On 9th February 2017, we boarded an 8am bus from my hometown- Kuala Lipis to Jerantut. Now you may ask, why not start from Kuala Lipis, trust me, I have of course considered this option. Jonas suggested Jerantut due to the crazy hills we would have to climb if we were to start cycling from Kuala Lipis… and I would give up because of this. Let me have an easier start (or week) first. I still remember waving goodbye to my grandma who was walking to a breakfast place or morning market (or something) while we en route to the bus stop. I almost welled up in tears as I did that, without knowing when would I see her again.
2 fully-loaded bicycles
All I could remember were the intense heat and numbing bum I had on that very day. I had never cycled more than 30kms per trip prior to this. And yet we covered more than 50kms on my very first day of touring life.
I got the best shock of my life when I got to know that we would be camping on that evening. At palm oil plantation… where there would be no toilet, no clean water. BIG DEAL, I KNOW. After a day of cycling under the merciless sun, the last thing I would want was to sleep in a tent, in the middle of palm oil plantation, without a proper shower. Jonas, on the other hand, being the crazy ginger as he was, jumped straight into the puddle of filthy water which made me cringed so bad. There was no way I would bathe myself with that; I might get nasty infection or rashes afterwards (pretty sure I would).
Jonas casually reading my book while waiting for the sun to go down, so that we could start looking for a campsite
Horrified and disgusted by the idea, I cleaned my dirty and sticky body with tons of baby wipes and followed by a brief rinse with clean, drinking water (which was incredibly sacred). While doing that, I got attacked by ferocious mosquitoes (or insects) that left me cursing all night long. FUN FACT: Do you know that mosquitoes can actually bite through fabric? I then climbed into the tent grumpily, took out my phone and started texting my friends, complaining and whining like a bitch.
Jonas then suggested that we might be able to find someone to host us in Temerloh tomorrow. Motivated by sleeping on a comfortable bed and having a nice shower, I quickly searched for hosts using the Couchsurfing app. While nobody liked receiving last minute request, I could only pray that someone would read my message in time, and be kind enough to take us in for a night.
You would think after a long day of cycling, I would be exhausted and fall asleep in no time. It was unfortunately the other way around. I got distracted by the strange (natural) sounds in the ‘wild’- the branch cracking sounds, animal sounds etc. I was imagining all kinds of worst scenario, whereby our tent would be attacked by snake, tiger, bear or even babi hutan. All those sickening thoughts kept me awake all night, while my partner slept like a baby next to me.
THANK GOD I found us a host in Temerloh, who’s a teacher in a polytechnic school... I couldn't wait to bloody SHOWER.
OldTown-ing with our host in Temerloh, Pahang... feeling incredibly fresh and good after a nice shower. LOL