n the 16th of November, 2000, 3 Scouters and 6 seniors namely SSL Kevin Yew Chun Weng, ASM Bala s/o Suppiah, SPL Yam Wem-Jhien, SPL Tan Hiang Liang, SPL Hoo Yuan Feng, SPS Tee Jin Xiong, SPS Chong Wen Han, SPS Joey Lai Chong Hoa and yours truly embarked on a journey to Penang. Determined to break the previous Kuala Lumpur-Penang cycling record of 5 days, set by the batch of '93, we set our target to 3 days. For security and safety purposes, we had 2 marshals to aid the expedition, the father of SPL Yam along with SPL Tan Hiang Liang, who was not well enough to cycle, and the other, ex-SS David Jacob who was later joined by ex-TL George Samuel. The former was to follow the last cyclist in a Pajero carrying all the necessary tools and equipment, including a spare bicycle in the event of an emergency.

It was determined beforehand that we would have to cycle at an average speed of 20 km/h in order to keep on schedule. Our assigned distance for today was 160 km, the longest distance of the 3 days that would see us in Teluk Intan for the night if all went as planned.

Our journey began in the early hours of the morning, with the scout den as our starting point. After we re-checked our bikes and equipment several times over, we started cycling in full speed, the Pajero following behind. Those at the front were cycling very fast and the group was split into 2 main groups. SPS Joey Lai was assigned to lead the group in front, as he was the most capable cyclist among us. After cycling close to one and a half hours past the highways and trunk roads, we finally reached Paya Jeras. Here, we faced our first taste of rough dirt roads as the narrow tar roads were jammed with vehicles. I suddenly found myself wishing I'd invested in suspension for my bicycle as I felt pain shoot through my entire pelvic region each time I went over the pot holes in the road. Much to our dismay the sky was starting to turn dark, so much for wishing for good weather during the expedition. We increased our speed in hope of finding a place to stop for food (we discovered that cycling fast for long distances makes you hungry extremely quickly more than thirsty). For now the only things we could see were palm trees.

At 0810 hours, we finally reached a small Malay coffee shop about 20 km away from Kuala Selangor and stopped for a snack. After taking a 30 minutes break, we continued our journey, this time with only long, straight, seemingly endless roads ahead. We reached Kuala Selangor at 1014 hours, still keeping good time. Along the journey, we noticed quite a lot of kampung houses in sight. There, we finally stopped for a proper meal. The remaining 6 cyclists reached the stop one by one, until the last one reached with the marshal. SPS Chong found himself suffering from dizziness probably from exhaustion and the heat. Half an hour was all we needed to regain our energy to continue our time SPL Hiang Liang replaced SPS Chong on the bicycle.

At half past noon, it started to drizzle, not a good sign, considering the sun was still shining brightly, otherwise known as hujan panas, an easy way to get sick. Luckily, the sky only turned very dark but it didn t rain. We managed to cover 40 km since our last stop before stopping for lunch, with everyone drinking like starved men. At this point, our second marshal, ex-SS David joined us together with ASM Bala. He was to drive on in front to monitor the leading cyclists. At 1500 hours, we resumed our journey, this time in blistering heat as the sun suddenly showed its face again. SPS Chong returned to his bike after the short. Half an hour later, we were cycling through Sabak Bernam. A sign board stated that Teluk Intan was 48 km away. I estimated that we could reach there by about 1800 hours if we maintained our speed.

We appreciated the beautiful scenery of paddy fields while we cycled. The downside of it was the vast open spaces gave way to strong winds, making it almost impossible to maintain a good speed fighting the wind. We trudged on wistfully wishing the wind would blow behind us. It started to rain on and off as we reached Daerah Hilir Perak, actually quite welcomed by us after the heat of the sun we had been cycling through. At 1720 hours, we reached our third stop for the day. The last of us reached just in time with the marshal before it started raining really heavily. We were stranded there until the rain stopped. We received word from ex-SS David that SPS Joey, who was far in front, stopped here for a while but continued to cycle before we arrived. When it was about 1840 hours, we had decided that it was running too late and resumed our journey through the slight rain. The marshal arrived at a junction and turned right to Teluk Intan. After a considerable distance covered, there was still no sign of us. They started to wonder if we had taken the wrong way. Meanwhile, without us knowing it, we had indeed missed the junction and cycled on straight without a clue that we were heading the wrong way at full speed.

