing and experiencing life at a bicycle speed. This is the part I enjoyed the most. No racing against the clock, just absorb whatever sights coming to me and sometime the smells. I am enjoying the moments before it turns into memories.

I lost sight of Heather at the last 5km mark and there is no reason for me to ride faster as I now know that in small town like Bintulu, there is only one route in and another route out. Also we had already set our pre-arranged ‘meeting point’ in Bintulu – The Waterfront. I went on towards Bintulu and was met with a local rider who rode next to me and we start chatting for a minute or two before letting him past me. Heather and I got hook up again 2km before The Waterfront and we rode there together. We didn’t get off our saddle from our last rest stop until we reached the waterfront approximately 40km later. It was so much fun.

The way the local rider told me about the waterfront was like it’s the most beautiful place to be at and taking picture. “It is one of the town main tourist attractions”. Up until now, I am not keen to be where the tourist go, don’t ask me why but I am just not keen.  If I want to be at some place, I want to be 100 percent sure I am not going to be talking bad about it after. I mean why bother making the effort to be there and later bitching about it? Just don’t go and stay home. Now that we have established that, let me tell you how much I enjoyed being at the waterfront. Of course from where I am coming from, the waterfront wasn’t anywhere near the standard I had expected but still I enjoyed it. The sun was setting when Heather and I arrived. It was one of the most beautiful sights I ever witnessed from the 7 days I was in Borneo.  There was nothing spectacular at the waterfront to be honest. After taking some pictures, we went to nearby Sugar Buns to get some refreshments before moving on to find ourselves a cheap hotel. While we were doing that, an addict approached us to sell what look like some illegal substance. I politely said no and rode off. It was indeed not a place to be having a holiday. I hope that all will change sometime in the future for the betterment of the people in Bintulu and whole of Sarawak.

Last night dinner was different from the usual  and special. We head out to where the local were and had a sumptuous dinner (to my standard).  Inconsideration of Heather diet practice, we ordered large amount of veggies and being a fish lover, I ordered one sizeable fish. It was good dinner and in a way we were celebrating. It was one week ago on Sunday we started our attempt to cycle around Borneo and here we are approximately 750km away from Kota Kinabalu having our first “real dinner”.

Day 8 and it was planned for an easy ride to prepare for Kuching, about 620km away. Though we have 6 day to reach Kuching, I was told it was going to be a very tough ride. Simon Sandi, who was ahead of us is doing his best to keep us posted daily at night or first thing in the morning. On paper, we are on track to be in Kuching by next weekend if there is no major drama. So far it has been good.

I woke up as usual at 5.30am and the first thing I did was to get the stove out and get some coffee going. The planned ride was going to be short about seventy kilometres. I am more worried with the heat as I am still getting used to it. The packing got better and faster and we were out from the hotel in no time.  Like a celebrity, the friendly hotel staff requested for a photo and we were happy too obliged.

We left the hotel at 7.30am. First stop, to the water top-up vending machine not far from the hotel - .10 cents a litre.  A good deal I must say. Next, Sunday breakfast of toast and half boiled egg by the waterfront (it is a river with local commuting across to the other side of the river). Over breakfast, I received text message from Simon.

“Nothing for water or food on your route today”.
“Thank you”. My short replied and I told Heather about it.

We packed extra food and Heather ran to a corner shop to get bananas and “Limau madu” (Sweet Chinese oranges). Just before leaving Bintulu town, I stopped to confirm our route out of Bintulu town just to be sure. I found a nice local man directing us to use the old road back we came from and from there onwards, we will be connected to the “highway” that will bring us towards Sibu. I hated the highway as it reminds me of everything that is moving fast, hot and the endless hilly road. Up until now, I am still searching for that blardy perfect coastal road. But then again, going to the beach is not the culture here in Sarawak except for fishing. I don’t see why people here would do anything to attract tourist or even backpackers to visit the beach not to mention cycling tourist. In Thailand, you can ride anywhere along the coast and stop whenever you want and felt you are on a holiday. Here in Borneo, so far in Sabah, Brunei and Sarawak, there isn’t any of it. I think it is sad. I was even asked not to bother going to the beach as we would be disappointed as only oil palm plantation will welcome us. Yes, blardy oil palm plantation. I don’t know what their freaking obsession with that. Oh, I remember now, money!

Right about 8km out of Bintulu, I saw the junction and I signaled my intention to turn right (using my hand of course). From where I stop, waiting for the traffic to turn to our favour, I saw our first Sunday morning slope, I came alongside Heather and told her to move ahead and established a rest point, usually20 km from where we start. Light turn to green and we made the right turning, Heather slowed down before stopping and from my side view mirror, I can see she is setting up her sound system. I went and hit the slope long climb and cranked slowly. Heather caught up and overtook me. Phew, a Sunday morning climbed.

“Here we go again. Day 8 and the slopes look like it’s going to be everywhere. Bring it on!”

Heather flew in front coming down on our first slope and I was right behind her to stay as close as possible. That four months training and tours she did before RAB did her good. I cannot imagine anyone who comes to ride in Borneo without training or at least cycling regularly with loads. It’s that tough. Well, I was warned by non other, Mr Simon Sandi. “The endless slopes are enough to slow you down and the heat can fry your brains out”.

Can the island of Borneo be a destination for cycling tourist? After 8 days of riding here, I must say unlikely that Borneo will take off as one of the world’s great bike touring destinations. Why? From my casual observations and being there myself, there are several factors contribute to making the island a turn off for bicycle tourer, at least from what I am seeing. Few roads have shoulders other than the road in and near the city and roads are crowded with trucks though the truck drivers are well mannered bunch and always giving us way but some of which drive very fast. On some stretch, roads are in various states of disrepair, with long sections reverting to dirt or potholes especially very near the entrance of the plantations and I rode into those potholes sometimes back! And of course the tropical heat, humidity, and sun can be merciless. It starting to get hot by 8 am and can last up until 4 or 5 pm. But to test your mental and endurance, come ride in Borneo. This might changed of course. We will never know.

At 26km mark, I saw Heather on the other side of the road 20 meter inside at a local home with a  drink stall outside. I am glad to see that she was there or else I will be flying down the slope and back up fighting the next slope. The water break gives me some reprieved from the blardy heat. We ordered 2 ‘milo-peng’ (ice Milo) and Heather was having fun taking photos of the stall owner riding her bike around.

After 30 minutes of our standard rest (longer might mean we will need to warm up again to take on the terrain ahead), we suited up and as usual, Heather moved up front. We established our next rest point and off we go. Time now was 10.30 am. 1km out, I did a quick stop, wet my towel and hang it around my neck. I looked up and Heather was on top of the slope in front. A little bit far up for me to chase her. I took my time behind doing 18km hour. Most time, the computer showing 14km hour when I am climbing. Is that bad? In comparison on my first 2 day, I am doing well actually. I just need to be more patient before I get my fitness back and hopefully peak before Kalimantan.

I stopped after a fast ride down a long steady slope at 40km mark. Heather was still ahead and the next thing I did was to drop her  a message, “km 40 taking shade and break”. Our short messaging system works well. Anytime if Heather want go fast, she can go ahead and when she is somewhere resting, she just need to make her bike visible or texted me the distance marker. On adventure ride like this, communication is vital. Every bits of information will helps. I just took a quick 5 minutes break to wet my towel again, top-up my water from the reserve and quickly get out on the road again. What a recovery ride. Well, that is what I signed up for.

I have a hate love relationship with the sun. I love it as that will prevent me from getting wet and I hate it because times like this, I just thought it is too much. Too cool myself down, I usually will look for a small running water or stream along the road...I saw what looks like a small steady river on my left very near to a longhouse and a young couple walking towards it. I cannot say no to this sort of thing, like jumping in the river to cool myself down. I found the entry point to the longhouse and the path the young couple took. I stop and dismount from my bike and leaned it against a power supply post. I released my handlebar bag to bring it along with me to the river. I couldn’t find the young couple but the river look just too good for me to walk away. I place by bag on one falling log, took off my shoes and top. Just before I jump in, I remember a friend from Kuching, Reky told me to be careful about jumping in a river in Sarawak as there are crocodiles! I changed my mind immediately and put everything back on and walked back to my bike feeling dejected and like I am going to die of heat exhaustion. I took out my reserve water, drank as much as I can and set to chase Heather upfront. And then I remembered the sign in Brunei. ‘Crocodile has been sighted’.!

Heather send a message informing me she is chilling at 57 km mark and I am on 50km marker when I received those message. 7 km sound very easy and near on paper, I know. It took me closed to about 30 minutes to cover those 7km and that includes toilet break at Petronas just outside Tatau town.

We met at the pre-arranged point and had lunch. A quick simple lunch before Heather went off to look for computer shop to fix the laptop (problems with getting connected to the internet) and I went to look for a cheap place to stay.