At this point, SPL Yuan Feng, SPS Jin Xiong and myself were in the leading group, aside from SPS Joey, whom we assumed had arrived at Teluk Intan by now. We were already wondering if we were on the right track as there was nothing along the way to suggest we were anywhere near Teluk Intan. The marshals had already encountered SSL Kevin Yew who had headed to the correct direction. When they detoured towards Bagan Datok, they managed to locate SPL Yam and SPS Chong who had stopped at a bus stop when they found out they were going the wrong way from a local. The marshal told them to stay there while they drove on ahead to locate us. At 1935 hours, still unaware that we had lost our way, we were cycling in complete darkness relying only on the occasional vehicle for light. The light from oncoming vehicles on the other side of the road was so blinding that we were blinded for few seconds each time a large truck or bus passed us. By this time, we were certain we had gone the wrong way because at our speed we should have already reached Teluk Intan. However, with only plantations on either side of the narrow and dark roads, we thought it would be pointless and dangerous to stop and stand in the rain and so we cycled on hoping for a place to stop and contact the marshal. No one came.

Ten minutes later, we stopped at the side of the road at the sound of a horn coming from behind. To our delight, it was the marshal. SPL Hiang Liang regretfully informed us that we had over sped more than 20 km from the junction. (Well, not that far if you had covered the distance in a vehicle). We were 6 km from Bagan Datok (a fishing village). We had no choice but to cycle back. It hadn't stopped raining and the three of us were freezing cold. Nevertheless we turned around and resumed our cycling at the same speed at the promise of a nice hot bath and a hearty meal. We finally reached the bus stop where SPS Chong and SPL Yam were waiting. We waited there while the marshal returned to Teluk Intan to unload the bicycles into the boot and come back with the other marshal to fetch us back to the hotel along with our bikes. They finally returned and we eagerly climbed into the car after loading our bikes into the Pajero. At 2130 hours, we finally reached Teluk Intan. We settled down in Hotel Kok Min. At 2415 hours, all of us turned in for the night.

Day 2 - 17th November, 2000

The new day saw us awake with terribly painful buttocks from the previous day of cycling. Our designated stop for today was Taiping. Today we had only 100 km to cycle. We decided we would cycle approximately 25 km between each stop. ASM Bala joined us cycling today.

At 0645 hours, after having breakfast at a nearby shop, we began the day's journey. Again SPS Joey Lai led the group. Midway, ASM Bala had to stop and waited for the marshal for equipment to pump his bike. Two and a half hours later, the leading group reached our first stop for today, Ah Choo Restaurant. Most of us ordered light meals while drinking at least 2 cans of the 100 plus we had bought previously. Minutes later, the rest arrived. At this point I was suffering from terrible stomach cramps and I was seriously doubting my ability to go on. After the break, everyone resumed cycling except SPL Yam and SPS Joey. SPL Yam had some problems with his bike and SPS Joey (our very own bicycle expert) was trying to help him out. I retired for the day and joined ex-SS David in the first marshal car. Eventually SPS Joey exchanged his bike with SPL Yam, a huge booster for him considering SPS Joey's extensively upgraded and modified bike. We reached Pantai Remis, with only palm trees on either side of the road. At least the journey so far was a bit less mundane with the roads uphill one minute - forcing us to burn our thighs in strained effort - and downhill the next - relaxingly cruising on our own momentum.

We made our second stop for the day after cycling through the sun's blazing heat. This time everyone enjoyed a hearty lunch. I opted to travel with the Marshal, as the cyclists needed more assistance with the equipment. After SPL Yam had had his share, SPS Joey returned to his beloved bike. After the meal, everyone left except SPS Joey who was having some problems with his bicycle. (He left 5 minutes later). SPL Hiang Liang took to the roads to cycle with the rest, replacing SSL Kevin, who joined ex-SS David. By now ex-TL George had also joined them in the first marshal car. SPL Hiang Liang who was further up ahead encountered problems with his gear and had stopped to wait for SPS Joey to catch up and help. He soon reached and found no real problem, much to our amusement. Twenty minutes later, SPS Chong made a stop as his bike was faulty. I took out the spare bike but found it had problems with the gears. After repairing the bike, I gave it to him and he resumed cycling.

Suddenly at 1640 hours, it started raining! I hoped that all the cyclists would speed up as we seemed quite close to our next stop. Just in time, we reached the others who had stopped at a small stall for food. The rain did not cease and we decided we didn't want to repeat yesterday's mistake of resuming our final 20 km too late, so we continued in the rain this time cycling in a proper single file order. Halfway in our journey, SPS Chong suddenly started to have muscle cramp. He stopped at the side of the road. SPS Joey (who was leading as usual) turned around like a sick fool on his bike to see what was happening, narrowly missing a speeding car. Thankfully SPS Chong recovered soon enough and the cyclists resumed cycling. Finally at 1840 hours, we reached Taiping but didn't know where to stop as the first marshal car had gone ahead to look for accommodation. We stopped at a coffee shop and contacted the first marshal car. Thankfully, the hotel, called Meridian Hotel was just opposite the road. We moved the bikes into the hotel after a light snack. After cleaning up, we went to have dinner together. Lights out at 2330 hours.

Day 3 - 19th November, 2000

Finally, it was the last day of the expedition. To our delight, our distance for today was only around 90 km. We discovered we would not be allowed to cycle in through the famous Penang Bridge due to the hazardous traffic flow, thus our destination was the Butterworth train station, where we would send our bikes back to KL.

We woke up late and decided to have breakfast later to take advantage of the cool morning weather, This time we decided that we would maintain a formation throughout the day We had developed a plan whereby SPS Joey would lead to set the pace and I would stay last to ensure no one was too slow. At 0900 hours, we stopped at Bagan Serai for breakfast. We were all starving and ate our fill. Our plan seemed to be working, the leading group reached only 5 minutes ahead of us. An hour later, we started moving again in the same formation. On the journey, ASM Bala had a flat tire, we stopped and waited for the Pajero. Five minutes before noon, at a mere 23 km from our journey the sky started to get dark, just like the past two days. Cycling from a distance I watched as, for some reason, SPS Joey began to lose balance on his bike and almost knocked into ASM Bala, but regained his balance at the last minute only to accidentally pull ASM Bala down. I signalled the Marshal to speed up and check it out. SPS Joey escaped with no injuries, but ASM Bala suffered a nasty gash on his palm (he was not wearing gloves). We walked with our bicycles to a nearby coffee shop for lunch while the Marshal took ASM Bala to a clinic to get his hand treated.

At 1345 hours, ASM Bala returned and we took our time to have our lunch as we had only 10 km to go. Two hours later, we were on the move for the remaining distances. ASM Bala was determined to finish the expedition despite his injury and so took to his bike and resumed cycling with his hand bandaged. Suddenly, it started to rain. We were beginning to get a taste of the insane traffic as reckless drivers drove by us like road hogs ignoring our presence on the road. The situation worsen at intersections and roundabouts with even more motorists speeding through along the way. Cycling in the rain, we finally reached the Butterworth Train Station at 1600 hours. Before loading our bikes into the train, we had our photography moments, posing along, some smiling and even can't stop talking about the journey itself. It was indeed the most memorable moment of all, posing for the camera along with our precious bicycles and of course the troop banner.

Overall, it was a satisfactory expedition well organized and well on schedule. Nevertheless many aspects could have been improved on, such as the group being split. We found that when cycling in a group everyone was equally motivated and the faster cyclists could set the pace well for the slower ones. Each cyclist should have been familiar with the route taken to ensure mistakes like the first day did not occur. However those aside, we proudly add another feather to our cap. As a first step in the new millennium, may the troop always remain.....

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